69 Love Leaves at Midnight

by Barbara Cartland

  *

  The following morning Margit called her as usual with the newspapers and now The People’s Voice was automatically included with the other three.

  Xenia sat up in bed to scan the headlines, thinking that there might be something about the disappearance of the Prime Minister, although she thought it unlikely.

  Instead there were headlines in enormous print about the King’s speech the previous day.

  Xenia remembered that she should have been present at a civic reception at which they would receive presents from the Mayor and Corporation of Molnár.

  It was disappointing to find that she had missed what she knew must have been a sensational declaration by the King.

  He had told the City dignitaries that he had before the reception instructed the Chancellor of the Exchequer to reduce all taxes, especially those relating to industry.

  He continued by saying that he intended in future to see that those who wished to start up new industries in Luthenia or to enlarge existing ones would be able to obtain special Government grants.

  Xenia smiled as she could imagine the surprise on the faces of those who listened to him and the excitement of the reporters.

  This was just what she had hoped he would say and she knew the fact that there would no longer be any opposition from a Parliament who had lost their leader had given an added emphasis to his plans.

  “This is good news, Your Royal Highness!” Margit said with a smile.

  “Very good!” Xenia agreed, “and now Margit, what have I to do this morning?”

  “Today there are many deputations to be received by Your Royal Highness and to present their gifts,” Margit answered. “The first is at ten o’clock.”

  Xenia realised that she had very little time and hastily ate her breakfast and had her bath.

  When she went downstairs, she knew that what she wanted more than anything else was to see the King, but she was kept busy until luncheon time.

  Then, because it was a large luncheon party with all his relatives and the other guests who had arrived for the wedding, they were seated at opposite ends of the table.

  Nevertheless, when they met in the salon before luncheon, he had raised her hands to his lips and, as she felt a little thrill run through her because he was touching her, she knew that he felt the same.

  In the afternoon the King had a meeting with the Privy Council at which, in the Prime Minister’s absence, he put forward a large number of suggestions and instructions that left those who listened impressed and at the same time apprehensive.

  He was well aware that they were wondering what the Prime Minister would say on his return and how they might find themselves ‘between the devil and the deep blue sea’.

  By the evening a strange rumour began to circulate through the City.

  It was said that the Prime Minister had disappeared because there might be charges brought against him for illicit trading with a foreign country and for intriguing with Austria against the independence of Luthenia.

  Nobody knew from where such stories originated, but they continued to be repeated from the highest citizen to the lowest.

  As Xenia dressed for dinner, she felt despairingly that this would be her last evening with the King and as far as she could see there was no chance of being alone with him.

  She was quite convinced that before she drove to the Cathedral tomorrow morning Johanna would appear to take her place.

  She was cutting it fine, but Xenia had calculated that, if she had learnt on the first or second day after her arrival in Molnár of the early date of the King’s marriage, she could have arrived by yesterday evening or, allowing for train delays, by today.

  ‘She will come this afternoon,’ Xenia told herself.

  She knew that somehow she must kiss the King once more because it was all she would have to remember of him in the future.

  As Margit fastened a diamond necklace round her neck and attached several diamond stars in her hair she told herself that this was the last time she would ever wear jewels.

  She knew now that she would never be married and her life would be one of empty loneliness.

  It would be impossible for her to love any other man as she loved the King, for, as her mother had done before her, she had given him not only her heart but also her soul and her mind.

  ‘And I have saved him!’ she told herself.

  It was some consolation that she had preserved his throne and he was in fact a very different man from the bitter cynical Monarch who had met her when she arrived.

  She went down the stairs to the salon and tonight there was no formality so that the guests did not assemble before the King to be presented.

  Instead they all mingled together and there was the chatter of voices and the sound of laughter as Xenia entered.

  One glance told her that the King was not there and it was in fact twenty minutes later before he appeared, full of apologies.

  “I thought perhaps, István, you were having a bachelor dinner on your last night of freedom,” one of his relations said jokingly.

  “I am a very willing prisoner of the bonds of matrimony,” the King replied and his eyes met Xenia’s as he spoke.

  Then they trooped into the dining room and once again Xenia was not beside him but had another Monarch and an elderly relative on either side of her.

  After dinner the ladies withdrew to the salon and Xenia waited impatiently for the King to join them.

  ‘I must see him alone – I must!’ she told herself.

  Every time the door opened she thought it would be a servant coming to tell her that someone was asking for her urgently and when she investigated she would find that it was Johanna.

  The King entered the salon, laughed and talked with his guests for a short while and then he came to her side.

  “I have something to tell you,” he began in a low voice.

  She looked into his eyes and everyone else seemed to vanish from her sight.

  She was sure that he felt the same as he drew her out of the room through one of the windows that opened onto the garden.

  They walked across the lawn and the last rays of the sun were playing on the fountain.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “I have this afternoon appointed a Deputy Prime Minister until such time as we can hold a General Election.’’

  “Was it safe for you to do that?” she asked quickly.

  “The rumours as to the Prime Minister’s disappearance were so disturbing that I felt justified in taking such a step.”

  “Oh, I am glad, so very glad!” Xenia cried. “Now everyone will realise that you are in control and no one else.”

  “That is exactly what I felt,” the King smiled, “and I knew that you would understand.”

  They stopped at the end of the garden and were out of sight of the Palace.

  “I have not had a chance,” the King said quietly, “to tell you how much I owe you. I am well aware that none of this would have happened if it had not been for you.”

  “Now you are everything I would want you to be,” Xenia murmured.

  “You have inspired and guided me,” the King went on, “and tomorrow I shall be able to tell you not only how grateful I am but also how much I love you!”

  He drew her into his arms and kissed her until she felt the garden swing round her and he carried her into the glory of the setting sun.

  There was a fire in his eyes when finally he set her lips free and breathed,

  “I have to leave you, my darling. There is so much I have to do before tomorrow, before we can go away in peace on our honeymoon.”

  His arms tightened as he said,

  “Nothing and nobody is going to stop us from being alone together, when I can make you realise that you are mine and I love you more than life itself.”

  “I can never – forget that you – offered your life for – mine,” Xenia whispered.

  “Forget that,” the King said. “Forget everything that h
appened. You know we must never speak of it. At the same time in the future, my precious one, there must be no secrets between us.”

  He did not know of the fundamental secret there was already between them, Xenia thought wildly, and for one moment she wondered if she should tell him the truth.

  Then she knew that it would not only be disloyal to Johanna, but would solve nothing.

  He was obliged to marry not just her cousin but the daughter of the Archduke Frederich of Prussen.

  However much he might love her, however much he might wish, if he learnt the truth, to keep her as his wife, it would be impossible because two other countries were involved, Prussen and Slovia.

  Because she felt it was for the last time, Xenia pressed herself closer to him.

  “Kiss me again – István, please – kiss me once – again.”

  “Not once,” he replied, “this is just the first of a thousand kisses I shall give you, my dearest darling, my little love, my perfect, wonderful wife-to-be.”

  He kissed her passionately, then, as Xenia knew that it was as agonising for him to leave her as for her to see him go, they walked back together to the Palace.

  As she went in through the window of the salon, he left her.

  It was difficult to hear anything that was said to her after she joined the party and it was the Dowager Duchess who finally suggested that she should go to bed.

  “You have a long day before you tomorrow, my dear,” she insisted.

  She walked with Xenia to the door and, when they were out of hearing of anyone else, she said,

  “I cannot tell you what it means to me to see István so happy. You have changed him, Johanna, and we are all of us very very grateful.”

  “Thank – you,” Xenia replied.

  There was a sob on the words as she slipped away alone and up the Grand Staircase to bed.

  Chapter 6

  Driving towards the Cathedral with the crowd cheering wildly on either side of the route, Xenia felt not only that she was in a dream but that she must also do something about it.

  Every moment before she left the Palace for the Cathedral she had expected Johanna to arrive.

  She had even sent downstairs three times to ask if there was ‘a lady from England’ to see her.

  The answer each time had been ‘no’ and there was nothing she could do but allow Margit to dress her in the beautiful diamond embroidered wedding gown that had been, by great good fortune, packed in Johanna’s luggage.

  Xenia realised that she must have bought it in Paris and had doubtless meant to take it to Prussen where the Ambassador of that country, who was now sitting beside her, had told Johanna that the marriage was to take place.

  “I don’t know what His Highness the Archduke will say,” he kept repeating in his monotonous German voice. “He will blame me for this unseemly haste, ma’am, and what can I answer?”

  “You must tell him the truth, Herr Winhofenberg,” Xenia replied when she could concentrate enough to listen to what he was saying.

  It seemed to her that the only thing she was fully conscious of was that she was to marry the King and she would be with him for a little longer than she had imagined last night would be possible.

  The crowds were cheering with a spontaneity which she knew was due not only to the King’s newfound popularity, but also her own.

  There were quite a number of banners being carried by the crowd with,

  “SHE CARES!” and

  “GOD SAVE OUR QUEEN WHO CARES FOR US!”

  The thousands of children lining the route threw bunches of flowers towards her carriage, which she was sure was on the instigation of their parents.

  The newspapers had for the last two days been so filled with excitement over the building of a Women’s and Children’s Hospital that it had almost superseded the astonishment over the King’s reductions in taxes and his promise of help for industry.

  ‘Whatever else I have done in this very short time, I have at least brought him and his people together,’ Xenia thought.

  The word ‘together’ made her feel as if a voice asked, ‘and what about you?’ But she knew the answer to that.

  Even if she was married to him she thought that she would have no security of tenure and Johanna, when she arrived, would automatically take what was her rightful place.

  “This enthusiasm is very gratifying, ma’am,” the Prussen Ambassador murmured as the crowds grew thicker when they reached the streets of the City.

  It was then that Xenia saw on the wall of a windowless building an enormous poster.

  It was a picture of a woman wearing a short red peasant skirt and kicking her leg and throwing back her sensuous body in an attitude of abandonment.

  At the top of the poster Xenia read,

  “Come and see Elga in ‘The Follies of Molnár.”

  Xenia stared at it and for a moment the smile she had acknowledged the cheers with faded from her face.

  So that was Elga!

  She had almost forgotten about her and the King’s involvement with her in these last two days of dramatic events.

  The poster made it clear that she was not only very attractive but also very vivacious.

  ‘So that is the sort of woman the King really likes!’ Xenia told herself.

  She felt she would have nothing in common with a woman who she now knew was a music hall dancer.

  “Elga!”

  “Elga!”

  The name repeated itself as the State Coach carried her on and even the cheers of the crowd seemed to repeat the name in her ears.

  Yet by the time they reached the Cathedral, Xenia had other things to think about.

  Johanna, she was sure, had seen many Royal Weddings and perhaps as a bridesmaid had taken part in some, but she had not only never seen one but she could not remember her mother telling her what happened.

  She looked towards the Prussen Ambassador as if for guidance.

  Then she felt that anything he could tell her would not only be long-winded and tedious but she would find it hard to follow what he was saying in his guttural German.

  The State Coach, decorated with dolphins and mermaids in glittering gold, drew up at the door of the Cathedral.

  As Xenia stepped out, the noise of the crowd seemed to deaden even the thoughts in her mind and she suddenly felt helpless and frightened.

  The train of her wedding gown attached at her waist was very long and bordered with ermine and was to be carried by four pages dressed in seventeenth century costume.

  Because there had been no time to arrange it, she was to have no bridesmaids but Madame Gyula would act as Matron of Honour and take her bouquet when she reached the chancel steps.

  Desperately, feeling almost as if she was drowning in an unknown sea that was buffeting her with waves of indecision and fear, Xenia remembered that during the service the King would crown her Queen.

  She wondered what would happen if at the very moment that she became Queen of Luthenia she was denounced as an imposter.

  She had a feeling that the crowd who were cheering her so vivaciously might instead be ready to tear her to pieces.

  What was more important, all the good she had done in helping the King would be lost forever.

  ‘No one will ever know,’ she told herself confidently and realised that the Prussen Ambassador was offering her his arm to escort her up the aisle.

  The organ that had been playing softly changed into a triumphant march and they started to move through the packed congregation whose colourful gowns and sparkling jewels swung in a dazzling kaleidoscope before Xenia’s eyes.

  The walk to the Chancel seemed interminable. In front of her were the Bishops and the Clergy in their gold-encrusted vestments, preceded by a jewelled cross which seemed to catch the sunlight that was streaming in through the stained glass windows.

  ‘This cannot be taking place! What will happen when Johanna arrives?’ Xenia asked herself desperately.

  She had a sudden impulse to
drop the Ambassador’s arm and run away to hide.

  How could she carry on with a pretence, which had turned into something so serious? She felt that she was making a mockery of everything that was sacred not only in the Sacrament of Marriage but also of the crowning of a Queen.

  Then, as they reached the Chancel steps, she saw the King.

  He turned to look at her and, as she perceived the expression on his face, everything was swept from her mind but him.

  Her fears vanished and, as she reached his side, she felt as if they met each other across eternity and all this had happened before.

  They were together, they had found each other and nothing else was of any consequence.

  In that moment she felt a sense of security and happiness as if he held her in his arms.

  She could feel him close beside her and she felt too as if there was the pressure of his lips on hers.

  When the King took her hand and put the wedding ring on her finger, she felt a thrill run through her and thought that he must be aware of it.

  ‘I love you!’ she wanted to shout out loud. ‘I love you more than life itself!’

  She knew that if he asked it of her she would die for him.

  After that she seemed to be enveloped in a golden cloud, as she repeated all the responses that were required.

  Then she knelt and the diamond tiara she was wearing was removed and, as the King placed the Queen’s Crown on her head, she wanted to tell him that she was at his feet and his slave for all time.

  The Service was very long, but to Xenia it passed quickly because she was beside the King and could think of nothing else.

  Then at last after the Archbishop’s blessing the King gave her his arm and they proceeded down the aisle of the Cathedral while the gentlemen bowed their heads and the ladies swept to the ground with a lovely graceful gesture like a field of corn waving in the wind.

  Waiting for them outside in the sunshine was not the closed State Coach that Xenia had travelled in to the Cathedral, but an open carriage decorated with flowers and drawn by six snow-white horses.

  Xenia was helped in and her long train was arranged on the seat opposite. Then the King sat down beside her.

  She thought that in his white tunic and plumed hat he looked more handsome, more authoritative, more commanding and more irresistibly attractive than he had ever done before.