‘Madame, we can’t stop.’
‘Yes, we can,’ she said.
‘My orders are to take you straight to the palace.’
‘And whose orders are those?’ she asked, and all of a sudden she was haughty. The driver stared at her in astonishment-and so did Nick. Then the eyes of the two men met. A small moment of male empathy. Two male shrugs, and the driver gave a small smile.
‘You want to go to our picnic?’
‘We need to meet the people,’ she said. ‘This is the fastest way to do that, right?’
‘I guess.’
‘Then our escort can come too. But we don’t have food for a picnic. I won’t be a freeloader.’
‘The people will share.’
‘I’m not going to my first picnic in Alp de Montez as a freeloader,’ Rose said. ‘My fiance agrees with me.’
‘Do I?’ said Nick.
‘Of course you do-darling,’ she said. ‘Now, what can we do?’
‘If I might make a suggestion…’ The limousine driver was looking at her as if she had two heads. So was Nick.
‘Suggest away,’ she said.
‘If you were to produce, say, a keg or two of beer…Beer’s expensive and rationed.’
‘Beer’s rationed?’ she said incredulously.
‘Do you have maybe a Diner’s Card?’
‘I bet my fiance does.’
‘Do you, sir?’
‘Eh?’ Nick said, getting more startled by the minute. This was a seriously startling woman.
She grinned. ‘My fiance will pay you,’ she said. ‘Erhard told me you’re seriously rich. I’m not, but I’m working on it. Soon I’ll be a princess, but I’m waiting on my first wages. I need a loan of a keg until pay-day.’
It was too much. They were sitting in the back of a royal limousine, escorted by armed troops, heading to a palace with who knew what reception, and she was calmly negotiating a loan of a keg or two of beer.
He chuckled. The driver chuckled. Nick delved obediently into his wallet and produced his Diner’s Card.
‘So how will this help?’ Rose asked the driver.
‘The husband of my wife’s cousin works as a delivery driver to one of the army hotels,’ the driver said, moving into the spirit of the thing with enthusiasm. ‘If I radio your card details he can organise a keg to be here within the hour.’
‘Two kegs,’ Nick said, deciding he could be expansive too. ‘And lemonade for the kids.’
‘A keg of lemonade?’
‘I don’t have a clue how it comes,’ Nick admitted. ‘We’ll leave that to your wife’s cousin’s husband. Tell him to bring what he thinks a gathering will need. I guess you know the numbers. Though how we know we can trust you…’
‘There are very few people in the higher echelons you can trust,’ the driver said flatly. Then he smiled again. ‘But we’re not accustomed to seeing our royalty in overcoats that smell a little like the farmyard. And while you were inspecting the troops Griswold told me we might hope. Things are desperate here. We’re willing to take a chance on you.’
‘You won’t get sacked if you deviate?’ Rose asked.
‘By the time our escort has time to respond, we’ll be there. I’ll be following your direct orders. Maybe you organised this with Erhard long since, no? Not with me.’
‘Not with you,’ Rose said firmly.
The driver looked at her again for a long minute in the rear-view mirror and then he gave a decisive nod. He picked up his radio and spoke fast, quoting Nick’s Diner’s Club card number, ordering his supplies. Then he handed back Nick’s card.
‘Thank you both.’ He smiled at Nick via the rear-view mirror. ‘There’s a jacket under the front seat you can borrow,’ he told him. ‘It’s not as disreputable as your fiancee’s, but it will have to do. Hold on please.’
With a squeal of brakes the car turned at ninety degrees and proceeded calmly down to the river bank, with Nick wondering what he’d got himself into. And it wasn’t just the situation that was startling him. It was this woman beside him. And how he was starting to react to her.
Rose. Potential princess. Potential wife.
Up until now he’d hardly thought about the wife bit. It hadn’t seemed relevant.
Now, though, when he should be thinking a thousand other things, that was the word that was drifting around his head, like a chink of light through clouds, a tiny glimmer of possibility.
Wife.
CHAPTER SIX
THERE had to be argument from their minders. Of course there did. There was a moment’s peace, before their escort of motor bikes reassembled, veered off the highway and roared after them. Then the head of the squad-Jean Dupeaux-came alongside their limousine and gestured angrily for the driver to pull over. Nick’s errant thoughts were dragged back to the here and now with a vicious jolt as the bike nosed sharply in front of the car, causing their driver to brake and veer onto the verge.
But not stop. The driver was starting to look as determined as, well, as determined as Rose.
The bike jerked back so it was driving alongside. Rose let down her window, put out her head and yelled, ‘Our driver’s following our instructions, Monsieur Dupeaux. We just want to see the river.’
‘You must pull over,’ Dupeaux shouted, and Rose smiled happily, waved and closed the window.
What was the Chief of Staff doing, riding motor bikes? Nick thought. And then, more nervously,
Dupeaux veered in front of the car again. The driver skilfully pulled out and overtook him.
What the outcome would have been if they’d had to go further Nick couldn’t tell, but they were already turning to where the cliffs along the river-bank formed what seemed almost a natural amphitheatre. Willows hung over the slow moving river. There were ruins of some ancient castle high on the cliffs. A few cars were parked under the trees, but mostly there were horses and carts. And people.
There was real poverty in this country, Nick thought. Horses and carts might look picturesque, but these weren’t men and women using their horses and carts for pleasure. These horses were workhorses, and every single man and woman-and even the adolescents-looked as if they’d spent a long, hard day in the fields. No luxury of going home to a long, hot bath and a change of clothes, but still they’d assembled to enjoy the evening.
The people turned as one at the arrival of the limousine, with its trailing queue of motor bikes. Their jaws dropped in astonishment.
And then displeasure. Nick saw the moment their surprise turned to resentment as they recognised the coat of arms on the limousine, as they realised what the outriders represented.
They shouldn’t be here, he thought, his astute mind working things through fast. If there was antagonism to royalty, how would they react to the surprise visit of two rank outsiders?
But, before he could stop her, Rose was out of the car. He climbed out afterwards, but was called back. ‘Sir!’ The driver sounded insistent. He was handing him a shabby leather-jacket.
‘I’ll get it back from you some time,’ he said diffidently. ‘Just don’t lose it.’ And then he smiled. ‘By the way, the lady said lose the tie.’
Lose the tie. Right. He hauled his tie off, undid a couple of buttons, shrugged on the jacket and rounded the car to join Rose.
‘Hi,’ she was saying as the people stared at her.
The uniformed motor-bike riders were coming in now, gathering in a cluster around the car. But they didn’t kill their engines. The noise was overpowering. And there were horses…
Nick saw the danger. ‘Kill the engines. Now!’ he ordered, but the damage had been done.
