The Proud Princess Page 15

  “You carried yourself so stiffly when we were married and when we drove back to the Palace,” he said. “How was I to know that it was because that Devil had beaten you?”

  Ilona’s eyes fell before his.

  “Who – could have told – you that?”

  “Does it matter?” the Prince asked. “I deeply regret, my precious one, that we should from the very beginning, have had secrets from each other.”

  “I thought you – despised me when you first – kissed me,” Ilona murmured.

  “I thought you were the most beautiful person I had ever seen,” the Prince answered. “But when you did not respond to my kiss, I thought you were as cold and indifferent as you said you were.”

  Ilona did not answer and he turned her face up to his to say,

  “It was not until yesterday that I understood, and realised that you were only very inexperienced.”

  Now there was no mistaking the flood of colour in Ilona’s cheeks and the Prince asked gently,

  “How many men have kissed you, my sweet?” “Only –you.”

  He made a sound as if of triumph, and then his lips were on hers and the walls whirled around them as she clung to him with a sudden passion which she could not repress.

  “Then I am the first and the last!” the Prince said, and his voice was unsteady. “I am so jealous, my darling, that I will want to kill any man who so much as looks at you!”

  “You are – jealous?” Ilona asked quickly, “but I –” Her voice died away.

  “I would like you to finish that sentence,” the Prince said. She hid her face against him.

  “I was – so jealous when you – danced with the gypsy, I – I was sure she was your – m – mistress!”

  “I wanted you to be jealous,” the Prince said. “That was the reason why I took you to the gypsy party, I wished to see if the music would arouse you.”

  He laughed very gently as he said,

  “I had really begun to believe that you had only ice in your veins!”

  Ilona remembered the murderous feelings she had felt for Mautya.

  “I loved you so – much,” she murmured, “that I wanted to – kill the – dancer!”

  “I wish I had known.”

  ‘You never – came to me that – night.”

  “I did not trust myself,’ he answered. “But Mautya is not my mistress, my precious one. She is in fact very happily married to the Voivode, who would undoubtedly stab me to death if I should even approach his wife in such a manner!”

  “Oh – I am – glad, so very, very glad!” Ilona whispered. “I could not sleep for thinking of you.”

  “And I could not sleep for wanting you, my dearest heart,” the Prince said. “But I thought when I saw you leaving the gypsy gathering that you were merely shocked, and that my efforts to make your heart beat faster and bring a flicker of fire into your eyes had failed.”

  “If only I had – known you – felt like – that.”

  “How could you look so proud, so unemotional and at the same time so exquisitely beautiful?” the Prince asked.

  “Mama taught me always to control my feelings,” Ilona said simply.

  “That is something you must never do again, my lovely one, not where I am concerned,” the Prince answered.

  He was kissing her again, his lips moving over the softness of her skin.

  He kissed the white column of her neck, arousing the fire that burnt within her until her breath came quickly between her lips and she stirred in his arms.

  “My precious! Heart of my heart! My dream come true! I have so much to teach you!” the Prince murmured and his teeth touched the lobes of her small ears.

  He felt the quiver which ran through her.

  “Do I excite you?” he asked.

  “You – know you – do!”

  “What do you feel? Tell me!”

  She hid her face against his neck.

  “Wild – very, very wild –”

  “What else?”

  “There are little – flames flickering – inside me.”

  “I will make them leap higher and higher and become a blaze!”

  His hands were caressing her and her lips sought his.

  “You do – really love me?”

  It was the question of a child who wants to be re-assured.

  “I love you until it is impossible to think of anything else,” the Prince replied. “You do not know how you have tortured me and what an unspeakable hell it was to sit in your bedroom night after night, seeing your wonderful hair falling over your shoulders and knowing I dare not come near you.”

  “You never – looked at – me,” Ilona said accusingly.

  “I saw you,” the Prince said. “I saw you with my heart, and with my soul. I knew that belonged to me, but your father had erected that impassable barrier between us and I would not humiliate myself by attempting to break it down.”

  “I – wanted you – too. I wanted you – unbearably!” Ilona whispered.

  “There are no barriers now,” the Prince said, “and there will never be any in the future. I will love you, look after you and worship you for the rest of my life!”.

  “That is all I want,” Ilona said with a deep sigh. “I only feel safe when I am in your arms – like yesterday when you – saved me from the Zyghes.”

  “It was difficult not to kiss you then, when you were so close to me,” the Prince said, “and I will never be able to tell you what I suffered when I thought those savage brutes would hide you where I would never be able to find you.”

  “I think – Papa paid them to – kidnap me,” Ilona said in a low voice.

  “That is true,” the Prince replied. “The men we took prisoner confessed that they had been given a large sum of money to take you away to their caves in the mountains.”

  He drew a deep breath.

  “It was just chance that I chose to ride back through the woods after my meeting was over and encountered the groom who accompanied you!”

  “How could Papa be so – cruel to me?” Ilona murmured and then asked apprehensively, “where is he now?”

  “We drove the Russian troops across the border,” the Prince answered, “and he was with them.”

  “They will not – return?”

  “I think it unlikely they will attempt it. Our troops are guarding the pass, and from now on Dabrozka is going to be a united land so that there will be no excuse for foreign intervention.”

  He kissed Ilona again before he said,

  “That reminds me, my sweet, the reason I came to find you was that the Prime Minister and members of the Counsel wish to speak to you.”

  “You did not – ask to see me – this morning!” Ilona said wistfully.

  “I did not know you were in the Palace,” the Prince replied. `Gayozy told me where you were only a few minutes ago. I had expected my orders to be obeyed and believed that you were safely at the Castle.”

  There was a smile on his lips as he said,

  “Had you forgotten that in the marriage service you promised to obey me?”

  “I wanted to be – near you.”

  “That is a perfect excuse, and one I am only too willing to accept!”

  He kissed her gently as if she was infinitely precious, before he said,

  “We must go downstairs, my adorable one. There will be plenty of time, when everyone has gone, for us to talk about ourselves and for you to tell me that you really do not hate me.”

  “I love you! I love you more than I can ever – begin to put into – words!” Ilona said passionately.

  “If you say things like that,” the Prince answered with a sudden deep note in his voice, “the Prime Minister will have to wait!”

  `We must – do our – duty.”

  The Prince rose from the arm-chair and pulled Ilona to her feet, then he put his arms around her and held her so close that it was hard to breathe.

  “You are mine!” he said fiercely. “Every perfect little piece o
f you. I am jealous of the very air you breathe!”

  She felt herself thrill at the desire in his voice. Then as resolutely, with what was obviously an effort, he turned towards the door she said,

  “I cannot go – down like – this! I must bathe my – eyes.”

  “You look very beautiful just as you are,” the Prince replied.

  They walked hand in hand down the corridor and when Ilona went into her bedroom he followed her.

  She bathed her eyes in cold water, then the Prince dried her face with a soft towel before he kissed her lips, her eyes and once again her neck.

  “I want to take the pins out of your hair,” he said, “and see it fall over your shoulders.”

  “You have – seen it like – that.”

  Her voice was quivering because he was so close, and because his kisses had evoked such incredible sensations that her whole body vibrated with them.

  “I have seen it, but I have not touched it,” he answered. “And never-my bewitching little wife, do you understand? Never are you to allow any other man to see you as you looked yesterday evening, when you came into the Hunting Room!”

  There was a masterful note in his voice which thrilled her.

  “I thought as you were not – interested in me,” she said, “that it would not matter how I – appeared.”

  “And now you know I am interested,” he said, accentuating the word, “you will behave very much more circumspectly!”

  Ilona laughed from sheer happiness.

  “I thought you – wanted me to be – wild and – unrestrained.”

  “That is what you will be, but only with me,” the Prince answered. “To everyone else you must continue to be proud and cold, a snow Princess with ice in her veins!”

  “I think it will be – impossible for me – ever to feel like – that again,” she whispered.

  And as her lips sought his she saw the smouldering fire in his eyes and a flame united them ....

  *

  Ilona tidied her hair, then with her eyes filled with sunshine and her face radiant with happiness they walked down the stairs together.

  Only as they reached the door into the Throne Room, where Ilona had last been after her wedding, did she wonder vaguely what the Prime Minister had to say to her.

  But there was no time to think and she entered the Hall of Mirrors to find it half-filled with statesmen she had met before and who all held positions of importance in the Government.

  The Prime Minister raised her hand to his lips. Then as Ilona waited he said,

  “We came here this afternoon, Your Royal Highness, as representatives of the Government of Dabrozka, in His Majesty’s absence, to discuss the position of the Monarchy. But in the last few minutes we have received a communication which completely alters what we came to say.”

  “A communication?” Ilona enquired, but the Prime Minister was speaking to the Prince.

  “The officer was in fact, Your Highness, looking for you,” the Prime Minister said. “He came from the troops you left guarding the Eastern border.”

  “What has happened?” the Prince asked quickly.

  “It is with deep regret that I have to inform Her Royal Highness,” the Prime Minister said slowly, “that His Majesty the King is dead!”

  Ilona put her hand into the Prince’s.

  She felt as if she wanted to hold on to him, not because she was upset, but simply because the relief of it made her feel dizzy.

  She had known, even though the King had left Dabrozka, that he would still menace the peace of the country.

  “How did His Majesty die?” the Prince asked.

  “The officer commanding your troops, Your Highness, was told by the Russians that His Majesty was upset by his treatment when he reached Russian soil. Apparently in a rage he killed three Russian officers and the others were forced to protect themselves.”

  The Prime Minister looked again at Ilona.

  “On behalf of myself and my colleagues, Your Royal Highness, we can only offer you our deepest condolences.”

  “Thank you,” Ilona said gravely.

  There was a moment’s silence. Then the Prime Minister said in a very different tone of voice,

  “But Your Royal Highness will understand that the Government of the country must continue. We therefore offer you not the Regency of Dabrozka, as we had intended in the King’s absence, but the Crown!”

  Ilona was still holding tightly to the Prince’s hand, then in a low voice which was however quite steady she said,

  “I am deeply honoured that you should wish me to become Queen of this lovely land, but I consider the difficulties which lie ahead and the problems which have to be solved in the near future are beyond the powers of a woman.”

  She saw the surprise in the Prime Ministers eyes as she continued,

  “I therefore wish to refuse the position you offer me, but suggest, if you will allow me to do so, that as the Radák line ends with me, it is time there was a Sáros on the throne!”

  There was an audible sound which she thought was one of approval from the representatives who had been listening attentively and in complete silence to what she said,

  “I want to serve Dabrozka and its people,” Ilona went on. “I want my country to find peace and prosperity, and I can imagine no-one better fitted to achieve these aims than my husband, Prince Aladár!”

  She looked up at the Prince as she spoke and felt his fingers tighten on hers.

  “The only position I want to occupy,” she continued softly, “is that of his wife!”

  The Prince looked into her eyes and the cheers that rang out seemed to vibrate against the mirrors and echo and re-echo round the throne Room.

  “I know I am speaking for everyone present,” the Prime Minister said, “when I say that we will accept Your Royal Highness’s recommendation whole-heartedly and without reserve!”

  His voice rang out as he went on,

  “Prince Aladár Sáros, will you accept the throne of Dabrozka and become the first Sáros to reign over our country?”

  “I will!”

  The Prince’s voice was very grave, and yet there was a positiveness about it which made Ilona’s heart leap.

  “The King is dead - long live the King!”

  As the Prime Minister went down on one knee he was followed by every man present.

  Holding Ilona by the hand the Prince drew her onto the dais and she sat down on the Queen’s Throne.

  Then as the Prime Minister rose to his feet the Prince seated himself and they all moved forward to pay him homage.

  *

  It was very much later that evening that Ilona and Aladár walked un the Grand Staircase.

  She was wearing one of the beautiful gowns which had come from Paris.

  Of green tulle caught at the sides with water-lilies, it made Ilona’s eyes very green, and accentuated the brilliance of her hair.

  They had been cheered by the soldiers outside the Palace and Ilona had seen for the first time the Radák and the Sáros Regiments on parade together.

  It was when they had finished inspecting the Guard of Honour that Ilona had noticed that the gypsies were encamped outside the Palace gates.

  As they walked away from the parade the Prince had said in a low voice that only she could hear,

  “I forgot to tell you that I was unjustly accused.”

  “By whom?” she asked in surprise.

  “By you!”

  She looked at him enquiringly and he explained,

  “The gypsies who you thought had followed me here had actually come to petition you!”

  “Me?” Ilona exclaimed in amazement.

  “As the King was no longer in the country they believed that you had the power to rescind the laws which prohibited them from being on Radák land.”

  “How could I guess that was the – reason for their coming to the Palace so quickly!”

  “I shall have to teach you to trust me, my suspicious darling, amongst other th
ings!”

  There was a look in his eyes which made her thrill, but then there was no more time for intimate conversation.

  There was a dinner-party at which the Chef had done marvels considering that at short notice he had had to provide a meal for fifty guests.

  Fortunately they did not stay long and left talking of meetings that had to take place the following day, and the preparations which were to be put into operation immediately for the Coronation.

  “You will be the most handsome King Dabrozka has ever known,” Ilona said to her husband, as they reached the top of the stairs.

  “And it would be impossible in the whole world, to find a more beautiful Queen,” he replied.

  She gave a little sigh of sheer happiness. Then as they entered the bedroom she found to her surprise that there were no maids waiting for her.

  Aladár came into the room and shut the door behind him.

  “I told them not to stay up for you,” he said, as if anticipating the question Ilona had not asked.

  He saw the light that came into her eyes and as he walked towards her he said,

  “I could not wait any longer to have you to myself.”

  He pulled her almost roughly against him, and as his lips came down crushingly on hers, his fingers pulled the pins from her hair.

  A great cloud of red-gold tresses fell over her white shoulders and he kissed a handful of it before once again he kissed her lips.

  “You are mine!” he said. “Mine, completely and absolutely! To-night I am going to undress you as I have wanted to do ever since we were married!”

  “You are – making me – shy,” Ilona whispered.

  “I adore you when you are shy,” he answered “but not when you are proud.”

  “I will never be proud again,” she answered “except that I am very proud to be your wife and – overwhelmingly proud because you – love me!”

  She was not able to say any more.

  Aladár was kissing her with a passion that made the flames of desire rise higher and higher within them both.

  It was all-consuming and their need for each other made Ilona feel as if they leapt into the fire itself and it was impossible to think or feel, but only to burn.

  She felt Aladár’s fingers undoing her gown, and as it fell to the floor he lifted her in his arms.