The Eternal

Chapter One ~ 1876-1

“I have found a King for you,” the Grand Duke Boris announced at the breakfast table.

His daughter, Zelie, looked up at him expectantly.

“Who is it?” she enquired.

“It has not been in any way easy,” her father replied. “As you well know, Kings who are marriageable are rare in this part of the world and I had almost given up any hope of finding one.”

He stopped as if waiting for a round of applause.

Then, as neither of his twin daughters said anything, he went on,

“I have now, however, a letter from the Prime Minister of Arramia saying that King Ivan has agreed to an important strategic marriage to link our two countries together.”

“King Ivan!” Princess Zelie exclaimed. “Who on earth is he?”

earthZelie was the Grand Duke’s elder daughter by five minutes. She had been protesting over and over again for the past year that she should be married.

As she sat opposite him at breakfast with her sister, Sola, beside her, any observer would have found it incredible to see two beautiful girls who were so alike.

It was usual for twins to resemble each other, but then the two Princesses were identical in every particular.

That was to say, outwardly.

Inwardly they were the exact opposite of one another.

Princess Zelie had come into the world first and never let her father or her sister forget it.

She was ambitious and very determined that she would be a Queen.

She had made no secret of the fact that she resented her father’s country being very small although it was very beautiful.

On the borders of Romania and Bessarabia, Kessell had kept its independence simply because the Grand Duke was Russian.

An uncle of the previous Czar, he was an excelent if autocratic figure.

He invariably had his own way, except for where his daughter, Zelie, was concerned.

The family always said that it was Zelie who resembled him while Sola was exactly like her mother, who had been English.

The Grand Duchess had died two years before and at first the Grand Duke had been very heartbroken.

Then he had found several charming ladies in the vicinity of The Palace to console him.

He ruled his country with an iron hand in a velvet glove.

The same applied to The Palace and its occupants, except in the case of his daughter Zelie.

“I am nearly twenty, Papa,” she had said not once but almost a dozen times a day, “and it is time you did your duty and found me a very suitable husband.”

“It is not easy, I have told you already, it is not at all easy,” the Grand Duke would say.

“I can hardly remain here an old maid for the rest of my life!” Zelie complained. “There is nothing to do here and the men who you invite to The Palace usually have one foot in the grave.”

This was unfair, but Zelie used any weapon available to attack her father on this subject that was so close to her heart.

The Grand Duke looked wistfully at his daughter, Sola, as he wondered yet again why the twins were so different in every way.

Sola never complained about anything and was in fact perfectly happy.

She rode The Palace horses and her father had a magnificent stableful of thoroughbreds, most of them coming from Hungary.

She was content to wander through the woods and gardens, talking in her soft voice to the people who worked in them.

They adored her, as the Grand Duke was fully aware, in the same way as they had adored her mother.

“I would suppose it is because you have English blood in you that you are happy in the country,” he often said reflectively, “while your sister longs to travel to the Capitals of other Nations.”

“I love being here in The Palace with you, Papa,” Sola would reply.

She too had to listen to her twin sister moaning that they should go to Vienna or visit the King of Rumania on a State Visit.

Alternatively, if her father had any sense, they would visit Paris or St. Petersburg.

“Why should we be stuck in this hole,” Zelie asked furiously, “with nothing to do and no one to admire us?”

There were, in point of fact, quite a number of people who admired them very much.

But Sola knew that her sister wanted men, handsome dashing men, with whom to dance, to pay her compliments and, if they were Royal, to marry her.

The main difficulty was that the Grand Duke did not count as being of much importance amongst the Sovereigns of Europe.

They were very intent on marrying the daughters of neighbouring Kings or, better still, a relative of the all-powerful, all-important Queen Victoria of England.

The Grand Duchess had been a very distant cousin of Queen Victoria and this was why the Grand Duke had been allowed to marry her.

As he had fallen deeply in love with her, he had been determined to do so even if it had meant a morganatic marriage to a commoner.

Fortunately, however, Queen Victoria gave them her blessing.

They were blissfully happy in their small Principality, which was, as Zelie had once said scornfully, no bigger than the Isle of Wight.

Now at last, after so much nagging, the Grand Duke had found a King for Zelie.

“He does not sound very important to me!” Zelie was now saying.

She had her arms on the breakfast table and her face was resting on her hands.

Looking at her the Grand Duke thought that it was impossible for anyone not to think that she was exquisitely lovely.

The King, he thought, should be excessively grateful for having her as his wife.

He was well aware, however, that the dowry that he would give her would not equal that which was expected from Sovereigns of larger and more powerful countries.

“I have never met King Ivan,” he said now, “but I hear he is a handsome and intelligent young man. His Kingdom, as you ought to know, if you have done your geography properly, is small but important as it lies between Albania and Greece and has helped to ensure the independence of both countries.”

“I cannot believe it is very large,” Zelie commented, “or I should easily remember seeing it on the map.”

“Shall I go and fetch one?” Sola asked quietly.

“There is no hurry,” Zelie answered. “Let Papa tell us what else he knows about this obscure King.”

The Grand Duke hesitated.

“The Chancellor,” he said after a moment’s pause, “was in Arramia last year. It was he who discussed with their Prime Minister the possibility of a marriage tie between our two countries.”

“Last year!” Zelie exclaimed, “They have taken a long time in making up their minds!”

Watching her father, Sola felt that he was keeping something back from her sister.

Finally to help him, she came in,

“I have read about Arramia and I believe it is beautiful with high mountains and valleys like Albania, but only on a smaller scale. There was, I believe, at one time talk of there being a Revolution, which was settled when King Ivan came to the Throne.”

The Grand Duke smiled at Sola,

“You are very well-informed, my dear.”

“You know, Papa, I have always been interested in the history of the countries in our part of Europe and I have always been afraid that the smaller ones might be swallowed up either by the Russian Czar or by the Ottoman Empire.”

“You are quite right,” the Grand Duke answered, “and it is most intelligent of you. Zelie must make certain that Arramia retains its independence and its King and Queen take their rightful place among all the other Royalties of Europe.”

most“That is exactly what I want to do,” Zelie said, “although I would rather have had a much more significant King to marry!”

She sighed before she went on,

“Why, oh, why did the King of Rumania have to be already married, besides the King of Serbia, the King of Montenegro and the King of Greece?”

The family had heard all this endlessly before and the Grand Duke now declared,

“Well, now you have your King, the next thing you have to do is to go and meet him.”

Zelie sat upright.

“You mean he is not coming here?”

“I am told it is impossible for him to leave his country at the moment. Therefore we will pay him a State Visit and at the end of which it will be announced that you have fallen in love with each other and are to be married.”

As this all sounded impressive, Zelie was for the moment silenced.

Then she stated,

“One thing is certain, I shall need plenty of new clothes.”

“Of course, of course!” her father agreed. “You can send for the best dressmakers from the City.”

“From the City?” Zelie shrieked. “You don’t imagine, Papa, they could possibly make me a trousseau worth having! I shall have to go to Vienna, unless you feel more inclined to send me to Paris for the most fashionable trousseau.”

“There will be no time for either,” the Grand Duke said with satisfaction. “We leave for Arramia in ten days’ time,”

Zelie gave a cry of horror.

“I have to be ready by then? But, Papa, it is just impossible!”

“Then you will just have to tell King Ivan you have changed your mind or have had a better offer,” the Grand Duke suggested impatiently.

He then rose quickly from the breakfast table, as if he had had enough of his daughter’s complaints and moans.

He next put his hand on Sola’s shoulder, saying,

“Come and help me with my orchids, my dear. I think that the new one that comes from Nepal is coming into bud at any moment.”

“Oh, Papa, how exciting!” Sola answered enthusiastically.

She jumped up from the table and was about to follow her father from the room when Zelie called out,

“I need you to help me, Sola, unless I am to go to Arramia half-n***d!”

Sola smiled.

“I think that is unlikely. You already have so many lovely gowns and Madame Blanc is very skilful. Her gowns really do have a Parisian style and elegance about them.”

Zelie looked appeased.

“I suppose you are right,” she said. “Mama always thought that she was very expensive, but Papa will have to put up with that.”

“I am sure he will want you to look your loveliest, dearest,” Sola said, “which, of course, you will.”

She was about to follow her father when Zelie said,

“A King is a King, whether he is big or small, so I suppose I shall have to be grateful for small mercies.”

“We have not yet seen him,” Sola pointed out, “but I have always heard that he is very handsome.”

Zelie was looking at herself intensely in one of the long gold-framed mirrors in The Palace ballroom.

“Do you think we will be described in the Press as the ‘Most handsome Royal Couple in the World’?” she asked.

Most handsome Royal Couple in the World“I am sure that you will be,” Sola said, “and you will look very lovely in your Wedding gown with Mama’s tiara on your veil.”