Then, as she saw who was waiting for them, she felt her eyes widen in surprise beneath the velvet mask.
A lot of the men had pulled their masks from their faces letting them hang round their necks and she could see that they were all young but a very different type from the sort of gentlemen that she would expect to find in the company of Royalty.
She told herself not to be censorious, but there was something she thought rather common and coarse about the men that made them different to those she had met before.
“Gyo! Gyo!” they cried triumphantly as the King appeared. “We thought you were never coming!”
“Nothing could have prevented me from being here tonight,” the King replied.
“Have a drink. Lakatos has brought us some champagne – what do you think of that?”
“I bet you are several bottles ahead of me already,” the King exclaimed, “but give me time and I will catch you up!”
Somebody handed him a glass which he filled to the brim and he drank deeply before he said,
“Give Autal a drink and Magi. She is with me.”
He jerked his thumb at Zosina as he spoke, but she was for the moment looking with astonishment at the women whom she had not noticed at first because they were leaning over the box, waving and shouting to their friends on the dance floor.
Now, as if they had just realised that the King had arrived, they turned towards him with cries of delight and she knew that, if the men were different, it was impossible to find an adjective to describe the women.
Most of them had removed their masks, if they had ever worn them and their eyes were heavily mascaraed and in striking contrast to the gold or red of their hair which was so vivid that Zosina was certain it was dyed.
They all had crimson lips and their faces were powdered and rouged. One or two of them looked like a Dutch doll that had been Katalin’s favourite when she was a little girl.
The dominos they wore were open and beneath them Zosina could see they had gowns cut very low, in fact one or two were so revealing that after one glance at their bulging bosoms, she looked away in embarrassment.
“Gyo! You’re here! We’ve been waiting for you.”
Their shrill uncultured voices rang out, all saying the same thing.
Then they were kissing the King and Autal, leaving smears of lipstick on their faces and on their lips.
Zosina stood to one side feeling as if she was invisible. Then one of the men with a bottle of champagne in his hand said to her,
“Have a drink, Magi. You look far too sober, which is a mistake.”
The way he pronounced his words told Zosina that he was definitely the reverse.
But, because she thought it better to agree to anything that was suggested, she took a glass from him and held it as he poured the champagne into it.
“Now enjoy yourself,” he said. “What do you look like behind that mask?”
He reached out his hand as if to remove it, but Zosina edged nervously away from him.
She thought he would persist in unmasking her, but at that moment the King shouted.
“Hey, Lakatos, I am dying of thirst. Are you out of wine already?”
“You need not be afraid of that, Gyo!” Lakatos replied. “I’ve enough bottles to float a battleship!”
“We’ll need it,” one of the blonde women, who had her arm round the King’s neck, replied. “He’s no fun unless he’s full to the brim are you, my pet?”
She kissed the King’s cheek as she spoke, but he appeared to be more concerned with having his glass filled than appreciating her attention.
Because Zosina had no wish for Lakatos to notice her again, she moved along the side of the box and edged her way to the front of it.
Now she could look down at the dance floor which was certainly different from anything she had seen in her life before.
At one end there was a huge band of what must have been nearly a hundred players. At the other was a bar that stretched right across the hall from one wall to the other.
Behind it barmaids in national costume were filling china mugs of beer, which were being passed over the heads of those waiting six deep to be served.
On the floor itself the dancers were either gyrating wildly about or dancing close to each other in a manner Zosina felt was very improper.
There were also a number of men who she knew were drunk because they were staggering about with or without partners and often falling down as they did so.
If the women in the box looked fast and vulgar, there were far worse specimens below and Zosina felt a little tremor of fear in case her grandmother or, worse still, the Regent should know where she was.
At the same time in a way it was a fascinating spectacle that she had never imagined she would see and because it was unique she thought that she must take in every detail.
As she watched, a voice beside her said,
“Finished your drink? If so we’ll go down and dance.” It was the man called Lakatos who spoke and she started nervously before she replied,
“I think I had – better stay up here with – Gyo!” “You can’t do that!” Lakatos replied. “He’s already dancing. Come on! That’s what you’re here for.”
He spoke almost roughly and now Zosina was certain that he had had far too much to drink and she thought that he might make an exhibition of himself as some of the other people were doing.
“I think perhaps – ” she began.
Before she could finish what she was going to say, he had seized her by the hand and jerked her towards the door of the box, so roughly that she upset most of the champagne she was holding in her other hand.
She wondered wildly who she could appeal to to save her from what she was sure would be a humiliating performance.
Not only the King had vanished but also Autal and the only men left in the box were drinking and laughing uproariously over something one of them had said.
There was nothing she could do but allow Lakatos to drag her out into the corridor, having with difficulty put down her almost empty glass on a table at the back of the box as she passed it.
Then they went down the stairs, Lakatos holding onto the bannisters, Zosina noticed.
The noise seemed even worse when they started to mingle with the crowds and there was also what Zosina thought was an unpleasant smell of beer, cheap perfume and what she was sure was sweat.
It was, however, impossible to think of anything once they had taken to the dance floor except of how to keep in time with Lakatos.
The band was now playing a Viennese waltz and he swung her round, but not in the graceful prescribed fashion that Zosina had learned with her dancing teacher, but violently as if he wished to sweep her off her feet, frequently staggering as he did so.
Only by holding tightly onto his arm could Zosina keep her balance.
They kept bumping into other couples, who shouted at them to look where they were going – an instruction that Lakatos completely ignored.
It was all a very unpleasant experience and, before they had circled even a quarter of the room, Zosina was wishing she had never said she was fond of dancing or had agreed to come with the King on this wild escapade.
As if to think of him was to conjure him up, the next couple they bumped into was the King with the fair-haired woman who had kissed him.
“This is jolly good fun!” the King said, as he danced beside Lakatos and Zosina, “but it’s damned hot!”
“It always is,” Lakatos replied, “but there’s plenty of champagne to keep you cool.”
“You are a sport, Lakatos, I will say that for you!” the King crowed. “One day I will repay you, make no mistake about that.”
“I’ll remind you of your promise,” Lakatos said.
There was something in the way he spoke even though he was drunk that told Zosina that he was making use of the King for his own ends.
It struck her that what might have been just a boyish prank on the King’s part in coming to a p
lace like this with people with whom he should not associate, could have far-reaching repercussions that would affect the country itself.
She had not read history so avidly without knowing that Monarchs always had ‘hangers-on’ who would solicit their favours for personal advantage and she wondered how many of these drunken and rowdy young men were already scheming what they could get out of the King, once he had complete power.
It was frightening to remember that this would be after his birthday in two weeks’ time.
She could understand why the Regent, who would then have no more authority over him, wished to replace his own influence with that of a wife.
But, Zosina thought helplessly, there would be nothing she could do to prevent the King preferring friends of this sort to those courtiers who had always served their Monarch and treated him with the respect they considered was due to his position.
The band began to play a faster tune and the King called out to Lakatos,
“Come on! We will race you to the end of the hall!” Zosina did not at first realise what he meant until he started off in a wild gallop towards the bar at the far end, knocking people out of his way as he and his partner charged directly at them.
To her consternation Lakatos followed the King’s example and they set off crashing into the dancers while both he and the King shouted and yelled to warn people of their approach.
It was not only difficult for Zosina to move in such a rough manner, but it was also extremely painful.
She felt her whole back was being bruised by those against whom they cannoned and her hand clasped in Lakatos’s and held out ahead of them, struck those who were in their way with a force that Zosina was sure would bruise her knuckles.
“Please – Please – you are going too – fast!” she managed to gasp.
But Lakatos paid no attention until he reached the King, who by this time was prevented from going any further by the crowd waiting at the bar to be served.
“A beer, that’s what I want!” the King’s partner said. “A beer! I’m thirsty after all that exercise.”
“That is what you shall have,” the King agreed. “Come on, Lakatos.”
He turned towards the bar and as he did so several of his other friends who had been in the box joined him.
“What are you doing, Gyo?” one of them asked. “There’s champagne upstairs.”
“Kata wants a beer,” the King answered, “and so do I.” “And so do we!” his friends chorused. “Beer! Beer! And mind we’re served first!”
“We will see to that,” the King said. “Come on, boys, clear a passage for me!”
They obliged, moving forward on each side of the King and deliberately knocking those who had been waiting out of their path.
Because the onslaught came from behind, most of the men did not realise what was happening until they found themselves pushed over or deliberately knocked down or punched on the back of the head.
It was all happening so quickly that Zosina could only gasp while the women who had been in the box laughed delightedly and shrieked encouragement.
“Knock ’em down! That’s right! Get us what we want! Beer! Beer!”
It was then the first row of those waiting at the bar realised that something was happening behind them and turned round.
Zosina saw the expression of one man who was taller than the rest and realised that there was going to be trouble.
He put up his fists and struck one of the King’s friends and his action incited several other men to follow his example.
Before Zosina could realise what was happening, a fight had started that seemed to escalate every second.
Some of the men who were knocked over fell against others and not certain who was the aggressor they struck out at whoever was nearest to them.
Soon there were a large number of men fighting for no apparent reason, except that the majority had had too much to drink.
The noise was stupendous and, to make things worse, Zosina saw one of the King’s friends snatch a beer mug from somebody who had already been served and throw it with all his strength at a long row of bottles that were stacked on the shelves behind the bar.
There was a resounding crash and the barmaids screamed.
As if it incited other men into a desire for destruction, beer mugs started to be thrown by a number of those who had not previously taken part in the fight.
A large mirror was cracked across the centre and the barmaids began to run to the sides of the bar and away from danger.
As soon as they realised it was unattended, men climbed over it to snatch at any bottles that had not been broken, one of them, as he did so, receiving an empty beer mug in the face which cut his cheek.
It was all very frightening, and yet because she was surrounded by so many people watching or only just becoming involved in the fight, Zosina found it impossible to move.
Then suddenly, as she was trembling with fear as to what might happen next, a man picked her up in his arms.
She gave a terrified gasp and started to struggle before he said,
“It is all right! Keep quiet! I will get you out of this.” She looked up, saw a face covered by a mask and, as she did so, most of the lights in the beer hall went out.
There was a sudden shriek from the crowd, which echoed and re-echoed up to the ceiling, but there were still a few lights left, by the aid of which the man carrying Zosina found his way to the side of the dance floor.
He had only just reached it when above the noise of screaming and shouting there was a report of gunfire.
Shots rang out one after another and, as Zosina started nervously, she found herself put down on her feet.
A door was opened and she was pulled into a place of complete darkness.
As the door closed behind the man who carried her, there were several more shots and she put out her hands to find him close to her.
“What is – happening?” she asked, her voice shaking with fear.
She raised her face instinctively as she spoke because she could see that he was so much taller than she was and he must have been bending towards her, for without her having any intention of doing so, her mouth touched his.
She stiffened into a sudden stillness, then before she could move, before she could even finish what she was saying, his arms went round her and his lips made hers captive.
For a moment she was too surprised to feel anything but a sense of shock. Then a streak of lightning seemed to run through her body. It was an indescribable rapture beyond expression and different from anything she had ever imagined she could feel.
It was so wonderful, so rapturous, that she knew that this was what she had always thought a kiss would be like and yet beyond her wildest dreams in its ecstasy and glory.
His arms tightened and it flashed through her mind that, if she could die at this moment, she would not mind because nothing could ever be so marvellous again.
She felt herself quiver all over and it was as if the lightning which had run through her whole body had moved into her throat and was held there by a magic that was the enchantment that came, not from this world, but from the very stars in the sky.
The kiss might have lasted for a few seconds or a few centuries.
Zosina only knew that, when the man who held her raised his head, she was bewildered and bemused to the point where, without thinking, without even realising she was speaking, she said,
“I – love – you!”
Even as she heard her own voice say the words, she knew it was true.
This was love! This was what she wanted! This was what she had prayed she would find and it had happened when she had least expected it, when she had been afraid to the point where her whole body was trembling.
She was trembling still, but it was now not with fear, but with a rapture that made her say again,
“I love you – I love you!”
There was no answer, but, as he held her very close, she could feel his heart was beating as
tumultuously as hers. In the darkness she suddenly knew deep in her soul that he could only be the Regent and he had kissed her and rescued her!
Then suddenly she was standing alone and she gave a little cry.
“Don’t – leave – me!”
“Don’t move. I have to find a way out.”
She stood still because he had told her to and she knew he was feeling his way through the darkness until a door opened on the other side of what she thought must be a small room.
There was still a pandemonium of noise coming from the beer hall. Then there was a faint light and she could see the Regent’s head and shoulders silhouetted against an open door.
He left it and came back to where she was standing. “We can get out this way.”
He put his arm round her shoulders as he spoke and she felt herself quiver because he was touching her.
He drew her forward and out through the door, and she saw they were in a narrow passage lit only by one gas globe.
It was light enough for her to see, however, that the walls were dirty and not gaudily painted like the rest of the beer hall.
With his arm round her, the Regent drew her quickly in what she thought must be the opposite direction from which they had entered the hall.
Zosina could hear all the time they were moving, the noise of screams and shouts and above it all, bursts of gunfire.
Then there was a door in front of them that was bolted and the Regent drew back the bolts and they stepped out into the fresh air.
There was no gaslight here, but the stars in the sky were bright enough for Zosina to see that they were in a yard where there were piles of refuse, empty bottles and a huge pile of wooden barrels.
A few more steps and there was an iron gate standing ajar through which they stepped into a road with apparently a wasteland of shrubs and trees on the other side of it.
The Regent looked left as if he was expecting what he saw – a closed carriage. A few seconds later he had helped Zosina into it and got in beside her.
It was then, as if she knew there was no need for further pretence, she pushed her domino back from her head and pulled off her mask.
Bride to the King Page 10