The King Without a Heart (8 page)

The King then made a very short speech of welcome to Sophie, wishing her every possible happiness in the new country to which she now belonged.

Then as the King stepped down from the platform again the men bowed and the women curtsied.

His Majesty left the Throne Room.

When he had departed, Prince Frederick took over and he and Sophie led the guests into a large Banqueting Hall.

There was plentiful champagne to drink the health of the bride and groom and a number of delicious dishes which Titania had never tasted before.

Everyone who had been present in the Throne Room now wanted to meet Sophie and Prince Frederick introduced them one after another. They each had something extremely flattering to say to her, but only one in ten was able to speak a word of English.

With the majority Sophie could only look blank and smile.

‘Of course she should have tried to learn the language,' thought Titania.

However it was too late now and she was quite certain that Sophie would make no effort once she was married.

Titania remembered Darius had told her it was the King's idea that he should travel with them in the Battleship to teach Sophie the language of the people over whom he ruled.

She wondered now if he would be disappointed that Darius had been unsuccessful or more likely he was not really interested one way or another.

She wished she could have had a chance to meet him later.

She could see the Greek blood in him by the darkness of his hair and eyes and he was certainly taller than the average Greek, and that, she knew, must be due to Velidos.

Looking round at the men in the Throne Room, she had seen they were nearly all well-built and broad-shouldered, something unusual in some of the Balkan States she had visited with her father.

The men were not outstanding, while the women were extremely pretty, but there were not many women present at the Palace and Titania supposed that the invitation had been for those who had important appointments, particularly in the Government.

However, the few women she could see were certainly attractive and also quite well-dressed.

There must be quite a number, Titania thought, whom Sophie would find as good friends and she hoped that her cousin would be wise enough to make herself pleasant to them.

Sophie in many ways was like her father, considering that anyone who was not blue-blooded was hardly worth talking to.

At Starbrooke only the most important people in London Society were invited to stay and most of her uncle's friends were Dukes like himself or minor members of the Royal family.

Titania had found the formal, rather pompous parties he had given for such guests extremely dull and she compared them with the parties her father and mother had given in different countries where they travelled.

She had only been a child, but she could remember one all too vividly.

A dinner-party had been given by a neighbour who owned a great deal of land and a number of gypsy families roamed freely over his estate. To amuse Titania's parents, he had asked the gypsies to sing and dance for them after dinner and after the entertainments they had sat down with their host's guests.

They chatted away about their life and told the fortunes of those who wanted to know about their future.

It had been a very exciting party and Titania thought she would always remember the music the gypsies had created with their strange instruments and the way they had sung and danced.

She could not imagine Sophie and the Crown Prince enjoying anything like that.

They would have thought it degrading to join in the strange parties her father had taken her to in Constantinople, where there was belly-dancing and Arabs showing the way they could fight each other without hurting any of those they challenged to a contest.

Titania gave a little sigh.

Any parties that were given at the Palace would, she was certain, be very correct and in fact very boring.

Yet she knew that Sophie would doubtless be happy enough now that she was important. Every woman was curtsying to her and the men were kissing her hand reverently.

*

 It was thus a relief when they could retire to their rooms because, as Prince Frederick said, “No one is to be tired tomorrow on my wedding-day!”

‘That at least,' thought Titania, ‘will be an exciting event.'

Even if, as she expected, Sophie would be making a tremendous fuss about everything and she would undoubtedly be run off her feet trying to please her.

Her bedroom was comfortable and well-furnished, but at the same time rather dull, like the rest of the rooms in the Palace.

Titania found that her windows overlooked the front and she could see the steps they had climbed to enter the Palace and had an even better view of the mountains in the distance.

‘I would love to ride nearer to those fabulous mountains,' she wished and she was sure that beneath them there would be flat ground for her to gallop over, just as there had been Steppes in Hungary where she had ridden with her father.

She gave a deep sigh.

Sophie would not want to ride and there would be no question of her being allowed to do so.

Once again her mind went back to Mercury and she wondered how he was and she was still thinking about him when there was a tap on her door and Martha put her head round it.

“Her Ladyship's screaming the house down for you, Miss Titania,” she told her urgently. “And as I can't leave Her Grace, you'll have to attend to her.”

“All right, Martha, I will go at once, but, tell me, what do you think of the Palace?”

Martha shrugged her shoulders.

“It looks all right as Palaces go,” she said, “but if you asks me, I'd rather be in a cottage at home than in any swell building in a foreign country.”

Titania laughed because it was just the answer she would have expected.

Then she hurried into Sophie's room which was only a few doors away from hers.

“Where have you been?” Sophie scolded her angrily as she entered. “Surely you realise I need you. I have got to change and I have no idea what I am expected to wear. cannot understand a word the women say who are unpacking my luggage.”

Titania was glad to know that there was someone to help and she would not have to do it all herself. Then she asked her cousin,

“What are we doing this evening? Has no one told you?”

“I believe there is to be a dinner party,” Sophie answered, “but at what time and where I have not the slightest idea.”

She gave a little scream of frustration as she added,

“Surely you can do something. As you speak the language or think you do, you could ask what is going on.”

“I will go and find out at once.”

Titania stepped out of Sophie's bedroom and saw with relief that one of the Ladies-in-Waiting was going into a room opposite.

She ran across to her.

“I am sorry to bother you, but my cousin has not been told what is happening tonight and she has no idea what she should wear.”

“Oh, there is a big dinner-party,” replied the Lady-in-Waiting, “and I think they are hoping the King will come, although that is unlikely.”

“And what should my cousin wear?”

“One of her best gowns and of course a tiara on her head.”

Titania ran back to Sophie's room.

When she told her what was happening, Sophie said,

“Just what I had expected. At the same time an
aide-de-camp
or one of those men who hang about the place should tell me what is planned and what time the dinner-party will take place.”

“I am sure there must be a programme of events somewhere.” Titania ran back into the passage again and now she found a rather harassed
aide-de-camp
hurrying up the stairs. As he held a piece of paper in his hand, Titania enquired of him as he reached her,

“Is that by any chance a copy of the programme for Lady Sophie? She is worried as no one has told her what is happening this evening.”

“I am sorry, I am very sorry,” answered the
aide-decamp
. “I expect I shall be told it is my fault. But no one could make up their minds about anything to begin with and then His Royal Highness Prince Frederick altered everything round at the last moment and we had to have it printed again.”

Titania laughed.

“I can understand your difficulties. It is what happens everywhere when there is a big party.”

The
aide-de-camp
tried to smile.

“I have been ticked off for being a nincompoop,” he told her, “and can only be grateful we do not have a wedding every day of the year!”

“I expect this one will have to last you for a long time. Can I please have a programme too or like you I shall be in serious trouble.”

The
aide-de-camp
looked at her as if he was seeing her for the first time and murmured,

“I am sure no one could be angry with anyone who looks as lovely as you do.”

He spoke in his own language and Titania smiled.

“Thank you, kind sir, for the compliment. Equally as you well know there is nothing more exhausting than being late and trying to pretend one is on time.”

“I will bring you everything that is happening the moment I know it myself,” replied the
aide-de-camp
. “And if you get the chance to sooth down Prince Frederick – he is in one of his tantrums.”

Titania's eyes widened for a moment, but she said nothing. She merely thought it was just like the Germans to rant and rave if anything went wrong and it must be the German blood in Prince Frederick which was making him behave in such a fashion.

However, it was a mistake to waste time speculating and so she hurried back to Sophie with the programme.

“And about time too,” snapped Sophie when she saw her. “Frederick has told me that if he has the chance he is going to make this country run more efficiently. But I understand they are trying to prevent him from doing so, simply because they like their lazy easy way of going on.”

Titania made no comment.

She only thought, although of course she could never say so, that she disliked Prince Frederick and she was sorry that Sophie would have to put up with him for the rest of her life.

 The wedding day started badly.

Sophie struck Titania with a hair-brush, because her hair under her veil was not as she wanted it.

It was the first time she had ever done so and it made Titania angry, but despite her indignation she considered it was unwise to make a scene on this particular day.

She therefore re-arranged Sophie's hair and thought it was almost the same as it had been before.

Then they went down to the hall, where the Lord Chamberlain was waiting to escort Sophie to the Cathedral as Prince Frederick had already gone on ahead.

Sophie had said disagreeably while Titania was helping her to dress,

“The King should have given me away, but he refused. I think it is rather degrading for me to have to put up with the Lord Chamberlain.”

“It's a pity Uncle Edward could not come,” Titania put in.

“Papa would have hated every moment of it all,” grumbled Sophie, “because I am not being treated as grandly as he had expected me to be.”

Titania could not think of her being received any more grandly as Sophie had been treated as the most important person present at every function she had attended so far and she would undoubtedly be the focus of attention in the Cathedral.

But Titania had learned it was no use arguing with her cousin when she had made up her mind about herself and always insisted that she was right and everyone else was wrong.

The Lord Chamberlain certainly looked resplendent in his robes and as he was a handsome old man, Titania thought that Sophie should be content.

There was a splendid glass coach drawn by four white horses waiting to take her to the Cathedral and Titania followed as usual with the Ladies-in-Waiting, but not in the company of Darius.

She now realised that Darius had been sent to travel with them on the ship as a very special concession on the part of the King, who believed it was essential that Sophie should learn the language of her new country.

He had therefore temporarily spared Darius who was his most important Equerry.

Darius would now be entering the Cathedral, Titania was told, with Kastri, his vis-à-vis, the other personal Equerry to the King.

Sophie had been asked if she would like child bridesmaids to follow her up the aisle, but had refused immediately.

“Children are always a nuisance in Church,” she had said, “and I have no wish to have them distracting the attention of the congregation away from me.”

Titania knew that the mothers of the children must have already made their dresses and they would be looking forward to their little ones taking part in the ceremony. They would obviously be very disappointed, but that did not seem to worry Sophie.

She complained about her bouquet under her breath to Titania and then swept into the glass coach that was waiting for her at the back of the Palace.

If she had gone out of the front entrance, she would have had to walk down the steps and this she had refused to do.

“I don't mind climbing up the steps once we are married,” Titania heard her tell Prince Frederick, “but I am not going down alone with no one to support me.”

“You will have the Lord Chamberlain,” Prince Frederick had answered, looking surprised. “I will go on your arm or nobody's,” asserted Sophie, tossing her head.

At first Titania thought Prince Frederick was rather pleased with the compliment, but his lips tightened as if his impulse was to tell Sophie she was to do as she was told.

Titania could not help reflecting that he would find Sophie very difficult to manage once they were married and then she told herself that Germans usually had quiet placid wives and she suspected that was what Prince Frederick expected Sophie to be.

As soon as Sophie had driven away in her fairy-tale coach, Titania climbed into the next one and smiled at the elderly Ladies-in-Waiting who were obviously agitated.