Thea sat up.
“I-I am afraid – oh, Nikōs – what is – happening outside?”
He turned back to her to say,
“Stay exactly where you are. Don’t move whatever you do and don’t look out, do you understand?”
It was an order that had to be obeyed.
Thea tried to collect her thoughts and to ask Nikōs again what was happening.
Then she saw him move forward and disappear.
She gave an involuntary cry of horror, but it was too late to stop him.
She was desperately afraid that, if the bandits were still shooting, they might shoot at him.
‘Supposing,’ she thought, ‘if Nikōs is killed ‒ and I am left here – alone?’
She wanted to run after him and to be sure that if, as she had thought before, he died, she would die too.
Now there were no more shots and without moving she thought that she could hear Nikōs’s voice.
Then suddenly she could hear him clearly.
His voice was calm and authoritative and she knew that he was giving orders.
‘What can be happening?’ she asked herself again.
Because there was nothing else that she could do, she started to pray.
She prayed again desperately because she was so frightened.
‘Please God – don’t let them hurt him – please, God – keep him safe – I cannot lose him now – please, God – please!’
She closed her eyes and she was now afraid to listen.
At last, and it seemed to her a very long time, she heard somebody coming into the cave.
She opened her eyes and for a moment, because she was so frightened, it was impossible to see –
A man was blocking out the light.
Then she saw that it was Nikōs and she gave a cry of happiness and relief.
He bent down and lifted her off the bed where they had slept.
When he did so, he saw how pale she was and fear had made her eyes dark.
“It’s all right, my darling,” he said softly. “It’s over and now we can go home.”
“H-how – what – what has – happened?” Thea stuttered.
In answer to her question he drew her to the mouth of the cave. It was a few feet higher than the plateau.
She could see to her astonishment that there were soldiers everywhere, quite a large number of them. They looked very smart in their red coats in contrast to the scruffy bandits.
They now looked even more disreputable and unpleasant than they had the night before.
They were all being marched down the path that had brought Thea and Nikōs to the cave.
None of the bandits protested and Thea was sure that they had fired at the soldiers, who had fired back at them.
There were four bandits injured. They were lying or sitting on the plateau with blood on their legs, hands and arms.
Thea stood staring at what she could see.
Then with an inexpressible joy, she saw two soldiers leading Mercury and Isten.
“Mercury is – safe,” she murmured.
“And so are you, my darling,” Nikōs replied.
He helped her down from the cave and onto the plateau.
She went at once to Mercury and, as he nuzzled against her, she asked,
“You don’t think they have hurt him?”
Nikōs asked the same question of the soldiers who shook their heads and replied,
“Only the saddles are damaged, mein herr.”
Thea looked at her saddle and she saw that the leather had been slashed. She supposed that the bandits had done so in order to look inside it.
“They were searching for money,” Nikōs explained, “but I think it will carry you home.”
He lifted her up as he spoke and placed her in the saddle.
Then he walked over the plateau and Thea could see there was an Officer superintending the removal of the bandits.
Nikōs talked to him for a long time and Thea could not hear what they were saying and she had no wish to.
She was patting Mercury and feeling incredibly happy that he was safe.
She knew just how agonising it would have been for her if he had been killed or hurt when the soldiers arrived.
She wondered how the soldiers could have learnt that this was where they were being held captive and she supposed that it must have been the ransom note that had told them.
At the same time she thought that the bandit who had carried it could not have gone very far.
She expected that Nikōs would explain everything to her later.
As she looked at him, thinking how handsome he was and how much she loved him, the sun rose.
The bandits had by now disappeared down the path she saw the Officer salute Nikōs and then hurry after his men and their prisoners.
Nikōs came back to her. He mounted Isten and thanked the soldier who had been holding him.
Then he smiled at Thea and suggested,
“Now we can ride home.”
There was a note in his voice that told Thea how much it meant to him.
The little house on the side of a mountain would be their home, where she would live as his wife.
His eyes were on her lips and she felt as if he was kissing her.
Then with a feeling like the music of the birds in her breast she enthused,
“That is wonderful – absolutely – wonderful!”
Chapter Six
They had ridden on a little way when Thea paused and looked back.
“There are – two soldiers behind us,” she whispered nervously to Nikōs.
“I know,” he answered. “The Officer insisted that we were seen home safely and I have also arranged for them to take our saddles to be repaired.”
He spoke lightly, but Thea had the idea that he was glad to see that the soldiers were there and they would be in no further danger from bandits as they made their way to the little house.
She thought, although he did not say so, that Nikōs must be elated.
The bandits who had been such a menace for so long in the mountains had at last been captured.
She realised that the news would really delight her father and then she remembered that she would not be able to tell him about it.
In the fear and shock of hearing the fighting outside the cave, she had forgotten that last night she had promised to marry Nikōs.
Now it seeped through her like the sunshine streaming through the trees that she would be his wife.
Then once again she was recognising the penalties of making such a decision.
It made her shiver to think of how angry her father would be and he would undoubtedly find it extremely difficult to explain to King Otho exactly what had happened.
Yet she knew for certain in her heart that, whatever people might say about ‘duty’, love was stronger than anything else.
She loved Nikōs, she loved him with every breath she drew, and to leave him and to be without him would be a living Hell.
They rode on in silence until at last ahead of them she could see the little house.
Thea felt that the sunshine that had turned the windows to gold held a special message for her.
She knew instinctively that it was a welcome because she was coming back to the little house to stay.
They rode into the yard at the back of the house and, as Valou came running towards them, Nikōs said,
“Go into the house, my darling. I will just go and tell the soldiers what I want them to do about the saddles and then I will be joining you.”
She had a strong feeling that he did not wish to have to explain to Valou that they had been captured by bandits.
She did as Nikōs told her and ran in through the front door and then up the stairs to her bedroom.
She thought, when she saw the beauty of it and the glowing colours on her bed, how different it was from where she had slept last night in that dark dank cave.
Yet all her life she would remember the joy and se
curity of being close to Nikōs and the wonderful things he had said to her.
‘I love him – I love – him!’ she told herself over and over again.
She washed and changed her blouse for the other one that she had brought with her.
Then she hurried downstairs.
As she might have expected, breakfast was laid ready on the balcony table and Nikōs was waiting for her.
He rose as she walked towards him and she saw the love and happiness in his eyes.
Because she wanted to be sure that he was really there, she put out her hands towards him.
He raised them one after the other to his lips.
“We are safe – and we are – home,” she murmured softly.
“We are home again, my precious,” he replied, “and never again will I allow anything so horrible to happen to you.”
His voice was caressing and she so wanted him to kiss her.
But at that moment Géza came out with a tray of their breakfast and a pot of hot coffee to go with it.
Thea sat down at the table and gazed in wonder at the exquisite view below them.
She thought at once that it was now even more beautiful and enchanting than it had been yesterday and the day before, but she knew that it was because her whole body was pulsating with happiness.
They ate at first in silence because they were both feeling hungry after their long ride.
Then Nikōs finally sat back in his chair and said,
“I have something to say to you.”
Thea looked at him apprehensively.
He had spoken seriously and she was suddenly afraid that something was wrong.
“It is nothing frightening,” he told her reassuringly, “in fact the very opposite.”
Thea drew in her breath.
“I-I thought – perhaps you had – changed your mind,” she said in a small voice.
“About marrying you?” Nikōs asked. “I swear to you that it will never happen, not until the stars fall from the sky and the seas run dry.”
She gave a little laugh of sheer joy.
“What I want to say to you concerns our marriage,” he went on.
Thea waited expectantly.
She thought now that perhaps she would have to confess to him who she really was.
But she was afraid that if she did so he might refuse to marry her.
He would know perhaps better than she did the penalties for renouncing her rank and for being an outcast among her own people.
Frantically she began to think of some name she could give him that was not her own.
She did realise that if she invented one it might render the marriage illegal.
Then she remembered that her father had a great number of titles and she thought that it was unlikely that Nikōs would have heard of them.
She felt sure that if she chose one that her father had never used, not even when he was travelling incognito, it should be safe.
As it was all passing through her mind, Nikōs said,
“I have been thinking, my darling, that, when we are married as I intend we shall be later this evening, it will be a very memorable day in both our lives.”
“The most – wonderful day I could possibly imagine,” Thea enthused at once.
“And for me it will be a glory out of this world.”
He reached out as he spoke and took her hand in his.
“Because it means so much to both of us,” he said, “I think it would perhaps spoil the wonder of it if we have to make tedious explanations to each other about our past.”
Thea looked up at him with a puzzled expression on her face.
“The only thing that matters to us is the future,” he went on, “when we will be together. I suggest therefore that from now on we think only of our love for each other and of nothing else.”
Thea’s fingers tightened on him as she replied,
“You mean – we don’t need to explain exactly – who we are until later?”
“Much later,” Nikōs responded, “when you are my wife and I have talked to you about something much more important, which is, my lovely one, love!”
The way he spoke made Thea feel again the ecstasy that she had felt yesterday when they had listened to the Voivode playing his violin.
“I think it is a – marvellous idea, but, if we are married simply as ‘Nikōs’ and ‘Thea’, will – it be valid – ?”
“I promise you,” Nikōs answered that I intend to tie you to me with a legal bond as well as a spiritual one, which can never be broken!”
This was exactly what Thea wanted to hear.
At the same time it was an immeasurable relief not to have to explain who she was and why she had run away.
She thought that once again Nikōs was reading her thoughts and, without her telling him so, he knew that she was worried about her past.
They had this strange perception about each other and he was aware not only of what she felt but also of what was in her mind.
Nothing, she told herself, could be more perfect than that she should belong to him as his wife.
It would be foolish if their happiness, if not spoilt, could in any way be disturbed by the revelation that she was neglecting her duty in giving up her rank.
Her face was radiant as she enquired,
“When are we – going to be – married?”
“This afternoon when the sun will not be as hot as it will be earlier. And until then, my precious one, I want you to rest.”
“I don’t – want to – leave you.”
“I have many arrangements to make,” he said gently “and, as last night was also for me somewhat disturbed, I too intend to rest.”
He gazed at her for a long moment before he added,
“I shall be thinking of you, loving you and counting the minutes until you are mine.”
As he spoke, she saw the fire in his eyes and the colour rose in her cheeks.
Then she looked away from him and he said softly,
“I adore you when you blush and look shy. I don’t believe any human being could be so attractive as well as so ethereal.”
As Thea blushed again, he added,
“But you are not a human being and, for that matter, neither am I! We both belong to the Gods and to Héja, who saved us last night and will, I know, look after us tonight.”
He raised her hand as he spoke and kissed it.
Then, because she knew that it was what he wanted after looking at him lovingly, she went indoors.
Only as she was taking off her very creased riding skirt did she remember that she had nothing to be married in.
She thought of all the beautiful gowns that filled her wardrobe at The Palace and she wished that Nikōs could see her in just one of them.
Then resolutely, because she wished to have no regrets, she told herself that it did not matter.
He would love her, whatever she wore, as she would love him.
She climbed into the comfortable bed.
As she did so, she thought that all the birds and the squirrels on the carved headboard welcomed her back.
She rested her head on the pillow and reckoned that she was very tired.
So much had happened and she felt too as if she had passed through every emotion that it was possible to feel.
She closed her eyes and tried to think only of the music of the gypsies and the note in Nikōs’s voice when he had asked her to marry him.
‘Tonight,’ she whispered to herself, ‘I shall – be his – wife!’
The sunshine was dancing dazzlingly in the room as she fell into a deep sleep.
*
Thea awoke suddenly and then realised after a moment that what had disturbed her was Valou’s wife preparing her bath.
She could smell the fragrance of jasmine filling the air.
She sat up and asked her,
“What time is it?”
“Gettin’ on for four o’clock, Gracious Lady,” the woman answered, “and on the Mast
er’s orders, I bring you something to eat.”
She brought in a tray and put it down beside the bed.
Thea saw that there was a bowl of cold soup, various fruits and a sponge cake as light as thistledown.
As she was eating, the woman came back into the room carrying something over her arm.
“What is that?” Thea asked her.
“Master tell me,” the woman replied, “that you be married and we all very happy! Master often lonely here all by himself.”
Thea thought that it was something he would never be again, but she was looking at what she now realised was a gown.
“Master say,” Valou’s wife carried on, “that you have nothin’ to be married in. This, Gracious Lady, I make for my daughter. She marry next year.”
Looking at what she held up Thea saw that it was a Wedding gown.
Girls in the Balkans started when very young to embroider their Wedding gowns, which were often masterpieces.
She could see that what Valou’s wife was holding was as brilliant an example of local craftsmanship as the bed that she was lying in.
The gown was white. It was heavily embroidered round the hem of the full skirt with flowers of every colour.
The sleeves from the shoulder to the wrist and the low neck were a riot of wild flowers that bloomed in the grassland and in the woods.
It was beautiful and quite different from any gown that she had ever seen before.
“It is really lovely,” she exclaimed. “But will your daughter mind if I wear it?”
“She very honoured, Gracious Lady.”
Thea did not waste any more time.
She jumped from her bed and had her bath.
When she had dried herself, Valou’s wife helped her into the Wedding gown.
It had been made for a girl who was not yet sixteen so it fitted her perfectly.
She knew as she looked at herself in the mirror that Nikōs would admire her.
It was like him, she thought, to remember that she would want to look beautiful on her Wedding Day.
When she had arranged her hair, Valou’s wife brought her a wreath. It had a short tulle veil at the back and the flowers were freshly picked.
They looked very lovely against her red hair and she was sure that Nikōs had deliberately chosen them in white and blue.
When she was dressed and ready, she thanked Valou’s wife and a little self-consciously walked down the stairs.
The Passionate Princess Page 10