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"How could you look so proud, so unemotional, and at the same time so exquisitely
beautiful?" the Prince asked.
"Mama taught me always to control my feelings," Ilona said simply.
"That is something you must never do again, my lovely one, not where I am concerned," the
Prince answered.
He was kissing her again, his lips moving over the softness of her skin.
He kissed the white column of her neck, arousing the fire that burnt within her until her
breath came quickly between her lips and she stirred in his arms.
"My precious! Heart of my heart! My dream come true! I have so much to teach you!" the
Prince murmured, and his teeth touched die lobes of her small ears.
He felt the quiver that ran through her.
"Do I excite you?" he asked.
"You ... know you ... do!"
"What do you feel? Tell me!"
She hid her face against his neck.
"Wild ... very, very wild..."
"What else?"
"There are little ... flames flickering . .. inside me."
"I will make them leap higher and higher and become a blaze!"
His hands were caressing her and her lips sought his.
"You do ... really love me?"
It was the question of a child who wants to be reassured.
"I love you until it is impossible to think of anything else," the Prince replied. "You do not
know how you have tortured me and what an unspeakable hell it was to sit in your bed-room
night after night, seeing your wonderful hair falling over your shoulders and knowing I dare not
come near you."
"You never . . . looked at . . . me," Ilona said accusingly.
"I saw you," the Prince said. "I saw you with my heart, and with my soul. I knew that you
belonged to me, but your father had erected that impassable barrier between us and I would not
humiliate myself by attempting to break it down."
"I . . . wanted you . . . too. I wanted you . . . unbearably!" Ilona whispered.
"There are no barriers now," the Prince said, "and there will never be any in the future. I will
love you, look after you, and worship you for the rest of my life!"
"That is all I want," Ilona said with a deep sigh. "I only feel safe when I am in your arms . . .
like yesterday when you . . . saved me from the Zyghes."
"It was difficult not to kiss you then, when you were so close to me," the Prince said, "and I
will never be able to tell you what I suffered when I thought those savage brutes would hide you
where I would never be able to find you."
"I think . . . Papa paid them to . . . kidnap me," Ilona said in a low voice.
"That is true," the Prince replied. "The men we took prisoner confessed that they had been
given a large sum of money to take you away to their caves in the mountains."
He drew a deep breath.
"It was just chance that I chose to ride back through the woods after my meeting was over
and encountered the groom who had accompanied you!"
"How could Papa be so .. . cruel to me?" Ilona murmured, and then asked apprehensively,
"Where is he now?"
"We drove the Russian troops across the border," the Prince answered, "and he was with
them."
"They will not. . . return?"
"I think it unlikely they will attempt it. Our troops are guarding the pass, and from now on
Dabrozka is going to be a united land, so there will be no excuse for foreign intervention."
He kissed Ilona again before he said:
"That reminds me, my sweet, the reason that I came to find you was that the Prime Minister
and members of the Council wish to speak to you."
"You did not . . . ask to see me . . . this morning!" Ilona said wistfully.
"I did not know you were in the Palace," the Prince replied. "Gayozy told me where you were
only a few minutes ago. I had expected my orders to be obeyed and believed that you were
safely at the Castle."
There was a smile on his lips as he said:
"Had you forgotten that in the marriage-service you promised to obey me?"
"I wanted to be ... near you."
"That is a perfect excuse, and one I am only too willing to accept!"
He kissed her gently as if she was infinitely precious, before he said:
"We must go downstairs, my adorable one. There will be plenty of time, when everyone has
gone, for us to talk about ourselves and for you to tell me that you really do not hate me."
"I love you! I love you more than I can ever ... begin to put into . . . words!" Ilona said
passionately.
"If you say things like that," the Prince answered with a sudden deep note in his voice, "the
Prime Minister will have to wait!"
"We must... do our... duty."
The Prince rose from the arm-chair and pulled Ilona to her feet, then he put his arms round
her and held her so close that it was hard to breathe.
"You are mine!" he said fiercely. "Every perfect little piece of you. I am jealous of the very air
you breathe!"
She felt herself thrill at the desire in his voice. Then as resolutely, with what was obviously an
effort, he turned towards the door, she said:
"I cannot go . . . down like . . . this! I must bathe my... eyes."
"You look very beautiful just as you are," the Prince replied.
They walked hand in hand down the corridor and when Ilona went into her bed-room he
followed her.
She bathed her eyes in cold water, then the Prince dried her face with a soft towel before he
kissed her Hps, her eyes, and once again her neck.
"I want to take the pins out of your hair," he said, "and see it fall over your shoulders."
"You have ... seen it like... that."
Her voice was quivering because he was so close, and because his kisses had evoked such
incredible sensations that her whole body vibrated with them.
"I have seen it, but I have not touched it," he answered. "And never, my bewitching little
wife do you understand? never are you to allow any other man to see you as you looked
yesterday evening when you came into the Hunting-Room!"
There was a masterful note in his voice, which thrilled her.
"I thought as you were not . . . interested in me," she said, "that it would not matter how I . . .
appeared."
"And now that you know I am interested" he said, accentuating the word, "you will behave
very much more circumspectly!"
Ilona laughed from sheer happiness.
"I thought you ... wanted me to be... wild and... unrestrained."
"That is what you will be, but only with me," the Prince answered. "To everyone else you
must continue to be proud and cold, a snow-Princess with ice in her veins!"
"I think it will be . . . impossible for me .. . ever to feel like ... that again," she whispered.
And as her Hps sought his she saw the smouldering fire in his eyes and a flame united
them....
* * *
Ilona tidied her hair, then with her eyes filled with sunshine and her face radiant with
happiness they walked down the stairs together.
Only as they reached the door into the Throne-Room, where Ilona had last been after her
wedding, did she wonder vaguely what the Prime Minister had to say to her.
But there was no time to think and she entered the Hall of Mirrors to find it half-filled with
Statesmen she had met before and who all held positions of importance in the Government.
The Prime Minister raised her hand to his lips. Then as Ilona waited he said:
"We came here this afternoon, Your Royal Highness, as representatives of the Government of
Dabrozka, in His Majesty's absence, to discuss the position of the Monarchy. But in the last few
minutes we have received a communication that completely alters what we came to say."
"A communication?" Ilona enquired, but the Prime Minister was speaking to the Prince. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]