The Gates of Paradise by Barbara Cartland Page B

then talk to you.”
    â€œWell, close your eyes and know that you are quite safe, and Paks is always available if you need anything.”
    Michael smiled at her.
    Narina realised that his eyes were slowly closing.
    She did not say any more as she walked towards the door and when she reached it and looked back, she had the feeling, although it was difficult to see clearly, that he was already fast asleep.
    Outside she found Paks.
    She told him that His Royal Highness, as Mr. Ward was now to be called, was to sleep until dinner time.
    â€œHe’s had a real hard time, that gentleman,” Paks muttered.  “He’s got some nasty gashes on his back and I’ll treat them as soon as I can get at him.”
    â€œThere will be plenty of time for that if he has to stay in bed.  If he walks about, someone is bound to see him and think he is well enough to come downstairs and then they will recognise him as not being Prince Rudolf.”
    â€œYou’re so very right, Your Royal Highness, and I thinks that already.  If you asks me, it’s a gift from Heaven having him turn up when I were beginning to think it were dangerous having no one in that bed.”
    â€œI thought it was all arranged so that no one would ever know?”
    â€œThat’s what we planned, but there’s always those who be so very curious about a Royal personage and them housemaids who think he’s wonderful are always sneaking up hoping to take a peep at him.”
    â€œNow they will at least see someone in his bed, so perhaps Mr. Ward is a blessing in disguise.”
    â€œIf you asks me that’s what he be.”
    Narina went into the sitting room.
    As she did so, she realised she had left behind in the garden the book her father had given her to read.
    â€˜I will go and fetch it,’ she decided.
    Then suddenly she was afraid.
    Those Russians, who had been just behind Michael, would have guessed that he had disappeared into the Palace and they might even have seen her taking him in.
    If they took her prisoner, thinking that she was Louise, they could make life incredibly difficult and Prince Rudolf would not be there to negotiate for her or to lead the Army of Alexanderburg against them.
    â€˜I will send Maria out for it later,’ she told herself.
    As she sat down at the desk in front of the window of the sitting room, she could not help feeling that it was rather exciting to have Michael Ward to talk to.
    Maybe he would be clever enough to come up with new ideas that were badly needed in Alexanderburg.
    She had not yet met the Prime Minister, but she had a feeling, from what she had heard, that he was rather like the Mayor.
    He wished to keep things as they always had been rather than to introduce new ideas into the country.
    â€˜I am quite sure,’ she thought, ‘that Michael Ward, as he has been so very successful in The Great Game , will think of new ways for Alexanderburg to save itself.’
    It was an exciting idea and she glanced at the clock.
    She was hoping that the hours would pass quickly so that she could talk to Michael at dinner.
    Time did pass slowly before Maria came to tell her that her bath was ready and as before, arranged by the fireplace.
    Tonight she went to the wardrobe herself to choose the gown she would wear.
    And though it was obviously wrong to wear one of the more elaborate ones that hung there, she found a gown that was, she thought, very attractive.  It was more suitable for a dinner á deux than if she had been dining in the Royal banqueting room.
    Again Maria arranged her hair in the same way that Louise wore it, although it did pass through her mind that it would be more flattering to look like herself.
    Yet it was likely that the Lord Chamberlain would drop in after dinner, and she felt that she must play her part in pretending to be Louise exactly as she had promised to do before the Royal couple had disappeared in the dark of the night to