She wore her prettiest gown, because she wanted to see the expression in his eyes.
‘I really do love him,’ she mused again, ‘but what man, whoever he was, would sacrifice his country for his heart?’
Because she was allowed down to dinner, Amalie was in a wild state of excitement.
She came into Latasha’s room to ask her if she was properly dressed.
“You look lovely, Amalie, and your brother will be very proud of you.”
She was glad for the girl’s sake when they walked downstairs and Prince Kraus, who was dining with them for the first time, announced,
“I am indeed flattered to have two such beautiful ladies with me. But now I am so much better, we are going to have a great number of parties and you must listen to the compliments that you will receive from all the local Don Juan’s!”
Amalie giggled.
“I don’t believe there are any. All the people who come to luncheon here are old with white hair.”
“I will find some young men for you,” her brother promised.
“And what about some beautiful ladies for you?” Latasha asked of Prince Kraus a little mischievously.
“I have all I require at the moment,” he replied to her firmly.
Then to Latasha’s complete delight he began to tell them stories of what he had done when he was young and travelling the world.
He made them both laugh so that when dinner was over, Latasha thought it was the nicest meal she had ever had at the Palace.
Reluctantly, when it was time for them to move into the drawing room, Amalie had to go to bed.
“If you stay up too late,” Latasha insisted, “you will be tired in the morning when we want to go riding before breakfast.”
“And after breakfast you will be riding with me?” Prince Kraus interposed.
“Are you really riding so soon?” asked Latasha.
“I am, and no one is going to stop me. I have sent an order to the stables for the best stallion so that you two will have to struggle hard to keep up with me!”
“Oh, please, please,” Latasha begged him, “do take it slowly.”
“I am not going to listen to you. Just for once I am going to do what I want to do. And that, I may say, will be a change!”
Latasha chuckled.
“The trouble with patients is they get spoilt because everyone makes too much fuss about them. Then they get uppish and, if they are not careful, they fall down before they reach the top!”
“Which is something I have no intention of doing, Lady Gloria, and when I do reach the very top on my own, it means that neither of you will be able to keep up with me and I shall expect a special prize from both of you!”
“A special prize!” exclaimed Amalie. “I wonder what you want. It seems to me you have everything.”
“Not everything – ” Prince Kraus muttered.
As he spoke his eyes met Latasha’s.
It was impossible for either of them to look away.
When Amalie had gone to bed, they sat talking for nearly an hour.
“You must rest,” persisted Latasha. “Please go and undress and I will come in a quarter-of-an-hour’s time and massage you so that you will sleep peacefully all through the night.”
“I would love it. Or else I will stay awake puzzling over the problem I have not yet solved – ”
He did not wait for her to reply, but walked from the room.
As the door closed behind him, she wondered as she had wondered before what his problem was.
Could it possibly be what she had hoped – that he wanted her?
And yet he could see no possible way she could be his without putting his country in peril?
A little later she walked along the passages towards the Royal apartment.
She was feeling, although she tried to prevent it, a beautiful rapture moving inside her just because in a few moments she would be with him again.
‘I am making a fool of myself,’ she pondered. ‘He does not love me in the same way.’
As she arrived at Prince Kraus’s room, the sentries came to attention.
An aide-de-camp opened the door for her.
“I am sure His Royal Highness is ready for you,” he said as he bowed.
Latasha entered to find Prince Kraus was seated, as he always was, in his armchair.
His feet were raised and he had a soft rug over his knees.
He was undressed and wearing a dark robe with a silk scarf round his neck.
She walked towards him.
There was only one lamp left alight in the room and not until Latasha reached him did she realise he was asleep.
He was sleeping peacefully with a faint smile on his lips which told her he was happy.
She stood gazing at him for a long time, but had no reason to touch him.
She recognised that there would be little chance of his waking again before next morning – it was a healing sleep from natural exhaustion and not from weakness.
Finally, as if she could not help herself, Latasha went down on her knees.
She prayed as she had never prayed before that he would love her as she loved him.
She believed she was asking the impossible and yet God could perform miracles and that was what, at this very moment, she so needed more than anything in the whole world.
‘I love him, I adore him,’ she said in her heart.
And then her lips moved as she prayed again,
‘Please God help me, please God give me his love!’
CHAPTER SEVEN
As they were planning to ride with Prince Kraus at eleven o’clock, Latasha decided that she and Amalie would not go out earlier.
She lay in bed later than usual, thinking.
Then she took breakfast with Amalie in their sitting room.
“Do you really think that Kraus is well enough to ride today?” asked Amalie a little apprehensively.
“I am hoping so. I would like it to be two or three days later, but he is determined to prove himself well.”
“He’s certainly so very much better since you have been looking after him,” said Amalie. “At one time I was scared that he was going to die.”
“You need not be scared any more, Amalie. He is very definitely not going to die and in a short time you will all forget that he has even been so ill.”
Amalie smiled happily.
As she got up from the table, she unexpectedly bent and kissed Latasha.
“You are so clever,” she enthused. “I am very glad you came here to stay. Please don’t go home too soon.”
Latasha did not answer.
She had no wish to return to England.
At the same time she had the feeling that it would be wise for her to go.
She had put on her very best and prettiest habit for her ride with Prince Kraus.
When a little later she and Amalie went downstairs, they saw through the open front door that the horses were outside and waiting for them.
Before she could ask the question one of the aides-de-camp announced,
“His Royal Highness is already mounted.”
“We are not late!” Latasha exclaimed, as if he had accused her.
“No, you are well on time, my Lady,” the aide-decamp replied.
They ran out to see that Prince Kraus was already mounted on a particularly fine and outstanding stallion.
Grooms were holding their horses for Latasha and Amalie.
Behind them Latasha noticed that there were two senior Officers already mounted – she realised that these were the escort for Prince Kraus.
Prince Stefan was allowed to ride without one.
But, as the reigning Prince of Oldessa, it was impossible for Prince Kraus to travel anywhere without an escort or a Guard of Honour.
Latasha quickly mounted her horse. It was one she knew well and had ridden before.
Then she trotted forward to join Prince Kraus who was waiting for her.
As she looked at him, she kn
ew without being told that he was an exceptionally fine rider.
It was the way he sat on a horse.
As her father had once said,
“You must look part of the horse you are riding.”
She guessed that Prince Kraus would be as good a rider as Harry.
They set off at a canter without talking with Prince Kraus leading the way.
As she followed him, Latasha could not help feeling her heart was turning somersaults.
The sunshine was brighter than it had ever been.
‘I love him, I love him,’ she told herself again and again.
But she knew the real question was if he loved her in the same way.
It would be an intolerable agony to be his wife just because her blood was Royal.
She tried not to think about it at this moment, but found it impossible not to do so.
Prince Kraus now broke into a sharp gallop and her horse followed.
Latasha forgot everything else but the joy of riding through the thick grass.
Clouds of butterflies were rising in a kaleidoscope of colour in front of them.
They rode for what seemed a long time.
They were now well out of sight of the Palace and the houses of the City.
Prince Kraus drew his horse down to a walk and as Latasha came up beside him, he told her,
“Now I know that I am a man again. This gallop has done more for me than two bottles of champagne.”
Latasha laughed.
“I hope, now you are better, you will not indulge in such a manner. It could be very bad for you.”
“I am aware of that. I was only trying to explain how elated I feel now I am back on a horse and no longer an invalid with people speaking to me in hushed voices.”
Latasha laughed again.
Amalie caught up with them and called out,
“I am trying to ride faster than you, Kraus, but my horse is not as big as yours.”
“I think you ride better than when I last saw you in the saddle.”
His sister flushed with pleasure.
The two soldiers of the Royal Escort were keeping well behind and Latasha thought that was definitely on His Royal Highness’s instructions.
Without thinking, as the thought had just came into her mind, she remarked,
“It must be a major bore always to have a Guard of Honour wherever you go, Your Royal Highness.”
“There is one place where I manage to avoid it,” he answered. “I will tell you about it later.”
She wondered why there was a mystery about this place, but did not ask any questions.
They broke into a canter and, almost as if she was giving the instructions and a short while later, Prince Kraus turned back for home.
“You allowed me an hour, Lady Gloria, and today I am not going to play truant, although I make no promises for tomorrow!”
“The most important point is that you should not overtire yourself,” Latasha stipulated firmly.
“At this very moment I feel so incredibly elated,” he replied, “I would like to ride to the horizon and beyond it.”
Latasha gave a cry of protest, but he added,
“However I am obeying orders, nurse, so you will have no reason to complain about me.”
“I have never done so. You have been a very good patient because you have done what you were told.”
She was speaking lightly.
Then, as their eyes met, it was again very difficult to look away.
Amalie joined them and they rode on in silence.
As they reached the Palace, Latasha realised there were quite a number of people waiting to see them arrive.
She was sure it was not just curiosity as they must be worried in case the exercise had been too much for their Prince.
He waved in their direction, dismounted and patted his stallion’s neck.
As the groom led him to the stables, Prince Kraus walked into the Palace.
When Latasha joined him a few seconds later, she counselled,
“I think that you ought to lie down now at least till luncheon time which we will make half-an-hour late.”
“I will do so if it really pleases you,” he responded unexpectedly. “But I would like to talk to you later in the afternoon alone.”
The way Prince Kraus spoke made Latasha look at him enquiringly.
By this time they had reached the entrance into his apartments.
As the sentries came to attention, he walked in and the door closed behind him.
As she went to her room, Latasha was wondering what he wanted to talk to her about.
She realised that what she really wanted to hear him say was just impossible.
Then, as she reached her own room, an idea shot through her mind.
Supposing, recognising that he could not marry her, Prince Kraus proposed something different?
It could be what the Comte had wanted to propose in the Orient Express.
The idea was startling and unexpected.
Latasha walked to the window.
Looking out below her, she did not see the beauty of the flowers, nor the water in the fountain shimmering in the sunshine.
Instead she could visualise the long years she might be forced to spend without him and without the miraculous rapture she now felt every time she looked at him.
Yet, if he offered her what she suspected, it would mar and besmirch her love for him.
It would be impossible for her ever to feel the same about him again.
For quite a long time she stood blindly looking out of the window.
Then she heard Nanny come in behind her.
“Oh, you’re now back, dearie!” she exclaimed. “I wasn’t expecting you so soon.”
“It was His Royal Highness’s first day on a horse and it would be a mistake for him to ride for too long.”
“I do agree with you,” said Nanny, “but I saw him riding off and I thinks he’s as good a rider as Master Harry – I mean His Grace.”
Latasha gave a little laugh.
Nanny always forgot and called them by the names she used when they were children.
“Now what would you like to wear for luncheon?”
Nanny was saying. “I don’t know if it’s a party, but there’s several dresses you’ve not worn yet.”
Latasha let Nanny choose what she thought was the prettiest and then she sat down while she arranged her hair.
“I’ll say one thing for you, dearie, you’re looking much prettier since you’ve been here than you ever looked before. Maybe you’re eating some of them Ginkgo Biloba leaves they’re all talking about downstairs.”
“We must try and get one from China to plant in our garden. I know it’s a tree my mother always wanted.”
“Well, it has certainly done wonders for His Royal Highness,” said Nanny. “And as the Head Chef puts it into everyone’s food they’re all a-saying they be feeling better too.”
She paused for a moment before adding,
“If I tells you the truth, I feel a year or two younger myself than I felt when I came here!”
“Oh, Nanny, that’s marvellous! You must support me when we go home into making His Grace buy a Ginkgo Biloba for the herb garden.”
“When are we to be going home then, dearie?” Nanny asked her.
There was silence and then Latasha mumbled,
“Very soon – perhaps tomorrow.”
If Prince Kraus said to her what she suspected he was about to say, she would leave at once.
She rose from off the stool in front of the dressing table.
As she did so, the door burst open and Amalie came running in.
“They are here! They are here!” she cried out in a terrified voice. “I saw them when I went downstairs and I came straight back to tell you.”
“Who are here?” demanded Latasha anxiously.
“The Russians! There are lots and lots of them and I saw them going into the Throne Room, so I know Kraus is in there talking to
them.”
Latasha stood very still and then she walked over to the secretaire in the corner of her bedroom.
She wrote something on a piece of paper.
Then she opened the drawer of the dressing table to take something out of her handbag.
Amalie was clinging to Nanny.
“They will hurt us, even kill us,” she was howling.
“I don’t think they will,” Nanny told her quickly. “They’re nasty people, there’s no doubt about that, but I’m sure they won’t touch you or her Ladyship.”
She was speaking bravely, but Latasha knew by the tone of her voice that she too was feeling scared.
“Stay here with Nanny,” Latasha told Amalie, “and don’t be afraid. They will not hurt your brother or anyone else.”
“How can you be sure?” asked Amalie. “They have done terribly cruel things to so many people. I have heard about it and read about it in the newspapers.”
Now there were tears running down her cheeks.
Latasha picked up a book that was lying by her bed and said to Nanny,
“Look after the Princess. I promise you both that the Russians will not hurt you.”
Nanny gave her a weak smile.
“I knows what you’re up to, dearie, and God bless you.”
Latasha did not answer, but walked quickly out of the bedroom and down the stairs.
As she passed by the front of the hall, she could see through the windows a large troop of Russian soldiers on horseback waiting outside.
She walked on towards the private apartments of His Royal Highness, Prince Kraus.
When she arrived, she found a number of aides-decamp and elderly courtiers in an agitated group outside the Throne Room.
The Major-domo was standing guard firmly in the doorway obviously to prevent anyone from entering.
Latasha walked up to him and handed him the piece of paper on which she had written in her bedroom.
“Please announce me exactly as it is written here,” she demanded firmly.
The Major-domo stared at her in astonishment.
“I don’t think you can fully understand, my Lady,” he gasped, “the Russians are here talking with His Royal Highness.”
“I know,” responded Latasha, “and the answer is in your hand.”
The Major-domo was an elderly man and she had only seen him once or twice since her arrival at the Palace.
Wanted a Royal Wife Page 12
