The Passionate Princess Read online

  Although Nikōs was what the English would undoubtedly call ‘a gentleman’, other men might be rough and threatening and try to take advantage of her.

  They also might be overfamiliar, she thought, which was something that she had never encountered in her whole sheltered life.

  She therefore did not answer him directly and, as if he took it for granted that she would do as he suggested, they went into the woods.

  Everything in the woods like the thick fir trees and the glimmering forest pools seemed even more enchanted as if from another world.

  She was vividly conscious of the mountain peaks high overhead and wherever there was a clearing in the trees she could look at the overwhelmingly beautiful views, which seemed to change so rapidly with the clouds scuddering across the wild sky.

  It was the beautiful valley that she had seen from Nikōs’s house.

  They did not talk much at first and yet strangely enough Thea felt as if he understood what she was thinking.

  She thought too that she could read his thoughts very clearly.

  Finally they sat down on a mossy bank that sloped down to a small pool in which the water lilies had first come into flower.

  “It is so unbelievably – lovely that I am sure that I must be dreaming,” Thea sighed.

  “That is what I have felt ever since I saw you!” Nikōs said.

  She felt the colour rise in her cheeks, but she did not look at him and after a moment he said,

  “I had forgotten that a woman could blush or that she could look shy!”

  “You must – not say – such things to me,” Thea said in a low voice.

  “Why not? I want to tell you how beautiful you are, how intelligent and – ”

  He hesitated.

  Because she was feeling curious, she could not resist glancing at him, hoping that he would finish the sentence.

  Unexpectedly he said abruptly,

  “We should be getting back to the house. The sun is not as warm as it was.”

  He spoke in a distant voice about a marsh, which made Thea feel as if she had suddenly been touched by a cold hand.

  Nikōs had now risen to his feet.

  He was walking slowly back along the twisting path that they had followed through the trees.

  Suddenly Thea felt frightened, she did not understand what was happening to her now and why Nikōs had so suddenly changed his attitude towards her.

  She stood up and ran after him and. as she reached his side, she asked,

  “What – is the – matter? What – have I done wrong?”

  For a moment she thought that he would not reply to her.

  Then he said,

  “The only thing that is wrong is that you are too beautiful for any man’s peace of mind!”

  “I-I cannot help – my looks.”

  “What you can help,” he replied almost angrily, “is wandering about the country on your own. It is something seriously foolhardy that you should never do again.”

  She did not answer and he went on almost as if he was speaking to himself.

  “I should send you back, otherwise you will get into endless trouble.”

  “S-send me – back? No – no! I will – not go!”

  Now there was a note of fear in her voice.

  “It is something that I ought to do,” he pronounced.

  “But – why? You have – no right. It is – not your – business.”

  He stopped and turned to face her.

  “If I leave you to go your own way, what will happen to you?”

  “I was – thinking about – that and – perhaps it would be – very frightening.”

  He did not say anything and she then looked up at him.

  “Please – let me – stay with you,” she asked him pleadingly.

  “Is that what you want?”

  “I was – thinking that it could be – very difficult for me to stay in a – hotel.”

  “Very difficult indeed,” he nodded.

  “I-I did not – think of that when I – ran away.”

  She saw by the expression on his face what Nikōs was thinking.

  “Let me stay – please – let me stay,” she asked again, “at least for – tonight.”

  He smiled.

  “As you have come many miles, I really have no choice.”

  “I will be no – trouble, I promise – and if you want – I will leave here early in the – morning.”

  “We will discuss that when the morning comes.”

  She now knew that she could stay and she felt a sudden overwhelming relief.

  “Thank you,” she sighed. “Thank you – very much!”

  “I think I must add a condition to my invitation,” Nikōs said.

  “What is – it?” Thea enquired nervously.

  “That you tell me why you have run away and from whom!”

  She stiffened.

  “I-I don’t want – to tell anyone and it is a – secret!”

  She sounded agitated, so he capitulated.

  “Very well, keep your secrets and, as you told me that you want to be free, let’s just enjoy ourselves.”

  Thea’s eyes lit up.

  “That would be – lovely! And when we – go back to the – house I would like to see – Mercury.”

  “Of course!” Nikōs agreed. “But I can assure you that he is very comfortable. Valou will see to that.”

  They walked on a little way along the path.

  Then Nikōs wanted to know,

  “How can you have acquired such a remarkably outstanding horse?”

  “I have had him since he was a foal and I love him more than anyone else ‒ in the whole world!”

  Nikōs raised his eyebrows.

  “That is very sweeping.”

  “It is true. I am happiest when I am with Mercury and he understands everything when I talk to him like – ”

  She stopped feeling that what she had been about to say was too intimate.

  “ – like I do!” Nikōs said softly.

  “I-I did not say – that.”

  “But it is what you were thinking.”

  “Now you are – reading my – thoughts and it is – something you must not do.”

  “It is too late for you to stop me doing something that has happened amazingly since you first appeared here.”

  Thea walked on a little way before she commented,

  “It is very strange – but no one before has ever – understood what I was thinking – and what I – try to express in my music.”

  “I might have guessed you were musical,” Nikōs remarked.

  “Why?”

  “Because everything about you is an entrancing poem, your looks, the way you walk and your voice.”

  Thea looked at him with her green eyes.

  “That is a lovely thing to tell me and something that I will always remember.”

  “I have always been told that the women of Kostas have musical voices,” Nikōs said, “but yours is like the song of the birds.”

  Thea made a little murmur and he went on,

  “I know without you telling me that there is Hungarian blood in your veins.”

  “My grandmother was Hungarian.”

  “And so was mine!” Nikōs exclaimed. “That is another bond we have in common.”

  Thea laughed.

  “And I am sure you ride like a Hungarian.”

  “As you do.”

  The little house was in sight and now the sun was sinking low over the plain. It turned everything to gold and made the world so extraordinarily beautiful that Thea drew in her breath.

  “Shall I try to paint it for you?” Nikōs suggested softly.

  “That is what I would really – like you to do.”

  Then with a little start she said,

  “You are reading my – thoughts again!”

  “Your eyes are very revealing, but I feel that it would be impossible to depict them on canvas.”

  “I am glad about that. I
hate being painted.”

  She thought of the long sittings that she had had to endure because some organisations in Gyula were always asking for a portrait of her. She was hung in schools and in the Council Chamber and she thought how different those portraits were from the paintings completed by Nikōs.

  Sitting stiffly in white satin with a pink curtain draped behind her with her hands in her lap and she looked very unlike herself.

  “I will paint you against the trees with your face reflected in the lake where we met,” Nikōs suggested.

  Thea smiled, but, before she could say that it was what she would like, he went on,

  “I will show you as you are, ethereal, half-human and half a ‘spirit of the woods’.”

  He spoke in a low voice and then as if with effort, he said,

  “It will soon be time for dinner and Valou’s wife will be arranging a bath for you in your bedroom.”

  “That will be lovely!” Thea exclaimed.

  She smiled at him and walked up the stairs.

  As he had told her, there was a bath arranged in the same way as she always had it at The Palace.

  There was a large can of hot water and another smaller one of cold and the bath was already half-full.

  The water in the bath was scented with the fragrance of jasmine and there were several half-open blossoms floating in it.

  As she bathed in the delicious warm water, she thought that this was the most exciting adventure she could imagine.

  ‘How could I have been so lucky, so incredibly fortunate as to find anyone as interesting as Nikōs?’ she asked herself.

  She thought of the dull and dreary conversations she had with the Courtiers in the Palace and the way that Nikōs had talked this afternoon was like the music she played on the piano.

  Being with Georgi was always fun, but he was not interested in anything she thought or said, he only wanted her to listen to him.

  He would now be happy enjoying himself in Paris, she reflected.

  She wished that she could see the women who amused him and the theatres and dances he would be attending.

  Georgi had told her that her mother and father would be shocked at everything he did and it was difficult for Thea to imagine exactly why.

  ‘Georgi is enjoying himself and so am I!’ she ruminated to herself defiantly.

  By now they would be aware at The Palace that she was missing, but she was sure that her father would not wish to publicise the matter in case her disappearance became a scandal and he would he want many people to find out that she had flown the nest.

  She thought it over carefully and she expected that he would first of all send aides-de-camp to all the places where she was likely to be.

  She had an old Governess who had retired to live in a small village about four miles from Gyula. They would go to her and, of course, they would call on the Professor.

  She thought of the other Teachers she had had in the past and knew that it would take time to visit them all.

  After that King Otho would arrive and her father would have to make some excuse for her not being present.

  He might say that she was ill or staying with some elderly relatives. He could hardly tell King Otho that she had run away because she did not want to marry him.

  As always, when she was thinking of King Otho, she shuddered.

  ‘When he has gone home to his own country,’ she told herself, ‘I suppose I shall have to go back to The Palace.’

  Then she thought that she was in no hurry as yet, but sooner or later she would have to return.

  As she stepped out of the bath, she escaped from reality and as always she slipped into one of her many Fairy stories.

  Perhaps she could find a little house like this for herself and live quietly in the country with Mercury.

  She would make friends with the peasants and with the gypsies for there were certain to be some camping in the neighbourhood.

  She would need money. She would ask the women who had made the lace cover on her bed to teach her how to do it.

  It was a simple tale of contentment and once again, as if he was an evil genie threatening her, she could see King Otho.

  He would be waiting for her and, when she was back at The Palace, it would only be a question of whether he came to her or she went to him.

  Her father would by now have pledged his word to King Otho that she would be his wife.

  Because she was so terrified by the idea, Thea dressed hurriedly.

  She wanted to go back to Nikōs and she would talk to him about the woods, the birds and the flowers as well as the Fairies, elves and water nymphs that they both believed in.

  She put on her muslin gown. It was a very simple one, made with the material drawn back into classical folds in the front.

  The only concession to the fashionable bustle was a sash of the same material. It had silver threads running through it and ended in a huge bow at the back.

  There were frills round the low neck and small puffed sleeves and it made her look very young and at the same time there was something very Grecian about her.

  When she came down the stairs, Nikōs was waiting for her at the bottom step.

  As she reached him, he said,

  “Now I know that you have come from the mountain peaks and you are in fact Divine!”

  Thea smiled.

  “After that pretty speech, it may sound very mundane for me to tell you that I am very hungry.”

  He laughed and it was a very happy sound.

  “No one but you, Thea,” he replied, “would say that at this particular moment.”

  She did not understand what he meant.

  He took her into a room that she had not seen before because for luncheon they had sat out on the terrace.

  It was a very attractive room with a huge window overlooking the valley and it had a large fireplace in which there was a big log burning.

  She was not surprised, because now that the sun had gone down, it could be very cold with icy winds blowing down from the snow-capped peaks.

  The room was warm and, although it was white, like the rest of the house, it was also very masculine.

  The sofa and chairs were large and comfortable and the floor was covered with fur rugs.

  Besides the pictures that had been painted by Nikōs, there was a sporting gun and two rifles hanging on the wall.

  A magnificent stag’s head with long horns towered over the fireplace.

  Thea looked up at it and said,

  “Somehow I cannot imagine you – shooting in the woods.”

  “You are quite right. It is something I don’t do!”

  She looked at he stag’s head without asking the obvious question.

  “It was given to me by one of the woodcutters when I first came here,” Nikōs explained. “It was his finest possession and he told me that it would bring me luck.”

  “And has it?”

  “What could be luckier than that I should find you?”

  Thea smiled.

  She had no idea that Nikōs was thinking that she was very unlike any other woman he had known before in his life.

  There was nothing in the least flirtatious in the way she looked at him when he paid her a compliment.

  “And the gun?” she questioned.

  “It was given to me by a gypsy I befriended when I first came here.”

  He had also been given the rifles. They were elaborately decorated in the style of the beginning of the century.

  The gun was old as well and its butt was carved with miniature animals, each one more exquisite and more lifelike than the last.

  “Dinner is served, Master.”

  It was the boy who had waited on them at luncheon, who spoke from the doorway.

  “Thank you, Géza,” Nikōs said.

  He held out his arm with a mocking smile to Thea and, as she took it, she noticed for the first time how he was dressed.

  It was in an even more picturesque way than he had been dressed i
n the daytime.

  He wore a white shirt and over it a black velvet coat, which she might have expected on an artist. Round his waist was a red cummerbund and the silk scarf round his neck was equally attractive.

  On any other man it might have looked rather affected, but on Nikōs it only added, Thea mused, to his aura of masculinity.

  She had been conscious of it ever since they first met.

  Now he took her into the dining room, which was another room that she had not seen before. It was smaller and the curtains were drawn over the windows, which looked out onto the woods.

  They were unlike any curtains that she had ever seen.

  Only as she looked a little closer at them did she realise that Nikōs had painted them.

  There was an impression of the snow-capped mountains and also the flowers that she had seen this afternoon, irises and water lilies, white and blue violets and wild orchids.

  It was quite lovely.

  As she was trying to think of the right words to tell Nikōs just how clever she thought he was, he said,

  “I knew you would appreciate them.”

  There was a round table in the centre of the room and it was covered with a lace cloth rather like the cover of her bed.

  The tall candelabrum in the middle of it, which held six candles, was of pottery and again Thea was certain that it was made by talented local craftsmen.

  It showed the stems of flowers entwined together to make the shaft of the candelabrum and the candles sat in the open petals of the flowers.

  Géza brought in the food, which was as unusual as it was delicious.

  There were small river crabs cooked in a way that Thea had never met before.

  There were partridges prepared in red wine that seemed to melt in the mouth and cutlets of tiny baby lamb.

  To finish they had small strawberries that must have just ripened in the sun.

  Nikōs insisted that she should drink the ‘wine of the country’.

  As she sipped it, Thea realised that she still did not know and she was too afraid to ask if she was in King Otho’s Kingdom.

  When they had finished the superb dinner, she said,

  “I have never, and this is the truth, had a more delicious dinner.”

  “That is what I want you to say,” Nikōs smiled, “and Valou’s wife will be delighted at your praise.”

  “If you eat like this every day,” Thea pointed out, “I cannot imagine how you remain so slim!”