Miss Marple – Miss Marple and Mystery: The Complete Short Stories. Агата Кристи

have to take part in public ceremonies. While I am here, for instance, I have to attend several semi-public functions. Also in Paris on my way back. I have an estate in Hungary, you know. The sport there is magnificent.’

      ‘Is it really?’ said Jane.

      ‘Superb. I adore sport. Also – I ought not to tell you this, but I shall because your face is so sympathetic – there are plans being made there – very quietly, you understand. Altogether it is very important that I should not be assassinated during the next two weeks.’

      ‘But surely the police –’ began Jane.

      ‘The police? Oh, yes, they are very good, I believe. And we too – we have our spies. It is possible that I shall be forewarned when the attempt is to take place. But then, again, I might not.’

      She shrugged her shoulders.

      ‘I begin to understand,’ said Jane slowly. ‘You want me to take your place?’

      ‘Only on certain occasions,’ said the Grand Duchess eagerly. ‘You must be somewhere at hand, you understand? I may require you twice, three times, four times in the next fortnight. Each time it will be upon the occasion of some public function. Naturally in intimacy of any kind, you could not represent me.’

      ‘Of course not,’ agreed Jane.

      ‘You will do very well indeed. It was clever of Feodor Alexandrovitch to think of an advertisement, was it not?’

      ‘Supposing,’ said Jane, ‘that I get assassinated?’

      The Grand Duchess shrugged her shoulders.

      ‘There is the risk, of course, but according to our own secret information, they want to kidnap me, not kill me outright. But I will be quite honest – it is always possible that they might throw a bomb.’

      ‘I see,’ said Jane.

      She tried to imitate the light-hearted manner of Pauline. She wanted very much to come to the question of money, but did not quite see how best to introduce the subject. But Pauline saved her the trouble.

      ‘We will pay you well, of course,’ she said carelessly. ‘I cannot remember now exactly how much Feodor Alexandrovitch suggested. We were speaking in francs or kronen.’

      ‘Colonel Kranin,’ said Jane, ‘said something about two thousand pounds.’

      ‘That was it,’ said Pauline, brightening. ‘I remember now. It is enough, I hope? Or would you rather have three thousand?’

      ‘Well,’ said Jane, ‘if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather have three thousand.’

      ‘You are business-like, I see,’ said the Grand Duchess kindly. ‘I wish I was. But I have no idea of money at all. What I want I have to have, that is all.’

      It seemed to Jane a simple but admirable attitude of mind.

      ‘And of course, as you say, there is danger,’ Pauline continued thoughtfully. ‘Although you do not look to me as though you minded danger. I do not myself. I hope you do not think that it is because I am a coward that I want you to take my place? You see, it is most important for Ostrova that I should marry and have at least two sons. After that, it does not matter what happens to me.’

      ‘I see,’ said Jane.

      ‘And you accept?’

      ‘Yes,’ said Jane resolutely. ‘I accept.’

      Pauline clapped her hands vehemently several times. Princess Poporensky appeared immediately.

      ‘I have told her all, Anna,’ announced the Grand Duchess. ‘She will do what we want, and she is to have three thousand pounds. Tell Feodor to make a note of it. She is really very like me, is she not? I think she is better looking, though.’

      The princess waddled out of the room, and returned with Count Streptitch.

      ‘We have arranged everything, Feodor Alexandrovitch,’ the Grand Duchess said.

      He bowed.

      ‘Can she play her part, I wonder?’ he queried, eyeing Jane doubtfully.

      ‘I’ll show you,’ said the girl suddenly. ‘You permit, ma’am?’ she said to the Grand Duchess.

      The latter nodded delightedly.

      Jane stood up.

      ‘But this is splendid, Anna,’ she said. ‘I never imagined we should succeed so well. Come, let us see ourselves, side by side.’

      And, as Pauline had done, she drew the other girl to the glass.

      ‘You see? A perfect match!’

      Words, manner and gesture, it was an excellent imitation of Pauline’s greeting. The princess nodded her head, and uttered a grunt of approbation.

      ‘It is good, that,’ she declared. ‘It would deceive most people.’

      ‘You are very clever,’ said Pauline appreciatively. ‘I could not imitate anyone else to save my life.’

      Jane believed her. It had already struck her that Pauline was a young woman who was very much herself.

      ‘Anna will arrange details with you,’ said the Grand Duchess. ‘Take her into my bedroom, Anna, and try some of my clothes on her.’

      She nodded a gracious farewell, and Jane was convoyed away by the Princess Poporensky.

      ‘This is what Her Highness will wear to open the bazaar,’ explained the old lady, holding up a daring creation of white and black. ‘This is in three days’ time. It may be necessary for you to take her place there. We do not know. We have not yet received information.’

      At Anna’s bidding, Jane slipped off her own shabby garments, and tried on the frock. It fitted her perfectly. The other nodded approvingly.

      ‘It is almost perfect – just a shade long on you, because you are an inch or so shorter than Her Highness.’

      ‘That is easily remedied,’ said Jane quickly. ‘The Grand Duchess wears low-heeled shoes, I noticed. If I wear the same kind of shoes, but with high heels, it will adjust things nicely.’

      Anna Michaelovna showed her the shoes that the Grand Duchess usually wore with the dress. Lizard skin with a strap across. Jane memorized them, and arranged to get a pair just like them, but with different heels.

      ‘It would be well,’ said Anna Michaelovna, ‘for you to have a dress of distinctive colour and material quite unlike Her Highness’s. Then in case it becomes necessary for you to change places at a moment’s notice, the substitution is less likely to be noticed.’

      Jane thought a minute.

      ‘What about a flame-red marocain? And I might, perhaps, have plain glass pince-nez. That alters the appearance very much.’

      Both suggestions were approved, and they went into further details.

      Jane left the hotel with bank-notes for a hundred pounds in her purse, and instructions to purchase the necessary outfit and engage rooms at the Blitz Hotel as Miss Montresor of New York.

      On the second day after this, Count Streptitch called upon her there.

      ‘A transformation indeed,’ he said, as he bowed.

      Jane made him a mock bow in return. She was enjoying the new clothes and the luxury of her life very much.

      ‘All this is very nice,’ she sighed. ‘But I suppose that your visit means I must get busy and earn my money.’

      ‘That is so. We have received information. It seems possible that an attempt will be made to kidnap Her Highness on the way home from the bazaar. That is to take place, as you know, at Orion House, which is about ten miles out of London. Her Highness will be forced to attend the bazaar in person, as the Countess of Anchester, who is promoting it, knows