“All I can think at the moment is that I want to live like this,” Drogo said. “Holding you close to me, knowing that you are mine.”
“I am – yours! I am – yours! I am – yours!” Thekla cried. “And now it is too – late for you to bother about my being a – Princess or anything stupid like that.”
Drogo was silent and after a moment she said,
“You are not – thinking, now that I really – belong to you, that you could get our – marriage annulled?”
For a moment Drogo did not reply and he felt her tremble.
“I think it is something that would now be very difficult, if not impossible,” he said.
Thekla gave a cry of delight.
“Then I can – stay with – you! You cannot – throw me away as you were – intending to do.”
“I was not throwing you anywhere,” Drogo said. “You do realise, my darling one, that, if you stay with me as my wife, you will have to relinquish your title. You will no longer be a real Princess except in my heart.”
He thought that she would stiffen, being sure that the idea had never occurred to her before.
Instead she laughed.
“But that is just what I – want!” she said. “To be – in your heart and to be – with you. What does – anything else matter?”
Drogo drew in his breath.
“My dearest, it will not be easy. I have told you of the financial difficulty I am in and you have never been poor. ”
“I will look after – you, cook for – you, do anything rather than – leave you,” Thekla persisted.
Because there was a passionate note in her voice, Drogo gave a little groan.
“I love you,” he said when he could speak. “No one could be more wonderful. But my darling, I am afraid.”
“Of what?”
“That you do not know what you are undertaking, and that one day you will be sorry and regret everything you have given up for love.”
“Do any of them – matter?” Thekla asked. “I know now that I was not – alive until I met you and now everything is – different.”
She smiled at him and went on,
“We are here in an Enchanted Ship and, if it has to be our home for the – rest of our lives, it would be – big enough to hold our – love.”
“My darling!” Drogo sighed and then he was kissing her again. He knew as he did so that he touched the stars and no one could ever take that from him.
*
The dawn was coming through the porthole when they were able to speak again.
“You must go to sleep, my precious,” Drogo urged her.
“I am too happy to sleep,” Thekla said. “Every night we have been here I have wanted you to be – close to me as you are – now. Instead I could hear you as you lay on the floor – and I wanted to join you.”
“As I wanted you, my darling, but I was trying to do what was right and now look what has happened!”
“What has – happened is that – there has been a – revolution in our lives,” Thekla answered. “A revolution of love and we can – never put the clock back. So now we have to start a new – life whether you like it or not.”
“I like it very much,” Drogo said. “Too much for that matter and I am ashamed of myself for not having more self-control. But who can fight against his heart when it is all yours?”
“That is the sort of thing I have – wanted you to say to me,” Thekla answered, “and I – hated having to – pretend you were my brother.”
“And you are not in the least like my sister!” Drogo smiled.
His hand was moving gently over her body.
Then, as he kissed the softness of her neck, he said,
“I must let you go to sleep.”
He felt her quiver.
“We have – years and years in which – to sleep,” Thekla answered. “Now we are – married, and on our – honeymoon, I want you to – love me and go on – loving me. Why should we think about – anything else?”
“Why indeed?” Drogo asked.
The stars became twinkling flames, which carried them into the sky.
*
The sun was high in the sky when eventually they got up.
“We have missed breakfast,” Drogo said, “but I don’t suppose that anyone will notice it except the Chinese cook.”
“It will be luncheontime in a short while,” Thekla said. “But first I want to have a shower and now – you can pour the water over me – as I have always wanted you to do.”
Drogo laughed.
“I tried hard not to think about that after you had suggested it.”
“Well, think about it now and – do it,” Thekla said provocatively.
He followed her into the tiny wash-place.
She was even more beautiful than he had imagined.
He kissed her while she was still wet and dried her with the rather inadequate towels the Captain had provided them with.
When they went back into the cabin, he held her close against him and she asked in a whisper,
“Shall we – miss luncheon?”
With an effort Drogo held her at arms’ length.
“I love you and adore you, but I have no wish for either of us to go hungry. Put some clothes on and, when we have eaten a good meal, perhaps if you are very good, we will come back and rest here rather than sit on deck.”
He saw by the light in Thekla’s eyes that she understood and she said excitedly,
“That would be lovely. And don’t let us waste much time in eating.”
Drogo pulled her into his arms.
“You are incorrigible and adorable, much too desirable for one man.”
“The most – wonderful man in the – world,” Thekla said, putting up her hand to touch his cheek. “How can I have been – so clever as to – find you?”
“I thought you were a gift of the Gods,” Drogo told her, “but, when I realised who you were and that I must not touch you, I thought it a bittersweet gift that could be agonising.”
“And – now?” Thekla asked.
“It is so wonderful that I just cannot believe it is true.”
She pressed herself against him.
“I will make you – believe it. I will never – never let you – be sorry that you married me.”
“That, my precious, is what I am saying to you.”
“We will both make – sure that – neither of us is – sorry,” she asserted and kissed him.
*
It was later in the afternoon, when Thekla was asleep from sheer exhaustion, that Drogo, watching the sunlight glittering through the porthole, thought of the future.
He wondered if there could be some way for him to make money if he left the Army.
He knew now that Thekla was his wife that he had to face the fact that he could no longer go on risking his life as he had been doing these last few years.
Yet, when he informed the Viceroy and those who knew he was in The Great Game, that he intended to pull out, it would cause consternation.
But it was something that he had to do.
If he was killed, Thekla would not only be destitute but, having given up her title, would be of no social stature.
‘I shall have to make it up to her for so much,’ he thought.
He felt that he had somehow betrayed himself and his principles of chivalry in loving her.
Then he looked at her lying beside him.
He knew that she was right and nothing else was of consequence except their love for each other.
She looked so exquisitely beautiful that she might have been a Goddess from Olympus or an angel dropped down from the sky.
In the strange little cabin with its tartan and its antlers she was, he thought, a translucent pearl that had just risen from the sea.
Her eyelashes were dark against her cheeks and her hair covered her naked shoulders.
They had thrown back the sheet that had covered them and she lay naked.
For the mom
ent he was spiritually aroused.
His sense of her beauty was so acute that it was almost a pain within him.
He felt that he must protect her as if she was a treasure of inestimable value and nothing could be too difficult or too great a sacrifice for him to do so.
“I love you, I adore you,” he said very softly, “and I will worship you from now until Eternity.”
Chapter Seven
“This – is the – last night,” Thekla whispered.
Drogo put his arms round her and held her very close to him.
“There is tomorrow,” he said.
“I am – afraid of – tomorrow.”
Drogo did not ask her why, because he knew the answer only too well.
The last few days and nights they had both of them been in a Paradise that was perfect and unbelievably wonderful.
It was unbearable to think that it must come to an end.
He knew when The Thistle docked early next morning they would have to come back not only to civilisation but also to reality.
“I want – to stay here,” Thekla was saying, “in this dear little cabin – alone with you and not to think of what – will happen when we – leave it.”
“I promise you everything will be all right,” Drogo answered. “I will look after you and, because we love each other so much, my darling, I believe with God’s help that we will surmount every obstacle, every difficulty and always be as happy as we are now.”
“I am – so happy,” Thekla sighed, “because I love you – more every day and every – night.”
There was a little hesitation before the last word, and she hid her face against him.
Drogo knew that teaching Thekla about love had been the most thrilling and the most exciting thing that had ever happened to him in his whole life.
Because she loved him as he loved her, everything they did seemed to be part of the Divine.
Every time they made love in the ship steaming through the sea, they drew closer not only with their bodies but with their hearts.
“I adore you!” Drogo said. “No one could be more perfect! I will never lose you and you promise me that nothing else will matter?”
“Nothing else will ever matter!” Thekla replied. “Even if we have – to starve, we will be – together and I shall not be – frightened because I am – with you.”
He kissed her and they were caught up once again in the magic and splendour of their love.
When they fell asleep, his arms were round her and her cheek was against his chest.
*
Drogo awoke as the ship was coming into the harbour of Alexandria.
They had pulled back the tartan curtains last night so that they could see the stars.
Now he was aware of the huge warehouses on the quays and that they were passing other ships.
Very gently he moved from beside Thekla, drinking in as he did so how lovely she looked in the dawn light.
He had an impulse to hold her closer still and to awaken her with his kisses.
Then he remembered that she must be tired after the thrill of their love-making and that she was still very young.
But he knew that her feelings for him were not those of a young girl, but of a women who had been awakened to the depths and heights of passion.
While there was a great deal more for him to teach her, she was already in many ways sophisticated for her years.
She was so entrancing and so fascinating that he felt that she was like a lotus flower, the emblem of life, opening to the sun.
He swore on everything he held sacred that he would protect and worship her to the end of his life.
He knew better than she did what she was giving up in marrying a commoner and becoming the wife of a poor soldier instead of being a Princess.
But they could not escape from each other because it was their Karma and he swore that if it was humanly possible she should have no regrets.
He had slipped out of the bed, thinking that he would always remember the happiness they had found in it.
Going into the wash-place, he poured a bucket of water over himself. Then he shaved, looking in the very small mirror that was fixed to the wall.
When he went back into the bedroom, Thekla was still asleep.
He went to the cupboard where their clothes hung and dressed himself in his cousin’s. He chose a pair of white trousers, a conventional white shirt and his Regimental tie.
Before he went ashore he intended to put on his cousin’s boating jacket with its brass buttons.
He knew that it would make him look particularly English.
By the time he was dressed the ship had come alongside and he heard the gangplank being set down.
He reckoned that this was for the Customs Officers, who would come aboard first to inspect Captain McKay’s papers.
And after that the cargo could be unloaded.
As it was so early in the morning, there were not many people on the quay apart from a varied assortment of seamen.
Drogo knew that in a short while there would be ghullie-ghullie men producing poor little baby chickens in a magical manner, Egyptians selling carpets, beads, fezes and a mass of other rubbish that attracted tourists.
Now there were only men at work making fast the ropes to the bollards and hoping to be employed in unloading the cargo if the Captain of the ship was in a hurry.
It was then that he saw two men standing back in the shadow of a warehouse.
They appeared to be just onlookers watching the ship make fast. But there was something about them that attracted Drogo’s attention.
It made him look and look at them again.
His instinct, alert from his experiences in Afghanistan and Russia, told him that they were dangerous.
There was nothing to substantiate this feeling, yet he knew they were.
With the swiftness of a man whose decisiveness had saved his own life a hundred times, he knew what to do.
He went to the bed and, bending over, awoke Thekla, as he had wanted to do earlier, with a kiss.
As his lips held hers captive, she made a little murmur of delight and, although her eyes were not open, her arms reached out to hold him.
“Wake up, my darling!”
A moment passed before she opened her eyes and said,
“I love you. Oh – Drogo, I love you!”
“And I love you,” he said. “But wake up, there is something important for you to do!”
He lifted her in his arms until she was sitting up and then he said,
“Listen, my precious. I have to go onto the bridge to see the Captain and the Customs Officers who have just come aboard. I want you to lock the door when I have left you and not to open it to anyone, do you understand?”
Thekla’s eyes widened.
“What is the – matter? What is – wrong?” she asked and her voice was anxious.
“Nothing is wrong.”
“You don’t – think that – Arab man – ”
“No! No! Of course not!” he said quickly. “This is something quite different and I want you to do what I tell you.”
“You will – not be – away for – long?”
“Only a few minutes.”
He walked across the cabin, took down the boating jacket from the cupboard and put it on.
“Now you look very – smart and very impressive!” Thekla exclaimed.
“I want you to look the same,” Drogo said. “Get up and put on one of your prettiest and smartest gowns.”
“To impress who?” Thekla demanded.
“Principally me,” Drogo replied. “At the same time I shall now have the pleasure of introducing my wife to the world.”
Thekla laughed.
“I will make sure you are not – ashamed of me.”
She began to get out of bed and, because she looked so utterly desirable, it was with difficulty that Drogo made himself walk to the door.
“Lock yourself in,” he urged her as he opened it.
<
br /> As if she knew what he was feeling, Thekla said provocatively,
“You would not – like to – kiss me goodbye?”
With the sun shining on her through the porthole, she looked so exquisite that Drogo realised that it was one thing he dared not do.
“I will kiss you when I come back,” he said and closed the door behind him.
He waited to hear the key turn in the lock before he hurried up the companionway to the bridge.
As he expected, Captain McKay was there and with him were two Customs Officers who were inspecting his papers.
To Drogo’s relief he saw that one of them was English.
Napoleon had called Egypt ‘the most important country’ and Drogo had realised that as soon as he was involved in the affairs of the Empire that for the British it had an almost pathological fascination.
To the British Egypt lay astride the route to India.
Nelson and the Nile and now the passage of the Liners down the Suez Canal made them vitally aware of this mysterious country.
Egypt was not part of the British Empire, but every year British influence and guidance increased there.
Without even realising it the Egyptians began to rely on them more and more and there was, Drogo knew, already a large number of British troops in Egypt.
While the great engineering and irrigation works that were expanding year by year were all due to the initiative, imagination and the organisation of the British.
As he reached the bridge, the Customs Officer looked up from the papers he was holding in surprise at his appearance.
“Good morning, Captain,” Drogo said. “I would be grateful if you would introduce me to this gentleman as I have something of interest to say to him.”
There was a moment’s pause while Captain McKay looked somewhat taken aback at Drogo’s request.
Then he said dourly,
“This be Mr. Forde who has travelled aboard my ship from Ampula.”
Drogo held out his hand.
“How do you do,” he said to the Customs Officer and also shook the hand of the man beside him, who he realised was an Egyptian.
“My name is Smithson,” the Customs Officer said, “and I gather that you have had a smooth passage.”
A Revolution Of Love Page 11