Love Conquers War Read online

“What did she tell you?”

  “She said that my husband would explain all that to me. Then she added – something I did not – follow.”

  “What was that?” Rudolph asked.

  “She said, ‘your husband may do things that you think unpleasant, but remember – as his wife, you must obey him. It is – the will of God’.”

  Tilda’s voice faltered away into silence and then she said,

  “What will he – do?”

  Rudolph did not answer and she went on,

  “I cannot think why everybody should be so mysterious and secretive – about – love and about the ­– man I am to marry.”

  Rudolph drew a deep breath.

  “You are so young, so very young, my sweet. It is difficult for me to help you, in fact I must not help you.”

  “Why not?” Tilda asked crossly. “What are these secrets I cannot be told?”

  Rudolph did not answer.

  He was watching her face. Her blue eyes were worried and there was a pout to her lips.

  ‘I am right,’ he thought, ‘she looks exactly like a small, rather unhappy little angel.’

  There was something ethereal and spiritual about Tilda, yet despite her child-like appearance there was also something very feminine and alluring.

  She stood up from the bed.

  “Very well” she said coldly, “If you will not tell me what I want to know. I expect that I shall find someone sooner or later who will do so. I shall just go on – asking until I am given an – answer!”

  “You will get one from your husband,” Rudolph said and his voice was harsh.

  “I doubt it” Tilda snapped. “I expect he will be like the rest of you, saying I am too young, too stupid, too pretty, too ugly, too tall, too short, in fact any excuse to avoid telling me the truth. I did not know that men were so – insensitive.”

  Rudolph smiled as if he could not help himself.

  “You sound exactly like a small kitten spitting at a bull terrier! I have the feeling that you have known very few men.”

  “I thought you were different from the men I have met,” Tilda said, thinking of her pompous relations.

  “I am afraid I have disappointed you.”

  “You – have!”

  She walked away as she spoke into the kitchen.

  She was finding it hard to believe that Rudolph really would not kiss her again, would not give her that marvellous rapturous feeling that had seeped through her body, setting it aglow when his lips had held hers.

  She gave a little sigh.

  ‘So that is what a kiss is like!’ she thought. ‘At least I shall have something to – remember when I never – see him – again!’

  The idea hurt her, but telling herself that she would not let him know it, she picked up the empty jug and walked across the kitchen to the door.

  She opened the door and stood still.

  Outside, obviously just about to knock at the door, was a resplendent-looking Army Officer.

  Behind him was a soldier holding the bridles of two horses.

  “Guten morgen!” the Officer began.

  Frightened, Tilda took a quick glance over her shoulder.

  She was thankful to see that, when she had left the bedroom, she had not left the door open.

  She had meant to slam it because she was angry, but it was not completely closed, although it was impossible to see into the room.

  “What do – you want?” she asked in a trembling voice.

  “I have no wish to alarm you,” the Officer answered.

  He glanced at her hand and seeing what he thought was a wedding ring added, “miene frau.”

  Tilda found it difficult to speak and he went on,

  “Could I talk to you for a moment? I will not keep you long.”

  With a great effort Tilda recovered her composure.

  “Of course, Herr Lieutenant,” she replied noticing the insignia on his shoulder.

  “May I come in, meine frau?” the Lieutenant suggested.

  “It would be an honour, Herr Lieutenant.”

  Tilda was thinking quickly.

  This Officer, she thought, is obviously looking for Rudolph.

  He had said that he was absent without leave.

  These soldiers were trying to arrest him and return him to his Regiment, when he would be tried and punished.

  ‘I must save him! I must save him!’ she thought to herself.

  She crossed the small kitchen to put the jug down by the sink, which gave her time to think,

  She decided that she must be pleasant, very charming and convince the Officer that she knew nothing.

  The Lieutenant was standing in the centre of the small kitchen dragging off his gloves.

  “You have a cosy little house here, meine frau.”

  “It does not belong to me,” Tilda answered, “but to my mother-in-law. My husband and I are – staying with her.”

  “Your husband is here?”

  “Not at the moment,” Tilda answered.

  “Then I would like to talk to you.”

  “But of course,” she smiled. “Will you not seat yourself?”

  She indicated the chair that would ensure that he had his back to the bedroom door.

  “Thank you,” he said.

  “May I make you some coffee, Herr Lieutenant?”

  “No, thank you, but it is kind of you to suggest it. What is your name?”

  “Frau Weber.”

  Tilda seated herself on the other chair and the table was between them.

  The Lieutenant was good-looking, she decided, with curly fair hair, somewhat pronounced features and grey-blue eyes that, she realised, were looking at her with a glint in them.

  She raised her eyes to his and asked softly,

  “How can I help you? I am only too willing to do what I can.”

  “You are very kind, meine frau.”

  “I will try to be,” Tilda said, “if you will explain what you want.”

  “I am trying to discover if anyone in this village has seen a young man in Bavarian dress,” the Lieutenant answered.

  “There are lots of young men,” Tilda replied with a smile, “wearing Bavarian dress.”

  “Yes, I know that,” the Lieutenant said. “I am explaining myself rather badly. This man, who was last seen near the Linderhof, is exceptionally handsome. I think if you had seen him you would have noticed him.”

  “Is he as good-looking as you?” Tilda asked admiringly.

  “You flatter me, meine frau! He is a great deal better looking! ”

  “I cannot believe – it is possible!” Tilda said in child-like surprise, “but then the men in this part of Europe are all handsome. I feel I shall never be able to look at – another Englishman.”

  “I thought you must be English,” the Lieutenant said, “and if as you say, meine frau, some of our men are handsome, there are no women as beautiful or as attractive as the English.”

  Tilda smiled at him beguilingly.

  “Thank you,” she said, “I know you are only flattering me – but I like being flattered.”

  “I am sure there are hundreds of men willing to do that,” the Lieutenant said with a sudden depth in his voice.

  Tilda looked away from him rather shyly.

  “I suggest – ” the Lieutenant began and then stopped.

  “What were you going to say?” Tilda enquired.

  “If you will not think it impertinent,” he said. “I was just wondering if it would be possible for you to dine with me one evening? There is a very good inn not far from here. It is called The Royal Boundary.”

  Tilda looked down in what she hoped was a coy manner.

  “It is very kind of you. Herr Lieutenant,” she said, “and I would like it very much, but my husband would disapprove.”

  “How long are you staying here?” he enquired.

  “My husband leaves at the end of next week, but I shall be staying on for a little while longer.”

  There wa
s a pause and then the Lieutenant said,

  “In which case do you think I might call again to see you?”

  “I cannot – prevent you coming here, mein herr.”

  “Then I will call,” the Lieutenant said, “and please, meine frau, be a little kind to a lonely soldier.”

  “I cannot believe there are not many – women ready to make – sure that you are not – lonely, Herr Lieutenant.”

  “But, meine frau, they do not look like you.”

  He rose with some reluctance to his feet.

  “I must continue with my enquiries,” he said. “I will call next week to enquire whether you have seen this handsome young man of whom I speak and also to ask you if you will dine with me,”

  “You have not told me the name of the man you are seeking,” Tilda said.

  “His friends call him ‘Rudolph’,” the Lieutenant said. “His other name is immaterial. He may have changed it. Actually he is an Obernian.”

  “I will look out for him.” Tilda assured him.

  “How can I thank you for being so kind or so beautiful?” the Lieutenant asked.

  As he spoke, he took Tilda’s hand in his and raised it to his mouth. His lips were warm and hard on her skin.

  “I shall be counting the hours,” he said, “until the end of next week. Auf wiedersehen, meine frau.”

  “Auf wiedersehen, Herr Lieutenant.”

  He saluted smartly and she stood in the doorway as he mounted his horse.

  He saluted her again before he rode away taking the track back into the woods through which he must have come.

  Tilda closed the door and bolted it.

  She stood for a moment with a smile on her lips.

  “Tilda!”

  The call from the bedroom was authoritative.

  She walked across the kitchen to throw open the door.

  “Was I not clever?” she asked.

  “Come here!”

  Obediently she moved towards Rudolph only to realise as she neared the side of the bed that he was scowling and looked angrier than any man she had ever seen before.

  He reached out to grip her wrist.

  “How dare you!” he stormed. “How dare you behave in that fast flirtatious manner with that damned Lieutenant?”

  “He was enquiring – for you!” Tilda retorted. “He might have searched the house if I had not been pleasant to him.”

  “Pleasant? You call that pleasant?” Rudolph asked furiously.

  Suddenly he pulled her violently into his arms.

  “Tilda! Tilda!” he cried hoarsely and his lips were once again on hers.

  He kissed her fiercely and passionately, his mouth holding her captive.

  At first she felt only pain, then, as a rapture streaked through her and the ecstasy she had known before rose within her breasts, Rudolph raised his head to say,

  “You are mine! Do you hear me? You are mine and I cannot lose you.”

  There was no chance for Tilda to reply, for now he was kissing her wildly, kissing her with hard, demanding, angry kisses, which were half-pain and half a wonder beyond words.

  She felt herself quiver and tremble in his arms.

  Then the room seemed to whirl around her and she became a part of him and his wild burning kisses aroused an echoing fire in her.

  Gradually Tilda realised that Rudolph was no longer angry.

  Instead he was kissing her slowly and possessively in a manner that seemed to make her a part of him, so that she no longer had any will or identity of her own.

  She was his!

  His voice when he spoke again seemed only to echo what she already knew without words.

  “You are mine! You belong to me!” he said, “and I know now my precious, that I cannot live without you – !”

  *

  A long time later Tilda murmured shyly,

  “I – love – you!”

  “And I love you, my little angel,” Rudolph replied. “So we have to make plans.”

  “What plans?” Tilda asked.

  He gave a deep sigh.

  “It is not going to be easy to do what we want to do.”

  “I want you to go on – kissing me,” Tilda whispered.

  “I want that too, my precious,” Rudolph replied, “but we have to think a little further ahead.”

  “Why?”

  He smiled.

  “Because, although at the moment this place is like Heaven, we cannot stay here for the rest of our lives.”

  Even as he spoke, Tilda thought of Lady Crewkerne and the Professor waiting for her in Munich, of Prince Maximilian making preparations for their marriage, of the Queen in Windsor Castle thinking of her as an Ambassador for England.

  She gave a little cry.

  “Nothing matters but – you! They cannot make me marry – someone I do not – love.”

  “You must free yourself from your engagement,” Rudolph demanded. “It will be hard for you, my darling, but you will have to be firm.”

  “I will not – marry him!”

  “I will not let you do so,” he answered, tightening his arms around her.

  “Could we not just – run away together?” Tilda asked. Rudolph shook his head.

  “You are under age, my lovely one. Your parents or Guardians could force you by law to return to them and there would be nothing we could do about it.”

  Tilda put her arms round his neck.

  “I cannot give you – up.”

  “Nor do I intend that you shall,” Rudolph said in his deep voice. “I will marry you whatever difficulties, whatever obstacles people try to put in our way.”

  He kissed her forehead before he proclaimed,

  “I know now there could be no happiness for me in the world unless I can have you.”

  “When did you first love me?” Tilda asked.

  “When I awoke to see your exquisite little face on the pillow,” he answered. “I thought I must be dreaming. I could not believe anyone could look so lovely, so unbelievably adorable!”

  “Do you mean that?” Tilda questioned.

  “I think really,” Rudolph went on, “I must have fallen in love with you when we were driving away from Munich in the Police wagon and you were so brave, so calm and un-hysterical.”

  He laughed.

  “We might have been taking a drive in the Park. I knew then that I admired you and I thought you looked in the moonlight like a mountain nymph and a part of my dreams,”

  “I have never seen anyone as handsome as you,” Tilda said, “so I fell in love with you from the first moment I saw you.”

  That was the truth she thought.

  She had fallen in love when she saw him amongst the trees at the Linderhof and had watched him kissing Mitzi.

  She had not realised that it was love. She only knew that his face, his voice and everything about him made her feel as she had never felt before.

  It had been love and she had not recognised it.

  Rudolph’s arms tightened.

  “What will happen to us, darling, if we cannot have each other?” he asked.

  “We must! We ­ must be ­– together!”

  Even as Tilda spoke she thought of the Queen, her mother and Prince Maximilian and knew that none of them was of any consequence beside Rudolph.

  “What we have to do,” he said slowly as if he was considering every word, “Is to try to get married before anyone can stop us.”

  “But you said my parents could make me – return to them by – law,” Tilda said in a frightened voice.

  “They could,” Rudolph replied, “but they would be unlikely to do so once we were husband and wife. What would be fatal would be to tell them of our intentions until matters have gone too far for them to interfere.”

  “Yes, of course,” Tilda said, “and one thing they would wish to avoid would be a scandal.”

  Even as she spoke, she realised what a very big scandal it was going to be anyhow, but told herself that she did not care.

 
“I am trying to think how we can act for the best,” Rudolph said.

  As he spoke, they heard the outside door opening and they both stiffened.

  “Who could it be?” Tilda asked in a frightened whisper.

  Then they heard Frau Sturdel’s voice calling,

  “It’s only me. I’ve come back for the laudanum bottle.”

  Tilda disengaged herself from Rudolph’s encircling arms and went into the kitchen.

  Frau Sturdel was taking the laudanum from the shelf together with some extra towels.

  “Has the baby arrived?” Tilda asked.

  “Yes,” Frau Sturdel replied, “and I was right – I thought I would be. It’s a girl! ”

  “I am glad it is over for your sake,” Tilda said. “Is the mother all right?”

  “Slightly hysterical,” Frau Sturdel answered, “and that is why I need a little laudanum for her, but certainly not the dose your husband took!”

  “Frau Sturdel!” Rudolph called from the bedroom. “May I speak to you for a moment?”

  “But of course,” Frau Sturdel answered.

  She put the things she had collected down onto the table and said to Tilda,

  “Would you like to be very kind, Frau Weber, and make me a cup of coffee?”

  “Would you like anything to eat?” Tilda asked, “I could cook you something?”

  “I would not say no to a couple of poached eggs,” Frau Sturdel answered. “I’ve been run off my feet with not a moment to myself since I left here and that’s a fact!”

  “Then I will cook some eggs for you,” Tilda said.

  She busied herself with the pans wondering as she did so, what Rudolph wanted to say to Frau Sturdel.

  They talked together all the time she was preparing the eggs and coffee.

  When finally it was ready and she called to Frau Sturdel, she came out of the bedroom in a hurry and ate quickly without talking.

  “I must get back,” she said gulping down the coffee. “Thank you, Frau Weber, you’ve put new life into me and that’s another fact!”

  She set down her cup.

  “I’ll do what you asked me, Herr Weber,” she called to Rudolph, “but I doubt if the carrier can be here before two o’clock.”

  “That will suit me well,” Rudolph called back, “and thank you again!”

  Frau Sturdel hurried down the hill and Tilda went back into the bedroom.

  “What have you arranged?” she asked.

  “Come here!” Rudolph said.