“I will do so, Your Majesty,” replied the Captain.
“I am very grateful to you, Captain Ruphia, and you will not go unrewarded. You will understand too that my decree about the Russians must be published in the City as soon as it is daylight.”
“I will see to it, Your Majesty.”
He saluted again and was running towards the stairs before the King closed the door.
When he turned round, he could see that Valona had lit the candles by her bed.
He thought as he joined her that no one could look lovelier.
Her fair hair was cascading over her shoulders and the curves of her figure showed through her diaphanous nightgown.
She had listened to the King’s orders and when he sat down on the side of the bed, she exclaimed,
“That was very wise and clever of you. At the same time does Larissa have enough soldiers to carry out your wishes?”
“The Russians do not wish to fight us openly. What they intended was to carry me away so that there would be no one in command. I would then either have to abdicate, as Prince Alexander was made to do in Bulgaria, or I would have disappeared never to be seen again.”
Valona gave a cry of horror and held out her arms towards him.
He held her close and she murmured,
“Suppose they had taken you away as they intended and in the morning we had just found your room empty.”
“Would it have upset you so much? After all, you would have been able to return to England and forget about me.”
He felt another little quiver sweep through her.
As she hid her face against his shoulder, he asked,
“Tell me, Valona, what do you feel about me now.”
He waited for her answer, but she was silent.
She merely continued hiding her face.
Very gently the King put his fingers under her chin and turned her face up to his.
He thought that in the candlelight she looked more beautiful than ever, but at the same time he was aware that she was shy.
Her eyelashes fluttered innocently, but she did not look directly at him.
“Tell me,” he said softly, “and I want the truth – ”
“When you kissed me,” she replied hesitatingly, “it was much much more wonderful than I ever expected.”
“You have never been kissed before?”
Valona shook her head.
“Then I am going to kiss you again, not once but a million times. But I want you to tell me not only about my kisses but about me.”
He waited.
“Perhaps – ” Valona whispered in a voice he could hardly hear, “you will think it is too soon.”
The King smiled.
“I think, my dearest darling, what you are saying is that you love me a little.”
“I know what I am feeling is – love. It is the love I prayed for when I was on Delos, but was afraid I would never find.”
“And you think you have found it now?”
“Only if – you love me,” she managed to mumble.
“I have loved you ever since the first moment I saw you, Valona. I could never have imagined in my whole life that anyone could be so incredibly exquisite or that I could feel so strongly about you.”
“Is that really true?”
“That I love you?” questioned the King. “I never believed in my wildest dreams that I would ever find a woman so beautiful, so ethereal and at the same time – so brave.”
He pulled her closer to him and then suddenly took his arms away.
“I want to be closer to you, Valona, but I do find it rather uncomfortable sitting on the side of the bed.”
“It would be much more comfortable,” Valona said in a whisper, “if you were beside me.”
“That is exactly what I was thinking.”
He walked round to the other side of the bed.
Getting in beside her, he pulled her into his arms.
He felt, as he did so, the thrill that surged through her and he felt the same.
“I love you. God, how I love you!” he exclaimed.
Then he was kissing her.
As he did so, he felt her body melt into his.
*
A long time later, he murmured in a low voice,
“My darling, my sweet, my perfect wife, I have not hurt or frightened you?”
“I know now,” whispered Valona, “that the Light of Apollo covers us both and we have found the true love that is a part of him.”
“All I know,” sighed the King, “is that I have never been so happy in my entire life.”
“I was very afraid,” breathed Valona, “that because I knew so little about love, I might do something wrong.”
“Everything you did was sheer perfection and more wonderful than anything I could have ever known.”
Valona gave a little sigh of relief.
“I only want to do what you want, Ajax.”
“I will teach you about love, my darling, and it will be the most exciting thing I have ever done. However hard we have to work in the day, there will always be a special Heaven waiting for us here in this room.”
“Only if we can that be sure the Russians have all gone.”
King Ajax was conscious that there was again fear in her voice and because he wanted to reassure her, he said,
“Do you really think that Apollo, having allowed us to find each other and given us so much, would desert us now?”
“No, of course not, Ajax, you are so right. He will guide us and help us so that we will be forever free of the Russians. Then once the country is safe we can make your people as happy as we are.”
“That would be impossible, but at least we can try.”
He kissed Valona once again.
Then he noticed the candles that had been burning beside the bed had gone out and there was daylight coming through the sides of the curtains.
“It is dawn, my precious Valona, and that means I must be ready to see that my orders are carried out and my plans for an Auxiliary Force have been put into operation.”
“It was clever of you to think of it, Ajax, and I am sure if the citizens of Larissa are allowed to fight against the enemy to save themselves and their homes, it will mean even more to them than if just the Army is victorious.”
“Exactly my thinking. My darling one, we do think alike and just as our hearts and souls are joined, so are our brains.”
Valona gave a little cry.
“That is such a lovely thing to say. Oh, Ajax, you are much, much cleverer than I am, but I will try in every way to think as you do.”
He could not think of any words to answer her with, so he kissed her again and then he said,
“I am going to get up, but I want you to rest a little longer. I am sure there will be a million things for you to do during the day and I don’t want you to be too tired to love me tonight when we can be alone again.”
“I will never be too tired to love you, Ajax.”
As she was speaking, she put her hand up to touch his cheek,
“Are you human, Ajax, or are you Apollo? I just cannot believe that even a God could be more marvellous than you are.”
The King gave a little laugh.
“That is just what I want you to go on thinking, my lovely one, and if I am a God, you are certainly a Goddess. Who better could our people ask for to reign over them?”
He kissed her again.
Then as he climbed out of bed, Valona gave a little cry.
“You cannot go into your room unless you are quite certain it is safe and the men we shot might still be there.”
Her voice shook as she said the last words and the King replied quickly,
“Forget about them! They will have been removed by now and I cannot imagine anyone else can have entered the room while two soldiers are guarding it.”
He crossed the room as he spoke and pulled open the communicating door.
Valona held her breath.
He glanced r
ound.
“The room is empty and the window is closed and barred. I am going to ring for my valet and get dressed.”
Valona was silent for a moment and then she asked,
“What time are you having breakfast?”
“I have no idea, but if you will join me I will make it eight-thirty.”
“I will join you, Ajax,” Valona promised.
As if he could not help himself, King Ajax walked back to the bed and put his arms around her.
“I don’t wish to leave you, Valona, I really want to stay here making love with you until it is night-time again. The moment we are free, my darling, we will have a proper honeymoon and no one will disturb us except the Gods!”
“That will be so wonderful,” she sighed.
The King kissed her as if she was very precious and then resolutely, without looking back, he left the room.
She could hear him a little later talking to his valet.
Valona thought it was impossible to feel so happy and still be on earth.
She was now sure that the Divine Light of Apollo was keeping them both safe and he would help them make their country exactly as the King wished it to be.
Valona went down for breakfast a little before half past eight.
There were equerries bustling around and courtiers hurrying along the passages.
There was a feeling that something important was happening and everyone was alerted to it.
Valona knew it was because the King was asserting himself and dealing with the crisis and in the process creating a totally different atmosphere from his father’s time.
The King came in to breakfast and told Valona that everything was progressing even better than he had hoped.
It had been a tremendous shock to the Commander-in-Chief when he learnt that the Russians had very nearly succeeded in kidnapping the King in the night.
If he had been unable to save himself, Larissa would at this very moment be under Russian domination.
Later on in the day the King and Queen ate a quick luncheon and His Majesty insisted on their being alone.
Valona learnt from him that his idea of forming an Auxiliary Force was already a great success.
The citizens of Larissa hated the Russians, but had always been too afraid to say so and now to the oldest man they were rallying to the call to arms.
The King now intended to address his people in the afternoon in the Square by the Cathedral.
“May I come with you?” Valona asked him.
“Do you really want to?”
“Of course I want to be with you, Ajax, and if I do so, the women will appreciate that they are not forgotten.”
“You are right, Valona, and I should have thought of it myself. Of course you must come. Hurry my darling, put on your prettiest hat and we will drive there together. I was intending to go on horseback.”
Valona gave a little cry.
“I am sure it would be something unusual and make the women feel I was even more effective, if I rode with you!”
The King gave an exclamation of delight.
“Hurry and change,” he urged, “and I will give you a horse that is worthy of you.”
Valona ran upstairs and it only took her a short time to put on the very pretty riding habit her mother had bought for her at the smartest tailor in the West End.
“I have always wanted you, dearest, to have a really well-fitting riding habit, but it has been too expensive for us in the past,” her mother had told her.
The habit was somewhat severe, as had become the fashion. However, it perfectly framed Valona’s fair hair and exquisite complexion.
The King felt that she looked even more beautiful than she had in her ordinary clothes.
He had chosen a white horse for her that was very highly bred and well trained.
They rode away together from the Palace and onto a road filled with enthusiastic onlookers, who had guessed that something unusual was happening between the Palace and the Cathedral Square.
When they saw Valona, there was a gasp before the cheers rang out.
The King was looking exceedingly smart in his best uniform and feathered hat and he had deliberately put on a number of his decorations, which he knew would impress his people. He wanted them to know that this was a great and important occasion.
When King Ajax and his Queen rode together into the Square, the Generals were waiting for them.
As well as the Army, the new Auxiliary Force was lined up on the other side of the Square.
There were men of every age and class, carrying a strange variety of weapons.
They were clearly proud to be there and excited at what was happening.
There was no room for any women in the Square so they were gathered in the roads running into it and when they spied their Queen riding beside the King, they cheered wholeheartedly.
Some held up their babies so that Valona could see them.
The Officers who were not on horseback were all standing on the steps of the Cathedral.
Halfway up there were two chairs for the King and Queen and after they had dismounted, they walked together hand in hand up to the chairs.
Valona sat down while the King stood.
There was a loud fanfare of trumpets and then the King spoke.
There was absolute silence as he told his audience how the Russians had planned to carry him away last night.
“I was saved,” he announced, “by the bravery and brilliance of the Queen.”
He did not add that she had wounded two men as he thought that would be a mistake.
He told them that her intervention had enabled him to free himself, so that he could strike down the Russians who had intended to carry him away before anyone in the Palace became aware of their presence.
“It is something,” he continued, “that must never happen again either to me or to any of my subjects. That is why I have given the order that all Russians are to leave our country immediately.”
There was a loud shout of approval.
“Any remaining Russians will be treated as enemies and imprisoned for life or, if they do try to challenge us, I know you will be ready for them.”
There were great cheers at this statement and then even more cheers as the King praised the Auxiliary Force.
He thanked them profusely for being ready to save Larissa from an enemy that was within as well as without.
“There is one thing that we can be quite certain of. Now that I have a very beautiful wife from England who is a relative of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the Russians will not dare to strike us openly.”
There were more cheers.
“They have constantly infiltrated Larissa during my father’s reign and they might try to stay here under cover during mine. This is what I rely on you to prevent.”
His voice was very serious as he added,
“It means that every citizen, man, woman and child in Larissa must be on their guard and you must be vigilant enough to detect any Russian who attempts to hoodwink us and remain here when we do not want them.”
He paused for a moment and then he said in a voice that seemed to echo around the Square,
“Let us clear our country, once and for all, of those who are not Larissian, but dangerous enemies who we have no room for now or in the future!”
There was loud cheering from everyone including the soldiers.
“When we are free of this scourge, I intend, with the Queen’s help and yours, to turn Larissa into one of the most significant countries in the Balkans.”
There was complete silence as he said slowly,
“We are a very great people who will go down in history, and our children and our grandchildren will benefit from our inventiveness, our prosperity and above all from the brains and intelligence of our people.”
Valona noticed that the men listening to the King appeared to straighten their shoulders.
“We have it in us to introduce whatever is needed in this new world, to dream u
p many new inventions, new machinery and be first and foremost, as England has been, in bringing peace and prosperity to those who live here.”
Again there were loud cheers which echoed round the Square.
“That is the sort of world we want for our children in the future. A world where our brains work not only for ourselves, but for the benefit of mankind as a whole.”
He threw out his arms.
“That is what you, the people of Larissa, must aim for and bring up your children to think about. It is only in this way that, with God’s help, we shall enjoy prosperity as a great nation that has contributed notably to the world as a whole.”
The cheers were deafening.
Some of the women had by now squeezed into the Square with their children.
They were looking towards Valona, waving their handkerchiefs and their flags whenever she turned in their direction.
“Shall I go down and talk to them?” she asked the King.
He hesitated for a moment and then he smiled.
“Stand on the lower steps and let them talk to you,” he suggested. “I am going to talk to the Auxiliary Force.”
He walked down the left hand side of the steps as he spoke, while Valona went down the right.
The mothers now realised what she was doing and hurriedly pushed their small children forward to catch her attention.
Soon a large crowd had gathered and the only way Valona could make room for them all was to move back a little further up the steps.
The King returned from shaking hands and meeting the men who had answered his call to arms and found the steps on the other side covered with small children.
Valona was seated on a step holding a little baby in her arms and there were children all round her listening to a fairy story she was telling them.
She did not see the King to begin with and then she looked up and met his eyes.
She knew he was thinking that one day she would hold his child in her arms.
The colour rose in her cheeks and she looked down.
He thought nothing could be more entrancing.
“I think it is time for us to go home,” he suggested quietly. “Is that a boy or girl you are holding?”
“A boy,” answered Valona.
The King looked round.
Love and Apollo Page 13