The Lovelight of Apollo. Barbara Cartland

of anger as she addrd,

      “I am sure that ghastly old woman will tell the ship’s Captain to move at one knot per hour, just so that I cannot be with you!”

      “You are not to upset yourself, darling. I swear that we will be married the very day the six months of mourning ends.”

      “If she will let us,” the Princess murmured.

      She gave a sudden cry.

      “Suppose, just suppose, Holden, while I am away, she somehow gets rid of you? I would not trust her not to have you kidnapped or sent to Outer Mongolia or darkest Africa or some such place!”

      Prince Holden laughed.

      “Now you are just imagining things. I promise I will keep very quiet and out of sight, so as not to annoy Her Majesty, until you return.”

      “I will not go! I swear I will not go!” Princess Marigold cried. “There must be someone who can go in my place! Think, Holden, think! Who do we know who looks like me?”

      As this was something that they had not thought of before, the Prince stared at her.

      Then he remarked,

      “It is rather funny that you should say that! I saw a girl last week who was in fact very like you.”

      “Was she a relative of mine?” Princess Marigold asked.

      “I was staying with the Duke of Ilchester,” the Prince went on, “and I went to Church on Sunday because the Duchess asked me rather pointedly, I thought, to escort her.”

      “Yes, yes, go on!” the Princess urged him.

      “It was a pleasant village Service. But I was surprised to see in the Church in the front pew, sitting beside an attractive lady, a girl who might actually have been your sister.”

      “I don’t believe it!” Princess Marigold exclaimed. “Who is she?”

      “I asked the Duchess afterwards and she told me that the lady was the Vicar’s wife and she was Greek.”

      “Greek?” the Princess exclaimed. “And the girl who looked like me?”

      “Her daughter, named Avila, I was informed. I meant to tell you all about it, but I forgot until just now.”

      He smiled before he added,

      “How can I think of anyone except for you?”

      “If she looks like me,” Princess Marigold said, “and, if she has some Greek blood in her, then let us offer to pay her, although, of course, we can put it more politely as a gift, to go to Greece in my place.”

      The Prince laughed.

      “Now you are Fairy tailing again! I cannot believe for a moment she would be allowed to go or that she could take your place without anyone being aware of it.”

      “Then if she takes my place just before I am supposed to step aboard the ship, draped of course in black and her face obscured by a crêpe veil, who is to know?”

      “Are you really serious?” Prince Holden asked. “You must be aware that the whole idea is crazy! The Queen would be absolutely furious if she learns of it.”

      “If she learns of it!” the Princess emphasised. “Now, Holden, we have to be clever about this. I know how brilliant you are at organisation. Surely you can organise this for me?”

      She paused for a moment before she went on firmly,

      “I love you! I love you! To be away from you even for a day is agony. To be gone from you for weeks I think would kill me!”

      “My darling, my sweet, how can you say such things?” the Prince asked.

      He pulled her close to him.

      He would have kissed her again, but the Princess put her fingers over his lips.

      “Promise me,” she pleaded, “that you will try really hard to make it possible for me to come with you in your yacht. Promise me.”

      The Prince looked down at her and was lost.

      Finally he said,

      “I promise, but ‒ ”

      Whatever he would have said was lost as Princess Marigold was kissing him wildly.

      CHAPTER TWO

      Driving his chaise with Princess Marigold beside him, Prince Holden related,

      “We have escaped for the moment and it was just luck that I sat next to the Duchess of Ilchester at dinner last night.”

      “I think Fate is on our side,” the Princess replied, “and now we have to persuade this Greek woman that it is advantageous for her daughter to go to Athens in my place.”

      The Prince looked serious.

      He was thinking privately that it was very unlikely that the Vicar’s wife would agree to anything quite so extraordinary.

      What was more, he was certain that their plot would be discovered and Queen Victoria would be furious with them both.

      However he knew better than to say so at this particular moment.

      As they drove on, Princess Marigold commented,

      “It will be wonderful to get away from everything in your yacht. You will have to plan it all out very carefully so that I leave at the same time as the girl goes to Athens.”

      Because he was so enjoying being alone with the Princess, Prince Holden did not argue about it and so made no reply.

      He had very cleverly arranged that the Lady-in-Waiting should travel in another chaise behind them.

      “I am so sorry,” he had said, “but there really is not enough room for three people in the front of this chaise and so I cannot imagine that anyone would want to sit behind us with the groom.”

      Because they had left Windsor Castle very early in the morning, there were no Senior Officials about and they had driven off as the Prince had arranged.

      The Lady-in-Waiting, Lady Bedstone, came behind them.

      The Princess had chosen her carefully because she was old, slightly deaf and delighted to be going to luncheon with the Duke and Duchess of Ilchester.

      “I told the Duchess,” the Prince said when he was explaining to the Princess what he had arranged, “that you were longing to see her garden, which I had told you was very beautiful and you also wished to meet and have a talk with the Vicar’s wife if that was at all possible.”

      “Was she surprised?” Princess Marigold enquired.

      “She was, until I explained that no one in The Castle was Greek and the few who spoke the language did so, in your opinion, very badly.”

      “If everything goes the way you have planned it, it will be wonderful!” the Princess said.

      She had no idea that Prince Holden had lain awake all through tha night wondering how he could persuade her to change her mind.

      He finally decided that he would rely on the Vicar’s wife. He was sure that she would refuse to allow her daughter to take part in a lie by pretending to be the Princess.

      Princess Marigold was thrilled, however, at the way everything was going.

      She put her hand on the Prince’s knee as she sighed,

      “I love you, Holden, and I swear to you that nothing and nobody shall stop us from being married the very day I am out of mourning.”

      “If all else fails,” the Prince said blithely, “we will run away together. We can be married in France or anywhere else we go. Then Her Majesty, however important she may be, can do nothing about it whatsoever.”

      “I would expect that she will think