An Adventure of Love Read online

  When at last it seemed that there was no one else to make a speech, Zorina turned to the Crown Prince and asked him,

  “Shall I say – ‘thank you’?”

  He looked at her in disbelief and then replied a little grudgingly,

  “If you think it necessary.”

  Zorina rose from her chair and saw the surprise in the eyes of the people who were all now looking at her.

  Slowly, because she was not quite certain of some of her words, she began to address them in Leothian,

  “I am very grateful for all the kind words you have said and I promise you that I will do my best to be a good Queen. I already feel that no country could be more beautiful and no people so kind and welcoming.”

  She then sat down and the applause, now spontaneous and unaffected, rang out, filling the great room from floor to ceiling.

  Next the Crown Prince and Zorina led the way to the door still to triumphal applause.

  They were now free, the Crown Prince told her, to rest if they wished to be alone until it was time for dinner.

  There was a private sitting room attached to Zorina’s bedroom, which was, she thought, charmingly decorated.

  It was massed with flowers, which scented the air and she felt for the moment relaxed and unafraid.

  “You were wonderful, dearest,” the Princess was saying. “You have certainly captured the hearts of everyone in Leothia. I know that your father would have been very thrilled by your speech.”

  “I have not – yet seen – the King,” Zorina stuttered in a very small voice.

  “They assure me that he will be well enough to be at dinner,” her mother replied.

  Then, as if she wanted to change the subject, she went to the window and exclaimed,

  “I had no idea that Leothia was so beautiful and I thought as we drove from the Station to The Palace that the people looked happy and well fed.”

  “I thought the same,” Zorina replied. “The Foreign Secretary told me on the train that there was very little real poverty in his country.”

  “I am sure you will be happy here,” the Princess smiled.

  There was a note in her voice that made Zorina think that she was really reassuring herself.

  As she dressed for dinner with Hildegard’s help, Zorina found herself once again feeling apprehensive at meeting the King.

  Although she tried not to think of Rudolf, it had been impossible not to be aware that he was present at the luncheon.

  Her first thought at the loud applause following her speech was that he would think that she had done the right thing.

  She had thought too, as she walked up the steps, believing that the King would be at the top of them to greet her, that if only she was meeting Rudolf, it would be the happiest day of her life.

  Every time she looked at the tall majestic mountains, she would think of him climbing them.

  When she saw the river winding through the fertile valley and the fields full of flowers, Zorina thought that she would like to ride through them with him beside her.

  She knew that if she could do so, the land would really be enchanted.

  ‘I love him – I love – him,’ she thought as Hildegard brought one of her prettiest gowns from the wardrobe.

  “Will your Royal Highness wear this tonight?” the maid asked.

  “Yes, I like that gown,” Zorina replied.

  She was wondering if Rudolf would admire her in it and if there would be a chance of her speaking to him alone this evening.

  She had a feeling that he would keep very much in the background as he had done on the train and avoid her as much as possible.

  ‘How can he be so cruel and so unfeeling?’ her heart cried out.

  But her brain kept telling her that he was doing what was right under the circumstances.

  “Your Royal Highness looks very very beautiful,” Hildegard was now saying to her in an awed tone.

  Zorina was suddenly aware that she was dressed and that her hair had been arranged and, because she had been thinking of Rudolf, she had been quite oblivious of this happening.

  Now she looked at herself in the mirror and saw, without being in any way conceited, that Hildegard had spoken the truth.

  She did look beautiful and it was for a man who had not yet condescended to welcome his bride-to-be to his country.

  Zorina came out of her bedroom and crossed the corridor towards her mother’s room.

  Because she was in the Royal Suite, which she would occupy when she was Queen, her mother had been accommodated in a bedroom that was as near to hers as possible.

  It was not as grand as the one known as ‘The Queen’s Room’, but it was still very attractive. And she could see that the furniture and pictures were all valuable works of art.

  Zorina was just about to open her mother’s door when two gentlemen appeared a little further along the corridor.

  The King’s Suite, she had been told, was divided from the rest of the wing by two large and impressive doors painted in the eighteenth century and they were surmounted by the Royal Coat of Arms in gold.

  Both the gentlemen who had come through them were in the evening dress uniform of the Leothian Army.

  As they stepped into the corridor and the doors closed behind them, they paused to speak to each other, obviously unaware that Zorina was only a little way from them.

  “Is he all right?” one of the gentlemen enquired.

  “Shall we say he is on his feet,” the other replied.

  “Then try and keep him on them.”

  They were both speaking in Leothian.

  As they started to walk along the corridor, Zorina slipped quickly into her mother’s bedroom without knocking and hoping that they had not seen her.

  “I am nearly ready,” the Princess called out.

  She was adjusting a tiara that she had borrowed from a friend before they left London.

  Zorina did not speak as she was trying to puzzle out what she had just heard about the King.

  ‘Was he so ill that he could hardly stand? If so, surely it would be a mistake for him to come down to dinner.’

  Zorina only hoped that whatever he was suffering from was not infectious.

  *

  The dinner guests had now assembled in a large salon that adjoined the dining room.

  It was a very beautiful room and, whilst Zorina was talking to some of the guests who were already waiting, she learned that the entire Palace had been decorated by the King’s mother. She had been French and Zorina was told that she had exquisite taste. And this was undoubtedly true.

  There was no sign of Rudolf, although Zorina had looked for him immediately as she had entered the room.

  Then, as they were awaiting the arrival of the King, Rudolf came in dressed as he had been at Windsor Castle.

  Zorina felt as though the lights had suddenly flared up towards the ceiling and there was a special aura around him that was dazzling and inspiring.

  Then, as he stopped to speak to someone just inside the door, because she was so closely attuned to him, she knew perceptively that he was upset.

  She could see that Rudolf’s eyes were dark and stormy. He was not smiling and his lips were set in a hard line.

  She wanted desperately to go to his side.

  She knew, however, that this was something that Rudolf would think was wrong and with a great effort she started a long conversation with an elderly gentleman.

  She gathered that he was a distant cousin of the King’s and he owned a huge Castle and estate in the North of the country.

  It seemed as though everyone kept glancing at the door to see what was holding up the King.

  Then two aides-de-camp came into the room and stood to attention at either side of the doorway.

  The King then appeared and for a moment it was impossible for Zorina to look at him.

  She was afraid, desperately afraid, of what she would see.

  She became aware, however, that everyone was moving quickly i
nto two lines and that now she stood alone with the King at the other end of the room.

  This was the moment when they would finally meet.

  Slowly, very slowly, he started to advance towards her until, when he was halfway down the room, she forced herself to raise her eyes.

  Her first thought was that he was old, very old. Her second was that he was not the least what she had been expecting.

  Because it made her feel better, she had vaguely imagined that the King would be an older version of Rudolf.

  Now Zorina saw that the King was stout, which she had not expected, and his face was red in startling contrast to his thinning white hair.

  He had bushy grey eyebrows and a large, rather untidy grey moustache.

  The King came nearer still and now he said in a voice that sounded unnecessarily loud,

  “I must apologise, my dear young lady, for being such a tardy bridegroom. I am ashamed of myself, indeed very ashamed. But, of course, you will forgive me.”

  He laughed and somehow it sounded out of place and rather vulgar under the crystal chandeliers and in such a beautiful room.

  Zorina curtseyed deeply to him.

  The King then took her hand and would have raised it to his lips, but for some unknown reason he seemed to stagger.

  Instantly one of the aides-de-camp was at his side and supporting him.

  He raised his head,

  “Dinner!” he exclaimed. “I expect you are all hungry. I know I am. Come on, come on, what are we waiting for?”

  The aide-de-camp whispered something in his ear.

  “Yes, yes, of course,” the King nodded.

  He held out his arm to Zorina.

  “I must not forget my bride, must I?”

  His loud voice seemed to echo in the silence that had fallen upon the room.

  Zorina took his arm and adjusted her pace to his.

  As the King turned towards the door, the aide-de-camp on the other side was helping him.

  Outside in the corridor the aide-de-camp was still beside them and it flashed through Zorina’s mind that perhaps the King had suffered a stroke of some sort.

  That would easily explain why he was so unsteady.

  It was, however, difficult to think of anything except that he was old and not the sort of man she had expected to reign over such a lovely country.

  ‘I must – try and – like him – I must,’ she admonished herself.

  Because Zorina shrank from being close to him, she was glad when they entered the dining room and she realised that there was quite a gap between her chair and that of the King.

  His chair was very impressive, carved in gilt with crimson velvet cushions and, Zorina thought, not unlike a Throne.

  Her chair was the same as all the others around the table and she supposed that this was because she was not yet the Queen of Leothia.

  She felt herself shiver as she did not wish to think of the difference that her marriage would make in little things in her life as well as more important ones.

  The King had not spoken to her since they had sat down.

  The rest of the party were now taking their seats and the King was having a sotto voce argument with one of the aides-de-camp who stood behind his chair.

  Zorina’s hearing was acute and, although the King had lowered his voice, she heard him say quite clearly,

  “What the devil do you mean? I want a drink and I am going to have one.”

  The aide-de-camp, in a much quieter voice, appeared to expostulate with him.

  The King repeated,

  “I am thirsty. I want a drink. If I don’t have one, I shall leave now.”

  The aide-de-camp then obviously gave up the argument and a servant poured some wine into the King’s glass.

  He picked it up, drank it thirstily and then, as the aide-de-camp once again whispered in his ear and the King replied to him testily,

  “Yes, yes, of course.”

  He swallowed some more wine before he turned to Zorina,

  “I drink your health, Princess, and welcome you to my country. I will say one thing, you are a very pretty girl. Very pretty.”

  The King gave Zorina what she thought was almost a leering look and she saw that his eyes were bloodshot.

  Then he finished what remained in his glass and demanded that it be instantly refilled.

  Because she had been so bemused by what was happening on her left, Zorina had not realised that the Crown Prince was sitting on her right.

  “Your father seems better,” she said conversationally. “What has been wrong with him?”

  There was a little pause before the Crown Prince replied,

  “He has been slightly indisposed. I suspect he has been doing too much.”

  Zorina looked a little way beyond the Crown Prince and saw Rudolf.

  She thought that he was looking towards her and then she realised that he was watching his father.

  There was an expression of concern and at the same time one of anger in his eyes.

  Zorina could tell, without asking anyone, that there was something very wrong with the King.

  As dinner commenced and course succeeded course, Zorina realised that the Crown Prince was deliberately holding her attention.

  This was not difficult because the King was making no effort at all to talk to her and he was concentrating solely on his food and drinking glass after glass of wine.

  She was only able to glance at him, because the moment she turned her head, the Crown Prince said,

  “Now there is something else I want to tell you that I know you will find interesting – ”

  He made everything he related sound dreary and Zorina thought that perhaps he was unaccustomed to talking a great deal as his wife had so much to say all the time.

  She could see the Crown Princess, who was seated near to the end of the table.

  She was talking in German in a somewhat aggressive and domineering manner to the Commander of the Leothian Army, who was sitting on her right.

  Zorina had been aware that before dinner the Crown Princess had looked at her with an expression of dislike that was unmistakable.

  ‘I cannot think why she should dislike me,’ she thought and then learned the reason.

  As the Crown Prince paused for breath, Zorina asked him,

  “Do you have you any children?”

  There was a perceptible pause before he replied,

  “Most certainly, I have five daughters.”

  “Five!” Zorina exclaimed.

  “I had always hoped for a son,” the Crown Prince went on dully, “but unfortunately my wife was very ill with our last child and now we cannot add to our family.”

  The way he had spoken told Zorina clearly what she thought she might have been told before.

  The reason why the King wanted more children – and she shuddered at the idea – was that the Crown Prince had no heir and Rudolf was unmarried.

  It was then that the reality of everything, which had seemed since they left the train like taking part in some theatrical performance, swept over her.

  The King, this loud red-faced man swilling down his wine beside her, was to be her husband because she was young and he wanted more sons to make sure of the succession of his family.

  Zorina wanted to rise in her chair and scream out to those seated round the table that she would not do it.

  She wanted to walk out of the room and return to England.

  ‘I will not – stay! I cannot – bear it! I have to go – I have – to,’ she told herself hotly.

  Then her eyes met Rudolf’s and she was aware that, because he loved her, he knew instinctively what she was feeling.

  They gazed at each other for a few seconds.

  He was pleading with her and begging her not to make a scene.

  Zorina wanted to defy him. She wanted to tell him that what was being asked to do was completely impossible.

  There was a sudden crash beside her and Zorina turned at once to see what it was.


  She realised that the noise had come from the King, but an aide-de-camp had pushed himself between her chair and the King’s and so she could not see what was happening.

  Then, so quickly that some of the guests might not even have been aware of it, the two aides-de-camp took the King away.

  Whether they were carrying him or he was walking between them, Zorina was not sure.

  There was a door at the back of the room that they vanished through with a swiftness that seemed incredible.

  Zorina was left staring in surprise and now the King’s chair beside her was empty.

  A sudden hush spread over the assembled guests as Rudolf rose and walked from where he was sitting to take the King’s chair next to Zorina.

  It was as if his action was an order for everyone to behave as if nothing had happened.

  They recommenced their conversations and the room was instantly filled with a buzz of sound.

  “What has – happened? Is your father – ill?” Zorina asked Rudolf.

  Once again she thought that he might have had a stroke.

  “He is not well,” Rudolf answered her quickly. “But I want to tell you how lovely you are looking tonight.”

  As he spoke, she was too intelligent not to realise that he was changing the subject.

  Yet, because he was close beside her and because he was talking to her as he had refused to do on the train, Zorina felt that nothing else mattered.

  He was there. He was near her and bending towards her.

  She mused that he was even more handsome than he had seemed the day before and the day before that.

  ‘I love you,’ she wanted to say to him and the King was forgotten.

  Rudolf talked to her for the rest of the meal.

  ‘Tell me what you think of my country now that you have seen some of it,” he asked.

  It was what Zorina had been longing to do.

  She knew, as she answered his questions, that the words came into her mind like lines of poetry.

  “And The Palace, is it what you expected?” he enquired.

  “Far, far more beautiful.”

  “I wanted you to say that. My grandmother, who altered it outside and completely decorated the inside, was a very remarkable woman.”

  “You loved – her?”