for Robert, not someone who could have a place in his life once he was resigned to his dependence and had learned to live within it.
Victoria knocked, and when she heard Robert's voice, opened the door and went in. She left the door open, as propriety demanded.
"You look better," she said as soon as she was inside. "I was afraid you might feel ill again."
"Why?" he asked. "The disease is over."
She did not evade the issue. "Because you know you will not get better. Sometimes shock or grief can make you feel ill. It can certainly give you a headache or make you sick."
"I feel terrible," he said flatly. "If I knew how to die, as an act of will, I probably would ... except that Mama would be bound to feel as if it were her fault. So I'm caught."
"It's a beautiful day." Her voice was quite clear and matter-of-fact. "I think you should come downstairs and go out into the garden."
"In my imagination?" he asked with a hard edge of sarcasm. "Are you going to describe the garden for me? You don't need to. I know what it looks like, and I'd rather you didn't. That's like pouring vinegar in the wound."
"I can't tell you about it," she replied honestly. "I've never been in your garden. I've always come straight up here. I meant that you should get someone to carry you down. As you say, you are not ill. And it isn't cold. You could sit out there perfectly well and see for yourself. I should like to see the garden. You could show me."
"What, and have the butler carry me around while I tell you This is the rose bed, these are the Michaelmas daisies, there are the chrysanthemums!' " he said bitterly. "I don't think the butler is strong enough! Or do you envisage a couple of footmen, one on either side?"
"The footman could bring you down, and you could sit on a chair on the lawn," she replied, still refusing to respond emotionally, whatever hurt or anger was inside her. "From there you could point out the beds to me. I don't feel like walking very far today myself."
There was a minute's silence.
"Oh," he said at last, his tone different, subdued. "You have pain?"
"Yes."
"I'm sorry. I didn't think."
"Will you show me the garden, please?"
"I should feel - " He stopped.
"Then stop thinking how you feel," she replied. "Just do it! Or are you going to spend the rest of your life here in bed?"
"Don't you dare speak..." His voice trailed off.
There was a long silence.
"Are you coming?" Victoria said at last.
The bell by Robert's bed rang, and Hester straightened her apron and knocked on the door.
"Come in," Robert replied.
She pushed the door wide.
"Would you be good enough to ask the footman to assist me downstairs, Hester?" Robert said, biting his lip and looking at her self-consciously, fear and self-mockery in his eyes. "Miss Stanhope wishes me to show her the garden."
Hester had promised Rathbone she would learn everything she could about Zorah and Gisela, or anything else which might help him. She was moved by curiosity to know what truth lay behind such wild charges, what emotions drove those two so different women and the prince who was between them. But far more urgently than that, she was afraid for Rathbone. He had undertaken the case in good conscience, only later to discover that the physical facts made it impossible Gisela could be guilty. There was no other possible defense for Zorah's behavior. Now the height of his career, which he had so recently achieved, looked like being short-lived and ending in disaster. Regardless of public opinion, his peers would not excuse him for such a breaking of ranks as to attack a foreign royal family with a charge he could not substantiate.
Zorah Rostova was a woman they would not ever forgive. She had defied all the rules. There was no way back for her, or for those who allied themselves with her ... unless she could be proved innocent - in intent, if not in fact.
It was not easy to choose a time when anyone would be receptive to a conversation about Zorah. Robert's tragedy overshadowed anything else. Hester found herself growing desperate. Rathbone was almost always on her mind, and the urgency of the case became greater with every day that passed. The trial was set for late October, less than two weeks away.
She was obliged to contrive a discussion, feeling awkward