Free The Breadth of Heaven by Rosemary Pollock Page B

to find a nightdress, slip out of her clothes, and climb wearily between Signora Albinhieri’s cool, faintly scented sheets.
    Vaguely, she wondered what had been happening to the Princess, but she knew Natalia would be in good hands ... she didn’t need to worry. She didn’t feel like worrying about anything, for despite her weariness she was conscious of being strangely happy.
    She sighed, and turned out the light, and within two minutes was fast asleep.

 
    CHAPTER SIX
    A few hours later Kathy awoke to find a small, frightened-looking maid—not Rosa—standing beside her bed. The girl spoke a little English, and was very apologetic.
    “I knock on the door,” she explained agitatedly, “but the signorina does not wake! And the signora, she says that the signorina must come quickly, please!”
    Kathy struggled up, pushing her tumbled hair out of her eyes. Automatically, she glanced at her wrist - watch. It was four a.m.
    “The signora ... ? ” She forced herself to wake up properly. “What has happened?”
    The girl looked more frightened than ever. “There is something bad on the telephone, signorina. It is for the principessa ... the Signora Albinhieri has told her. She wishes that you will go to her now.”
    Kathy jumped out of bed, her pulses hammering, a constricted feeling in her throat. She was only too wide awake now ... She felt cold with fear, despite the presence in the room of three red-hot radiators, and was grateful for the comforting warmth of her old quilted dressing-gown, as she slipped it on and wrapped it about her. Outside in the corridors all the lights were burning, and as she and the maid hurried towards the Princess’s room, it was possible to hear sounds of activity far off on the other side of the villa. Somewhere a telephone rang shrilly, and almost immediately it was answered. What could be happening? Kathy, pale and slightly trembling, remembering Leonid on the way to Rome, didn’t want to think.
    When they reached the Princess’s room the maid knocked lightly on the door, and from inside a feminine voice instructed them to enter. Kathy stepped inside, and the maid, having done her duty, fled.
    Natalia’s room was spacious and beautiful, and might have been designed expressly for her—as possibly it had been. The spreading cream-coloured carpet flowed like a pale sea into every tiny corner, and the curtains that hid the tall shuttered windows were golden, and made of shimmering silk. Everything in the room gave an impression of lightness and incomparable elegance, even to the antique French bed with its quilted headboard, and there were gilt - framed mirrors and Sevres ornaments, and on a low table a silver bowl filled with white hot-house roses.
    All of this Kathy automatically noticed, as she stood, for a second or so, just inside the door. And then the stately elderly woman who had greeted her a few hours earlier rose from a chair and came towards her, and looking past her Kathy saw Natalia, seated on a low sofa.
    Signora Albinhieri leaned a little towards Kathy, and her voice, as she spoke, was very soft. “She sent for you, my child ... You are a good friend to her, I think. You have heard the news?”
    Wordlessly, Kathy shook her head, and the old lady sighed.
    “Simply that which we have all feared. A rebel government has control of Tirhania.”
    Bewildered, Kathy stared at the old lady, but she only gestured towards Natalia. “Remain with her ... I have much to do.”
    And then she was gone, the door closing softly behind her, and Kathy stood still, savouring the knowledge that the news was nothing to do with Leonid, and feeling extraordinarily light-headed with relief. Then she looked at her employer. “Madame ... ” she began gently.
    Natalia looked up. She was white and haggard - looking, and her hands shook. “You know... ? ” she asked. Her voice, from between colourless lips, was a pathetic thread of sound.
    “Yes, I know.” Kathy sat down beside her, and