69 Love Leaves at Midnight Read online

  Besides, too, because he was paying her compliments, she felt a strange sensation within her, a feeling she did not recognise and yet it seemed to take possession of her.

  The King was looking at her face as if he was considering his words.

  “There is something very young about you,” he said reflectively, “and yet in many ways you are very old and so clever that I am astounded at how much you know and how adept you are at handling people.”

  “You are – flattering me?” Xenia said shyly.

  “And you are also,” the King went on as if she had not spoken, “so lovely that I am finding it hard to wait until the day after tomorrow before I tell you how much you mean to me.”

  Xenia drew in her breath in surprise, then her eyes met the King’s and it was impossible to look away.

  “I want to kiss you,” he said in a low voice. “I want it more than I have ever wanted anything in my whole life!”

  There was a throb of passion behind the words, which made Xenia feel as if her heart turned over in her breast.

  Then, as she still stared at him unable to move, she heard the approach of their bodyguard.

  With the soldiers behind them the King led the way up the side of the mountain.

  They climbed in single file until halfway up among the thick foliage of the trees he drew his horse to a standstill.

  “We have to walk from here,” he said to Xenia.

  The soldiers went to their horses’ heads, but before Xenia could slip to the ground the King lifted her from the saddle.

  Feeling his hands on her waist and the closeness of him made her experience again the strange sensation that seemed to ripple through her.

  Then she was free and he led the way along a small path that was really no more than a sheep track winding between the tree trunks.

  They walked for quite some way before Xenia heard the sound of falling water and a moment later they emerged into the open and in front of them were the Sacred Falls.

  The Falls started high up the mountain and fell hundreds of feet down into a narrow valley to form a stream between two perpendicular cliffs.

  The rocks on either side of the Falls were covered with wild flowers and the silver water reflecting the sunshine and the vivid blue of the sky made the most enchanting picture Xenia had ever seen.

  “Do you want to go behind the water?” the King asked as she stood there transfixed without speaking.

  “Behind?” she questioned.

  “It is where the ancient priests went to listen to the Oracle,” he explained. “When the Falls were quiet and gentle in the summer, as they are now, they imagined that the Gods, who live high on the mountains, were pleased with them. But in the winter when the water rushes down in a torrent from the snows they thought that the Gods were angry.”

  “I can understand how much it meant to them,” Xenia said, “for I have never seen anything so beautiful.”

  “Let’s consult the Oracle,” the King suggested. “We will ask it if we are to be successful and perhaps we shall be told the right answer.”

  “I hope so – I pray so,” Xenia said seriously.

  She knew that the King was gazing at her, but because she was shy she would not meet his eyes again.

  She was in fact pulsatingly conscious of what he had said when they were waiting for the soldiers.

  “Follow me,” he said now and they started to climb a short distance down between the rocks until they reached the falling water.

  When they were close to it, Xenia could see that there was a path leading behind the Falls and this was passable without getting wet because the rocks above jutted out.

  “You must be careful. This path is slippery,” the King said. “I would not wish you to end up in the pool below, for I am told the bodies sacrificed by the Priests never came to the surface which meant that they were accepted by the Gods.”

  “The bodies?” Xenia questioned.

  The King smiled.

  “Naturally they made sacrifices. It is part of every primitive religion and I fancy a pure Athenian maiden was the victim.”

  “I don’t like to think about it,” Xenia murmured.

  “Then give me your hand and move carefully,” the King smiled.

  Obediently Xenia put her hand into his and, because they had both removed their gloves, the touch of his fingers gave her a sudden thrill that was like a shaft of sunlight moving through her body.

  ‘This is love!’ she thought and knew with a feeling of combined rapture and consternation that she loved the King!

  She had in fact loved him for a long time, but she had been afraid to admit it to herself.

  Now there was no mistaking her feelings and instinctively her fingers tightened on his.

  “It is all right,” he said reassuringly. “It is safer than it looks once we are inside.”

  It was in fact only the entrance that was narrow and dangerous.

  Inside there was a cave behind the Falls and the ground was dry except within a few inches of the Falls itself.

  The water fell like a silver veil and because, as the King had said, it was summer, instead of the deafening roar which must have been made by a winter torrent, there was only a soft sound almost like music.

  The sunlight turned every drop of water into a minute rainbow that sparkled dazzlingly, giving Xenia the feeling that she was in an Aladdin’s Cave of magical jewels that glittered with a light of their own.

  Without releasing her hand, the King drew her back a little way into the cave.

  “I have something to tell you,” he said. “I have not had a chance so far this morning.”

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “You remember you told me that one of the reasons for so much dissatisfaction amongst the men of the City is that the Luthenian beer was heavily taxed so they were forced to buy Austrian ale which was cheaper but which they did not like?”

  Margit had told Xenia this and she had repeated it to the King, suggesting that he should insist on the tax being lifted from the Luthenian beer so that the local brewers could start working again.

  “I thought over what you said,” the King went on, “and considered it so strange that I sent someone I trusted to investigate the imports that came from Austria.”

  “What did you find?”

  “I found that Kalolyi is part-owner of the Austrian Brewery that supplies Luthenia with beer!”

  Xenia stared at him.

  “Part-owner? But that is disgraceful! He is benefiting himself by taxing his own countrymen.”

  “Exactly!” the King said. “And I am quite certain now that he is defrauding the citizens of Luthenia in other ways as well.”

  Xenia gave a little cry of delight.

  “Now you can get rid of him!” she exclaimed.

  “Not so easily!” a voice echoed behind them.

  Both Xenia and the King started.

  Then, from the opposite side of the Falls from which they had entered, came the Prime Minister and, incredible though it seemed to Xenia, he was holding a pistol in his hand.

  “What are you doing here?” the King enquired.

  “When I learnt early this morning of your destination,” the Prime Minister replied, “I found that you had played right into my hands.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “It’s very simple,” the Prime Minister answered. “When I learnt that you were making enquiries about me, I knew that it was a case, Your Majesty, of either you or me.”

  He spoke in a manner that made Xenia feel as if a cold hand clutched her heart and a suspicion of his intentions like a venomous snake confronted her menacingly.

  The King released her hand and she put it protectively against her breast.

  “Are you threatening me, Kalolyi?” the King asked calmly.

  “It is not a question of a threat, Your Majesty,” the Prime Minister replied, “I am simply informing you that you and Her Royal Highness will not be returning from this exped
ition to the Sacred Falls!”

  There was something so evil in his voice that involuntarily Xenia cried,

  “No – no!”

  “It is just two steps forward for each of you,” the Prime Minister went on, “or if you prefer I can shoot you first. The sound will not be heard above the noise of the water.”

  “You appear to have thought all this out very carefully,” the King said, still speaking in the even tones he had used before.

  He was showing no fear of the man confronting him, Xenia thought with a feeling of pride.

  Instead he seemed to be standing almost at his ease, one hand in his pocket, the other loose and relaxed at his side.

  But she knew that they were both in deadly danger and she could only hope wildly that if she had to die she would do so with dignity and without screaming.

  “You should know by now, Your Majesty, that I am a very resourceful man,” the Prime Minister went on. “I have in fact already arranged that if Your Majesty should suffer a regrettable accident or be unable to rule the country in the traditional manner, Luthenia will become a state of the Austrian Empire under my administration.”

  “So you are a traitor amongst other things?” the King asserted accusingly.

  “It’s a common sense solution,” the Prime Minister answered. “But unless you had interfered, there would have been no reason for me to resort to such extreme methods.”

  He paused.

  Then looking at Xenia he added,

  “Perhaps the person most to blame is Her Royal Highness. Women are at the root of most trouble and this is no exception.”

  “You will leave Her Royal Highness out of this,” the King said. “And I am prepared to bargain with you – my life for hers.”

  The Prime Minister smiled unpleasantly.

  “You can hardly imagine that I should be so foolish as to leave alive a witness of your untimely death?”

  The King did not answer and the Prime Minister continued,

  “But we must waste no more time. I must return to Molnár to await the reports of those who accompanied you that you have vanished without trace and they can only imagine that the Gods of the Sacred Falls have accepted a Royal sacrifice for the good of Luthenia.”

  He was jeering at them, Xenia recognised, and at the same time enjoying himself and the power that his position gave him.

  “What I suggest,” he said almost briskly, “is that you, Your Royal Highness, take the ladies’ privilege of going first.”

  Xenia looked at him, but she could not speak.

  Her voice had died in her throat.

  “Just two steps forward,” the Prime Minister said. “I would promise you that you will not suffer after the first moment of terror, but no one has ever returned from the bottom of the Falls to relate what their feelings were.”

  Xenia felt as if she was turned to stone.

  The pistol in the Prime Minister’s hand was still pointed at the King.

  She knew that he would not hesitate to use it on both of them and then throw their bodies over the edge and return to Molnár.

  No one would ever know what had happened or that he had been present.

  It was a brilliant plot, she thought, and she and the King had walked straight into it without having any idea what desperate methods the Prime Minister would employ to save himself from exposure.

  It flashed through her mind that if she had to die she would at least be dying with the King and because she loved him that in itself was a comfort, but a very small one.

  “Take the first step, Your Royal Highness!” the Prime Minister said commandingly.

  Xenia felt as if her feet were clamped to the ground and any movement was impossible.

  Then, as she looked despairingly at the King wanting to say goodbye, wanting to tell him how much she loved him, he drew his hand from his pocket.

  There was a sudden tinkle as a number of gold coins glittering in the light from the water fell to the ground.

  Xenia glanced down to see what had happened and the Prime Minister did the same.

  In that split second of inattention the King sprang forward and forced the Prime Minister’s arm up in the air.

  He must have pulled the trigger for the shot vibrated round the cave and then the two men were struggling, both of them fighting for their lives.

  One moment they were grappling together, the next minute the Prime Minister’s body was silhouetted against the water, his arms outstretched, his feet without any substance beneath them as with a shrill scream he disappeared.

  It all happened so swiftly that it was hard to believe that the whole episode had not been a figment of the imagination.

  Then Xenia gave a little murmur of horror and turned towards the King.

  She felt his arms go round her holding her tight, giving her a sense of security that superseded the terror of what she had just seen.

  Then, as she raised her white frightened face to his, his mouth came down on hers.

  For a moment his lips were hard and hurt her, until, as he felt the softness of hers and knew that she was trembling, his kiss became more gentle and yet insistent and compelling.

  It was then that the sensations she had felt before seemed to rise in Xenia to sweep away everything but the realisation that she was being kissed and that she loved the King.

  She knew this was what she had wanted and longed for all her life when she had sought the same love that her father and mother had known.

  This was love so overwhelming that everything else receded into the distance and she could think only of the King and the closeness of him and the feelings he evoked within her by his lips.

  With the water singing beside them and in the dim light of the cave they were in an enchanted place that belonged not to the world but to the Gods who had made it sacred.

  After time had passed – it might have been a minute, an hour, even a century – the King raised his head.

  He looked down at her and, because she could not help it, she whispered,

  “I love – you! I – I love – you!”

  “And I love you, my brave darling!” the King replied.

  Then he was kissing her again, kissing her wildly and passionately, as if he must express his relief that they were still alive and free of the evil that had menaced them.

  He kissed her eyes, her cheeks, her ears and the softness of her neck.

  He put up his hand to pull her hat from her head so that he could touch the shining glory of her hair and she felt that her whole body melted into his and they were one person, each indivisible from the other.

  Finally the King raised his head again to say gently,

  “We are free, my precious one, and alive!”

  Xenia hid her face against his shoulder.

  “I thought – we must – die,” she whispered.

  “I thought so too,” the King admitted. “How could I have known – how could I have guessed – that he was a murderer at heart?”

  “I knew he was – horrible and – evil the first time I – touched his hand,” Xenia murmured.

  The King straightened his shoulders.

  “The world will be a better place without him,” he said, “but you realise, my darling, that no one and I mean no one, must ever know how he died. We must never speak of this again in case someone should overhear as he overheard what we were saying.”

  “What will – happen when he – does not – return?” Xenia asked.

  “There will be a great deal of speculation,” the King replied, “but since Kalolyi is sure to have covered his tracks cleverly we will not be involved.”

  He kissed Xenia again and then he said,

  “Come – let us go home. I think you have been through enough for one day.”

  He took her by the hand and led her very carefully from the cave back along the ledge and out into the sunshine.

  Xenia found it impossible to look down at the water splashing over the rocks at the bottom of the Falls.

/>   As if he understood without words what she was feeling the King drew her up the path until they reached the trees.

  “Don’t look back, my darling,” he said, “and remember nothing has happened except that you have seen the Sacred Falls and thought them enchanting.”

  He looked at Xenia and added,

  “And I have no words to tell you how beautiful you are and how much I love you!”

  His words brought the sunlight into Xenia’s eyes.

  “How could I ever have dreamt that I would feel like this?” the King asked.

  He bent his head and, as if he could not help himself, kissed her lips.

  Then resolutely knowing it was imperative that they return home, he led her back through the forest.

  They rode quickly and in silence and only as they arrived back at the Palace did Xenia feel suddenly weak and the whole horror of what had occurred swept over her.

  “I want you to go and rest,” the King said as he lifted her from the saddle of her horse. “I will explain to everybody that you are tired after such a long ride and whatever engagements are planned for this afternoon I will fulfil them without you.”

  “No – I-I shall be – all right – ” Xenia began.

  “What I am giving you is an order,” the King said. “You wanted me to be authoritative and I am starting on you!”

  She smiled because she knew how much meaning there was behind the words. Then after Margit had helped her into bed she knew that she was completely exhausted and wanted only to sleep.

  *

  She slept for some hours and awoke to find the afternoon was drawing to a close.

  She wondered what the King was doing and if already people in the City were wondering what had become of the Prime Minister.

  She was curious to the point where she wanted to get up and find out what was happening.

  But she knew it would be a tremendous effort to move and realised that one of the reasons was that she was stiff from riding after she had not been on a horse for so long.

  It had been an inexpressible pleasure at the time, but now physically she was paying the price.

  ‘I want to see the King,’ she told herself and fell asleep again feeling as if his lips were still on hers.