An Adventure of Love Page 5

  He would be finding it difficult to understand that she was not coming to meet him again.

  ‘Why did I not find out where he was staying when I had the chance?’ she asked herself a thousand times.

  There was no answer and she tried instead to be as excited as her mother wanted her to be at wearing her new gown.

  Princess Louise had made the gown very skilfully and it was exceedingly attractive.

  The bodice fitted tightly and revealed the tininess of her waist. Chiffon trimmed the décolletage and cascaded behind her into a small draped bustle.

  It would have been wrong for anyone so young to have an exaggerated bustle as was worn by the more flamboyant beauties in the Social world.

  Princess Louise thought to herself privately that, when her daughter was finally dressed, she looked exquisitely beautiful.

  “It is a really lovely gown, Mama, and you have made it very very cleverly,” Zorina did her best to enthuse.

  Nevertheless she could not resist wishing that Rudolf could see her in it.

  Because she was frightened when she thought of the future and the King whom she must marry, she tried to put him out of her thoughts and enjoy staying at Windsor Castle.

  She was attending the first important dinner party where she had ever been a guest.

  Twice since they had returned to England Princess Louise had taken Zorina to stay with her brother, the Duke of Windermere.

  To be honest, after the beauty of Hampton Court Palace, Zorina had been disappointed.

  The house, which belonged to her uncle, was large enough but not particularly attractive or impressive.

  Because the Duke was permanently hard up, Zorina was soon aware that the pictures, and there was a considerable number of them, needed cleaning, many of the carpets were threadbare and the curtains faded and dusty.

  There were also not enough servants for such a large establishment and the Duke and Duchess were continually complaining about the expenses that inevitably mounted up on the estate.

  It prevented them from entertaining as much as they would have liked, neither could they afford to open Windermere House in London’s Mayfair.

  The Princess had been delighted to see her brother again and to meet her nephews and nieces, but she realised that the girls, who were as yet unmarried, looked at Zorina enviously.

  The boys were interested only in horses and dogs rather than in talking to what they described amongst themselves as ‘that foreign girl’.

  The visits, therefore, had not been a great success.

  When in the last two years there had been no invitation to Windermere, neither Zorina nor her mother had been particularly disappointed.

  It was indeed entrancing, however, to be now in Windsor Castle.

  What was more, because the dinner party was, as the Princess told her, being given for her, she had a significance that she had never had before.

  At the same time, as her mother instructed her over and over again on how she should behave, Zorina could not help thinking that it would be far more fun to be wandering through Hampton Court Palace with Rudolf.

  ‘Perhaps he will be there the day after tomorrow,’ she told herself consolingly.

  He might, however, have already left to return to his own country and so she would not be able to even say ‘goodbye’ to him.

  When the Princess was ready, they walked through the labyrinth of corridors that were noted as being so complicated that guests were often lost in them.

  Once, Zorina was told, a visitor became lost on his way to bed and so was forced to spend the night on a sofa in the State Gallery. When a housemaid found him in the morning, she supposed him to be drunk and fetched a Policeman.

  Zorina thought that this was funny, but she was even more amused when she was told that one gentleman spent nearly an hour wandering about the corridors trying to identify his bedroom.

  “At length,” the Lady-in-Waiting related, “he opened a door and found to his horror the Queen having her hair brushed by a maid.”

  “That must have been very embarrassing,” Zorina exclaimed.

  “It was,” the Lady-in-Waiting agreed, “and it is something that everybody new here is frightened will happen to them.”

  The Princess, however, found their way to the White Drawing Room, where they were to meet before dinner.

  It was a pretty room with a huge chandelier suspended from an ornate ceiling and portraits of the Royal Family set in elaborate gilt panels.

  Zorina thought that the heavily carved gilt furniture was most appropriate for Kings and Queens.

  There were a number of people standing by the fireplace when they entered and the Lord Chamberlain, having greeted them profusely, began to introduce each guest to Zorina and Princess Louise.

  They all seemed to Zorina to be rather old and somewhat infirm.

  But the ladies glittering with diamonds were no more spectacular than the men in knee breeches and their cutaway coats clustered with decorations.

  A number of them were also wearing the blue ribbon of the Order of the Garter.

  As they shook hands one after another with Princess Louise and then herself, she heard the Lord Chamberlain saying,

  “Now, Your Royal Highness, I want you to meet our guest of honour this evening who is the representative of King Otto of Leothia – Prince Rudolf!”

  Because the name was familiar, Zorina looked quickly to see who was standing beside the Lord Chamberlain.

  As she did so, she felt her heart turn over in her breast.

  It was Rudolf who stood there, Rudolf, looking quite different from when she had seen him this morning.

  Now he was wearing the white jacket of a Military uniform with gold epaulettes and a number of decorations.

  But it was Rudolf – there was no mistaking him!

  Then, as the Lord Chamberlain introduced them, their eyes met and she saw that he was as astonished as she was.

  As she touched his hand and for a moment forgot to curtsey, everything seemed to fade away, the drawing room, the people standing around them, the Lord Chamberlain and her mother.

  Instead there was only Rudolf and, as she looked at him she saw the expression in his eyes change.

  What they said to each other she could never afterwards remember, but it must have seemed quite acceptable to her mother.

  A minute later the Queen came into the room and everybody instinctively lined up to be presented or to curtsey as she passed them.

  ‘It just cannot be true!’ Zorina was saying to herself as the Queen processed into dinner on the arm of Prince Rudolf, while she was escorted by the Lord Chamberlain.

  ‘I must be dreaming!’ she murmured in her heart as she sat down at the table with Rudolf on the Queen’s right and herself on his other side.

  She had been warned by her mother that dinner in the Royal Presence was a trial because the Queen’s guests were expected to speak quietly, in fact little above a whisper.

  “If ever Her Majesty overhears what she believes to be excessive exhilaration in the conversation,” the Princess had said, “or laughter and lack of delicacy at the other end of the table, she will indicate her disapproval.”

  “How frightening, Mama!” Zorina had exclaimed.

  “It is,” Princess Louise agreed, “and after that the meal continues in an embarrassing silence.”

  The Queen now was having what sounded like a very banal conversation with Rudolf and Zorina realised that the others at the table were talking to each other in little more than a whisper.

  It was impossible for Zorina not to listen to what the Queen was saying to Rudolf rather than talk to the gentleman on her other side. And he was, she thought, very old and rather deaf.

  She noted that the Queen wore on her wrist a large diamond bracelet in the centre of which was a miniature of the Prince Consort and a lock of his hair.

  It made her remember that Her Majesty herself had actually married the man she had fallen in love with.


  She wondered whether, if on the next day, she told the Queen that she could not marry the King of Leothia because he was so old that she would understand.

  Then she remembered what the Queen had already said about age being unimportant and knew that Her Majesty would definitely not understand and in all probability she would be extremely angry.

  With an effort she tried to pay attention to what was happening around her rather than think of herself.

  The gold plate, the beautiful Sèvres china and the two Indian servants wearing turbans behind the Queen’s chair made it all seem somehow unreal.

  There was a Highlander in his smart kilt to pour out the wine and Zorina found that dinner was served quickly and the moment she had finished one dish another was put in front of her at once.

  But the meal was long and elaborate.

  There was course after course, three or four choices of meat, a hot pudding and an iced one, a savoury and all kinds of hothouse fruit.

  Zorina found it difficult to realise what she was eating as she was waiting breathlessly for the moment when she could speak to Rudolf.

  However, because the Queen liked young men, especially when they were handsome, it was a long time before she turned to the gentleman on her other side.

  “This cannot be true!”

  Rudolf was speaking in his deep voice in a very low tone.

  “That – is what I – thought the moment I saw – you.”

  “Why did you not tell me?”

  “There never – seemed to be – time.”

  There was a poignant silence.

  And then Rudolf said,

  “How could I have known – how could I have possibly guessed who you are?”

  There was a note of pain in his voice and, when Zorina looked into his eyes, she knew that it was what she had seen in them just after they had been introduced.

  “I was – worrying,” she said, “because – I would not be – able to meet you tomorrow morning.”

  “I had already decided,” he answered, “that I would leave here very early and reach Hampton Court Palace so that I could wait for you.”

  Before she could reply, Rudolf’s glass was refilled and, when the servant moved away, he said,

  “Did you know this morning that you were coming here?”

  “No – of course not,” Zorina replied. “My Nanny was waiting for me when I – reached the Prince’s apartment – to tell me that a messenger had arrived from – Windsor Castle.”

  “And I too found a message waiting for me when I returned.”

  “You – you did not – tell me where that – was.”

  “I have been staying with a relative of mine who married a British Ambassador and moved to Hampton Court Palace before I was born. She is very old and it was what you might call ‘a duty visit’.”

  “And you did not – mind when you were told to come to – Windsor Castle – sooner than you expected?”

  “I minded because I was leaving you.”

  The way he spoke made Zorina give a little quiver and, as if he was aware of it, he said,

  “I have to talk to you alone.”

  “You know – that is not – possible.”

  “It has to be.”

  “But – how? What – can we do?”

  As Zorina spoke, she looked nervously over Rudolf’s shoulder and saw with relief that the Queen was still talking to the gentleman on her other side.

  Then she was aware that all down the table there were eyes watching her and Rudolf.

  She was quite certain that her fellow guests would be speculating as to what they were saying to each other.

  As if he were aware of what she was thinking, Rudolf said after a moment,

  “I will find some way so that we can meet. Leave it to me.”

  Zorina wanted to say that she was very happy to leave everything to him.

  Then, as she helped herself automatically to the next course, she remembered that Rudolf was here to represent his father, the King, whom she was to marry!

  It all seemed unreal and a fantasy like the long table in front of her, the glitter of jewels and the pomposity of the gentlemen loaded with their decorations.

  ‘It is all a dream,’ she thought. ‘I shall wake up and find that nothing is happening to me except that I can walk through the deserted State rooms of The Palace on my way to my lessons.’

  It was a quarter-to-eleven before the dinner came to an end and the Queen rose from the table.

  She went out of the dining room and into another room where they were served with coffee and liqueurs.

  There was a chair and in front of it a little table where the Queen seated herself.

  The guests stood in a circle a considerable distance from her and the Queen sipped her coffee while a page held her saucer on a gold salver.

  The guests talked amongst themselves, but still in the low voices that they had used in the dining room.

  The Queen beckoned Princess Louise and after she had talked to her obviously about Leothia, Zorina thought, Rudolf was summoned to her side.

  With him the Queen became quite animated, smiling and even laughing.

  Then they all moved into the White Drawing Room, where they stood while the Queen talked first to one person and then to another.

  Finally Rudolf came to Zorina’s side and it seemed quite natural for them to move a short distance from the other guests.

  “Listen,” he said in a voice that only she could hear, “I remember that there is a sitting room almost opposite the bedroom where you are sleeping.”

  Zorina looked at him in surprise and he explained,

  “I was here three years ago with my mother and I have been able to ascertain that you are in the same room that she used.”

  Zorina made a little murmur to show that she understood and he went on,

  “When you retire to bed, wait until you think that everybody is safely in their bedrooms and then join me in the sitting room.”

  Zorina, with a little tremor of fear, looked to where her mother was standing.

  She knew how angry she would be if she realised what was being planned, in Windsor Castle of all places!

  “I have to talk to you,” Rudolf insisted. “And now that the Queen has expedited matters, I may have to leave tomorrow.”

  “For – where?”

  “I have to be in London for one night and then go North on some business that my father entrusted to me as I was coming to England.”

  Zorina looked at him, feeling it hard to comprehend what he was saying.

  She was only acutely conscious of how handsome he was and how different from the young man who she had talked so easily to for the last two mornings.

  “You will come?” he asked fervently.

  “Y-yes – I will try.”

  He had to be content with that.

  Knowing that, if they were together much longer people would talk about it, he turned in what seemed a perfectly natural way to the lady nearest to them, saying,

  “I was just telling Princess Zorina, Duchess, how beautiful my country is! You have visited Leothia so I know you will agree that I am not exaggerating its loveliness.”

  “No, of course, you are not, Your Royal Highness,” the Duchess replied, “and I know the Princess, if she ever goes there, will find it awe-inspiring.”

  Almost as if the Duchess had given a cue to the Queen, who was on the other side of the room, Zorina heard the Lord Chamberlain say,

  “Her Majesty wishes to speak!”

  There was an instant silence and the Queen, looking towards Zorina, began,

  “I think that some of you know already that this dinner party tonight, which is given in honour of His Royal Highness Prince Rudolf of Leothia, is a notable occasion because he is representing his father, His Majesty King Otto, who has received my permission to marry into my family!”

  Zorina thought that one or two people gave a little gasp before the Queen went on,

  “It is w
ith great pleasure that I have given my seal of approval to the marriage of His Majesty King Otto and Her Royal Highness Princess Zorina, as she will be known in future, of Parnassos.”

  Now there was undoubtedly a murmur of surprise and interest and the Queen said sharply, as if she felt that she had been interrupted,

  “Come here, Zorina!”

  Feeling shy, Zorina walked to the Queen’s chair and sank down in a deep curtsey.

  “Now,” the Queen declared, “you are officially engaged and I have already arranged for it to be announced tomorrow in The Court Circular.”

  The way she spoke told Zorina that she was completely trapped and now there could be no escape.

  She had the feeling, although, of course, it was absurd, that the Queen was aware of her rebellious feelings and was making sure that it would be impossible for her to express them in any circumstances.

  It was then that the Lord Chamberlain took over saying,

  “As we all have a glass in our hands, I propose that we drink to the future happiness of Her Royal Highness Princess Zorina and send His Majesty King Otto of Leothia our warmest congratulations on attaining a very charming and beautiful English bride!”

  There was a murmur of approval and glasses were raised.

  Zorina, who was now standing beside the Queen, found it impossible not to look at Rudolf and saw that, while he held his glass in the correct manner, he did not drink from it.

  She knew without words that he was feeling, as she was, that they were both caught in a vortex from which there was no chance of escape.

  *

  Zorina opened her bedroom door very softly.

  She was feeling frightened, very frightened.

  Yet she knew that, if there had been soldiers barring the way with drawn swords, she would still have gone to meet Rudolf.

  Because Nanny was waiting up for her mother and for herself to undo their gowns and see them into bed, there was no question of her remaining dressed.

  She had, therefore, covered her nightdress with the same blue woollen dressing gown that she had worn for the last five years.

  It was a little short and rather tight, but its colour combined with the candle she carried in her hand seemed to pick out the red in her hair.