A Princess of the Blood Royal of the House of Saxe-Wallerstein-Karolya had been kissed by a man who was not her husband. A miracle had occurred. Anything was possible.
Chapter 14
Princesses of the Blood Royal should always defer to their nearest male relative of the House of Saxe~Wallerstein-Karolya in all matters of state.
—Maxim 6: Protocol and Court Etiquette of Princesses of the Blood Royal of the House of Saxe-Wallerstein-Karolya, as decreed by HIS Serene Highness, Prince Karol I, 1432.
“How dare you stand before me and announce that you have failed to locate her!" The white dueling scar that bisected Prince Victor Lucien of Saxe-Wallerstein-Karolya's left cheek stood out in stark contrast to the vivid scarlet hue staining the rest of his face as he berated the captain of the guard standing stiffly at attention before him.
"I regret that I must do so, Your Highness, but after searching every city, town, village, and encampment in Karolya from Christianberg to the mountains beyond Laken, we have failed in our quest to locate Princess Giana or Lord Gudrun." Captain Peter Tolsen betrayed no emotion as he stood before the regent and reported that the anarchists holding their beloved princess had eluded His Highness's Royal Palace Guard for nearly three months.
"He must have sent her out of the country," Prince Victor said.
"He, Your Highness, or they?" the captain asked.
"He, you incompetent cur!" Prince Victor exploded.
"Lord Gudrun?"
"Not Lord Gudrun! My uncle, Prince Christian!" Prince Victor forced himself to rein in his temper. It wouldn't do to let the earnest young captain know that he was playing an unwitting part in a scheme to cover up the identity of Princess May's and Prince Christian's real murderer or to lay the blame for their deaths at Gudrun's feet. "Maximillian Gudrun is nothing more than a glorified scribe. He has neither the skill nor the courage to spirit the princess out of the country."
"According to the reports of those of your household guards who attempted to aid my men, Lord Gudrun had the skill and the courage to murder Prince Christian and Princess May and abduct Princess Giana."
"And you lacked the skill to keep him from escaping with our princess." Prince Victor snapped at the captain.
"He could not have abducted or escaped with the princess," Captain Tolsen announced. "Because Princess Giana wasn't in the palace on the night of the murders."
Victor whirled around to face the captain. "How do you know that?"
"Your personal guard reported that the anarchists killed the guardsman on duty outside the princess's apartments."
"Which of my personal guard reported this? And to whom?" Victor tried to sound mildly interested, but he was seething inside.
"I sent word from the hospital that I wanted to speak to the guard who found my guardsman's body. Captain Mareska presented himself and related the details of the incident," Tolsen answered.
Victor stared down at his right hand. The finger that should have been home to the royal seal of state was bare. He did not have the seal or the princess and the only witness to Prince Christian's murder was still alive. Victor clenched his hand into a fist. "Did Mareska report anything else? Anything that might help us find the princess?"
Captain Tolsen shook his head. "He told me that the rabble broke into her rooms, forcing the doors, only to find her apartments unoccupied."
Mareska had reported too much. Tomorrow he would be replaced. And weeks from now, his family would receive word that he had died in the line of duty protecting the Prince Regent. The Karolyan people would learn that the anarchists who had murdered Prince Christian and Princess May and abducted their princess had also attempted to assassinate the Prince Regent. The same would be true of Captain Tolsen when his usefulness ended. Victor focused his gaze on the captain. "My uncle must have suspected something. He must have gotten wind of the anarchists' plot and sent Princess Giana to safety somewhere outside the border. But where? Where would he send her? And why hasn't she come forward?"
"I do not know, sir," Tolsen admitted.
"Why not?" Prince Victor asked. "You're captain of His Highness's Royal Palace Guards. You must have escorted her somewhere...."
Captain Tolsen shook his head. "The Royal Guard did not escort her. If she left the country, she did so by force or by traveling incognito."
"You had no orders from Prince Christian? Or Lord Gudrun?"
"No, Your Highness." The captain looked up and met the prince's unnerving gaze.
"How do you explain her absence?"
"I cannot explain it, Your Highness. The surviving members of His Highness's guard were told that our princess had been taken hostage by anarchists." Captain Tolsen frowned. After escorting Prince Christian and Princess May to their apartments, the members of the Royal Guard not standing guard outside the doors leading to Prince Christian's and Princess May's private chambers and Princess Giana's private chambers, had retired to their barracks for the night. Most of those guards had never awakened. The anarchists had set upon them while they slept. Captain Tolsen had been fortunate. He'd recovered from his stab wounds, but many of his friends and fellow guardsmen had not.
Prince Victor's contingent of guards had escaped the massacre. Their barracks were in the Tower at the opposite end of the palace close to Prince Victor's apartments. Victor's guards had raised the alarm after the Prince and Princess were murdered.
Victor narrowed his gaze at the captain of the guard. "And so she was," the prince regent agreed. "But we have it on the highest authority that the anarchists were in league with Lord Gudrun. We must assume that Lord Gudrun ordered the princess taken."
"Whose authority, sir?" Captain Tolsen forgot himself long enough to demand an answer. "I should like to speak to the person from whom you've received this information."
Prince Victor stared at Tolsen, daring him to continue. "The identity of the informant does not concern you, Captain Tolsen."
"You charged me with the investigation into Princess Giana's disappearance, sir. If you have information as to her whereabouts, it concerns me." The young captain stood his ground, refusing to allow the prince regent to intimidate him.
"I did not charge you with the duty of investigating my cousin's disappearance! I charged you with the duty of locating her and with rescuing her from her abductors," the prince told him. "The princess is gone! That much is quite apparent! How she disappeared is of little consequence now!" He pointed a finger at the captain of the guard. "You are charged with the task of finding her! And soon! Time is running out, Captain. For both of us!" Prince Victor drew his dress sword from its scabbard.
Captain Tolsen remained silent. He had failed in his mission to find and rescue the heir to the throne and in so doing had angered and frustrated the volatile prince regent. Up until this moment Captain Tolsen believed that the anarchists who had murdered Prince Christian and Princess May had abducted Princess Giana, but now, he wondered....
As he stared at the Prince Regent, Captain Tolsen understood that if it pleased him to do so, Prince Victor could dispense with the niceties of military protocol and dispatch the current captain of the royal guard with one clean thrust of his sword and replace him with someone more loyal to the prince regent than he appeared to be.
Tolsen looked into the prince regent's eyes and saw death. He drew himself up to his full height and stood ramrod straight, waiting for the thrust that would end his life—and conceal his failure.
But he was granted a reprieve. A knock sounded on the salon doors as the prince regent's equerry announced the arrival of his savior, "The special envoy from the Court of St. James has arrived, Your Highness."
Prince Victor growled his frustration, then wielded his sword against the household furnishings, severing the legs of a dainty French cabriole table, sending it crashing to the floor.
Captain Tolsen breathed a silent, heartfelt sigh of relief, but Prince Victor wasn't finished with him yet.
"Find her!" Victor ordered. "Find Princess Giana
and find her fast, or I will find a captain of the guard who can!"
Captain Tolsen gave a crisp nod, clicked his heels together, and backed out of the salon, withdrawing from Prince Victor's presence before the prince regent could change his mind about allowing him to escape. He passed the British Special Envoy, Lord Everleigh, on the way into the room and wondered how the prince regent would explain the splintered gilt table.
Lord Everleigh greeted Prince Victor with a brief bow. He did not slight the prince regent intentionally, but neither did he show the deference usually reserved for ruling heads of state.
His action angered the prince regent, but Lord Everleigh ignored the prince's displeasure.
A handsome man, in his late fifties, the marquess of Everleigh had spent more than thirty years in the diplomatic corps as ambassador to the Habsburg court in Vienna and as special envoy to Russia, Crimea, and the Balkans. In his current role as special envoy to Saxe-Wallerstein-Karolya, Lord Everleigh was acting on personal instructions from the Queen's Most Trusted, Loyal, and Special Advisor, the sixteenth marquess of Templeston.
Lord Templeston had charged Lord Everleigh with the task of discovering what happened in Christianberg and if the prince and princess were murdered by anarchists or by someone hoping to usurp the throne. As godmother to Princess Giana, Queen Victoria felt it her duty to assist the Karolyan government in finding her. Although she knew Prince Victor was hoping for official recognition from the British government, the queen refused to grant it. If Princess Giana was still alive, she must have a country and a throne to return to. If Princess Giana had been abducted and murdered, the prince regent, according to the Karolyan State Charter, must present her body or the state seal in order to be proclaimed ruler.
"Our beloved queen sends her greetings and her deepest condolences on the deaths of Prince Christian and Princess May and the disappearance of Her Serene Highness Princess Giana," Lord Everleigh offered.
Prince Victor lowered his gaze and inclined his head. "Please relay our deepest thanks to Her Majesty."
"Of course, sir." Lord Everleigh studied the prince. "Her Majesty and Her Majesty's government is quite alarmed by the state of affairs in Karolya...."
The prince regent took umbrage to the special envoy's statement. "I assure you, sir, so that you may assure your queen, that she has no cause for concern about the state of affairs in Karolya."
"I beg your pardon, Your Highness," Lord Everleigh replied, "but Her Majesty disagrees. Anarchists who seek to abolish all monarchies have apparently murdered the hereditary ruler of Karolya, and his wife. That is reason enough to concern our gracious queen. The fact that her goddaughter, Princess Giana, is missing only adds to her concern. You are second in line to the throne of Karolya, behind the heir apparent. You are regent because Princess Giana has yet to be found. The government is in complete disarray and you lack the support you require in the parliament." He paused. "Those facts give Our Gracious Majesty plenty of reason to be concerned and plenty of reason to express it."
Prince Victor attempted to conceal his anger and failed miserably. Lord Everleigh noted that the prince regent's dueling scar gave him away, serving as a barometer for his moods. "I am quite capable of governing the country in my cousin's absence."
"And the Karolyan Charter gives you that right," Lord Everleigh commented. "But as prince regent, you are acting in Princess Giana's stead and on her behalf until she is returned."
"We have been searching for the princess for weeks now—to no avail—and we fear that something terrible has happened to her."
"Something terrible has happened to her," Lord Everleigh replied. "She has been kidnapped by the person or persons who murdered her parents and is being held against her will."
"Our cousin, Princess Giana, was kidnapped by anarchists in league with a traitor. We have evidence that suggests that Prince Christian's private secretary, Lord Maximillian Gudrun, conspired with the anarchists to arrange the deaths of Prince Christian and Princess May and the abduction of the heir."
"For what purpose?" Lord Everleigh asked. "Why would Lord Gudrun betray his country?"
"For Karolya's iron ore deposits," Prince Victor responded promptly. "His Highness, Prince Christian, refused to barter or sell the iron ore deposits that would greatly enrich Karolya's coffers."
The consummate diplomat, Lord Everleigh gave no hint as to his political leaning or partisanship. "It is our understanding that Karolya's coffers are already full. Prince Christian was a very wealthy man, and the country has one of the highest standards of living in Europe. There was no need for Prince Christian to sell the iron ore deposits or rape the landscape in order to add to the country's already overflowing treasury."
"That may be true," Victor agreed, "but the fact remains that we have uncovered evidence that Lord Gudrun engineered the deaths of the prince and princess and the abduction of the Princess Royal in order to gain control of Karolya and the iron ore deposits."
"Then it is fortunate for the people of Karolya that your life was spared, Your Highness." Lord Everleigh met the prince regent's unwavering gaze.
"It was, indeed, most fortunate," the prince regent agreed.
"A great deal more fortunate than the other members of your family." Lord Everleigh didn't blink as he asked the barbed question, "Why do you suppose that came to be, Your Highness?"
Prince Victor's complexion was a mottled mix of red and scarlet hues. "I beg your pardon?"
"Anarchists aren't ordinarily so discriminating," Lord Everleigh responded. "They usually kill as many royal personages as possible. And generally do not leave a member of the ruling house in a position to take over the country." He paused for effect. "Our Gracious Majesty, Queen Victoria, held the late Prince Christian and Princess May in the highest regard and felt very deep affection for them. She is eager to honor our country's alliance with Karolya and assist your government in its efforts to locate Princess Giana...."
"That will not be necessary," Prince Victor replied. "We thank Her Majesty for the offer, but we are quite capable of negotiating with the anarchists for Princess Giana's safe return."
"Then you have located the anarchist leader?"
Victor faltered for a moment. "No, we have not."
"With whom will you negotiate?"
"The anarchists have made their demands known."
"Have they?" Lord Everleigh pursed his lips in thought. "We were not aware ..."
"The anarchists made their demands known through the democratic newspaper," Prince Victor answered in a flash of brilliance.
"I see," Lord Everleigh said. "It was our understanding that the publication of Karolya's democratic newspaper had been suspended since the night of the murders so as not to further alarm the people about the disappearance of the heir apparent."
"The official newspaper has been suspended," Victor recovered. "But we have continued to issue bulletins informing our people of our efforts to locate our beloved princess. The anarchists contacted the editor to make their demands known. They've assured us that the princess is alive and well cared for. Of course, the editor immediately contacted the military police."
"Why the military police?"
"Because Karolya is under martial law until the negotiations are completed and the princess royal is returned."
"I see." Lord Everleigh nodded his head in understanding. "And what have these anarchists demanded?"
"That we not add a Declaration of Rights for the Masses to the Karolyan Charter and that ownership of Karolya's iron ore deposits be surrendered to them as representatives of the people."
Lord Everleigh paused. "That's odd. One would think that anarchists would support any legislation created to provide and protect the basic rights of the common people." He looked at Prince Victor. "So, they wish to exchange the princess for the iron ore."
"Yes."
"I do not envy you, Your Highness. That is a terrible decision for a ruler to have to make." The empathy in the special envoy's words sound
ed entirely genuine. "The loss of either one will have a profound effect on Karolya's future."
"Yes, but our cousin would be the greater loss." Prince Victor didn't flinch as he looked the older diplomat in the eye.
"One would imagine that if sold to the highest bidder, the iron ore deposits would be worth an enormous sum of money."
"Yes, one might imagine that." Victor glanced down at his right hand.
Lord Everleigh followed his gaze. "It is a great deal to lose."
"No more so than the Crown." Prince Victor gave Lord Everleigh a brilliant smile. "But that is not going to happen. I am most confident that our cousin, Princess Giana, will be found and that the people and the parliament will unite behind its new ruler. I hope that is what you shall report to Her Majesty."
"Most definitely, Your Highness," Everleigh agreed. "I shall be most happy to report that you have everything in Karolya under control and that your efforts to secure Princess Giana's release from her captors is currently under way."
"Will that satisfy Her Majesty?"
Lord Everleigh smiled. "I've no doubt that Lord Templeston and Her Majesty will be most satisfied to learn that they need not worry about Karolya's future. Your assurances, Your Highness, have left us with no doubt as to who is responsible for these heinous and cowardly acts against the Crown, and I am sure Her Majesty and her most trusted adviser will be as relieved as I am to know that you have proven yourself to be a completely formidable adversary—"
Victor took a step toward the special envoy.
"For the anarchists," Lord Everleigh continued. He shook his head. "Until today I would never have believed anyone so close to Prince Christian and Princess May could be capable of such treachery. Nor could I ever have imagined Maximillian Gudrun in the role of anarchist leader or thought to point a finger at him. But you, Your Highness, have managed to make me see things in their true light."