An Adventure of Love Read online

  “I am asking you to marry me, Father, to someone I love and who was meant by God to be my wife.”

  He put out his hand as he spoke and drew Zorina forward.

  The Priest seemed to Zorina to look deep into her soul before he smiled,

  “Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to unite you both in the Holy Sacrament of Marriage.”

  “I knew that was what you would say,” Rudolf commented.

  The Priest moved to the side of the Altar to put on an exquisitely embroidered vestment that was laid out on a chair.

  As he did so, Rudolf undid the cape that Zorina was wearing and, taking it from her, laid it on one of the carved pews.

  Then he loosened the white chiffon scarf that she wore over her head and round her neck.

  As it fell over her shoulder and her white dress, she knew that Rudolf thought of it as a Wedding veil.

  The Priest wearing his vestment and on his head, to Zorina’s surprise, the red cap of a Cardinal, moved to stand in front of them.

  Without a book he started the beautiful words of the Wedding Ceremony in Latin.

  The Church suddenly seemed filled with the voices of angels singing anthems and, as Rudolf held her hand in his, Zorina knew that this was what she had been longing for.

  The love they had for each other could have come only from God.

  She prayed intensely that she might make Rudolf happy and that he would never regret giving up so much for her.

  She prayed too that Leothia would not suffer because she had run away and that they would find an excellent Queen to take her place.

  As the Priest blessed them, she felt convinced, although it might seem wrong from a worldly point of view, that they were doing what was right in the eyes of God.

  The Priest laid his hands on their heads and Zorina felt as if a sacred light blazed around them and through their bodies.

  Then he knelt down in front of the Altar and Rudolf and Zorina both knew that he was continuing the prayers that he had been saying when they had arrived.

  They looked at each other and Rudolf thought that he had never seen anyone look so happy, so radiant or so spiritual as his wife.

  He helped Zorina to her feet and they left the little Church holding hands.

  It was only when they were once again riding through the trees that Zorina said almost in a whisper,

  “That is – how I – always wanted to be – married.”

  “I knew you would feel like that,” Rudolf replied. “Father Augustine was a Cardinal, a great Prince of the Church, before he retired to worship God in his own way here in the forest among the animals and birds who trust him and always come to him when they are wounded or hungry.”

  “How wonderful!” Zorina exclaimed.

  “Just a few people like myself,” Rudolf finished, “are immensely privileged to be his friends.”

  “I felt that – God really – did bless us in that beautiful little Church.”

  “That is what I felt too,” Rudolf told her. “We think alike, we are alike and now, my darling, we are one person.”

  He kissed her lips very gently as if the sanctity of what they had just experienced had made them both spiritual rather than human.

  When they had ridden for a little while in silence, Zorina turned to ask Rudolf,

  “Where are – we going?”

  “To a secret hiding place,” Rudolf replied. “It belongs to a friend of mine who has gone to Greece on a holiday. He lends it to me whenever I need it. I think it is the most perfect place to start our honeymoon.”

  “Any – place would be – perfect with you, darling Rudolf,” Zorina whispered.

  As they rode on, she thought that she could feel his heart beating beside her.

  Halfway up the mountain they came to a small wooden house where Rudolf told her that he had often hidden before.

  “When I thought that I could not stand The Palace any longer,” he related, “and my father and my sister-in-law became intolerable, I wanted to run away.”

  “I can – understand – you feeling like that.”

  He smiled at her before he replied,

  “You are not to think of the past anymore. What we are concerned with is the future. Here, my beautiful, precious little bride, we start a new chapter of our lives and it is going to be a very exciting one.”

  Zorina looked back at the valley.

  The view was quite different from The Palace. Here she could see more clearly the whole range of snow-capped mountains and the river winding through verdant fields.

  The mountains held the last light of the day and overhead the first evening stars were gradually coming out.

  Inside Rudolf had already lit the logs in the big open fireplace.

  On the floor were fur rugs made from the skins of wolves and bears that had been shot in the mountains. On the wooden walls there were stags’ antlers and some skilfully painted pictures of the mountains.

  There was a deep comfortable sofa and large armchairs beside a table of polished wood and dressers that contained brightly coloured plates and cups that were made by the country folk.

  Rudolf drew Zorina across the room into the bedroom and for a moment she did not think it was real.

  The sitting room had been reasonably attractive in its own way, but the bedroom was really lovely.

  Someone with imagination had carved the bedhead with all the flowers to be found in the valley and had painted them in their natural colours.

  The walls were painted white and the rugs on the floor were of lambs’ wool and were white too.

  And there were velvet curtains over the windows that echoed the blue of the sky.

  The whole room was so enchanting that Zorina thought it might have been designed especially for her.

  Rudolf read her thoughts instantly,

  “When I have stayed here in the past, I have always felt lonely in this room. I know now that I was missing you.”

  “Oh, darling – I am here now.”

  “Do you suppose I do not realise that?” he asked.

  He pulled her into his arms again and then he was kissing her fiercely, passionately and possessively as if he would woo her and conquer her at the same time.

  Then he said with what she thought was a superhuman effort,

  “Before I love you as I want to do, I must give you something to eat. I think perhaps it will be sparse fare tonight, but tomorrow you shall be properly fed.”

  Zorina laughed because she knew that nothing mattered except that she was with Rudolf.

  Because they were so happy, whether they ate or did not eat, they would be like the Gods living on ambrosia.

  Later she tried to remember what they had eaten.

  She knew that there had been biscuits and honey in the cupboard and there had been fragrant coffee to drink.

  Whatever it had been, it had tasted delicious because she was looking into Rudolf’s eyes and listening to Rudolf’s voice.

  Her lips were ready for his kisses.

  Afterwards he gave her a pitcher of water to wash in and went outside to fetch logs for the fire in the bedroom.

  As soon as he had gone, Zorina undressed and climbed into the bed, feeling shy because she was wearing only her chemise.

  Rudolf came into the room, put down the logs that he was carrying and looked at her in the light from the candle by the bedside.

  With the coloured flowers behind her and with her hair falling over her bare shoulders, Zorina look ethereal.

  She was like a sprite from the snows who had strayed by mistake down from the peaks above them.

  “You know I love you,” he breathed in his deep voice.

  “And I – love – you, Rudolf.”

  She felt her heart beating frantically in her breast as he came towards her and sat down on the bed.

  He took her hands in his and, as he felt her fingers quiver, he asked,

  “You are not afraid, my darling?”

  “Of you? How could I
– ever be – afraid of you? You are everything that means – safety and security – love and happiness.”

  Her voice held a little note of passion in it and then she said in a different tone,

  “I am only – afraid of – one thing.”

  “What is that?”

  “That you will be – disappointed in – me and feel perhaps – because I am – dull and inexperienced that – you should not have – run away with me.”

  “Do you really think that I could ever regret anything we have done?” Rudolf answered.

  He bent down to kiss her and then he blew out the candle by the bed and pulled back the curtains.

  Outside Zorina could see the stars glowing like diamonds in the darkness of the sky and now there was only a small glimmer from the fire that Rudolf had just lit.

  Then, as she waited, feeling a wild excitement rising within her that was different from anything that she had ever known, Rudolf was beside her.

  She felt the strength of his body against the softness of hers.

  As he took her lips captive, she thought,

  ‘It is – impossible to be – alive and to know such – rapture.’

  As his hands touched her body and he kissed her neck and then her breasts, Zorina thought that it could not be true to feel the intense ecstasy he gave her.

  It was as if he was carrying her up to the white peaks of the mountains and then into the dazzling light of the stars.

  When Rudolph made her his, Zorina knew that they were with God and part of God and their love was Divine for all Eternity.

  chapter seven

  Zorina was dreaming that Rudolf was kissing her and she opened her eyes to find that he was.

  He was sitting on the side of the bed and the sunshine was streaming in through the window making the room glow with a golden light.

  “You look very beautiful in the morning, my darling.”

  “I love you – I love – you,” Zorina answered.

  “And I love you,” Rudolf replied. “But I am sure that you are hungry and I have been to cook your breakfast.”

  She glanced at him and realised that he was dressed, although he was not wearing a coat.

  It flashed through her mind that the last man she had seen in shirtsleeves was the King.

  Quickly she swept the memory away as she put her arms round Rudolf’s neck and pulled his head down to hers.

  “Last – night was so – wonderful,” she whispered.

  “I did not hurt or frighten you, my darling?”

  “I felt that we were – both in the – sky soaring above the – mountain peaks.”

  He kissed her gently as if she was infinitely precious and then said,

  “I will go and cook your eggs for you and then we can talk about ourselves.”

  Zorina gave a little cry,

  “I must – do that.”

  “I expect that I am a better cook than you are.” Rudolf smiled and went from the room.

  Zorina jumped up, washed in cold water that still had a touch of snow about it and put on her clothes.

  For the first time she realised that all she had was the dress that she was wearing when she had ran to the Falls.

  She wondered how she could obtain anything else. Yet why should she worry about her clothes when she could be with Rudolf?

  When she went into the sitting room, she saw that he had laid the table. He was bringing from the kitchen a pan that he had fried the eggs in.

  “I told you I would do the cooking,” Zorina protested. “I am sure it is quite – wrong for a – Royal Prince to – demean himself.”

  She was teasing him, but he answered quite seriously,

  “I am no longer a Royal Prince. I am plain Herr Rudolf and you, my darling, will have to choose an ordinary name that we will be known by in future.”

  Just for a moment Zorina regretted, because he looked so much like a Prince, that he would no longer be one.

  Then she said,

  “None of that matters – except that – we will be – together.”

  “That is just what I wanted you to say.”

  He fetched the coffee from the kitchen together with a small loaf of newly baked bread, a pat of golden butter and to Zorina’s delight a basket in which there was a number of different fruits.

  “Where did all this come from?” she asked. “Or did it just materialise by magic!”

  “The woman who looks after this house for my friend lives only a little way down the mountain,” Rudolf replied. “She was most annoyed that we had not let her know that we were coming.”

  He paused and then continued,

  “But I thought last night that it would be wonderful for us to be alone.”

  “That is just – what I – want too.”

  Zorina sat down at the table and she thought that nothing could be more marvellous than to be in this tiny wooden house alone with Rudolf.

  It was to her more beautiful and more glamorous than any Palace could ever be.

  As if he knew what she was thinking, Rudolf said,

  “That is what I feel too. But, my darling, we shall have to decide where we will go and where we shall live.”

  “I feel a little – guilty about – Mama,” Zorina admitted in a low voice.

  “As soon as we have left Leothia, you can write to her and tell her that we are safe and happy.”

  He stopped for a moment before he went on,

  “I would be surprised if she does not guess, when we are both found missing, that I am looking after you.”

  “I hope she – will think so.”

  Then, in the frightened little voice that he knew so well, Zorina asked,

  “If anyone – finds us here – will we be – arrested?”

  Rudolf made a gesture with his hands that was very explicit.

  “I don’t know. It is possible that my father is feeling insulted and vindictive because you have run away. But I doubt if he will exert himself.”

  “Then – whom have we to – fear?” Zorina wanted to know.

  “I don’t exactly know,” he replied. “It was the Prime Minister who was most insistent that my father should take an English wife. The Members of the Court were, I believe, mostly against it.”

  “They must all have been – aware of the – way he was – living,” Zorina said hesitantly.

  “Of course they knew about Maria and his children,” Rudolf replied, “but they thought it was quite immaterial politically.”

  As he spoke of it so easily and without embarrassment, Zorina felt some of the horror and disgust that she had suffered slip away from her.

  She was intelligent enough to realise that it had been such a shock because she had never imagined that any gentleman, let alone a King, would behave in such a disgraceful manner.

  She had been stunned as well as horrified when she learned the truth about him.

  Rudolf was watching her and her eyes were very revealing,

  “I suppose,” she said in a trembling voice, “that I was very – foolish and I should really be – ashamed of what I did.”

  Rudolf took her hand and kissed it,

  “I adore you, my precious, because you are innocent and completely unspoiled by the world. But it was wicked and wrong of you to think of taking your life.”

  He paused and then went on,

  “Yet I think it made us both aware that we could no longer go on pretending that we could live without each other.”

  The way he spoke was very moving and Zorina replied almost fiercely,

  “That is true – I cannot – live without you. If they take you – away from me – I swear I will die.”

  He rose to pull her into his arms.

  Then he was kissing her passionately, insistently and demandingly, as if he was still afraid that he might still lose her.

  *

  A long time later when the sun was high in the sky and it was very hot, Rudolf kissed Zorina and said,

  “Now we are both going to
get up and catch our luncheon.”

  Zorina looked at him in surprise and he explained,

  “It is something I have often done before. The blue trout in the stream outside are, I can assure you, incredibly delicious.”

  Zorina laughed from sheer happiness.

  “You are always thinking about food,” she teased him, “while I just want to stay here in this lovely warm room and only – think about – love.”

  “Do you imagine that I think of anything else,” Rudolf asked in a deep voice.

  He kissed her bare shoulder and then stroked her red-gold hair as it fell over the pillows.

  “If you have thrown away all my hairpins,” Zorina said, “I shall have to walk about with my hair down and you know that I have only one gown to wear.”

  It lay at the moment on the floor where Rudolf had thrown it when he had undressed her and carried her to the bed.

  “I shall have to find you some more clothes,” Rudolf said. “Although Frau Toger can provide us with eggs and other food we may need, I doubt if she can lend you a trousseau, as she is very large and fat!”

  Just for a moment Zorina remembered the elegant gowns that were hanging in her wardrobe at The Palace that she had been given by Queen Victoria.

  Then she knew that she wanted them only so that Rudolf would think that she looked lovely. Otherwise they were completely immaterial.

  “Personally I adore you just as you are,” he was saying, caressing the softness of her body.

  “I shall be cold when the sun goes down.” Zorina laughed.

  “Not if you are in my arms, as you will be,” Rudolf answered.

  Then he was kissing her breasts and she felt again the ecstasy that his lips always gave her rising until it became an inexpressible rapture.

  Once again they were flying towards the mountain peaks and the sunshine burned like flames within them until they were utterly consumed by it.

  *

  “You have caught one!” Zorina exclaimed excitedly.

  The fish fought against Rudolf’s line while he pulled it relentlessly towards the net that Zorina was holding in her hands.

  She landed it competently by the side of the mountain spring and, when Rudolf had caught three more trout, they carried them back to the little house in triumph.

  Zorina had learnt now that Rudolf’s friend, Bernard, who owned it, was decorating it himself for the girl he was going to marry in six months’ time.