Wanted a Royal Wife
Page 14
*
It was something he repeated to Latasha the night after they were married.
She had been rather surprised that Prince Kraus had been so determined to be married in the morning.
“Weddings usually take place in the afternoon,” she had pointed out.
“We are going to be different,” he replied. “We are to be married in the morning. The people we will entertain will insist on speeches at an early luncheon that will take place immediately afterwards in the Palace.”
“Then what happens?” asked Latasha.
“We will go away on our honeymoon.”
She smiled at him.
“I have not yet asked where we are going.”
“I have not told you, because it is to be a secret and a surprise.”
“But I have to know,” she protested. “If you don’t tell me, I will not know which clothes to wear.”
She spoke without thinking and then, as she saw the smile on his face, she blushed.
“I adore you when you blush. Oh, my darling one, I have so many things to teach you about love and it is going to take me a long time.”
“We will start with my lessons on our honeymoon,” she said. “That is why I want to know where it will be?”
She thought, as she asked the question, that she did not particularly want to go anywhere in France.
The memory of the Comte was still lurking in her consciousness.
But even if they spent their honeymoon together at a nice quiet resort, people would stare at them.
There had been so much written in the newspapers about their wedding, and the dramatic story of how she had saved Prince Kraus’s life and how he had not known who she really was until his country was threatened by hordes of Russians.
The story had lost nothing in the telling.
Everyone thought that it was the most romantic and exciting tale they had ever heard.
Latasha felt that it was wonderful that everything had ended so happily.
But at the same time it would be a bore if, on their honeymoon, they were pursued by people congratulating them and talking too much.
“If you insist,” Prince Kraus was saying, “I will tell you where I am taking you.”
“I am listening most attentively – ”
“Several years ago when I wanted to study some particular subject and was tired of Court protocol, I built myself a tiny house halfway up one of our mountains.”
“A house!” exclaimed Latasha.
“It is very small but very comfortable and I used to go there for two or three days at a time when I wanted to be alone to have time to think.”
He paused for a moment.
“I have never taken anyone to the house with me and I realise now that I was waiting for you, my darling, and our honeymoon.”
Latasha drew in her breath.
“It sounds fascinating, Kraus.”
“It is, and I have a dear old couple to look after me. She is a brilliant cook and he was at one time my father’s valet. They are perfectly happy living in my little hide-away in the mountains and they will both be so thrilled to look after us.”
“And we are going there alone?”
“Entirely alone and that, my darling, is when I will teach you about love and punish you with so many kisses for making me so desperately unhappy when I was afraid I must lose either you or my country!”
“But now you have both,” cried Latasha. “So you cannot be greedy about anything else.”
He smiled tenderly at her.
Without saying anything she knew he was thinking that one day she would give him an heir – a son to carry on with the plans he was making for his country.
The colour rose brightly in her cheeks and Prince Kraus laughed quietly.
“You see, my darling, I can read your thoughts as you can read mine. That is another reason which makes it impossible for us to be apart from each other. It makes us sure that we are one person and it is how we will remain together from now until Eternity.”
*
“I love you, my Kraus,” Latasha whispered to him some days later.
They were crossing the threshold of the little house in the mountains.
It was exactly like an enchanted cottage in a fairy tale and the view was breathtaking.
“And I love you,” he answered, “with all my heart, all my soul and, my darling, with my body and my brain.”
They were the first words they said to each other as they entered the house.
Latasha thought that they would remember them for ever.
Then Prince Kraus took her across the room to a window which overlooked the valley below.
Far away on the horizon they could see the roof of the Royal Palace in the City.
“Now we are like a God and Goddess looking down from the Heavens on all our people beneath us,” he said quietly. “They are our people and we have today dedicated ourselves to their service.”
Latasha put her head against his shoulder.
“I know, because our love is so great,” he went on, “that it will make not only the people of our country happy, but spread further and further so that our Oldessa will be a magic word to help others less fortunate.”
Latasha gave a little cry.
“Oh, my darling, only you could think of anything so wonderful. It is just what I want you to think and what I want you to feel.”
“It is what you make me think and feel, Latasha. All the beautiful and ambitious ideas that come into my mind now come from you and are part of you, just as they are part of me. That, my darling one, is what we, from our perfect little Heaven, are going to give the world beneath us.”
Then he was kissing her.
Kissing her demandingly and passionately.
As they clung together, Latasha believed that God had answered all her prayers and she had found love.
The true real love she had always believed existed if only she could find it.
Now she would never lose that perfect love.
‘I love you, I adore you,’ she tried to say.
But there was no need for words.
The love they felt swept them up into the sky.
They were no longer human.
They were part of God who is Love and who takes those who find it into an Eternity of happiness.