The Queen Saves the King by Barbara Cartland

Author:Barbara Cartland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788671118
Publisher: Barbara Cartland Ebooks Ltd
Published: 2018-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

The King was laughing.

As he looked around the room, he saw that everybody else was laughing too.

He had expected to sit through dinner finding that the Englishwoman he was being forced to marry an unutterable bore.

Instead he had been stunned from the first moment he set eyes on her.

He had made up his mind, as he had said to Natasha, that she would be large, fat and plain.

But, when Pythia reached the top of the steps, he saw that she was small, frail and beautiful in an ethereal way that he had never imagined.

She was exquisitely dressed in a pale eau-de-nil gown and the bodice outlined the curves of her breasts and her tiny waist.

She curtseyed to him with a grace which he recognised was unusual.

When she rose, he looked into her blue eyes fringed with dark lashes and felt that he must be dreaming.

He had deliberately arranged only a small dinner party as he had expected that he would be ashamed of the woman who was to be his Royal bride.

Instead of which he knew that Pythia had captivated everybody from the moment she walked into the room.

She was wearing a white gown which reminded him of something although he could not think for the moment what it was.

The only colour besides her eyes was a small pink rose in her hair.

She curtseyed deftly and smiled at him shyly.

He took her round and introduced her to his relations and several of the Officers who were on duty in The Palace and he was instantly aware that they were all fascinated by anyone so delicate and so very young.

During dinner he turned to her to ask,

“Am I really to believe that you are English?”

Her eyes seemed to twinkle at him as she replied,

“My mother and my grandfather would be insulted by such a suggestion!”

For a moment the King did not understand.

And then he exclaimed,

“Of course, Irish! I apologise.”

“We are very proud of our Emerald Isle,” Pythia added.

“If all the women on it look like you,” the King said, “I cannot imagine why I have not found time to go there!”

Pythia felt sad that, while her father talked about and loved her namesake country, she had herself actually never been to Ireland.

Patrick O’Connor had in fact been meaning to take his wife and daughter to his home after their visit to Italy, but then he was drowned and Pythia had spent a long, dull and empty year in Windsor Park.

“I think,” the King said, when they left the dining room and walked towards the drawing room, “that I should congratulate you on your gowns.”

He paused and smiled at her before continuing,

“If all your trousseau is as elegant as the two I have seen you wearing so far, I shall be looking forward each day to admiring you.”

“For that you must certainly thank the English,” Pythia replied, “for my trousseau was a gift from Queen Victoria herself.”

“I had no idea that she had such good taste!” the King exclaimed and then they were both laughing again.

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