CHAPTER FOURIlona tried to apologise to the Prince but it was impossible to find words.
She was stunned at her father’s behaviour and numb to the point when her brain would not work.
She felt just as helpless and subservient as when he had whipped her, and all she could think of for the moment was that her back was hurting her almost intolerably.
“I must speak to the Prince - I must say how sorry I am,” she told herself, but even as her lips opened to form the words they reached the Palace gates.
There were cheers and cries from the crowds congregated outside, waving from the roadside, shouting from the trees up which they had climbed.
Automatically Ilona began to bow and wave her hand and she knew that it would be impossible to make herself heard by the Prince above the noise.
The r
