[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.She felt the tears prick her eyes and she could only see him through a mist.“Will you come here?”As if she was a puppet and he was pulling the strings, she walked towards the desk.It was only a few steps and yet she felt like it was miles away.She stood in front of him and was acutely conscious of his closeness and yet she could not speak, could not breathe.Her mind had been taken from her and it was impossible to think or even understand what was happening.“I want you to take off your left glove,” the King asked gently.She wondered why, but, because it was so difficult to control her tears, she could only obey him dumbly.She pulled off the black kid glove and when she had done so the King reached out and took her hand in his.“No wedding ring?” he asked.“How can you be a married woman without one?”As he spoke, he drew a ring from his waistcoat pocket and put it on her third finger.It was her own wedding ring, Xenia knew, but she could not move or take her hand from his.Then the King released her and taking the edge of her veil in both of his hands threw it back from her face.“Let me look at you, Mrs.Cresswell,” he said.“I want to see if you are as beautiful as I remember you to be.”Xenia stared into his eyes and he looked down at her for a long moment.“Why have you been crying?” he asked.The tears overflowed as he spoke and ran down her cheeks.He was waiting for her to answer and, in a voice that seemed to come from very far away, she whispered through lips that trembled,“I thought – I would – never see you – again.”“Did you really think I could lose you?” the King asked and his arms went round her.He pulled her against him and, as she gave a little gasp, his lips came down on hers.She felt as if she had been swept from the very depths of hell into a Heaven that was so dazzlingly glorious that she must close her eyes for fear of being blinded.The King kissed her until she was one with him again and they were indivisible.Then at last in a voice that was curiously unsteady he asked,“How could you have done anything so wicked, so utterly and completely abominable, as to try to leave me?”“I love – you! Oh – István, I love – you!”Xenia’s voice was broken.The tears were still running down her cheeks, but they were tears of happiness.He kissed her wet eyes, her cheeks and again her mouth.“You are mine,” he asserted.“Mine, completely and absolutely and I can no more lose you than lose my own life.”“B-but – Johanna?” Xenia managed to ask.The King kissed her again before he said,“You need not worry about Johanna, my precious.She is at this moment on her way to Vienna in the Royal Train with her future husband and is planning the trousseau she will buy in Paris.”Xenia looked at him in amazement, but he undid the ribbons beneath her chin, pulled her bonnet with its dark veil from her head and threw it on the desk.“I will explain everything,” he said, “but first I want to kiss you – ”His lips were on hers before he had finished the sentence.She felt a thrill like shafts of sunlight running through her body, her heart was beating against his and the wonder of it was almost too glorious to be borne.Still holding her against him, the King sat down on a chair and pulled her onto his knees.She hid her face against his neck.“How did – you find – out?”The King smiled.“Did you really think I could be deceived by another woman, even if she was so ridiculously like you?”“H-how did you – know?”“I admit to being bewildered and astounded for the moment,” he replied.“Tell me – please tell me,” Xenia begged.He kissed her cheek, then her lips, before he said,“When the Privy Council was finished, I went to your bedroom to tell you that we could leave at once and that the carriages were waiting for us.”Xenia gave a little shiver.This was what she had imagined would happen.“I walked across the room to take you in my arms and tell you how much I was looking forward to our being alone,” the King went on.“To my surprise you turned your head away and said, ‘really, István! I thought we had agreed to behave like civilised people!’”He drew in his breath as if he remembered what a shock the words had been before he continued,“‘What has happened?’ I asked.‘Why do you speak like that?’“‘I cannot imagine why you thought I should want to go on a honeymoon,’ you replied.‘I told you when we became engaged that, while I would do what you wished in public, my private life was my own!’“‘Have you gone mad?’ I enquired, ‘and why are you talking like this after all we said to each other last night?’“You shrugged your shoulders and walked to the window.“‘Let me make it clear,’ you replied in a hard voice, ‘I wish to stay in Molnár for the next few weeks and nothing will make me go anywhere else!’“I felt as if I must be in a nightmare,” the King confessed.There was a note in his voice, which told Xenia that he had not only been surprised but also deeply hurt.Because she could not bear to think that he had suffered even for a moment, she put her arm round his neck and pressed her cheek against his.“For a moment I could not think,” he continued.“I just knew that something quite extraordinary had happened, but my brain would not take it in.It was not you and yet you looked as beautiful as ever.Your red hair glittered in the sunshine and your eyes were entrancingly green.“‘What has happened?’ I asked again.“‘Nothing has happened,’ you snapped.‘It’s just that you are changing the arrangements we made in Prussen.Send the carriages away and give orders that we shall be staying here in the Palace.’“‘And if I refuse?’ I enquired.“You turned round to the window and said,“‘Then you can go on your honeymoon by yourself, why not take Elga with you?’“I knew then that it was not you speaking [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

listy-do-eda.opx.pl