Rebel Princess Read Free Page B

Prussia. She determined that she would make him fall in love with her.
    To Augusta the image of the Grand Duke Peter was that of the handsomest of men, endowed with all those qualities of charm and wit that she had admired secretly in some of Frederick’s courtiers, and the inherent generosity of her nature responded to the mirage she had created.
    â€œI shall love him,” she declared to her governess Mademoiselle Cardel one day. “I shall devote my life to pleasing him and making him love me! Even now, Mademoiselle, I can hardly believe that I am really leaving Germany; that I shall never go back to Stettin; that I shall soon be married … and living away from mama!”
    Mademoiselle Cardel turned from her charge, avoiding those bright, candid blue eyes. With a hand that trembled slightly she stroked Augusta’s black hair.
    â€œI am sure that he will love you, in fact I think many men will …” she said.
    Poor little one, so eager to escape from one prison into another, the Frenchwoman thought sadly. To exchange the execrable Johanna for none other than His Imperial Highness Peter of Russia. God help her! But she managed to smile and send her pupil away on some pretext. It was not for her to shatter the illusions of the bride.…
    Augusta lay awake in her bed all that last night. She was too excited, too disturbed by traitorous qualms of homesickness. She passed some of the time in prayer, but the stiff, formal phrases failed to bring her comfort and never had her cold Lutheran God seemed so far away as in those long hours before daybreak.
    At dawn the next morning, two carriages waited outside the castle, one for the Princess Johanna and her daughter, the other smaller one for their little retinue of servants, a proper escort having been forbidden by the Empress for reasons of her own. The Prince of Zerbst, his wife and family, stood with Christian to bid the travelers farewell.
    Johanna gave her husband a dutiful good-bye, promising to keep him informed of their progress. Then Christian turned to the daughter he would never see again and embraced her for the last time.
    â€œGod protect you, Augusta,” he said gently. “Conduct yourself well, and above all with caution, and you will have nothing to fear.”
    These were not the parting words she would have wished to hear, and her father’s solemnity cast a cloud over her spirits. Surely she had nothing to fear? In the morning light, the terror of the darkness put aside, her future seemed to hold nothing but happiness and success. She kissed her father and her uncle and for a moment tears came to her eyes. Then she turned quickly and followed her mother, the newly recruited spy, into the dim interior of the carriage.
    She looked out and saw the figure of Mademoiselle Cardel at an upstairs window. Etiquette had barred her from this final gathering in farewell. Bravely Augusta waved to her, choking back a sudden sob, then the door was slammed shut and the coachman whipped up the horses. With a great clatter of hooves the carriages began to move out of the courtyard, swaying clumsily as they gathered speed.
    Throughout the long hours of that first day’s journeying, Augusta occupied her mind with thoughts of Russia and the Grand Duke Peter, while her mother stared out of the window.
    When Johanna glanced at her daughter she noted the expectant look upon her face. She shrugged inwardly and dismissed Augusta’s feelings from her mind. They were not of the least importance.
    As they traveled towards Stargard the roads became increasingly bad, and the two passengers clung to their seats as the carriage lurched over potholes and ruts. Their nights were spent at inns and posting-houses on the way, often in great discomfort, and the indignant Princess was sometimes forced to share the landlord’s quarters, for there was no fuel to warm the freezing guest rooms.
    When they reached Memel the weather became so severe that