Princes and Princesses by Cartland Barbara

Author:Cartland, Barbara
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Publisher: Barbara Cartland Ebooks ltd
Published: 2019-07-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Two

The open carriage they were travelling in carried them across the Galata Bridge, which had been built by the Germans in 1913 to replace an old wooden structure.

Beneath it, on the Golden Horn plied big ferry boats and smaller craft of every kind.

What the Duke knew, since he had been in Constantinople before, was that under the iron arches were stalls of every sort and description besides bootblack and newspaper boys, beggars and piles of fish which had just been caught in the sea.

Dolly however, was interested only in reaching the bazaar.

She had searched in an ancient guide book for descriptions of the labyrinth where there was a maze of small shops, grouped by traders selling, she was told, everything from spices to jewels, from mandrake roots to leeches.

When they reached it, it was to find that the bazaar was covered, which gave the place a strange and mystic atmosphere, redolent with the spices, which were everywhere in huge baskets and sacks.

Harry found this rather interesting, having never been to a spice market before. But Dolly hurried them all on, talking only to a guide, who had arrived at the yacht with the carriage and apparently understood her instructions that she wished to see jewels.

The Duke, Harry thought, was in a particularly good humour this morning and he thought it must be due to the new interest which had been given him the previous evening. When he took Harry down to his cabin and told him what had occurred, he had in fact, been somewhat suspicious.

“Do you really believe that a Prince, who you tell me was of great importance in St. Petersburg, is really hiding here in Constantinople?”

“Read the letter yourself,” the Duke replied, “and while I have not seen Prince Ivan’s handwriting, I am quite certain that this has been written by a cultured man.”

Harry inspected the letter and was forced to admit that the Duke was right.

“What was the woman like?”

“It was difficult to see her,” the Duke replied. “Her face was in shadow, but she too was obviously well-educated and her English was almost perfect.”

He told Harry about the sandwiches.

“I thought when I saw a movement,” he said, “that she was taking one from the plate to take back to the Prince, but she may in fact have been concealing the second one she had taken for herself.”

“You might have offered her the rest,” Harry suggested.

The Duke shook his head.

“No, I suspect she is an aristocrat and they are incredibly, unbelievably proud. I remember when I was in St. Petersburg thinking that they were the proudest people in the world. They would never become the sort of poverty-stricken beggars you can tip.”

“The Prince is obviously prepared to accept your money,” Harry said.

“Judging by this letter, he intends to sell me something, which is a very different matter,” the Duke retorted. “And I don’t mind betting you, Harry, however hard up he may be, if I offered him money for nothing he would not take it.”

He thought that Harry was looking sceptical and added,

“You don’t know the Russians as I do.

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