“I thought, as you are well aware, that if he remained a recluse for long enough, the people would cry out that I should take his place and he would be forced to abdicate. What is now happening is upsetting all my plans.”
“I know, Your Royal Highness, it is extremely difficult,” Henry spoke up at last, “but perhaps, if we remove the girl, he would revert to his normal behaviour, which would make matters better for you.”
“I will deal with her later,” snarled Prince Frederick. “She can have an unfortunate accident. Fall out of a window or drown in the lake. She is no problem.”
“But once she is no longer around,” persisted Henry, “it might mean that the King will return to his isolation.”
“It is too late,” snapped Prince Frederick. “I have waited long enough. I intend to be King and nothing will stop me.”
He looked first at one of the aides-de-camp and then at the other.
“Very well, as I cannot allow you to mess things up, I will kill him myself. All we have to do is to open the window which is here just behind his chair, which will show how the assassins entered and killed the King while he was working on his book.”
“Your Royal Highness is very clever,” said Henry and the other aide-de-camp murmured the same sentiment.
“Now it is all settled,” announced Prince Frederick with satisfaction, “and we will do it tonight as soon as it is dark. With any luck no one will think of disturbing the King until the early hours of the morning when they have been told to escort him up to bed.”
He looked round the library again.
Titania turned her head away in case, by some terrible mischance, he would see her eyes looking at him through the golden leaves.
Then Prince Frederick looked again towards the writing table.
There was an unpleasant smile on his lips as if he could already see his half-brother lying dead and know that he was the King of Velidos.
He turned round sharply and walked from the library with the two aides-de-camp following him, closing the door behind them.
Titania could hardly believe what she had heard.
She was trembling with the sheer horror of it.
She was so terrified that she found it impossible to move for a long time after Prince Frederick and his entourage had left.
Could it really be possible that he intended to kill the King himself? And that she also would die in some mysterious way from his hand?
It was a treacherous and wicked plot and she realised that the only person who could prevent it happening was herself.
Now it was vitally important that no one should see her leaving the library as by some mischance they might mention it to Prince Frederick, as if he suspected she had overheard what he was plotting, he would undoubtedly kill her immediately.
There was only one way she could prevent it from happening and that was that she must stay where she was until the King returned.
Every minute she waited for him seemed like an hour.
She began to be afraid that Prince Frederick had changed his plan and had killed the King in some other way before he returned to the Palace. She knew, even as she thought about it, that it was just her imagination.
She had to keep calm and sensible if she was to save the King.
At last, when it was nearly five o’clock, the main door to the library opened and the King entered followed by a servant who was asking him if he required any tea.
“No thank you,” he answered, “but I would like a glass of champagne later in the evening. See that you put a bottle on ice.”
“I will do so at once, Your Majesty.”
The servant bowed and left the room.
The King walked towards his desk and it was then that Titania rose to her feet and started to climb down the steps onto the floor.
The King looked at her in surprise.
“I did not know you were here, Titania. I suppose you have been finding yourself another book to read.”
Titania ran across the floor towards him.
When she reached him, for a moment the words would not come to her lips.
She could only look at him and he saw that she was trembling.
“What on earth has happened?” he asked. “What is the matter and why are you so upset?”
Titania put out her hand to hold on to him and in a whisper, which did not sound like her own voice, she told him,
“Prince Frederick is going to – murder you and – I too am – going to – die!”
The words came out incoherently and the King stared at her as if he could not believe what he had heard.
Then as he realised how genuinely upset she was, he said calmly,
“Come and sit down and tell me what has happened.”
He drew Titania towards the sofa by the fireplace and she sat down obediently.
At the same time she hung on to his hand with both of hers, as if she was afraid that should she let him go she might lose him.
“Now tell me what has happened,” repeated the King.
Slowly, finding every word difficult to utter and trembling as she did so, Titania told him what she had overheard.
She explained why she had come to the library to look for a book about prospecting for gold, how she had heard voices and thought it was the servants and, because she was in the library without permission, she had crouched down on the floor of the balcony.
Then she began to relate how Prince Frederick had entered the room and tried to remember every word he had said and every reply that had come from his aides-de-camp.
The King did not speak or interrupt.
His fingers merely tightened on Titania’s and his eyes were on her face.
Finally, when she had described how the Prince had gone away with a last look round at the library, she cried frantically,
“You must save yourself – you must have him arrested immediately. Oh, please – please believe what – I have told you.”
“I do believe you,” answered the King quietly. “Now I want you to be very brave and sensible and go to your room and stay there.”
“But he may – come and – kill me as he – has said he will.”
“You will be protected, although no one will be aware of it,” replied the King. “I want you to lock your door and tell anyone who is interested that you feel unwell and have gone to bed and do not want to be disturbed.”
“What – will – you do?
“Thanks to you,” said the King emphatically, “I will live to see another day.”
He took her hand which was still holding onto his and raised it to his lips.
“Thank you, Titania. Now you must leave me at once, because I have so much to do.”
“Promise – me you will – be very careful,” begged Titania.
“I promise you.”
“You must let me know – later tonight as soon as anything has happened. You know I will be unable to – sleep and will be praying frantically that – you will not be – hurt.”
“That is what I want you to do and to believe that good will triumph over evil as it always has.”
He rose to his feet and then he thought for a moment.
“It would be a mistake for anyone to see you leaving the library who might inadvertently tell Prince Frederick you were here when he came in to plot my murder.”
“That is why I – stayed here until – you came back.”
“That was very brave of you,” the King told her, “and are you brave enough to return the way you came which Darius showed you?”
“Yes, Sire, of course.”
“Then lock yourself in and remember that no one except your maid will be allowed to come near you.”
He took her to the door through which Prince Frederick had entered the library and he was aware that she shivered as they passed through it.
He escorted her to the door which led into the garden.
“Go to your room quickly,” he said. “Do not linger anywhere and start praying becaus
e we both need it.”
Titania looked up at him.
She thought, as this morning, that when their eyes met there was a strange expression in his.
She turned away and hurried through the garden. She was almost certain there was no one there to see her.
The King turned back into the library.
He rang the bell which summoned not the servants but his two aides-de-camp when he needed them and Darius and Kastri came at once to see what he required.
When they had closed the door he informed them of everything that Titania had told him and gave them their orders.
Horrified, but obeying him exactly as he knew they would, they hurried away.
After the King had dined alone as he always did and the servants had left the dining room, Darius and Kastri joined him.
“You have everything ready?” the King asked them.
“Everything, Sire,” replied Darius.
The King walked into the library and extinguished all the lights except one on his desk.
He had recently installed electric light in the Palace which the people had thought was sensational.
Darius and Kastri now carried something large and heavy into the library and set it down on the chair in front of the King’s writing desk.
*
It was an hour later that Prince Frederick and his two aides-de-camp crept in from the garden, wearing soft-soled shoes which made no sound.
They entered the King’s dining room and moving across it very slowly opened the door into the library.
Ahead Prince Frederick could see his half-brother quite clearly seated at his desk crouched over the book he was writing.
There was an expression of grim triumph on his face as he moved stealthily forward.
Raising his arm he brought the long, thin deadly stiletto which he held in his right hand down with all his strength into the King’s back.
Even as he did so and before he could release his hold of the stiletto, the lights in the library flashed on.
The curtains over the long windows opened and into the room stepped the King, the Prime Minister, the Lord Chamberlain and the Lord Chief Justice.
Standing on the balcony were Darius and Kastri with revolvers in their hands.
Prince Frederick stared at them.
Then he looked down at the dummy figure into which he had just stuck his stiletto. It was very lifelike, but with no face, only a false wig to imitate the King’s hair.
For a moment there was complete silence.
Then the King said,
“I deeply regret that this should have occurred, Frederick, and that you were so anxious to take my place that you were prepared to murder me.”
“I can explain,” answered Prince Frederick quickly. “It was just a joke.”
The King did not deign to answer, but merely continued,
“You know as well as I do that the punishment for those guilty of treason against the person of the King is to be beheaded.”
One of the Prince’s aides-de-camp let out a scream of terror and flung himself onto the floor.
“We were made to do it, we were made to do it!” he cried.
The King took no notice of him.
“I have decided, however,” he continued, still looking at Prince Frederick, “that as you are my half-brother, there should be no scandal attached to those who bear our name, so I intend to be extremely merciful.”
“I can explain – “ Prince Frederick began to say again, but the King held up his hand for silence.
“I do not wish for any explanation, nor do I want a trial. What I have decided is that you and your wife will go immediately into exile. You will leave early tomorrow for the Island of Platicos where you will stay for the rest of your life. You can have anything you require and you and your wife will be quite comfortable.”
He paused for a moment.
“At the same time should you attempt to leave Platicos or ever again set foot on Velidos soil, you will be taken in front of the Lord Chief Justice who will administer the Law of the Land as it is written for those who commit treason against the King.”
Prince Frederick was defeated and he knew it.
He turned and without a word walked out of the library followed by his aides-de-camp who were both in tears.
CHAPTER SEVEN
When Titania reached her bedroom after leaving the King to his preparations to foil Prince Frederick’s plot, she went down on her knees beside the bed.
She prayed more fervently than she ever had prayed in her whole life that the King would be saved.
She thought nothing could be more terrible than to learn tomorrow or perhaps tonight, that things had gone wrong and he was dead.
She wondered, if that happened, whether she would be brave enough to tell the truth, but there would perhaps be no point if he was no longer alive.
‘Save him, God – please save – him,’ she prayed over and over again.
Then as she prayed, she knew that she loved the King.
She had not realised it before, because she knew so little about love.
It had been a joy and a delight to be with him and she had been miserable when he had stayed away and did not come riding in the early morning with her.
Now she understood that she had given him her heart.
She loved him to the point that if he died she had no wish to go on living.
‘I love him, God,’ she prayed, ‘please – save him – please – please.’
She felt as if she was sending a thousand prayers up to Heaven on wings and somehow they would reach God.
Equally she recognised that the whole situation was desperately dangerous, not only for the King, but for herself.
‘I do not matter,’ she said beneath her breath. ‘If I die no one will worry, but if he dies then – everything that might benefit this country will be left undone. The whole population will miss him even if they are not aware of it.’
She prayed until she heard the maids come in to bring her bath as they always did before dinner.
It was with the greatest difficulty that she behaved naturally, talking to the maids in their language. She hoped she looked calm and not agitated, as far as they were concerned.
Tonight she told them that she had a headache and would not be going down to dinner and would they please arrange for her to have a light meal in her room.
They were very solicitous that she should be feeling unwell and because she thought she must keep up the pretence, she climbed into bed having had her bath.
She lay back against the pillows.
“I hope you’re not sickening for something, miss,” one of the maids said. “There be very bad fevers around here sometimes and they make one feel awful.”
“I will be alright,” replied Titania. “It is just that I am overtired.”
“It’s all that riding you does,” the maid answered. Then she went on, “I hear His Majesty brought a little boy who had been hurt back to his mother when he’d been riding this morning.”
“Who told you that?” asked Titania. “Oh, they’re all talking about it downstairs and everyone in the City is astonished at the King’s kindness.”
Titania could not help smiling as this was what she was hoping they would be saying about the King.
She was only apprehensive that Sophie would hear that she had been riding with him as, of course, the maids who looked after her were well aware of her early morning excursions.
When they called her she had already left her room and when she returned, she had changed from her riding clothes. She had made them promise not to tell anyone else that she went riding early in the morning.
She wondered now if it was something she would ever do again.
She could not imagine what would happen to Sophie when the King denounced Prince Frederick and she did not want to think about the penalty in Velidos for treason.
She knew in London it had meant all down the ages that the offender was taken to the Tower
and beheaded.
It was impossible for Titania to eat any of the delicious dishes that were brought upstairs for her dinner as she was too agitated.
When her tray was taken away, she told the maids that she did not wish to be disturbed as she was going to sleep and they hoped that she would have a restful night.
At last she was alone. It was agony not to know what was happening downstairs and what the King was doing.
Again she feared that at the last moment something might go wrong and he would die. ‘I love him – I love him,’ Titania prayed. ‘Please – save him.’
*
Much later, in fact it must have been nearly midnight,
Titania was still awake and praying, when she heard a knock on the communicating door that opened into her boudoir.
She jumped out of bed and pulling on her dressing gown she ran to the door.
It was Darius.
“What – has – happened?” she asked breathlessly.
“Everything is all right,” replied Darius. “You have saved His Majesty’s life.”
Titania took a deep breath and it was with the greatest difficulty that she did not burst into tears from sheer relief.
“Thanks to you, His Majesty was prepared and when Prince Frederick came into the library there were witnesses of what he was attempting to do waiting behind the curtains.”
He told Titania about the dummy and who the witnesses were and how he and Kastri were stationed on the balcony.
“His Royal Highness has been very mercifully treated,” he finished. “His Majesty has sent him and the Princess into exile on Platicos which is a pretty island and boasts a small Palace, which was built by His Majesty’s grandfather when he wanted to take a holiday.”
“And they have to – stay there?” asked Titania hesitatingly
“They are forbidden to leave the island, but otherwise they can have everything they may require.”
The relief was so overwhelming that Titania felt as if she might sink onto the floor.
“I must leave you now,” Darius informed her, “but His Majesty wanted you to know at once what had happened and also that it will be impossible for him to go riding tomorrow morning.”
“Of course, I can quite understand.”
“You have been very wonderful and everyone who knows what has occurred is in your debt and extremely grateful to you.”
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