Free Curse Not the King by Evelyn Anthony Page B

I’m so terrified that when I see her I feel I’m going to faint. Oh, Paul … Paul …”
    She came close to him and caught him by the breast of his brocade coat, gazing up into his face. He put his arm round her shoulders and kissed her tenderly on the forehead, his heart contracting with pity, for she was dreadfully pale and her eyes were dilated with fright.
    â€œPaul, I have an idea,” she said urgently, gripping him tightly in her agitation.
    â€œWhat is it, my love?”
    â€œLet’s go to her and beg for mercy!”
    â€œThat would be quite useless.”
    â€œOh, don’t look like that … wouldn’t it be better to try, wouldn’t anything be better than waiting to be buried alive in some prison before they decide to murder us? If you went to her, Paul, if you humbled yourself … she might relent.…”
    Gently he released himself and taking her hands in his, led her to a chair.
    â€œListen to me, Natalia. If I thought it would save you I’d go on my knees to my mother this moment; but all she’d do is pardon me on condition that I divorce you, and you know what that means.… Whatever we did or said, she’d separate us.”
    â€œBut why? Why?” she sobbed. “She knows I’m innocent.… Why does she want to persecute me …?”
    One lover, Natalie thought desperately. And she has had so many, the hypocrite.
    â€œWhy does she hate me?”
    Paul turned away from her and went to the window, unconsciously adopting Catherine’s favourite attitude.
    â€œI am the one she hates. I love you and you’ve made me happy, and that is something she can’t bear. And there’s no child of our marriage. I believe that is her main reason.”
    â€œNo child … so that’s why.” She stared at his broad back and touched her dry lips with fingers that trembled.
    â€œThen there’s no hope for me.…” She might have betrayed Paul with a dozen men or stayed as chaste as he believed her, the result would have been the same. They wanted to get rid of her because they thought her barren.
    â€œBut I’m only nineteen,” she whispered, so low that he did not hear. “Surely there is still time.…” There must be time, someone must beg the Empress to grant them a respite, and even as the thought of falling at Catherine’s feet occurred to her, she saw the hopelessness of what she contemplated. Paul was right; Paul with his fierce pride and reckless courage, he knew that there was nothing to be gained by pleading or he would have sued for pardon long before in order to protect her.
    â€œNatalie.”
    He stood before her holding out his hand and she rose with his assistance.
    â€œCome in to supper, my little one, and I beg of you, eat something. You’re growing so thin and pale. And try to calm yourself; God will protect your innocence.”
    The idea that Divine intervention depended on her virtue struck the Grand Duchess as a joke that André would have relished; André who worshipped nothing and believed in nothing. How he would laugh if she could tell him … if she could only get near him, see him for a minute, speak to him.…
    Looking at her across the table, Paul noticed that her eyes had filled with tears, and that she had eaten nothing.
    Would to God that she were pregnant, he thought, his heart breaking with love of her. Then they would have their heir, their substitute for him. And they could kill him if they wished, so long as she were safe.
    Nikita Panin was becoming increasingly angry and uneasy at the Empress’s failure to take advantage of her strength and strike down her son. Daily he sought Catherine out and begged her to seize the Grand Duchess and put an end to the situation. Imprison her, he urged, and then make the Czarevitch re-marry; he would have to obey, Panin argued; there were always means with which to bend a stubborn will