Bride to the King by Barbara Cartland Read Free Book Online Page B

that her heart was thumping and she felt shocked because of what she had seen.
    It was then that she felt her hand held in a firm grasp and a voice said,
    “I am so very delighted, Your Royal Highness, that you are here, and I hope in all sincerity that we in Dórsia will be able to make your visit a very happy one.”
    There was no doubt the voice was as sincere as the words.
    As it flashed through Zosina’s mind that she had no idea what the Regent looked like, she raised her eyes and saw that he was very different from what she had expected.
    She had imagined since he was uncle to the King and had been Regent for some years, that he would be old or at least middle-aged.
    But there was no doubt that the man who held her hand as she rose from her curtsey was certainly not much over thirty-three or four.
    He was good-looking, she thought, but in a different manner from the King and he had an easy kind of self-confidence about him, which seemed to Zosina to give her the assurance she needed at the moment.
    It was as if he calmed and steadied her and the expression that she had seen in the King’s eyes did not seem so upsetting or so frightening.
    The Queen Mother was greeting the Prime Minister and various members of the welcoming party and for the moment Zosina made no effort to follow her.
    Her hand still rested in the Regent’s and, as if he knew what she was feeling, he said,
    “It is always rather bewildering to meet a whole collection of new people for the first time, but I can promise you, Your Royal Highness, that they are all as delighted to see you as I am.”
    With an effort Zosina found her voice.
    “You – are very – kind,” she managed to say. “That is what we all want to be,” the Regent answered. “And now I want to introduce you to the Prime Minister who is very anxious to make your acquaintance.”
    There were more presentations, then the King was at the Queen Mother’s side and they walked together with Zosina following with the Regent, towards the door of the station.
    As they reached it, a band began to play the Lützelstein National Anthem and it was then followed by that of Dórsia.
    Out of the corner of her eyes and by now they were standing four in a row, Zosina could look at the King.
    He was standing at attention and she thought that he was looking bored and, when the National Anthems were over and they stepped into the open carriage that was waiting for them, he yawned before he joined the Queen Mother on the back seat, while Zosina and the Regent sat opposite them.
    As the horses started off amid the cheers of the crowd, Zosina noticed that there were lines under the King’s eyes and she told herself he must have been late to bed the night before.
    ‘Katalin is right,’ she thought. ‘He is a rake and I expect he thinks if he marries me I shall try to stop him from enjoying himself. That is why he dislikes me already, even before we have met.’
    The idea was so depressing that for a moment she forgot to bow to the crowd.
    Then she realised the women particularly were staring at her and waving directly at her rather than at her grandmother.
    With an effort she forced herself to respond.
    As she did so, she realised the King was looking at her again and there was no doubt the expression in his eyes had not changed.
    If anything, his dislike, if that was what it was, was intensified.

CHAPTER THREE
    Zosina looked round the dining room and wished that her sisters could have been there.
    It was certainly very different from the sombre rather heavy room they dined in at her father’s Palace.
    The light from the gold candelabra glittered on the profusion of gold plate and the table was decorated with orchids, which also festooned the enormous marble fireplace and a number of the marble pillars.
    It was a room, she thought, that might have stepped straight out of a Fairy story. She had also thought the same of the rest of the Palace or rather what she had been shown so far.
    When she