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.“After all, we have had to dress up and obey commands.And that is something I have managed to avoid up to now, even though we have known each other for years.”“That is certainly true enough,” William replied.“You always think that you know best, so I have given up arguing with you.”The Duke laughed and countered,“I have not noticed much difference.”“Perhaps you will in the future.Now ostensibly you are a married man and I have proof of it!”“You are scaring me, William, and before you say any more I am going upstairs to change and be again, as I have always been and always intend to be, a very sensible bachelor without a heart.”He had left the room before William could answer.Alnina, who had been putting her bouquet in water so that the flowers would not die, turned round.“Why is your friend, the Duke, so determined not to marry?” she asked him.“And everyone will expect him to, although I quite understand that he has no wish to marry this Princess from another country.”William glanced at the door, almost as if he felt the Duke was still there listening to him.“He was very badly treated by someone he loved and whom he had asked to marry him,” he said.“But don’t tell him I have told you so.”“Oh, how sad! Did she jilt him?”“Yes, she did and only a few days before they were due to be married.”Alnina stared at him.“How terrible! How could she do such a thing?”“She did it because she wanted a title.She married instead a Viscount who will become an Earl.Little did she know, if she had waited long enough, she would have been a Duchess.”Alnina was silent for a moment and then she said,“I suppose many women would think it important.Yet when they marry it should be the man himself who counts and not that he has or has not a title to his name.”“If they are honest,” William replied, “most women dream that a Duke will drop down the chimney and ask them to be his wife.They are therefore disappointed when he is just Mr.Snooks or Captain Know-all!”Alnina laughed.“You are funny, but it’s true.Yet I don’t believe that all women are so avaricious.”As William was silent, she went on,“Personally I think that if I was married to someone very grand, it would be such a bore to entertain people who came not because they were real friends, but because they wanted to say they had dined with the Duke of ‘This’ or the Earl of ‘That’.”William was amused and responded,“You are different from most people.But I have never found a woman yet who was not anxious to have a title and go into dinner in front of her friends.”“Well, now you have met me,” Alnina said.“I can assure you that when I marry it will not be because the man in question is important, even if he is the King of Sheba.It will be because I love him and he loves me.”“That is exactly what you should feel, but I cannot believe that dressed up as you are now you will not expect a God from Olympus or perhaps an archangel from Heaven to be kneeling at your feet.”Alnina walked towards the door, saying,“Now you are putting ideas into my head.So I am going to change and just be a plain young woman who has no aspirations beyond paying her brother’s debts.”She had gone before William could think of a reply, but he was chuckling as he packed up his camera.He was reflecting that Miss Lester was far more amusing than most young women he had met and she was certainly different from any debutantes who giggled when he spoke to them and had nothing to say for themselves.The Duke came down first and found William in the study.“I hope,” he said, “those pictures are good.You have certainly taken a great deal of trouble over them.”“They will be fantastic.I can promise you that.I will have them developed and printed off by the day after tomorrow.”“Then we can start to make our plans as to when we can leave for Georgia,” the Duke said with satisfaction.“There is one thing that is worrying me, John.”“What is that, William?”“If you really buy this mountain on which you have set your heart, how are you going to give your orders to the men who will be working for you?”The Duke looked at him.“What do you mean by that?” he asked.“Well, neither of us speaks Russian and, although the Prince speaks French, as do all aristocratic Russians, the workers will speak only Russian and not particularly cultured Russian at that.”“I suppose I will have an overseer and someone in charge who will give them their orders,” the Duke replied.“And, of course, once it has been organised, you and I can go back to England or anywhere else we fancy and merely pick up the gold on our return.”“That all sounds very easy, but you know that in Georgia, as in Russia, you cannot trust anyone unless you are there yourself giving the orders.”He saw that the Duke was listening and went on,“You are going to find it hard to find an overseer who is honest and also speaks French and will not put your gold into his own pocket.”There was silence and then the Duke said,“You always produce the most irritating stumbling blocks when I least expect them.Of course you are right, but I suppose with my usual good luck I will find someone I can trust and hope for the best.”“If you ask me, that is not good enough,” William answered
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