A Miracle of Love Read online

  He knew if he had taken one of his equerries with him, he would have been asking questions.

  Why was he leaving?

  Where was he going?

  What was he planning?

  How soon would they be going back?

  They were questions to which at the moment he had no answers.

  He closed his eyes and was ready to go to sleep and then he was ruminating again that Aphrodite was watching over him.

  He felt sure that the great Goddess would not let him down.

  *

  They had a well-cooked breakfast before they left and the publican was delighted with the money the Prince gave him.

  “It’s not often we has gentlemen like you to stay,” he said, “and me wife were sayin’ so to me last night, if you and your kind be likely to come here again we’ll put curtains at the windows and carpets on the floor.”

  “I was very comfortable,” the Prince replied, “and tell your wife I appreciate how clean the room was and the bed.”

  “I’ll tell her and we’ll be a-hopin’ we’ll see you another time.”

  “I hope so too,” the Prince added, as he shook the man by the hand.

  Then he mounted his stallion, which was only too eager to ride off at a sharp pace and broke into a gallop as soon as they were clear of the village.

  It was much later that the Prince saw with relief that they were nearing Venice.

  He had visited Venice several times and he thought of it an entrancing, unique and beautiful city with a special atmosphere all of its own.

  He loved the ancient Palaces and the canals and the magnificent Piazza San Marco.

  Apart from all its heritage and history there was something remarkable about the air of Venice. It seemed to contain a magic he had never found in any other City.

  Because his father had been very broad-minded, the Prince had visited a great number of Cities in Europe, but never in any of them had he found quite the enchantment of Venice.

  He had always thought that, if he was forced to live outside his own country, he would stay in Venice.

  He would be content just savouring the beauty of it all and he had sometimes thought that perhaps what he found in Venice was what he was looking for in a woman.

  He could not put it into words, yet it was something so perfect and different that one could not compare it with anywhere else in the world.

  Now as they approached Venice the sun was still shining and the lagoon seemed to reflect the light from the sky.

  His first glimpse of the lagoon told the Prince that it was very much a part of what he was seeking.

  The first priority was to stable the horses and it was important they should be well looked after if he and Texxo were to wander around the City.

  The Prince knew that there was an excellent hotel on the outskirts of Venice. It was where he had left his horses before and found that they were well cared for there.

  “It is a long time,” he confided to Texxo, “since I have been to the Hotel Rialto. So they are not likely to recognise me. You must tell them that you want them to look after the horses on behalf of the Prince of Vienz who will be coming to stay in the hotel in perhaps two or three weeks time.”

  Texxo knew exactly what was required and so he went ahead of the Prince and spoke to the man in charge of the stables and he was suitably impressed by the reference to the Prince.

  He showed first Texxo and then the Prince some excellent stalls. There was not only light and air, but they were also wide enough for the horses to be comfortable when they lay down.

  They put their horses into their stalls and as they did so the Prince decided what he would do next.

  He wanted to enjoy the beauty of Venice and to see it alone.

  When they left the stables, he found a seat in the garden and sat down on it.

  “What I want you to do, Texxo,” he said, “is to go inside and book two ordinary bedrooms. Tell them as you did in the stables that we expect Prince Nicolo of Vienz to be joining us soon.

  “In the meantime you and I have business to do in Venice. You don’t have to say what it is, but simply it is exceedingly important and you are obeying the orders of His Royal Highness.”

  “That won’t be difficult,” Texxo smiled.

  “Of course you will need some money and it would be wise for me to give you a considerable amount – just in case I am assaulted by a mugger or have it stolen from me by a pickpocket without my even knowing about it.”

  “You’d be too sharp by this time to be as foolish as that,” Texxo replied.

  “It has happened to better men than me, but I am prepared.”

  He showed Texxo that he had an envelope in his belt and he then handed him a large handful of notes.

  Texxo put them away carefully in the inside pocket of his coat.

  “I will join you at dinner,” the Prince said, “but if I am late or don’t come, please don’t worry about me as I am looking for adventure and, who knows, I may well find it today!”

  “Well, you take care of yourself. I’ve no wish to take a riderless horse back to the Palace and say I lost you on the way. It’s somethin’ they won’t think funny.”

  The Prince laughed.

  “Nor will I, Texxo. I promise I will take good care of myself, but I want to have a good look round and you know I have always loved Venice.”

  Texxo did not answer.

  He handed the Prince the saddlebag with his clothes which he had been carrying with his own bag since they left the stables.

  He sat in the garden while the Prince went down to the water’s edge.

  There were gondolas for hire for those staying in the hotel and, as there were quite a number of gondolas to choose from, it was obvious the hotel was not full.

  The Prince thought with satisfaction that it would mean it would be easy to move about on the canals and it would spoil it if he encountered crowds of holidaymakers.

  He told the man in charge that he was staying at the hotel and his horses were in the stable – his friend who was accompanying him was looking them for him.

  He added that he also wanted the best gondola for himself and tipped the man generously as he spoke.

  He was therefore provided with a gondola which he expected was kept for the most important guests.

  Then putting his saddlebag into the gondola and feeling the excitement of a young boy, he set off down the canal.

  He had always enjoyed manipulating a gondola and he was as adept at it, he considered, as any of the men who made their living by propelling one around the City.

  He found the Piazzetta and deliberately moved into the small narrow canals opening off it. He had found them entrancing on his first visit to Venice when he was only sixteen.

  Then back into the Grand Canal for a glance at the Ca’ d’Oro – the House of Gold – which had enchanted him at an early age.

  He had told himself that one day he would live in a house which would bear the same name and he had then thought it would be amusing to imitate it by painting the front of his Palace in gold. But his mother had persuaded him it would be too ostentatious and he had therefore given up the idea when he came to the throne.

  The Prince steered the gondola further down the Grand Canal and then turned into one of the side canals.

  There were great houses rising from the waters on one side and on the other side less fashionable houses with a yard in front and on these grew bushes and flowers.

  There was no other gondola on this canal and the Prince stopped to admire the flowers.

  Flowers were always a part of Venetian life even though there were no gardens like his at the Palace.

  Then he decided he would move on.

  As he did so, he was suddenly aware that at a large house just ahead of him that overhung the water there was someone at one of the windows on the second floor.

  It was a woman.

  She appeared to be leaning out of it dangerously.

  He thought t
hat she must have dropped something into the water below and so she was peering out in the hope of spotting it.

  Then to his utter astonishment he saw that she was climbing out of the window.

  She was holding tightly onto a rope that appeared to be fastened to something inside the house.

  She then swung herself free from the window and the Prince could see that she was sliding down towards the water beneath her.

  With a swift movement he moved the gondola so that it slid underneath her just before her feet touched the water.

  As she collapsed into the gondola, she looked up at him and at the same time she flung the rope free from her.

  “Quickly! Quickly!” she cried. “Take me away before they find I have gone!”

  She was agitated and bordering on the hysterical.

  The Prince noticed that she was Italian and a lady. She was certainly not, as it had occurred to him when she was first descending, a thief.

  Because of the urgency in her voice he accelerated the movement of the gondola.

  They shot up the canal as fast as he could propel it at a considerable speed.

  When they were almost out of sight of the house she had descended from, the Prince asked her,

  “Where do you want to go?”

  “Anywhere as long as it is away from here and they cannot find me,” she replied anxiously.

  She swept back her hair that had fallen over her face when she was descending from the window.

  The Prince noticed at once that she was both very young and very beautiful.

  In fact unusually so.

  Her face was small and her features perfect.

  Her eyes were large and he could see that there was an expression of fear in them.

  He thought at first she was little more than a child, yet when she moved he could see the outline of her breasts.

  She was certainly young – but a woman.

  She seated herself more comfortably on the floor of the gondola and she was looking back apprehensively at the house she had come from.

  Only when it was completely out of sight and the Prince had asked her again where she wanted to go, did she look at him.

  He knew she realised that he was not as she would have anticipated an ordinary gondolier.

  “I am afraid,” she mumbled nervously, “that this is a – private gondola and not for hire as I thought at first.”

  “Shall I say I am delighted to be of service,” the Prince said. “But you must tell me where you want to go.”

  “Away from Venice as quickly as possible, but if that is asking too much of you, please drop me on the other side of the Grand Canal.”

  She drew in her breath and continued,

  “I will find a gondola to take me across the lagoon to the mainland where I can disappear – ”

  “Have you any idea exactly where you wish to go?” the Prince asked her again.

  “Just any place I can hide until I decide where to go next.”

  “Is it too much to ask why you are running away.”

  “I am running away because I am frightened, more frightened than I have ever been in my whole life!”

  The Prince was now propelling the gondola more slowly and carefully towards the Grand Canal.

  “Of course,” he said, “I am curious as to why you have run away. But you must have somewhere to go and enough money to take you there.”

  The girl looked at him and gave a little scream.

  “I did not think of money,” she cried. “Of course I must pay my way, but, as I have always had someone to look after me and pay for what I needed, I never thought of it until now.”

  “It seems to me that you are making a big mistake,” the Prince remarked, “in racing off into the unknown and with an empty pocket.”

  “I have to do it, there is nothing else I can do. I thought if I fell into the canal and drowned, it would be easier than staying where I was!”

  She gave a little sigh before she added,

  “But as I can swim I expect when I was actually in the water I would have found it very difficult not to save myself.”

  “Of course you would have done and as the most precious possession we have is life, it would be very silly to throw it all away in a dirty canal.”

  “There was nothing else I could do. It was just by chance that you were there.”

  “I hope one day you will think it a lucky chance, and I think that for the moment you are safe enough from anyone who is looking for you and you can tell me who you are and why you have run away.”

  “My name is Sacia,” she answered.

  There was a pause and the Prince guessed that she was thinking it would be a mistake to tell him any more.

  “My name is Nico,” he told her.

  Sacia smiled.

  “I am certain they christened you Nicolo, which is a very popular name in Italy, but I am sure that you like to shorten it because it’s easier to say.”

  “That is a clever deduction of yours. Now, Sacia, I am waiting for you to tell me why you are doing anything so incredibly foolish as to try to kill yourself.”

  “I was really just trying to escape – and there was no other way as they had – locked me in my bedroom.”

  “Who did?” the Prince asked her automatically and then realised that he should not have done.

  “I am not being inquisitive,” he said, “so no names, but just tell me what you are hiding from.”

  “A man they want me to marry.”

  The Prince thought it was an answer he might have expected.

  Only fate or his beloved Goddess Aphrodite could have brought him someone who was in the same situation as he was in himself.

  “Tell me more,” he begged Sacia.

  “It cannot be interesting to you when you are just a stranger and I think first I should say thank you for being so kind as to rescue me and take me away at once.”

  She paused as if thinking it over, then went on,

  “Actually I don’t think they will find out for the next hour or so that I am not in my room.”

  “What will happen then?” the Prince enquired.

  “The man they want me to marry is arriving soon and I was told I was to accept him when he proposed to me. As you already realise, I would rather die than marry him!”

  “What is wrong with him?”

  “He is old, he is repulsive and I know he is cruel to those who serve him.”

  The Prince raised his eyebrows.

  “He has been married twice already and both his wives have died in somewhat mysterious circumstances. I am really sure in my own mind that he poisoned them or disposed of them in some other dastardly way because he was tired of them as they did not please him.”

  “I am finding this very hard to believe, Sacia. How could anyone be so cruel to anyone as pretty as you?”

  “Women don’t stay pretty for ever,” Sacia replied, as if he had asked a serious question. “They grow ill or old and perhaps they don’t produce as many children as their husband wants. I think it may be the reason why the man I am telling you about rid himself of his last two wives.”

  She gave a little sigh before she added,

  “It may not have been their fault that there was not the heir he desired.”

  “So he has chosen you as his third wife?”

  “If you saw him, you would understand why I ran away.”

  “But you did not run! It was very brave of you to lower yourself out of the window.”

  “I was so frightened I just had to escape somehow.”

  “What do you intend to do now?” the Prince asked.

  “It was so stupid of me to come away without any money. I was in such a hurry I did not think of anything but not being there when he arrived.”

  “Surely you have friends who will look after you and help you?”

  There was a brief silence and then Sacia replied,

  “I cannot think of anyone who would not be scared of Papa and who would not tell hi
m where I was hiding.”

  The Prince reflected it was obvious that her father was someone of consequence – and indeed so was the man he wanted her to marry.

  It all seemed so extraordinary that he himself was in the same predicament.

  He thought that anyone he knew would tell him he should take the girl back to where she would be safe with her family.

  As if she could read his thoughts, Sacia asked,

  “Are you now thinking that you should do the right thing and take me back to where you found me?”

  “It might be correct, but I promise I will do what you ask of me as long as it is within my power.”

  “The trouble is, Nico, I am not at all certain what I can do. There is a friend who might be kind to me, but she lives in Paris and I have no money to go there. Although I know that she was rather impressed by Papa.”

  “Surely there must be a servant you can trust? An old Nanny or someone like that.”

  “My Nanny died two years ago,” Sacia answered, “and the servants in the Palazzo are all too afraid of Papa to do anything to displease him.”

  The Prince noticed that she said ‘the Palazzo’.

  He knew that quite a number of the grand houses in Venice were called ‘Palaces’. Also hotels were sometimes named in the same way, but it did not necessarily imply a Royal residence as in other countries.

  By this time they were reaching the top end of the Grand Canal furthest from San Marco.

  “Now where do you wish to go?” the Prince asked. “Personally I think they would be more likely to look for you on a small uninhabited island than they would outside Venice.”

  “Of course you are right. I never thought of that. But how can I go there without any money.”

  “I will take you, Sacia, and if you have time to think over what you can do, you will perhaps remember someone who could help you or somewhere you can stay until your father changes his mind about your marriage. But that may take longer than we think.”

  “If I know anything, Papa will take months if not years to recover from the way I have behaved. He will never change his mind about my marriage.”

  “Then what will you do?” the Prince asked her.

  “I will have to find some way of working for my living. It is something I have never done of course. But I can cook and sew very well and I speak quite a number of languages.”