‘What do you mean? Sorry – all this is a bit above my head.’
‘Do you think you know yourself? Tell me truthfully!’ Her eyes were fixed on him.
‘Do I know myself? Well, I think so, yes. Don’t most people?’
‘No! Of course they don’t.’
‘In that case perhaps I don’t… I don’t really know.’
‘I was once told that I had no idea what I was really like, that I hid my feelings even from myself. It was even suggested that there was a great wild forest within me, of which I was not aware.’
‘A forest?’ Miss Hope, Vane decided, was in a decidedly fanciful mood today. He was not in the least interested in the wild forest inside her, honestly, though of course he wouldn’t dream of saying so. It wouldn’t do to hurt the old girl’s feelings.
‘As the river flows to the ocean, my soul shall flow to thine,’ she murmured. ‘For some reason I am haunted by these lines.’
‘Shall we continue? You started telling me about the fancy dress party at the lodge?’
‘Oh dear!’ Miss Hope threw up her hands in a gesture of mock despair. ‘From the sublime to the ridiculous! Very well, Tancred. You shall have your fancy dress party if that’s what you want. I remember it was crazy weather for January. A sudden balmy spell had swept a froth of showers and the fresh breezes of April into Sofia in the dead of winter… The fancy dress party was Cyril’s idea.’
‘Was Prince Cyril a good host?’
‘He was a terrible host. He liked to say tactless and embarrassing things to people. But there were always a lot of guests at the lodge. Some people don’t mind being insulted and discomfited, I suppose, so long as it is a prince of the blood who does the insulting.’
‘What was the lodge like?’ Tancred asked. He had a particular reason to want to know about the lodge.
‘It was made of creamy-coloured limestone and had a shiny, rather intricate, steel-trimmed art nouveau canopy. A most enchanting building… You look as though you want to ask something?’
‘N-no – nothing.’ He couldn’t bring himself to say it.
‘Are you sure? You have a secretive mouth, you know. Cyril’s fancy dress party was not of the ordinary kind. Everybody had to impersonate a character from fiction and had to behave consistently all the time, and at the end of the party a specially selected jury had to decide who or what one’s character was. The person who was voted to have acted his or her character with the greatest conviction got a prize.’
‘What kind of a prize?’
‘A box of cigars for the men, a box of the finest chocolate creams for the ladies. I don’t need to tell you that there existed among Prince Cyril’s entourage a tendresse for all things Teutonic. So, unsurprisingly, we had several Brunnhildes and Nibelungen and half a dozen Siegfrieds.’
‘What character did you dress up as?’
Miss Hope’s lips hovered on the edge of a smile. It was as if she knew some strange secret, which she would almost, but never wholly, divulge. ‘Nannies don’t dress up, Tancred. But you might be amused to know I was made to recite a funny English poem! On account of my extreme youth, no doubt. So I recited “The Young Lady of Clare”. Do you know it? No?’ Miss Hope clasped her hands on her lap and cleared her throat.
‘There was a Young Lady of Clare, Who was sadly pursued by a bear; When she found she was tired, she abruptly-’
She looked at him. ‘Can you guess what it was the Lady of Clare did?’
‘Retired?’ Tancred suggested. ‘Perspired?’
‘Expired, Tancred. She expired! That unfortunate Lady of Clare! Edward Lear, I think. Well, it was at that very same party that Cyril decided to make me his confidante. Till then he’d treated me with amiable indifference. Oh, he was so unpredictable!’
‘What was it he confided in you?’
‘Well, he started by telling me that he preferred bad weather to good weather. If he woke up in the morning and saw it was grey and drizzly outside, he felt reassured that life would go on for ever. Sunny days, on the other hand, made him want to hide under the covers and think of dying.’
‘Think of dying! How very strange.’
‘He was a very strange character. Prince Cyril had an “innate” dislike of wrapping paper. He called it “my peculiar animus”. He was sick at the mere sight of it! An “inexplicable” feeling surfaced within him, he said. For that reason he found Christmas particularly trying.’
‘I assume presents were given to him unwrapped?’
‘They were. It eliminated the element of surprise completely. Oh, his oddities were endless! In his study he kept different seals to suit his different moods. I remember one particular occasion when the Montenegrin charge d’affaires and various other dignitaries stood round, waiting for him to seal a document. “Has anyone seen my mellow seal?” Cyril asked. But the mellow seal seemed to have vanished into thin air.’
‘What happened?’
‘Cyril went on smiling – he was in a mellow mood, you see – but then he became furious – which was fortunate since he decided to use his “furious” seal instead, after which he calmed down. There was a collective sigh of relief, I remember, like a gust of wind.’
‘I wonder if he was a manic-depressive – bipolar?’
‘He used to say things like, “My pain is crushing when I suffer, but my joy, when I’m happy, is also inexpressible.” He said it in German, of course. Well, that night – the night of the fancy dress party – he told me how much he enjoyed racing up and down the streets of Sofia in his Lagonda Rapier and the high price he had paid for his pursuit of speed records when his beloved dog Fritzie was catapulted out of the car and killed!’
Tancred Vane looked up slowly. ‘I thought you said before his beloved dog’s name was Sascha?’
‘Sascha was Prince Cyril’s second beloved dog, Tancred. He had two dogs.’ Miss Hope’s eyes remained steady. ‘Prince Cyril then spoke to me about international affairs and the possibility of war, which he gave every impression of relishing. He seemed convinced of a German victory! I must say his abstractions and absolutes had an unmistakably Teutonic stiffness about them.’ She adjusted her pince-nez. ‘What happened next took me completely by surprise, it was so terribly sudden.’
‘What happened?’
‘He started whispering in my ear that he felt the irresistible urge to make love to me. He said fresh young girls were his passion, that my smooth cheeks drove him to distraction, words to that effect. Again he spoke in German. I misunderstood him completely – oh dear! I was so naive, so innocent!’ Miss Hope gave a girlish laugh.
‘You mean – Prince Cyril made a pass at you?’
‘Well, yes, since you choose to put it like that.’
‘What did you do?’
‘I said – oh, what was it? No, I can’t remember. I am so sorry, Tancred… I must look up my diary notes… Call me a muddle-headed old ass, but I can’t remember a thing! Don’t look so disappointed, it’s not the end of the world.’ Her hands continued to be clasped on her lap, but now she was looking out of the window. There was a pause. ‘Tell me, Tancred, how would you feel if this project of yours were to be snatched away from you?’
‘What do you mean, snatched away?’
‘If you were to learn that, for some reason, you couldn’t go on writing this silly biography? Would you be upset?’
‘Would I be upset if-?’ He broke off. Had he misheard? Had she said ‘this silly biography’? ‘Of course I would be upset! Terribly upset!’
She did look odd today and no mistake! The way she sat, something taut about her, like a spring. Her pince-nez kept catching the sun and flashing its reflection back at him.
‘You haven’t heard of someone making trouble, have you? Of someone trying to prevent the biography from being published?’ Tancred said in an anxious voice. ‘Cyril’s nephew – King Simeon – or some of the other living Coburgs? I haven’t heard anything from the Fleur-de-Lis Press. I am sure they would have informed me if there’d been a problem.’
She smiled indulgently. ‘Of course they would have. The estimable Fleur-de-Lis Press would have been the first to know, should anyone have started muddying the waters. Their legal department would have got in touch with you without fail. No, nothing of the sort. Nothing as literal as that.’