'It was just like one of the adventure stories they try to keep from us at Glenatholl. But this was real blood,' said George with a shiver.
'Where is your Mama waiting?' the Colonel put in quickly.
'In the salon. She is not allowed to climb stairs until she is properly well again.' And remembering Faro's accident, 'Can you walk, sir, if we help you?'
'You're very kind, George, but I think I can manage. It's my ribs that are cracked, my legs are fine.' And with a wry smile, 'Somewhat shaky though to find I am still in one piece.'
When they reached the room where Amelie waited, the Colonel said to George, 'Your mother wishes to talk to Mr Faro alone.'
'Very well, sir,' said George, sounding a little disappointed and looking at Faro as if he did not wish to let him out of his sight.
'You must tell her all that has happened, Mr Faro, since we left Glenatholl. She will want to hear all the details. Leave nothing out. Everything - remember!'
Not quite everything, thought Faro. There were some things George must never know.
Chapter 29
As he entered the room, Amelie looked up from the sofa where she was sitting. This time there was no formality. She indicated a place beside her and took his hand.
'My dear, I am so sorry. Karl tells me you had an accident with Anton's horse and you have cracked ribs. Is it very painful?'
Faro smiled bravely and she went on, 'What a terrible thing to happen when you have just arrived. The boys' mounts are chosen for their reliability. Something must have scared your horse.'
Faro decided to go along with this version of his accident. 'The animal wasn't to blame. I lost my stirrups. I'm afraid it is a long time since I was on a horse,' he said truthfully. 'There wasn't much call for it in my particular line of business.'
Touching his shoulder and assured that it didn't hurt, which wasn't entirely true, Amelie smiled and said, 'Dear Jeremy, I don't know where to begin. I owe you so much. But first of all, and most important, thank you again for bringing George home safe to me.'
Pausing, she looked into his face intently, as if memorising every feature. 'I can hardly believe you are here with me. I am scared to close my eyes in case I open them and you have disappeared,' she smiled sadly, 'as so often happens in my dreams. Now you are really here and I wonder if you can guess how many days of my life I have dreamed of this moment,' she whispered, patting the sofa. 'Of sitting here like this together and sharing an hour with the man who saved my life so long ago.'
As he began to protest she said in a low voice, as if they might be overheard, 'It is true, Jeremy. If George had not been born then I would never have survived Gustav's determined attempts on my life. But all that is past now.'
Closing her eyes, she sighed deeply. 'Now I can pretend for one perfect hour that I am not a Grand Duchess, but merely an ordinary housewife.' A wistful smile, 'Perhaps an Edinburgh policeman's wife and we are spending a holiday together travelling in Europe.'
Faro hadn't the heart to tell her that such things were beyond ordinary Edinburgh housewives, especially those on a policeman's salary.
Lifting his hand, she held it against her cheek. ‘I can hardly believe that you are so unchanged by the years. Sometimes I have tried to remember your face and found I could not do so. That worried me; you meant so much to me and yet I had forgotten what you looked like. I could no longer bring your face to mind, as if I had an image of you that had faded away.'
Guiltily Faro recognised this experience as similar to his own, but for a vastly different reason - a deliberate attempt to eradicate all memory of that brief fateful visit of the Grand Duchess Amelie.
'There has not been a day in my life when I have not thought of you in the past thirteen years, Jeremy. Thinking what time it would be in Scotland and what you might be doing at that moment. And all the time railing against my destiny.'
Again that deep searching gaze into his face.
'Always saying if only - if only I had not been born a Grand Duchess, I could have made all my dreams come true. I could have been with you forever.'
And Faro listened sadly, wishing for her sake that he had been in love too and could honestly share her emotions. Wishing he could say just once that it had been the same for him. For that was what she expected, as her right.
But it had never been so. Would it have been different if she had not been royal? Had some caution reasoned against loving someone far above him? Just as she must have always known that to love an Edinburgh policeman was a waste of time.
Acceptance had been easy for him. He had never loved her. That night of madness and passion long ago had never seemed part of his real world. Yet it had resulted in a child, ironically a now beloved son he could never claim as his own.
‘I have talked to the Colonel,' he said trying desperately to get the conversation on to less emotional ground. 'I am glad you have such a friend.'
She sighed. 'I expect he told you that he loves me. Everyone knows about that. Such a good kind man, a great friend, but how could a Grand Duchess marry a mere Count?'
Or a policeman, thought Faro. What an intolerable existence it would have been. To be passionately in love - at the beginning - believing he could spend the rest of his life in her shadow in
