A Miracle of Love

by Barbara Cartland

  “We must not pat ourselves on the back until we arrive safely at our destination. We must be very careful of every step we take until there is no chance of either of us seeing anyone we know or being recognised.”

  It was only a short distance to the Ponte Palatino and as the carriage stopped, the Prince could see that down on the river several barges were unloading passengers.

  They had come from the Antico Porto and then he saw that there were smaller boats for visitors to be ferried up or down the river at their convenience.

  When he thought of it, he remembered years ago on his first visit as a young boy his father had always hired one, as he said he disliked being crushed by a lot of noisy people – in fact he preferred more than anything else to travel in silence.

  “Are we now going in a barge?” Sacia asked.

  “We are going to have a barge to ourselves, so stay here and again keep as inconspicuous as possible until I come back.”

  He jumped out of the carriage, told the coachman to wait and went down the steps to the river.

  It did not take him long to find there were quite a number of private barges for hire and he chose one that was larger and looked more solidly built than the others.

  He told the boatman that he wished to go down to the Port of Ostia and the Prince knew he was delighted as it was a more expensive trip than sailing down the river with sightseers.

  The Prince went back to the carriage and paid the coachman giving him a tip that made him bow politely and wish them a happy journey.

  He then unloaded their luggage.

  Fortunately, as always at such places, there were a few boys ready to carry luggage or do anything else to earn them a few centesimi.

  The Prince held back one case until the youths had gone off with the others and then he opened it and found as he remembered that there was a scarf on top of the dresses.

  He shut the case up again and told the coachman to give it to another boy to take down to the river.

  Then he opened the carriage door and handed the scarf to Sacia.

  “That was clever of you,” she exclaimed.

  “Wrap it over your head and cover as much of your face as you can, then tie the ends round your neck.”

  Sacia obeyed him and did so very elegantly.

  Then the Prince helped her out of the carriage.

  As they both thanked the coachman, he guided her down the steps that led to the river below.

  The barge was waiting for them.

  The boys were delighted with the money the Prince gave them and as they moved off they cheered and waved.

  The Prince acknowledged them by raising his hand and then he sat himself comfortably close to Sacia and put his arm round her.

  The barge had a cover which he had told the man to raise.

  It was really meant to be protection against rain, but he wanted to keep them from being seen by people on the banks of the river or from boats they were passing.

  It did not take as long as he had expected to cover the thirteen miles to Ostia and it had fascinated the Prince when he was a boy when he was taught about this ancient Roman Port.

  He thought now it was an appropriate beginning to their new adventure together and perhaps this would be the most significant one of them all.

  He knew he could not let Sacia leave him again whoever she was or wherever she came from.

  She was his.

  He would keep her whatever the difficulties that might arise from either of their backgrounds.

  ‘I love her,’ the Prince mused. ‘She is the one I was really looking for when I set out on this adventure. Now I have found her I will never be such a fool as to lose her.’

  They talked very little as the barge sailed down the Tiber, but Sacia was feeling how wonderful it was to have the Prince’s arm around her.

  She knew in her heart when she gazed into his eyes that he loved her.

  The Prince was aware that every time they looked at each other, Sacia’s face was transformed into a beauty which was the perfection of love.

  The love he had always longed for when he thought of the Goddess Aphrodite.

  ‘She has sent me real love,’ he told himself, ‘and I must never ever lose it. She has brought me the miracle of love.’

  Equally he could feel there was a menace hovering over his head.

  Unless Sacia could in any way be of help to Vienz, he could visualise that every powerful force in his country would try to separate them.

  It was something he could not say to Sacia, but her instinct told her that he was troubled.

  At the same time his love for her was stronger than the troubles in his mind.

  “You are not regretting that we are together again?” she whispered.

  “I am thanking God,” replied the Prince, “that He showed me before it was too late that I was a fool in letting you go. You are mine, Sacia, all mine, and whatever the future holds for us I will never give you up.”

  He spoke defiantly as if it was being demanded of him at that very moment.

  “I feel that the Goddess Aphrodite is guiding us,” Sacia sighed. “It cannot be just chance that I was saved with just a few seconds to spare from falling into the hands of my father’s men. And it cannot be by chance that you had not turned away thinking I was safe with my teacher.”

  “You are absolutely right, my darling. Aphrodite has guided and helped us ever since you swung down from the window and into my gondola. How can we then be so ungrateful as to question the future?”

  Sacia reckoned that was what he had been doing, but she did not say anything.

  She now slipped her hand into his and moved just a little closer and she could feel his love flooding over her.

  When they arrived at the Port of Ostia, the Prince lifted Sacia out of the boat and then he went to see which ships had arrived or were expected.

  The first ship he saw, as soon as he walked into the harbour, he recognised as an English ship. It was not very large, but it was flying the Red Ensign and it looked like a pleasure cruiser that the English had recently introduced into the Mediterranean.

  He felt again that Sacia was right and he had been guided towards this ship by Aphrodite.

  He then stepped on board the ship and saw some of the passengers walking about the deck.

  He realised they were people of a good class and bore no relation to the noisy rampageous youths they had travelled with yesterday.

  He sought out the Purser who was a middle-aged man in uniform and he looked somewhat harassed.

  “Will you tell me where you are going,” the Prince asked him, “and if you have any accommodation vacant?”

  He spoke English well with a faint foreign accent.

  The Purser, who had not looked at him when he had stood outside his Office, turned round slowly as if he was bored by the question.

  Seeing that the Prince was obviously a gentleman of distinction, he replied more politely than he would have otherwise,

  “I have only three cabins left, sir. One which has just been vacated is our best first-class double cabin for a married couple. The others are two small cabins in second class.”

  As if the Prince was being prompted, he said,

  “I will take your first-class cabin and I hope that you are going to Greece.”

  “We will be calling at Athens, sir. Then we are going on through the Greek Islands to Constantinople.”

  “I wish to leave you at Athens,” said the Prince. “I will now fetch my wife and I will be grateful if you would send two porters for my luggage.”

  The Purser produced his book.

  “May I have your name, sir?”

  The Prince hesitated for a second and then told him,

  “I am Count Nicolo Theodoro.”

  “We are delighted to have you on board, sir,” the Purser added in a polite tone.

  He pushed the book towards the Prince.

  “Will you please sign your name here, sir.”

  The Pr
ince signed the name he had given himself and then he walked to the barge with two porters following him.

  Then he helped Sacia out of the barge and putting his arm around her he guided her up the gangway and onto the ship.

  The Purser had already opened the cabin for them and the porters carried in their luggage.

  It was as the Prince had expected, quite large with a double bed instead of a bunk, as was usual in English ships that carried distinguished passengers in their best cabins.

  There was a bathroom with a shower opening out of it and there was every possible modern comfort in the way of a dressing table, cupboards, wardrobes and a fitted chest of drawers.

  Sacia was wise enough not to say anything while the porters were bringing in their luggage.

  When they were alone, she took the handkerchief away from her nose and pushed the scarf back from her hair.

  “What a lovely cabin,” she cried. “Is this for you or for me?”

  The Prince glanced to see that the door was closed.

  “We are on an English ship, my darling, and I think you may know that it is possible at sea and completely within the law for the Captain to marry his passengers.”

  Sacia stood very still.

  She looked at the Prince wide-eyed.

  “What are you saying to me?” she whispered.

  “I am saying, my precious, that I am not going to lose you again nor can you lose me. We belong to each other and we both believe we have been brought together by the Goddess Aphrodite. So I am now asking you, if you love me enough, to become my wife.”

  For a moment Sacia just stared at him.

  Then she gave a little cry and flung her arms round his neck.

  “I love you, I love you, Nico, and I thought even though I prayed for it that you would never marry me. Oh, darling wonderful Nico, I want to be married to you and I would adore to be your wife. But do you really and truly want me?”

  The Prince held her very close.

  “Really and truly – and this is exactly what I have been seeking and why I set off on my adventure.”

  He kissed her at first very gently.

  Then, when she thought he was going to take her high into the sky again, he gently set her free.

  “Listen, my darling. If we are married, as I know that we can be once the ship is at sea, I want to spend our honeymoon in Greece and to think only of Aphrodite and the way she has helped us.”

  “That is what I want to do too,” mumbled Sacia.

  “I know therefore, because I want our honeymoon to be a very happy one, I don’t want either of us to think of the future or of any problems that may lie ahead.

  “We both know there may be difficulties now that we have embarked on this wonderful adventure. We have now found each other and the love we are both seeking.”

  “Oh, Nico, that is true absolutely true. I love you so incredibly much, but I never thought my prayers would be answered and that you would make me your wife.”

  “That is exactly what I intend to do. So let us enjoy ourselves as two people who have found the Divine love they have been searching for and leave the difficulties to come later.”

  “Of course we should do and it is just what I want myself. Explanations and speculations always make one miserable.”

  “That is what I think too,” the Prince smiled.

  “So we will just be Nico and Sacia as we have been ever since I fell into the gondola until we know we have to return home and tell our families the whole story.”

  She moved closer to the Prince as she sighed,

  “But for the moment by God’s mercy or perhaps by the magic of Aphrodite we will think only of ourselves and the love they have given us.”

  “I knew you would understand, Sacia.”

  He realised that once again he was running away.

  Running away not only from telling Sacia who he was, but from learning that she came from some respected but ordinary Venetian family.

  As there was no Royalty in Venice, she would not be accepted readily or eagerly as a Royal Princess and she could bring no advantage or security to Vienz.

  He put his arms out to draw her closer still.

  “I love you, I adore you, my darling Sacia, and that is the only subject we are going to think about until our honeymoon is over.”

  The Prince did not wait for Sacia to answer him.

  He was kissing her until it was impossible for either of them to think of anything else but the glory and mystery of their love for each other.

  *

  The ship sailed an hour later.

  When they had left the harbour and were moving slowly down the coast towards Sicily, the Prince left Sacia.

  He learnt from a Steward that as the ship was now full, they were not stopping at Naples.

  The Prince had to ask the Purser if he could see the Captain and he realised that it was only his air of dignity and his title that eventually made it possible. It was clearly the Purser’s job to protect the Captain from the passengers.

  Finally after quite a wait the Prince found himself speaking with the Captain on the bridge.

  The ship was moving smoothly over a quiet sea and he was interested to see it boasted every new and modern improvement.

  “You wanted to see me,” the Captain said a little aggressively.

  He found it tiresome when passengers wanted to speak to him as soon as they were out of Port.

  “I would be most grateful, Captain,” the Prince now began, “if you will marry me and the lady who is with me whilst we are at sea.”

  He saw surprise on the Captain’s face and went on,

  “I don’t need to tell you that we have had to run away from our respective families who have different ideas of who we should marry, but, as we are overwhelmingly in love with each other, we knew the only action we can take is to make our marriage a fait accompli so that they could no longer quarrel over us.”

  There was a moment’s silence and then the Captain threw back his head and laughed.

  “I can quite understand, Count Theodoro, that you have been brave enough to take fate into your own hands. Of course I will marry you and will be delighted to do so. I imagine that you will find Greece the perfect place for a honeymoon.”

  “I must admit I had no idea an Englishman could be so understanding!” the Prince exclaimed.

  The Captain laughed again.

  “I will marry you in exactly an hour’s time, Count. As you are in our best cabin, I will perform the wedding ceremony there for you.”

  “I am so grateful to you, Captain, and I would like, as long as it is not published, to have the best wishes of the crew. But I want the fact we are married to be kept secret from the passengers. They would undoubtedly try to give us their good wishes, which would be embarrassing. But if you can provide enough champagne for your crew to drink our health, I will be more than grateful.”

  “I am sure they would be delighted. I will come to you in an hour’s time. As we stop at Malta tomorrow we will not be in Greece for at least four days.”

  “Thank you again for your kindness, Captain.”

  The Prince walked back to their cabin to find that in his absence Sacia had put on one of her new dresses.

  It was of course the white one and he thought that no one could look more entrancing or more gracious.

  “I had nothing to wear on my head,” she said, “but I asked our Steward and he kindly brought me these white roses. There are not enough to make a wreath, but if I pin them on either side of my face I think I will look a bride!” “You will look so lovely, beautiful and utterly and completely adorable. There is nothing more I could say except, my darling, that I love you with all my heart and I realise that I am the happiest and luckiest man in the whole wide world.”

  He was kissing her again.

  And only when she was able to speak, did she ask,

  “We don’t have to tell the Captain our real names?”

  “I once attended an English w
edding, which took place on a ship, of a man who was at school with me. The only thing that counted was their Christian names. Thus you must give the Captain all your Christian names and I will give him mine. Although we will sign the Register under a false surname, what really will matter is that our Christian names are correct. Anyway no one, once we are married, will dare to suggest that it’s not legal.”

  “Are you quite sure?” Sacia asked in a small voice and he knew it troubled her.

  “I promise you that I am absolutely correct in all I have told you. Now tell me your names.”

  With a little hesitation as if she was still nervous, Sacia muttered,

  “I was Christened Maria, Christa, Sacia, and I have always been called Sacia because it was easier for me to say when I was little.”

  The Prince smiled.

  “I am sure it will impress the Captain that we are of considerable consequence. Now my Christian names are Nicolo, Murar, Alexander.”

  “He will certainly be impressed with those,” Sacia laughed, “and of course he believes you to be a Count.”

  “Which I hope he will go on believing.”

  Then he changed the conversation quickly.

  Naturally he was well aware that Sacia was curious about him just as he was curious about her, but he knew it would spoil their honeymoon if they even began to think about the future.

  He did not want to contemplate the difficulties of appeasing not only her family but his Prime Minister and Cabinet.

  So instead of speaking he put his arms round Sacia once again.

  And he kissed her until once again they were flying up into the sky.

  *

  Later on that night Sacia moved against him and he pulled her a little closer to him.

  “Do you still love me?” he asked tenderly. “And I have not hurt or frightened you?”

  “I love you, Nico,” Sacia sighed. “I did not know how wonderful love was until you gave me all I dreamt of and longed for and thought it would never happen to me.”

  “But it happened and now you know, my precious one, that Aphrodite has blessed us and nothing and no one could ever keep us apart. And we will never lose the love we have now for each other.”