Dennis Wheatley - The Shadow of Tyburn Tree

Making a great effort to control his agitation, he said gravely: "I do not ask this for myself, Sir, but in the name of those I represent. I have news of great import which I must convey to certain people as a matter of the utmost urgency. I propose to use the excuse of going through a Protestant ceremony to wait upon you with my wife, at your church, at eleven o'clock to-morrow morning. You will then have an opportunity of passing a message to me. I beg you to reconsider the matter, and aid me if you can."

Without waiting for an answer he turned away to talk to some other guests. He felt very badly about having forced the friendly clergy­man to choose between two loyalties, and he could be by no means certain that the choice would prove to his advantage; but he considered that his knowledge of the Danish plan of campaign justified his action.

By this time Roger was heartily sick of making smiling small talk to people, the great majority of whom he had never seen before and had not the slightest wish ever to see again; but, as the hero of the hour, he was the cynosure of all eyes and had to pretend that this was the happiest day of his life. Concealing his gloomy thoughts as best he could, he prayed for his ordeal to end, although he knew that it might continue for hours yet, as on their country estates the Russians often kept wedding festivities up for a week.

His forebodings that he would not escape being lionised until he could get to bed were made a certainty when, a little before six, an orchestra appeared and began to tune up. Evidently the Empress meant there to be no hint that the marriage had been anything but of her own contriving, and had sent the band to ensure that there should be no flagging of the entertainment owing to the delayed departure of the newly-wed couple. With jaws that ached from smiling, Roger duly opened the ball by leading Natalia Andreovna out for the first minuet and their gracefulness in the dance was much applauded.

Dancing continued till half-past ten, then Natalia's bridesmaids formed a bevy round her and prepared to escort her to her chamber. Among the guests there was much disappointment that the bride and bridegroom were not to be put to bed in public, as was the custom, and that they were thus deprived of the opportunity of making the bawdy jokes usual on such occasions; but the Empress's dictum, that Natalia must not consider herself fully a wife until after the Protestant ceremony which her husband had requested, was now known to all, so they could do no more than commiserate with her.

As Roger had not been alone with her for a single moment during all these hours they had had no opportunity of exchanging anything but the amiable civilities required by the occasion, and exhausted as he was by the events of the day, he was by no means sorry that he was to be spared an explanation with her that night. Having smilingly kissed her hand, forehead and cheeks he wished her good sleep, and with considerable relief, watched her being led away by her com­panions.

Throughout the whole afternoon and evening he had rarely been without a glass in his hand, and the drinkings of his health to which he had had to respond had been innumerable; so had it not been for his excellent head he would have been drunk already. As it was a little crowd of his newly acquired in-laws now gathered round him, and insisting that it would be against all custom for him to go to bed sober, plied him with further liquor.

Wishing to be rid of them as soon as possible he tossed" off several brandies to Natalia's green eyes, then pretended a greater degree of drunkenness than he was actually feeling. Seeing his apparent state his two old acquaintances of the Chevalier guard presented themselves, and after many noisy good-nights had been said, escorted him to the room from which they had brought him nearly twelve hours earlier.

Alone at last, he sat with his head in his hands for a few minutes; then with an effort stood up, splashed his face with water from the jug, struggled out of his clothes and flung himself into bed. Fatigue even more than the amount he had drunk weighed upon his brain, and after a brief period of futile speculation as to whether or not Mr. Tooke would devise a means to pull him out of the frightful mess he was in, he fell asleep.

In the morning the two footmen called him at seven and brought his breakfast. When he had eaten it one of them told him that a carriage had been ordered for nine o'clock to take him into St. Petersburg; so he got up, dressed in his travelling-clothes, and unlocking his money chest, distributed all the cash he had about him. By the time he had finished repacking his other belongings it was close on nine; a knock came on the door, and in reply to his call of "Entrez!" the two Chevalier guards appeared.

Giving him a polite good-morning, they asked if they might have the pleasure of attending him to his second marriage ceremony.

Roger was somewhat surprised at their couching their proposal to accompany him in the form of a request, as he had a shrewd sus­picion that the two young men were among the few people who knew that he had incurred the Empress's displeasure, and that she had order­ed them to keep an eye on him. In any case he did not feel that he was in a position to refuse their offer, so he accepted with a good grace and went downstairs with them.

He had expected that he and Natalia would be sent in to St. Peters­burg together, and that he would at last be called on to face a tete-a-tete with his wife; but it transpired that she was to follow him in a separate carriage with two of the ladies who had attended her the previous day. So Roger and his companions got into a four-horse barouche, and at a spanking pace set out to cover the sixteen miles to the capital.

Having as yet not the faintest idea as to the procedure adopted towards people exiled to Siberia, Roger thought this a good oppor­tunity to secure some information on it, so he remarked:

"I little expected, gentlemen, when you brought me from the Fortress of Schlusselburg four days ago, that I should leave the Peterhof in such pleasant circumstances. It seemed far more likely that I should leave it but to be conveyed back to my cell, or as a prisoner on his way to exile."

Having waited for their laugh, he went on: "Had the latter proved my fate I take it that you would hardly have been put to the incon­venience of escorting me further than Petersburg, and that there you would have handed me over to the police for transportation to Siberia."

They both looked at him in surprise, and the taller of the two answered. "You are mistaken, Sir. None but felons and people of the baser sort, sentenced to work in the mines, are transported thither by the police. Persons of quality are simply ordered by the Empress to take up their residence there in a specific place, or, more generally, in a town of their own choosing; they then make their own arrange­ments for the journey."

This was the best news Roger had had since his return from Finland. Apparently it meant that, if Mr. Tooke remained adamant in his refusal to help him, once he was clear of St. Petersburg he would be able to change his course and drive hell-for-leather for the Polish or Austrian frontier. Concealing his elation, he said:

"In that case what surety has Her Majesty that those she banishes will ever go to Siberia? It seems that, without her knowledge, they might quite well take another direction and go into comfortable retirement on some country estate."

The tall man shook his head. "For a Russian to even contemplate disobeying a direct order from Her Majesty is unthinkable."

"But in the case of a foreigner, such as myself," Roger hazarded.

"You would soon be brought to book," laughed his informant. "The chief of police in every town and district keeps a record of all persons entering or leaving the area for which he is responsible, and these reports are forwarded to the Residence. Were your name not found upon them as travelling in the right direction an inquiry would be set on foot, and 'tis no easy matter for persons of quality to hide themselves in Russia; so you would soon be located and arrested to suffer a severer penalty."