Bride to the King (13 page)

“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 place 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.

She saw the Regent was doing the same thing, before in a strange voice that she hardly recognised, he said,

“Forgive me! I can only beg your forgiveness!”

“For – what?”

“For behaving as I did just now,” he answered. “You tried me too far and I can only apologise humbly and, if you wish, on my knees for losing my head.”

“There is – no need – to apologise,” Zosina said shyly.

She realised that he was referring to the fact that he had kissed her and knew that as far as she was concerned it was the most wonderful and perfect thing that had ever happened in her whole life.

“But there
is
!” the Regent said sternly. “I thought I was a controlled, civilised person, but I find instead I am little better than those brigands who are firing wildly as they always do when they are excited.”

“Brigands!” Zosina exclaimed with a little shiver.

“You are quite safe,” he said. “They would not hurt you. It’s just exuberance that makes them fire off their pistols, especially when there is a fight!”

He spoke in the sensible voice in which he had talked at dinner and because she felt that he had gone away from her, that he had left her after they had been so close, she turned to him and, trying to see his face in the darkness of the carriage, said,

“I – love you!”

“You must not say such things.”

“Is it – wrong?”

“Very wrong, and I have nobody to blame, except myself.”

“I know – now I have – loved you ever since I first came to Dórsia – it seems a very long time ago – and I wanted, so much, to talk to you – to listen to you – ”

The Regent made a sound that was almost a groan of pain and then he said,

“You must not talk like that. You must not torture me.” “Why?
Why
?”

“You know the answer,” he replied, “and my only excuse is that, when I learned tonight where you had gone, I thought I should go mad with fear and anxiety lest something should happen to you.”

“It was – very frightening – until – you came.” “How could you have been so foolish as to let the King take you to such a place?”

“It was the – only way I felt I could – gain his confidence and – trust – as you wanted.”

“You were thinking of me?”

“I – wanted to – please you,” Zosina replied simply.

Although she could not see him clearly, only in fleeting glimpses from the gaslights on the streets down which they were driving, Zosina knew that he was clenching his fists together.

He did not speak and after a moment she said,

“You – kissed me – and it was the most wonderful thing that had – ever happened to me. Did it mean – nothing to you?”

“I am not going to answer that question because I dare not. Oh, my dear, this should never have happened.”

“You are – sorry that you – kissed me?” Zosina persisted.

“Not sorry, but ashamed.”

“Of – me?”

“No, of course not. Of myself.”

“There is – no need to – be.”

“There is
every
need.”

There was silence. Then Zosina said in a small voice he could hardly hear,

“Now that I – love you – must I marry – the King?” “You not only have to marry the King,” the Regent answered roughly, “you have to forget me.”

“I could – never do that – never –
never
! It would be – impossible. I know now that you are the man who has – always been in my – dreams – the man I thought perhaps – one day I would – find.”

“We have found each other, but it’s too late.”

“It is – not too – late. I am not – married to the – King.”

“But you
have
to marry him.”

“Why? When I – love you?”

“Because our love can have nothing to do with it.” “
Our
love?” Zosina asked. “Do you – love me a little?” The Regent did not reply and after a moment she said, “Tell me – I have to – know.”