“That is what I – want you to think – but I am a little afraid you may be – disillusioned.”
“That is something I will never be. I know that only you, my darling wonderful little wife, could have married me as you have without explanations and without having anyone you belong to at the Wedding Service.”
“I-I don’t want to – think about it,” Thea said. “Tonight there is – nobody in the whole – world but you!”
“For me,” Nikōs replied, “you fill the sky. I know that, if anybody is missing you, it is the Gods in the mountains above us.”
“When you – loved me,” Thea said in a low voice, “I felt as if we were – one with the Gods – and no longer human.”
“I thought the same,” Nikōs answered. “And now that my Ice Maiden has melted, I am no longer afraid that she will go back to the snow!”
Thea gave a little choked laugh and hid her face against his neck.
“Are you – shocked that I was – so excited by you?” she asked.
“How could I be shocked by my own Hungarian blood?” Nikōs replied. “And I still have a great deal to teach you about love, my precious wife.”
“That – is what I – want and only you could have thought of the music which makes me feel very – Hungarian!”
“I am only afraid that I might have disappointed you.”
She knew that he was teasing her and she said passionately,
“You are – everything they have ever – said about Hungarians and now I know what the word ‘lover’ really means.”
Then Nikōs was kissing her again.
Once more her whole body seemed to be filled with fire as she responded to him.
She was not sure whether the Voivode’s music was still playing outside or whether she heard it in her heart.
But there was music rising to a thrilling crescendo.
As Nikōs made her his, they were once again touching the stars.
Chapter Seven
Nikōs climbed out of bed and pulled back the painted curtains so that the sunshine could stream into the room.
There were two windows when the curtains were drawn back with one looking over the woods and one over the valley.
Thea saw him silhouetted against the morning sky and she thought that no one could be more attractive and no man more masculine.
“Do you realise, darling,” she asked in a soft voice, “that we have now been married for four days?”
“I am not certain,” Nikōs replied, “whether it feels like four centuries or four hours!”
He was teasing her and she laughed.
Then he came back to look at her with her red hair falling in cascades over her shoulders and the painted butterflies behind her seemed part of her green eyes.
“I wonder if you realise how lovely you are?” he asked now in his deep voice.
“Tell me,” she urged him.
She put out her hands to him and he said,
“You are tempting me, but while I want to get back into bed and hold you tight, I have to get up.”
There was something in the way he spoke that made Thea look at him apprehensively.
“Why?” she asked after a moment.
She thought that he was feeling for words before he responded,
“Ever since we have been married, my precious, everything we have done together has been so rapturous and so unbelievably marvellous that all I really want to do is to stay here for ever, telling you how perfect you are!”
“That is – what I want too,” Thea sighed.
Then because her instinct told her that there was something else in his mind, she asked nervously,
“What has – happened? What is – wrong?”
“There is nothing wrong,” Nikōs said. “But I knew, my darling, that we would have to face the world one day and unfortunately it is today.”
“Today?” Thea asked. What do – you – mean?”
He climbed into bed, put his arms around her and pulled her close to him.
“I don’t want you to be frightened,” he said. “At the same time I want you to do what I ask of you.”
He felt a little tremor run through Thea’s body before she replied,
“You know because I love you so much that I will do – anything you ask, but now – I am frightened.”
“It may seem frightening,” Nikōs said, “but I want you to trust me.”
She remembered that he had said the same when they were being taken prisoner by the bandits.
“You know I trust you,” she asserted passionately, “and I love and adore you. No man could be more utterly and completely wonderful.”
Nikōs’s arms tightened and then, as if he forced himself to speak, he said,
“I have received a message that makes it imperative for me to see my family as soon as it possible for me to do so.”
Thea drew in her breath and stifled a cry of horror.
“I think therefore,” Nikōs went on, “while I tell my family about you, you must tell yours about me.”
“T-tell my – family?” Thea faltered.
Nikōs smiled.
“I suppose sooner or later we have to be frank with each other. It seems just incredible that I have no idea what your name was before you became my wife!”
“Does it – matter?” Thea asked.
“It is something we both have to do sooner or later,” Nikōs replied to her quietly.
There was a long silence and Thea knew that he was willing her to do what he wished.
Because she could not bear to disappoint him, she said after a moment in a very small voice,
“What – am I to do?”
“I want you to tell them,” Nikōs replied, “and I think, my darling, that you came here from Gyula.”
He saw Thea start and he went on,
“Tomorrow, after I have arranged everything and done what I have to do, I will come to Gyula and meet your father and mother.”
Now Thea did give a little cry of protest and Nikōs urged her,
“Don’t be afraid. If they are angry, I will placate them. Don’t tell them tonight that we are married, but leave me to bear the brunt of their anger.”
“They will be – furious!” Thea muttered.
“Just make your apologies for having been away for so long,” Nikōs answered, “and trust me to do what is right when I arrive.”
“How – how will you know where to – find me?” Thea asked.
As she spoke, she knew that she was shrinking from telling him who she was.
If he was going away from her, perhaps when he had time to think it over, and she was not there, he would be sorry that they were married.
“Leave everything until tomorrow,” Nikōs stressed as if he read her thoughts.
He thought for a moment and then he said,
“Meet me outside the town on the main road and then we will go together to confess what has happened and hope that your family will forgive us.”
He smiled as he spoke, but Thea wanted to say that it was no laughing matter for her.
She could imagine the contempt that her father would treat any commoner with when she had married.
She had a vision of them both being thrown out of The Palace and humiliated in front of the Courtiers and the servants.
Then, as if everything was decided, Nikōs turned her face up to his and kissed her.
For a moment, because she was perturbed, she did not respond until inevitably she felt her heart throbbing with excitement.
The flames of sunshine ignited within her and became fire.
Then, as the sun came flooding in to turn Thea’s hair to a shining glory, everything else was forgotten.
Nikōs was kissing her and touching her and just how was it possible for her to think of anything else?
Her whole body responded to his and they were suddenly in a dream world.
There were only themselves and the beauty of the Gods.
*
Thea rode over the grassland.
She knew that within a few minutes she would have her first sight of the City and The Palace white and majestic standing above it.
She had the terrifying feeling that she was leaving all her happiness behind her.
Nikōs, before he saw her off, had held her close in his arms.
“You are not to be frightened,” he ordered, “you are to concentrate on our love and know that, because you are my wife, no one can ever take you from me.”
“Y-you are – sure of that?”
“Absolutely certain,” he affirmed. “Once again, my perfect little wife, I ask you to trust me.”
He kissed her until she knew that she would have gone down into Hell itself if he had asked her to do so.
When she had ridden away, she did not look back, because it might be unlucky.
She was aware that Isten was waiting for Nikōs and also he was dressed in conventional riding clothes. Again his artist’s bow had been discarded and his white stock was neatly tied around his neck.
His polished riding boots shone like mirrors.
She clung to him, terrified that once they were parted she would never see him again.
“You – will be – safe?” she asked in a trembling little voice.
“I promise you there will be no dragons, no bandits and nothing to harm me until I come to you tomorrow.”
“At what time?”
He thought for a moment and then he answered,
“At about four o’clock. Where will you meet me?”
“In the meadowland that is just before you reach the bridge that leads into the City,” she replied.
“You promise me you will be there?”
“That is the question ‒ I was going to ask you,” she countered.
He kissed her again and lifted her up onto Mercury’s back and she rode away.
‘I love him! I love him!’ she said over and over again to herself.
She was still saying it three hours later as she crossed the bridge where she would meet him tomorrow.
She rode back to The Palace and, when she entered through the main gate, the sentries came to attention.
She was sure that they were looking at her with curiosity and she felt certain that by this time everybody in The Palace would be aware that she had disappeared.
Because she was so nervous, she did not go up to the front door but rode round to the stables.
The Head Groom came hurrying out of his workshop as soon as he saw her.
“Your Royal Highness!” he exclaimed. “You’re back! Everyone’s been ever so worried about you in case you’d had an accident.”
He looked at Mercury with admiration and Thea said,
“No, we are both quite safe.”
She dismounted and walked into The Palace by a side door.
She went upstairs to her bedroom and rang for her maid.
“Your Royal Highness!” Martha cried. “Just how can you have given us such a fright? Where have you been?”
While she was changing her clothes, Martha was reprimanding her as she had when she was a little girl and it was all so familiar.
She still had to face her father, however, and she was well aware that it was going to be a difficult confrontation.
At this time of the day he would be in one of the State rooms dealing with the affairs of the nation and surrounded by his Statesmen and aides-de-camp.
But she went first to see her mother.
The Queen, who was never in very good health, was resting in one of the window seats of the drawing room.
She gave an exclamation of surprise when she saw Thea and then asked her,
“Dearest, where have you been? We have been so worried and your father is very angry. I became dreadfully apprehensive when we would never find you.”
“I am sorry, Mama, if I have upset you, but I think you can guess why I ran away.”
The Queen sighed.
“I knew only too well that you had no wish to marry King Otho and, when I saw him, I could understand exactly what you were feeling.”
Her mother was so kind that Thea felt the tears come into her eyes.
“I am sorry, Mama, but I could not marry an old man like him.”
“I know, dearest, but your father thought that it would be for the good of our country.”
“Is he still very angry?”
“He was at first,” the Queen replied, “then he thought that you must have had a nasty accident. Yesterday he sent out some more Officers we can trust to look for you, but they came back in the evening to say that, although they had ridden for a long way, they could not find you.”
The Queen smiled.
“I thought you would be with one of your old Governesses, but Papa did not think of that, so I did not suggest that was where they might look.”
Thea laughed.
“Oh, Mama, you are so kind and you do understand what I was feeling.”
The Queen sighed again.
“It is the penalty for being Royal.”
“Does Papa still expect me to marry King Otho?”
The Queen looked at the door as if she did not wish to be overheard and then she said,
“He has not told me so, but I have the idea that he has by now realised the impossibility of such a marriage. Try not to upset him now that you are back.”
Thea kissed her mother again and then went to find her father.
Because it was nearly luncheontime, she thought that he would have gone into his study in their part of The Palace.
She was right and, when she slowly opened the door of the study, he was standing at the window gazing out onto the flower garden.
“Good morning, Papa.”
He turned sharply when she spoke and she saw an expression not of anger but of relief on his face.
“Thea, you are back!”
She ran towards him, put her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek.
“I am sorry, Papa, if I have upset you.”
“Where have you been, you naughty girl? I thought you might have had an accident or been in danger of some sort.”
Thea knew that this was true, but she had already decided that she would not tell him about the bandits.
“I am back now,” she stated, “and I am very sorry if I worried you so much, Papa.”
“I am really very angry,” the King insisted.
But there was a note in his voice that was more like relief than anger.
In fact they were all so relieved that she was home that, rather surprisingly, they did not question her as to where she had been.
They had all accepted her mother’s supposition that she had been with one of her old Governesses.
Only after dinner, when they talked about everything that was happening in Kostas and read Georgi’s letters did Thea finally relax.
It had all passed off so much better than she had dared to hope.
Yet she wondered what they would feel tomorrow when she confessed that she had been married to a commoner without their permission.
‘Perhaps they will forgive me,’ she thought hopefully.
Then she knew, as far as her father was concerned, that was most unlikely.
Because her mother always went to bed early, Thea retired to her bedroom soon after dinner was finished.
“Goodnight, Mama,” Thea said, kissing her affectionately.
“Goodnight, my dearest, I am so happy to have you home again.”
Her father said much the same and this made Thea feel even guiltier.
“I shall have a great deal more to say to you tomorrow,” the King added, “and no more naughtiness, do you understand?”
“Yes, Papa.”
“That is a good girl. The Palace seems very empty when you are not here.”
Thea drew in her breath and as she went up to her bedroom, she wondered how she could bear to hurt them.
Then she knew that nothing mattered except for Nikōs.
She belonged to
him and she was part of him.
Perhaps one day they would forgive her, especially if she had a baby who would be their grandchild.
It was a long time before she went to sleep and she kept thinking that even her mother would find it hard to sympathise with her when she learned of the way that she had behaved.
‘Help me, help me,’ Thea found herself praying to God, who had blessed their marriage.
She also prayed to Héja even though he was not worshipped by the people of Kostas.
But he was a God of the country that Nikōs belonged to and she knew that in the future he would play a very special part in her life.
Finally she drifted off to asleep, wanting the night to pass quickly so that she could be with Nikōs again.
She had told her maid, Martha, not to call her very early as she had known that the long ride home and her anxiety as to how her father would react to her return had made her feel exhausted.
She wanted, above all else, to look beautiful for Nikōs when he arrived at The Palace.
She planned which of her prettiest riding habits she would wear.
She knew as she did so that she was really afraid that when he came home that there was someone beautiful whom he had known before to greet him.
Or perhaps there was somebody whom his family wanted him to marry rather than an unknown young woman he had met in the woods.
She was still asleep and dreaming of Nikōs when she was awakened by Martha coming into the room.
She thought it was annoying that she had come so early in the morning and turned over hoping that she would then go away.
But, having drawn back the curtains, Martha came to the side of her bed to say,
“You must wake up, Your Royal Highness.”
For a moment Thea pretended not to hear her and then Martha repeated,
“His Majesty says it’s real important you’re downstairs in half an hour.”
Thea sighed and opened her eyes.
“But why? What is the time?” she enquired.
“It’s nearly twelve noon, Your Royal Highness and His Majesty says he has a special guest comin’ to luncheon whom you are to meet.”
Thea sat up and wondered why her father had not told her about this special guest last night.
She just hoped that it would not entail one of the long-drawn-out State luncheons, which would make her late for Nikōs.
The Passionate Princess Page 12
