Love and Apollo (15 page)

Everyone present cheered and clapped loudly and drank the King's health.

The King and Queen shook hands with their guests when they left very late in the afternoon.

Almost all of them told the King, as they bade him goodbye, that they would help in any way he required.

When the last guest had departed, the Lord Chamberlain said,

“I do congratulate Your Majesty on giving the best party I have ever known.  I think it extraordinarily astute of you to have managed to obtain a promise of help from such a large number of the guests, who I would have expected to oppose anything which had not been tried out for at least half a century!”

The King laughed.

“Let us hope, when they think it over more soberly tomorrow, they don't back out.”

“No, I think having given their word they will keep it,” the Lord Chamberlain responded.

He bowed low as the King and Queen left for their private State rooms.

As she had seen little of the Palace so far, Valona was interested to see as much as she could.

She thought that the furniture was on the whole attractive, but the rooms needed only a touch of colour here and there to make them look more impressive.

“Are you being critical, Valona?” the King asked unexpectedly.

“Are you trying to read my thoughts?”

“I find it so much easier to look into your eyes to know what you are thinking.”

“You mean that when I don't want you to read my thoughts, I will either have to walk about in dark spectacles or close my eyes!”

“But I want to read your thoughts, especially when they concern me!”

He spoke so earnestly that Valona felt a little shy and she wondered how she should answer him.

At that very moment the door opened and an
aide-de-camp
entered, bowing to the King.

“Your Majesty asked me to remind you,” he said, “that you are having dinner early tonight.”

“Oh, yes, of course.  I must therefore take the Queen up to change.  Please tell the chef we will be ready in three quarters of an hour.”

The
aide-de-camp
withdrew and the King turned to Valona,

“I guessed that you would be tired after such a long day of ceremony and so, if we dined early and had a good night's sleep, you would care to ride tomorrow morning.”

Valona's eyes lit up.

“That would be a wonderful way to see some of the countryside.”

“I thought that we would ride along the sands and I can show you how important the sea is to us.  But we can put it to much better use than we are at the moment.”

“I would love to.”

 “I thought you would, Valona.”

They walked upstairs and she found that the maids had already arranged her bath in front of the fireplace.

She had been told that her room had been changed, but she was on the same corridor as she had been before.

The room was larger and grander than the one she had slept in last night.

She wanted to ask if it was the Queen's room and yet she thought that must be in another wing of the Palace where King Phidias had died.

Although it was closed, there was a communicating door between her bedroom and the one next door.

Valona put on one of the pretty gowns her mother had bought for her in Bond Street.

When she was ready, she found there was an
aide-de-camp
waiting outside to take her to another State room.

“I do not know whether His Majesty has told you, ma'am,” he said, “but the Royal Suite on the other side of the Palace is to be redecorated.  Therefore these rooms are, for the moment, the private wing for you and His Majesty to use.”

“I am quite content, thank you, and the rooms are very beautiful.”

They looked out over the garden and Valona could see a lake at the far end as well as three fountains nearer to the Palace.

They were throwing jets of water high into the air and it was falling like a flood of rainbows into the carved basins below.

“It is so lovely!” Valona exclaimed more to herself than to the
aide-de-camp
.

“Your Majesty will find the garden very beautiful at this time of year,” he told her.  “And the flowers in this room were brought in especially for you, ma'am, because Your Majesty is English.”

Valona looked at him in surprise.

“Why, because I am English?”

“Because, ma'am, the late King did not like flowers in the Palace, but we were all quite sure that being English, Your Majesty would need them.”

Valona smiled.

“You are right.  As long as I am Queen I would like every room to be filled with flowers.  Not just because they look so lovely, but because they will scent the air.”

“That is what I thought Your Majesty would want,” the
aide-de-camp
grinned with satisfaction.

The way he spoke made Valona feel sure that there had been some degree of controversy over her flowers, and she thought that she would make it clear from the beginning that in her eyes no room could ever look graceful unless it contained flowers.

She had no idea that when the King came down to dinner, he thought that she looked like a glorious flower.

She was wearing a white gown, because it seemed appropriate for a bride.

Although he did not say so, the King was comparing her with the bowl of lilies that was on a table by one of the windows.

Valona had hoped that they would dine alone, but there were three
aides-de-camp
and two of the Ladies-in Waiting she was supposed to have selected last night.

At that time, she had felt too shy to pick them out and had merely asked the Lord Chamberlain's opinion.

Because she was so young, he had chosen two of the younger Ladies-in-Waiting.

However, Valona thought they were either very dull or afraid to speak their mind.

Anyway, the King did most of the talking.

He was giving orders to the
aides-de-camps
about the arrangements to be made for the following week.

“What I wish to do,” Valona heard him say, “is to present my wife to the people.  Therefore I want to call a meeting tomorrow morning in the Square at which I intend to tell them exactly what the Queen and I are planning for the future – also to find out if it is possible to recruit a large number of men into the Army.”

The
aides-de-camp
looked startled.

“Does Your Majesty intend to do so immediately?” one asked.

“I would have preferred it yesterday, but I want it tomorrow and I leave you to see to it that every Officer is informed that he has to be on duty in the Square tomorrow at noon.”

It was obviously something the
aides-de-camp
were not expecting and Valona thought that the expressions on their faces were quite funny.

She did not say anything and yet when she looked at the King, she saw his eyes were twinkling.

‘He wants to keep them wondering what he will do next,' she thought.  ‘And I am sure it will be very good for them!'

She was quite certain they had all taken everything very lazily when the old King was ill and there was no one to give them orders.

‘Now they will all be woken up and whilst some of them will not like it, the younger ones will thrive on it.'

It was still quite early when dinner was finished and the King announced that he and the Queen would retire.

The Ladies-in-Waiting curtsied whilst the
aides-decamp
bowed.

As they went upstairs, Valona saw in the hall below them a number of soldiers with an Officer in charge.

“They will be guarding us tonight,” explained the King.

Valona gave a little shiver.

“I do hope we shall not need it!”

“You are not to be afraid, Valona.  I have arranged for there to be soldiers all round the outside of the Palace with senior Officers and that means there will be no chance of their being lax or careless about it.”

It was something that Valona was glad to hear.

As they reached the door of her bedroom, the King opened it for her.

“Undress and get into bed, then I will come and say goodnight to you, because I have something to say to you.”

Valona thought it seemed a strange request.

However, she did not answer, she merely went into her room, where a maid was waiting to help her undress.

She put on her prettiest nightgown and climbed into the large bed with its golden canopy of cupids and angels.

There were soft muslin curtains hanging on either side and her pillows were edged with lace that she guessed had been made by the seamstresses of Larissa.

She wondered what the King had to say to her.

It was their wedding night.

There had been so much to do and so much to think about that she had therefore not really considered the fact that they were now husband and wife.

Valona was very innocent.

Her mother had no idea that there was the slightest possibility of her being married whilst she was engaged as Lady-in-Waiting to Lady Rose.

She had in consequence not discussed the intimacy of marriage with Valona, nor had she explained to her what she might expect from the man who loved her.

Valona had left England in such a rush and it was only now that she wondered if the King would kiss her.

What, she now asked herself, would it be like to be kissed?

Living in Hampton Court she had never met with any young men – only charming elderly gentlemen such as Sir Mortimer.

She did not know what a young man might think of her and, it was only after she had observed Lady Rose with the Marquis, that she realised how much they loved each other.

It made her think that some day there might be the same light in her own eyes when she looked at a man she loved and the man would look back at her as the Marquis had gazed at Lady Rose.

She had been able to sense the vibrations of their love surging out towards each other and she felt it must be very wonderful for them now at last to be together.

The Marquis could now kiss Lady Rose and tell her how much she meant to him and she supposed vaguely in the back of her mind that there was something more than that to marriage.

But she did not know what it was.

Where she was concerned, she thought it doubtful as they had known each other for such a short time, that the King would want to kiss her.

She wondered if it would be like the kiss of Apollo.

Would the light from their love fly up into the air?

Would those near them feel the wonder and beauty of their love pulsating around them?

The maid had left two candles alight by her bed.

When the King came in through the communicating door, he seemed very large.  He was wearing a long dark robe which touched the floor.

He seemed almost a little frightening as he walked towards Valona.

He reached the bed and stood looking at her.

There was a long silence and then he sighed,

“I suppose you know how exquisitely beautiful you are?  Also so clever that I am finding it hard to believe that you are true.”

“That is a very kind compliment to pay to me,” she murmured shyly.

“There are so many nice things I want to say to you, Valona, but there is no need for us to be in a hurry.”

He sat down on the side of the bed facing her.

“I don't know of anyone, who would have behaved so bravely and brilliantly as you have done today.  It must have been a most extraordinary experience for you when you did not expect it to happen.”

“I never dreamt for a moment it could happen to me when I left London,” Valona whispered.

“I know, Valona, and although you never expected to be married, you agreed willingly to sacrifice yourself to save my country.  Therefore I am determined to make you as happy as it is possible for any woman to be.”

Valona's eyes opened a little wider and she looked at him not quite understanding.

“What I am trying to say is that I have no intention of rushing things. I think, unless I am very mistaken, that we could very easily fall in love with each other.  But I do think first we have to find out a great deal more about one another than we know now.”

She still did not speak and after a moment the King continued,

“I am only playing with words.  What I really want, because you are so beautiful and exactly the right person I need in my life just now, is that you should love me.”

Still there was silence.

“I know, if I am honest with myself, Valona, that I love you already.  From the moment I saw you, I knew you were Aphrodite herself come down from Mount Olympus!”

Valona drew in her breath.

Then she muttered in a voice he could hardly hear,

“We stopped at Delos on our way because I asked the Duke to do so.  When I saw you, I thought for a moment you were
Apollo
.”

The King smiled at her.

“That is what I want to be in your eyes.  Therefore my beautiful Goddess, I am not going to kiss you although it is something I just long to do.  Tomorrow we will start to find out what is in each other's heart and in that way I hope it will not be very long before we can find love.”

Valona looked up at him with shining eyes.

“That is what I prayed to Apollo to give me.  
The
Love which shines in his Light
.”

“That is exactly what we will find together.”

He reached forward, took Valona's hand in his and raised it to his lips.

As they touched her skin, she felt a strange quiver surge through her.

It was very different from anything she had known before.

Then, as the King released her hand and rose to his feet, she breathed,

“Thank you very much, Ajax, for being so kind and understanding.”

“I hope it is something I shall always be,” the King replied.  “Good night, my beautiful Valona, and I hope you will dream of me.”

He turned and walked to the communicating door and as he reached it, he looked back.