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.The King released her hand and she put it protectively against her breast.“Are you threatening me, Kalolyi?” the King asked calmly.“It is not a question of a threat, Your Majesty,” the Prime Minister replied, “I am simply informing you that you and Her Royal Highness will not be returning from this expedition to the Sacred Falls!”There was something so evil in his voice that involuntarily Xenia cried,“No – no!”“It is just two steps forward for each of you,” the Prime Minister went on, “or if you prefer I can shoot you first.The sound will not be heard above the noise of the water.”“You appear to have thought all this out very carefully,” the King said, still speaking in the even tones he had used before.He was showing no fear of the man confronting him, Xenia thought with a feeling of pride.Instead he seemed to be standing almost at his ease, one hand in his pocket, the other loose and relaxed at his side.But she knew that they were both in deadly danger and she could only hope wildly that if she had to die she would do so with dignity and without screaming.“You should know by now, Your Majesty, that I am a very resourceful man,” the Prime Minister went on.“I have in fact already arranged that if Your Majesty should suffer a regrettable accident or be unable to rule the country in the traditional manner, Luthenia will become a state of the Austrian Empire under my administration.”“So you are a traitor amongst other things?” the King asserted accusingly.“It’s a common sense solution,” the Prime Minister answered.“But unless you had interfered, there would have been no reason for me to resort to such extreme methods.”He paused.Then looking at Xenia he added,“Perhaps the person most to blame is Her Royal Highness.Women are at the root of most trouble and this is no exception.”“You will leave Her Royal Highness out of this,” the King said.“And I am prepared to bargain with you – my life for hers.”The Prime Minister smiled unpleasantly.“You can hardly imagine that I should be so foolish as to leave alive a witness of your untimely death?”The King did not answer and the Prime Minister continued,“But we must waste no more time.I must return to Molnár to await the reports of those who accompanied you that you have vanished without trace and they can only imagine that the Gods of the Sacred Falls have accepted a Royal sacrifice for the good of Luthenia.”He was jeering at them, Xenia recognised, and at the same time enjoying himself and the power that his position gave him.“What I suggest,” he said almost briskly, “is that you, Your Royal Highness, take the ladies’ privilege of going first.”Xenia looked at him, but she could not speak.Her voice had died in her throat.“Just two steps forward,” the Prime Minister said.“I would promise you that you will not suffer after the first moment of terror, but no one has ever returned from the bottom of the Falls to relate what their feelings were.”Xenia felt as if she was turned to stone.The pistol in the Prime Minister’s hand was still pointed at the King.She knew that he would not hesitate to use it on both of them and then throw their bodies over the edge and return to Molnár.No one would ever know what had happened or that he had been present.It was a brilliant plot, she thought, and she and the King had walked straight into it without having any idea what desperate methods the Prime Minister would employ to save himself from exposure.It flashed through her mind that if she had to die she would at least be dying with the King and because she loved him that in itself was a comfort, but a very small one.“Take the first step, Your Royal Highness!” the Prime Minister said commandingly.Xenia felt as if her feet were clamped to the ground and any movement was impossible.Then, as she looked despairingly at the King wanting to say goodbye, wanting to tell him how much she loved him, he drew his hand from his pocket.There was a sudden tinkle as a number of gold coins glittering in the light from the water fell to the ground.Xenia glanced down to see what had happened and the Prime Minister did the same.In that split second of inattention the King sprang forward and forced the Prime Minister’s arm up in the air.He must have pulled the trigger for the shot vibrated round the cave and then the two men were struggling, both of them fighting for their lives.One moment they were grappling together, the next minute the Prime Minister’s body was silhouetted against the water, his arms outstretched, his feet without any substance beneath them as with a shrill scream he disappeared.It all happened so swiftly that it was hard to believe that the whole episode had not been a figment of the imagination.Then Xenia gave a little murmur of horror and turned towards the King.She felt his arms go round her holding her tight, giving her a sense of security that superseded the terror of what she had just seen.Then, as she raised her white frightened face to his, his mouth came down on hers.For a moment his lips were hard and hurt her, until, as he felt the softness of hers and knew that she was trembling, his kiss became more gentle and yet insistent and compelling.It was then that the sensations she had felt before seemed to rise in Xenia to sweep away everything but the realisation that she was being kissed and that she loved the King.She knew this was what she had wanted and longed for all her life when she had sought the same love that her father and mother had known.This was love so overwhelming that everything else receded into the distance and she could think only of the King and the closeness of him and the feelings he evoked within her by his lips.With the water singing beside them and in the dim light of the cave they were in an enchanted place that belonged not to the world but to the Gods who had made it sacred.After time had passed – it might have been a minute, an hour, even a century – the King raised his head.He looked down at her and, because she could not help it, she whispered,“I love – you! I – I love – you!”“And I love you, my brave darling!” the King replied
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