To Titania’s surprise he went down on one knee and, taking her hand in his, kissed it.
Without another word he turned, walked across the boudoir and left her. Titania climbed back to bed.
Now she prayed again, but it was a prayer of thankfulness that God had heard her fervent pleading.
The King was safe.
*
Titania awoke and realised that it was very late in the morning.
She had not gone to sleep for a long time after Darius had left her and even now she felt a little drowsy.
At the same time, when she remembered that the King was safe, she felt as if a shaft of sunlight was sweeping through her body.
‘I must get up,’ she determined, ‘and I wonder when I can see him.’
It was a question she asked herself every minute that passed and she wanted to be quite certain that he was alive and really had survived the dastardly plot against him.
‘He is so kind and so wonderful and there is so much for him to do now that he is interested in his people and in making Velidos prosperous.’
She remembered that she had left the book on prospecting for gold, which she wanted the King to read, on the balcony in the library.
It would still be lying on the spot where she had hidden it from Prince Frederick and she thought that when the King sent for her she would tell him about it.
She ate her breakfast alone and did not like to leave the boudoir or her bedroom until she was told she could do so.
She supposed that her cousin would be packing up to leave on the ship that was to take her and Prince Frederick to Platicos and she did not expect that Sophie would want or be allowed to say goodbye to her.
It must have been nearly half-past nine when there was a knock on her bedroom door.
Titania crossed the room to open it.
Outside was the lady’s maid who spoke English and who had been attending Princess Sophie.
“What is it, Christa?” asked Titania.
“Her Royal Highness,” replied Christa, “says that you are to go with her to Platicos. You are to hurry and have your clothes packed. Their Royal Highnesses are leaving in two hours.”
Titania stared at the woman.
“Did you – say I was to go – with the Princess?”
“That is what she says, miss.”
Titania pushed her to one side and ran down the passage. She ran without thinking or considering anything but the horror she felt. The idea of having to go into exile with Sophie and Prince Frederick was terrifying.
She ran through the hall and along the corridor which led into the library.
She pulled open the door and rushed in.
The King was at the far end of the room, not sitting at his writing table, but standing in front of the window.
He heard her approach and turned round.
As Titania ran towards him he saw the expression of horror on her face and the fear in her eyes.
“What is the matter, what has happened?”
Titania flung herself against him and had to hold on to him or she would have fallen down.
“They – tell me,” she stammered in a breathless voice that was hardly articulate, “that I am to – go with Sophie into – exile. Please, please do not – make me – do so. Please – let me stay here.”
The words seemed to fall out of her lips without Titania realising what she was saying.
The King put his arms around her.
“Do you think I could possibly lose you?” he asked.
Then his lips were on hers. He kissed her, not gently but fiercely, as if it was something he had long wanted to do and could no longer control himself.
To Titania it was as if the Heavens had opened and a light from God suddenly enveloped her.
When she felt the urgent pressure of his lips, her body seemed to melt into his.
She gave him not only her heart but her soul.
The King kissed her until she felt as if they were no longer of this world, but were flying up into the sky.
Then he raised his head and looked down at her.
“I love you,” he said and his voice was very deep.
“And I love you – I love you,” murmured Titania, “and I would rather die than have to go away – and never see you again.”
“You will not die, my darling, but you will live to show me exactly how I can love my people as you want me to.”
Titania hid her face against his shoulder.
“Did you – really say – you love me?” she whispered.
“I have loved you from the first moment I saw you, but I felt it was something I dared not feel, because everything I have ever cared for has always been taken from me.”
Titania realised he was thinking of how he had lost his dog and how cruel his stepmother had been to him. Without being aware of it she moved even closer to him and almost as if she was speaking to herself she told him,
“No one shall ever hurt you again.”
“That is what I thought you might say to me,” sighed the King, “but I was desperately afraid.” Titania looked up in surprise. “Afraid of – what?”
“That I would not be allowed to marry you,” the King replied.
Titania gave a little gasp. Somehow the thought of marriage had never occurred to her when she was thinking about the King and loving him.
“But of course – not,” she said. “I am sure you are – not allowed – to marry a – commoner.”
“Do you think,” the King asked her, “that I would offer you anything else? Even a morganatic marriage. My darling, I love you too much for that.”
Because of the emotion in his voice and the look in his eyes, Titania felt a quiver of rapture run through her. She hid her face against him again.
“I – do not – understand,” she whispered.
“I tried to steel myself against you and to tell myself that it was unlikely that you would love me and therefore I must ignore what I felt for you. But it was completely impossible.”
“Is that why you – did not – come riding?” Titania questioned.
“It was, and then when I knew I could not lose you and had no wish to live without you, my prayers were answered.”
“Your – prayers?”
“I prayed to every God you and I have ever talked about, and, naturally, as I am half Greek, I prayed to the Gods who lived on Olympus with the Goddess of Love amongst them.”
His arms tightened round her and once again Titania felt rapture moving through her body.
The King continued, “
As if it was a voice from Heaven, I was told what to do.”
“What – was – that?”
“I cabled my Ambassador in London and told him to send me your mother’s family tree.”
Titania stared at him in astonishment.
“But why?” she asked. “And what has – it to do with – us?”
“I was not really sure, but it was what I was told to do by a Power greater than myself.”
With his arms around Titania he drew her a little nearer to his desk.
“This is what arrived this morning,” he said, “and it has just been decoded.”
He handed Titania a piece of paper and she looked at it in surprise.
Then she read,
“In answer to Your Majesty’s request, the father of Lady Rupert Brooke was the Chieftain of the McHelms, an ancient clan dating back to the Picts. His wife was Isa Falkner, a direct descendant of Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland from 1306 to 1329.
I trust that this is the information Your Majesty required.
I remain, Your Majesty’s most humble and obedient servant.”
It was signed with the signature of the Ambassador and Titania stared at the paper before saying,
“I knew that Mama was related to Robert the Bruce, but the English have never thought very much of him, because he drove them out of Scotland before he came to the throne.”
“Whatever the English thought
or did not think, a King is always a King. That is why, my precious one, we can be married. You will be my Queen and help me to make Velidos exactly the Kingdom you and I want it to be.”
Titania threw her arms round him.
“I do not believe it. I am dreaming. I never thought for one moment that even though I love you – we could be – married.”
“We are going to be married immediately,” insisted the King, “because I do not want to be without you for one minute more than necessary. Also there is sure to be a great deal of gossip already about my disreputable half-brother going to Platicos. So we must give our people something else to talk about and what could be better than a Royal Wedding?”
“They have – already had – one,” murmured Titania. “Ours will be very different and it will be you, my darling, who will make it different.
They will have something to remember for the rest of their lives.”
She pulled the King’s head down towards hers.
“That is just the sort of thing I want you to say. You are so wonderful and I want your people to know it and to – love you – as I do.”
“As long as you love me, nothing else matters.”
“I love you with all of – me,” answered Titania, “my heart, my soul are – all yours. Are you quite, quite sure that – nothing can prevent us – from being together?”
“I am quite, quite sure,” the King smiled at her tenderly. “And, my darling, because you want our people to be happy, we will do everything in our power to make them as happy as we are.”
Titania thought as she looked up at him that she had never seen a man look so happy.
There was an expression in the King’s eyes that made her as thrilled as if the sunshine was burning inside her breasts. As if he knew what she was feeling, he pulled her closer.
He kissed her until it was impossible for her to think of anything else except the wonder of his kisses. It must have been an hour later when the King said,
“Frederick’s ship will have left by now and I am going to announce my engagement to you and that we are to be married in four days time.”
He looked at Titania as he spoke as if he feared she might object and say it was too soon. Because she knew what he was thinking, she merely replied,
“Must we wait – so long?” The King laughed.
“I adore you,” he told her, “and you always say the unexpected.
Apart from anything else, my precious, I want to explore you and everything about you, just as I have already given orders that the most experienced metal prospectors in the world are to be asked to come to Velidos and explore our mountains.”
“That is marvellous,” cried Titania. “I know that because God is so good to us we will find something fantastically valuable and everyone in the country will benefit.”
“Apart from anything else they will richly benefit just because you are their Queen,” added the King.
Then he was kissing her again.
*
To Titania it was a challenge that the King had decided they should be married in four days time as it gave her very little time to plan what should be done.
He told her that he was already considering that there should be fireworks for the people and a merry-go-round and amusements for the children, which they would never have experienced.
When she learnt that he had already given the orders, Titania flung her arms round him saying,
“You are wonderful, wonderful, exactly the King I want you to be.”
“I think of what you would want,” he said, “and then I know it is the right thing to do.”
They walked round the Palace hand in hand with all the Courtiers and servants smiling benignly at them.
Titania thought she was living in a paradise that she could never have even imagined.
As the King was planning ways to delight his people, Titania thought quickly that she too must make her wedding different in every way from Sophie’s.
She turned to Darius.
“How many towns are there in Velidos?”
He thought for a moment and then answered,
“I think there are eight what you might call towns and the rest are only little villages.”
“Then I tell you what you will have to arrange immediately – “ Darius was listening and she explained,
“I want each town to send a little girl of six or seven years old to be one of my bridesmaids.
There will be two from the City and that will make ten altogether.
They can wear white dresses, which their mothers can make for them very easily out of cheap muslin, and we at the Palace must provide wreaths for their heads and small bouquets for them to carry.”
“That is a brilliant idea!” exclaimed Darius. “And it will please everyone.”
“That is what I thought,” continued Titania, “and I suggest that the King makes an order that a boy of sixteen is chosen from each town and again two from here in the City, who will wear the national costume and escort him as a bodyguard, besides, of course, his soldiers.”
Darius was delighted with the idea and so was the King when he heard about it.
“I knew you would think of something different, my darling,” he said to Titania. It was impossible for her to reply because he was kissing her.
For her own wedding dress she had the inspiration of sending for the woman in the little village who made lace so beautifully and found that she had already moved into one of the empty shops in the City’s main street.
Titania had brought a white dress which Nanny had insisted on her buying before she came away and when a train was added to it and the lace decorated it, it looked gloriously beautiful.
Almost like a fairy tale wedding gown.
The King sent for the Crown Jewels, which had not seen the light of day since his mother had worn them.
They were different from those that had been specially made for his stepmother.
“These,” he said harshly, “are to be sold and the money spent in building a hospital in the City”. His mother’s jewels were of Greek design and stunningly exquisite.
Titania put on the Crown and the magnificent diamond necklace and she knew by the expression in the King’s eyes how lovely she must look.
She had not forgotten what she had been told his stepmother had done. As well as the Crown Jewels having been stored away, so had a great many other objects which had adorned the Palace.
As Darius had said, it was an Aladdin’s Cave and when she and the King inspected the rooms filled with what his stepmother had discarded, they could hardly believe their eyes.
There were exquisite examples of Dresden and Sevres china and gold goblets embellished with precious stones.
There were chandeliers that the German Queen had thought too extravagant because they held so many candles.
There were collections of jewel-inlaid snuff boxes and also to the King’s delight a number of pictures by famous artists.
His stepmother had thought they overloaded the walls.
He gave orders that everything was to be brought out and cleaned and placed in the rooms where they must have been in the past. Some of the older servants remembered exactly where each object belonged.
When Titania saw the transformation of the dull reception rooms, she clapped her hands with delight.
“Now it looks like the sort of Palace you should be living in,” she said to the King.
“I want it to be a Palace for you,” he answered, “and, my darling, I think we should travel a little to add to our collection.”
“I would love that,” she said simply. “I am so happy because wherever we are together is like being in Heaven.”
“That is exactly what I was thinking,” he sighed.
Despite the rush their wedding plans were all carried out to perfection.
And to add to Titania’s happiness Darius came to tell her that Nanny and Mercury were due to arrive in Velidos the day before the Royal Wedding.
When Titania left the Palace with the Lord Chamberlain there were many more spectators in the streets than there had been for Sophie’s wedding. She drove in the State glass carriage to the Cathedral.
The cheers of the crowd were spontaneously enthusiastic and everyone who looked at her seemed to be smiling.
Her bridesmaids were waiting at the foot of the Cathedral steps and they looked like a bunch of flowers with their white dresses and their wreaths and bouquets.
The ten pretty little girls were very excited, as were their parents.
Titania spoke to each one of them and then as they followed her up the steps to the West door, the crowd cheered and shouted, realising what a beautiful picture they made.
“Good luck and long life.”
The Cathedral was packed and many were standing at the back unable to find a seat, but Titania had made certain that Nanny was given a seat right at the front.
A fanfare of trumpets greeted Titania as she entered and she could see the King waiting for her at the end of the aisle. It was with the greatest difficulty that she did not run towards him.
The young men in their national costume made a spectacular bodyguard on either side of the aisle.
When Titania reached the King it was impossible not to put out her hand and slip it into his. His fingers tightened on hers.
Then as the Archbishop began the service, Titania was certain that the angels were singing overhead and God was blessing their marriage as He had brought them together when they had prayed to Him.
As the King crowned her, Titania prayed that she would deserve the faith of him and his people.
When the service was over, the King with Titania on his arm walked slowly down the aisle and the young men in their national costume followed the small bridesmaids.
As they stepped out through the West door, they made such a colourful picture that the crowds below almost went mad with excitement.
They had all brought flower petals to throw at the bride and bridegroom and now there was no doubt that their enthusiasm came from their hearts.
Holding tightly on to the King with one hand, Titania waved with the other.
She realised that this was really the beginning of his reign and she was determined that it would be a reign that would be remembered and respected in the centuries ahead.
The King Without a Heart Page 13
