He made an excellent speech.
He welcomed Prince Vaslov to Krnov and thanked him for the pleasure he was bringing to the citizens of their country.
He also informed his audience that Princess Udele was now grown up and since her father Prince Majmir was unwell, she had taken over as the Ruler of Krnov.
They could look to her for new developments, new interests and a reign of prosperity such as they had never experienced before.
There were more loud cheers as the Prime Minister sat down and then the band struck up a popular tune.
Next the soldiers from Cieszyn began to march and counter-march in a way that Zoleka had never seen at any military parade at Opava, but her father had told her was very much part of the English Royal Tournament.
It was over two hours later before they were able to drive back to the Palace.
The people cheered as they passed and small boys ran beside the carriage.
Prince Vaslov and the Count next led the band and all the soldiers to show them where the Royal Tournament was to take place and afterwards the Officers came into the Palace for luncheon.
When they had all enjoyed a drink in the drawing room, it was a very cheerful party that moved into the dining room.
Everything at the Palace was now so different from when Zoleka had arrived.
The butler with his new footmen had the best silver on the tables and there were enough waiters for them to get through the meal reasonably quickly.
“We have a great deal to do this afternoon,” Prince Vaslov was saying. “Once all my men have settled in they have to rehearse to attain the perfection we wish to show to the public.”
“If I did not know you so well,” the Count chipped in, “I should have thought it impossible. But after what has transpired today, I believe that everything you touch turns to gold!”
Prince Vaslov laughed.
“I only hope you are right, Franz, but events have turned out even better than I could have possibly hoped.
He turned towards Udele.
“Your speech was so perfect, Your Royal Highness, I cannot believe it is the first speech you have ever made.”
“Was I really all right?”
“You were quite perfect,” added the Count. “And you looked exactly as you did when you saw yourself in the magic mirror.”
Udele blushed and then she turned to Zoleka,
“If I was rich, I would give fabulous presents to all you fabulous people. But I think Papa would be angry. So what can I do?”
“You have given us a present by doing exactly what we were hoping you would do, Udele, but we will think of something, although I cannot believe that Prince Vaslov wants for anything.”
She was speaking lightly and then she remembered that he had told her he intended to ask Udele to be his wife.
As the thought surged into her mind, she looked at him instinctively and knew he was reading her thoughts.
Then to her great surprise an expression came into his eyes which she did not understand.
Yet for some reason she could not explain it gave her a strange feeling inside her breast.
It was something she had never felt before in her entire life.
For a heart-stopping moment it was impossible for her to look away from him and as she finally tore her eyes away from his, the Count said,
“Come on, Vaslov, we must get down to business. I suppose you realise that in a day or so we are giving a ball and I have not yet finished all the arrangements?”
“I will help you,” he promised, “and if there is one thing I shall enjoy, it will be dancing with our very clever little Princess.”
He looked towards Udele as he spoke, but she had run to the Count’s side.
“Please, please can we have a cotillion? I have read about them in books and it would be very wonderful to have one at my ball.”
“Of course you can have one,” the Count answered. “But it means that you and Zoleka will have to buy a great many presents, otherwise those who take part in the cotillion may be disappointed.”
“We will, of course we will! I think it will be so thrilling.”
The Count smiled.
“I can think of many other excitements for you in the future, but you will certainly have your cotillion.”
“Oh, you are so kind.”
In the same childlike way Udele had done last night she threw her arms round the Count and kissed his cheek.
“That is just the present I want from the cotillion,” he sighed. “But it must be exclusive to me and not given to anyone else!”
“No, of course not. After all no one else has done for me what you and Zoleka have.”
The men hurried away and Udele started to talk to Zoleka about what they should buy for the cotillion.
Zoleka thought it would be an anti-climax for her to appear shopping in the City so soon after the grand pomp and circumstance of this morning.
So she sent Anton Bauer to ask some shopkeepers to bring a selection of presents to the Palace for the cotillion.
Zoleka then sat down on a sofa in the drawing room and put up her feet.
“I am going to rest. I think I deserve it.”
“Of course you do, I will go off now and talk to the gardeners about the flowers we will need to decorate the ballroom.”
Udele hesitated before she added,
“I know Count Franz has told them what to do, but I thought it would be so glorious if all the flowers round the bandstand were pink.”
“That is such a splendid idea! cried Zileka. Go and tell the Head Gardener that is what you want.”
Udele hurried away and Zoleka thought that it was very good that she was beginning to think for herself.
She was even prepared to give orders to the Palace servants, which had never been allowed in the past.
Zoleka was feeling very tired and it was more from worrying about the Prussians than from physical exertion.
She closed her eyes and a few moments later was fast asleep.
She was dreaming of Prince Vaslov, his band and his columns of marching soldiers and when she opened her eyes, she found that he was standing by the sofa looking down at her.
“I am afraid I have been asleep – ” she murmured.
“You look as lovely as the Sleeping Beauty – lovelier than any woman I have ever seen in my life.”
She glanced up at him in surprise.
He sat down on the edge of the sofa.
“I am very worried, Zoleka,” remarked Prince Vaslov suddenly.
“Why?” she asked.
She was surprised he had used her Christian name because they had been rather formal to each other since he had arrived.
“I have never met anyone like you before and there have been a certain number of women in my life, I don’t pretend there have not been, but you are different.”
It was just what Zoleka was thinking about him.
Yet she did not know what to say to him now.
She looked shyly at him and she could see that he was rather embarrassed because she was blushing.
“You are so incredibly lovely, Zoleka, yet I do not believe there have been many men in your life.”
She gave a little laugh.
“I have been very happy with my dear father. We entertain so many people in Opava, but they are mostly his age, not mine.”
“Yet you have been brilliant enough to completely reorganise this Palace and transform Udele, as if you had waved a magic wand.”
“If she is guided in the right way, she is going to be a charming young woman and a very successful Ruler.”
“I do realise that, but what am I to do about you?”
Zoleka’s eyes opened in surprise.
“What do you mean?”
“I do not have to explain it to you – you know exactly what I mean.”
For a moment there was silence.
Then without saying anything further Prince Vaslov rose to his feet and walked out of the roo
m.
As the door closed behind him, Zoleka put her hand to her breast.
She was in love.
As she thought about it she was aware she had been in love with him from the moment she had first seen him.
But she had not realised that it was love.
She only knew that he was the most handsome and exciting man she had ever met.
It seemed strange that she could read his thoughts as he could read hers.
There was something inevitable about it all.
But Prince Vaslov had come to Krnov determined to marry Udele, as it was the only way they could save the independent Principalities from the Prussians.
*
Prince Vaslov did not return for tea, although the Count put in an appearance, but only stayed for a while.
He said they were terribly busy with the band and making all the final arrangements for the next contingent of soldiers who had just arrived.
“It seems incredible,” he said to Zoleka, “that two days ago we were complaining we did not have anyone to protect us and now we have almost too many!”
“You cannot be sure,” she answered in a low voice. “After all, we don’t know the number of Prussians there are in the City or how many are waiting across the border.”
“I am aware of the problem and I assure you we are taking every possible precaution. That is why I am posting every man I can around the Palace.”
“Do you think the enemy need to hold the Palace in order to assert their authority?” asked Zoleka.
“But of course. They will undoubtedly wish to be rid of Krnov’s present Ruler, whatever condition he is in.”
The presents for the cotillion duly arrived from the shops.
Udele enjoyed sorting them all out and buying what she considered the most attractive until finally she decided that she had selected enough.
Then she and Zoleka recognised that the bill for the presents would have to go to the Lord Chamberlain.
“I am too frightened to ask him,” admitted Udele. “If he says no, what shall I do?”
“It is not such a great sum, but I will speak to him.”
Zoleka told one of the Palace aides-de-camp in the hall that she wished to speak to the Lord Chamberlain.
A quarter-of-an-hour later he came to the drawing room and one look at his face told Zoleka how much he disliked her.
“I am sorry to bother you, my Lord, but Her Royal Highness has now chosen all the gifts we require for the cotillion which will take place at her ball. I thought it only polite that I should present you with the bill rather than that you should receive it directly from the shop.”
“Cotillion! What cotillion?” the Lord Chamberlain enquired.
“You must be aware that the Princess is very young and this is the first ball she has ever had given for her. She has asked for a cotillion, and, of course, we want her to be as happy as possible and to enjoy the first party at which she has ever been the hostess.”
“I should have thought you have had enough parties these last few days to last a lifetime,” he snapped.
“Are you now referring to your lifetime or Princess Udele’s?”
“We cannot afford to spend any more money,” he shouted aggressively.
“In that case I will have to ask the Prime Minister. But I thought that was rather humiliating for such a small sum. However if you do not mind, it does not trouble me!”
The Lord Chamberlain threw up his hands.
“I want to know what is happening here. What are all these soldiers doing and why are there so many Officers staying in the Palace without my permission?”
“You can scarcely refuse them considering they are here to save you and Krnov from being taken over by the Prussians.”
“Taken over by the Prussians?” he expostulated. “I have never heard such silly nonsense! They are thinking of no such thing.”
“Then I suggest you talk to Prince Vaslov, who has come here specifically to save the independence of Krnov. If you are not worried, then I assure you anyone with any brains is terrified at what is likely to happen.”
The Lord Chamberlain stared at her.
“I just don’t believe it.”
“Go and talk to the Prime Minister. Or better still allow Prince Vaslov to tell you just what he and my father think about the way this country has been mismanaged.
“You are on the verge of losing your independence and that, of course, must endanger both Opava and Cieszyn.”
“I think you are talking a lot of nonsense,” the Lord Chamberlain spat angrily. “If you are so frightened of the Prussians, you should go back to your own country where you will doubtless feel quite safe.”
He did not wait for Zoleka to reply, but stalked out of the room slamming the door behind him.
She gave a sigh.
Then she remembered the bill for the presents.
If the Lord Chamberlain refused to settle it, then Prince Vaslov, who was rich, would probably be pleased to pay it for the girl he wished to marry.
Even as the thought came into her mind, she felt as if she was suddenly stabbed in her heart by a sharp knife.
‘How can I be such a fool,’ she asked herself, ‘as to love a man I have only seen two or three times?’
Then she knew that this really was the love she had always wanted to find.
The love that united those who found it so that they became one rather than two people.
‘How can I love him? How can I love him?’ she asked herself over and over.
But she knew that she did.
*
It was very difficult for her to go down that evening to dinner and behave naturally.
She did not dare to look at Prince Vaslov in case he could read her thoughts.
She had rearranged the dining room table so that he was not sitting next to her.
Because there had been so much to do most of them around the table were very tired and the Officers who had just arrived made an excuse to leave the party early.
But Prince Vaslov seemed to have plenty to say and seemed unperturbed by what was going on.
Zoleka thought that he was even cleverer and more interesting than he had been last night.
Finally, as their numbers had been reduced, she said that she was retiring to bed.
“I have been working out a plan for Princess Udele to drive through the City tomorrow morning,” announced the Count, “to inspect the Racecourse.”
“Oh, I would love to do that,” cried Udele.
“Then if things are a little tidier than they are at the moment, you shall go to see where the Tournament is to take place.”
She was very taken with this new idea and Zoleka almost had to drag her away to bed.
After she had kissed Udele goodnight, she walked to her own room and after Marla had helped her to undress, she climbed into bed without saying anything.
*
It was only when she was alone in the dark that she could dwell on Prince Vaslov and how handsome he was.
‘I love him! I love him!’ she admitted to herself.
She was wondering if she could possibly remain in Krnov and be present when he married Udele.
She must never betray the fact that it would break her heart.
‘How and why has this happened to me?’
People had asked this very same question since the beginning of time.
But it had happened and her love was throbbing in her heart and in her soul.
Finally she fell asleep and dreamt of Prince Vaslov as she had seen him the very first time, walking towards her in the garden.
Then suddenly she awoke and opened her eyes.
The room was in darkness except for the moonlight streaming in through the sides of the curtains.
Yet she was aware that something was wrong.
Something that was very very dangerous.
She could feel the threat so strongly that she knew it was not her imagination.
It was her instinct
and her Third Eye was clamouring at her urgently.
Danger was close and coming nearer and nearer.
‘It just cannot be true,’ she tried to stammer.
Without thinking what she was doing, she climbed out of bed and walked to the window.
She pulled aside the curtain.
Her room and Udele’s looked out over the garden.
The moonlight turned the water in the fountain to silver and the garden itself looked enchanting.
Then as she stood staring down, she noticed a movement on one side among the bushes.
At first she felt certain it must be the wind and then she could feel at the open window that there was no wind.
She looked again at the bushes.
Faintly touched by the moonlight, she realised that someone was moving through them.
Not one person but several and they were moving towards the Palace.
She was now seeing the peril she had sensed within herself and she recognised that she must do something.
Running across her bedroom, just as she was in her nightgown, she opened the door.
The Count and Prince Vaslov had been given State rooms without any argument and they were on the opposite side of the corridor to hers and Udele’s.
The nearest, Zoleka knew, was Prince Vaslov’s.
She ran across towards his door, opened it without knocking and went in.
The room was dark as on this side of the Palace no moonlight filtered in from the sides of the curtains.
But she could just make out in the total blackness that Prince Vaslov was asleep in a large four-poster bed.
She ran to the side of it.
“Wake up!” she called. “Wake up quickly! There is danger.”
With the alertness of a soldier he woke at once.
“What is it?” he asked.
“There are a number of strangers moving through the bushes towards the other side of the Palace. I can see them from my window.”
Prince Vaslov sat up in bed.
“Go and wake Franz, while I get dressed.”
Zoleka did as she was told.
She rushed from the room, down the corridor and into the room occupied by the Count.
He woke as quickly as the Prince had done.
“It is what I expected,” he muttered. “Tell Prince Vaslov to operate his alarm. I will look after Udele.”
Without waiting to hear any more, Zoleka did as she had asked.
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