"Is it not true, then," he continued, "that you and he and your brother are plotting against the King?"
She regarded him with uplifted eyebrows. Then she patted him gently on the arm with her fan.
"It is the moon, my friend," she declared. "A little brief frenzy, is it not?"
His tone recovered confidence. He breathed a sigh of relief.
"The man lied to me," he declared. "Now I will tell you just what has happened to me. You know that I have a room in the Theba Place. Well, to-night, as I was about to prepare for dinner, a messenger, a native Thetian he seemed to me, brought a note to my rooms. It was neither signed nor addressed. But it bade me follow the bearer without question if I would be of service to Theos."
"You went?" she asked.
"Of course," he answered, quickly. "If the summons was genuine, well and good--if it was false, I still wanted to know the meaning of it."
"And which was it?" she asked.
"Genuine enough," he answered, gravely. "I was led into a quarter of Theos where I have never been before, and which I am sure I could not find again. We arrived at a little _cafe_--I do not know the name--it was somewhere outside the walls. A man was waiting for me in a back room. He was disguised, but I recognized him at once. It was Domiloff!"
She started. Instinctively he felt that she was deeply interested.
"At first I thought that it was a trap--that Domiloff was preparing some revenge for my personation of the King. Soon, however, I learnt that his intention was a different one. He is concerned in a plot to dethrone the King, and he proposed that I should throw in my lot with his party."
"Did he tell you, then, that Nicholas and I were concerned in it?"
"No. From his point of view your cooperation as yet was unnecessary.
Yet the whole thing is concerned with you and your brother, for Domiloff has named him as the future ruler of Theos. He offered to give me positive evidence that Russia has decided to remove Ughtred from the throne, that Theos itself is in deadly peril."
"There is one thing," she said, "which I do not quite understand. Why did Domiloff send for you? You are not a soldier, nor are you well-known to the Thetians."
"It is very simple," he answered. "To-day the Press has an immense influence upon public opinion in England and all the Western countries. I am writing for my paper in England a series of articles upon Theos, and I am writing from a point of view friendly to Ughtred of Tyrnaus. Domiloff wants these articles stopped. He professes to need my active help. What he really desires is that I write no more, or alter the tone of my letters."
Her satin slipper traced a mystic pattern upon the smooth green turf.
"These are two things," she said, "which I do not understand. The Baron Domiloff has repute as a cunning and very shrewd diplomatist.
Did he ask you for no pledge that you would not speak of these things to the King?"
Brand shook his head.
"It would have been useless," he answered. "I think that he knew quite well that I should give no such pledge. That is what makes me believe that the matter is serious. He is so sure of coming events that failing my joining with him he expressed himself as indifferent as to what my course of action might be. There was only one condition he made before I left--and that one I agreed to."
She looked at him inquiringly.
"It was that I should come to you--before I went to the King."
Their eyes met. In that single luminous moment he learned that these things came at least as no surprise to her. He seemed even to divine something of that desire which had eaten its way into her heart.
"To me!" she murmured. "Well?"
"Countess," he said, gravely, "for myself there is but one course of action possible. I came here as the friend of Ughtred of Tyrnaus. I am bound to his cause by every tie of honour, as well as my own sympathies. Before the morning I shall have told him all that I have told you."
Her fan fluttered idly in her fingers. She remained silent, but he had a fancy that a shadow had fallen between them.
"Domiloff sent me to you," he continued. "What does that mean?"
She shook her head.
"The ways of Baron Domiloff," she said, "are not easy to understand."
"Are you and your brother concerned in this--plot?" he asked, gravely.
"My brother," she said, "would, I believe, shoot you if you asked him such a question. It is only a few months ago that he himself brought Ughtred of Tyrnaus here. Nicholas has too little ambition. He is a patriot, pure and simple."
"And you--yourself?" he asked.
"I have had no dealings with Baron Domiloff," she answered, "but I think that he knows my views. I do not love the family of Tyrnaus, and I do not think that Ughtred had any claim to the throne of Theos. His father and grandfather misgoverned the country, and estranged all the n.o.bility, who were the backbone of the State. We alone are left, and if Ughtred should marry the daughter of this American tradesman we, too, must become exiles."
"But you would not stoop," he murmured, "to plot against the King?"
"It is not necessary," she answered. "I believe that what you have been told is true. I believe that Russia will not tolerate Ughtred of Tyrnaus. My friend," she added, in a softer tone, "why do you concern yourself in these things? Leave Domiloff alone, and, believe me, your warning to the King would be wasted. Stay here, and watch for the things which may happen. Do you remember what we talked about that night at the palace? The times are coming--wait, and your opportunity may also show itself. Who knows that your own future may not become linked with the future of Theos?"
She leaned over towards him, her hand fell upon his shoulder, and its touch, though light, was like a caress. Then Brand understood that this was temptation, for his whole being quivered with the delight of her softened tone, and the unspoken things which trembled there and shone from her eyes. In truth, she, too, was thinking of the moment when she had believed him to be the King.
"Dear lady," he said, almost pleadingly, "I would be content to live all my days in Theos if----"
He hesitated. A wonderful smile curved her lips, and her eyes were full of invitation. Yet he hesitated.
"For a brave man," she murmured, "you are very--very faint-hearted."
Whereupon he took her into his arms, and kissed her.
CHAPTER XXV
It chanced that a brilliant autumn brought a season of great prosperity to the Thetian wine-growers and farmers, and the year of Ughtred"s accession to the throne seemed likely to be marked with a white stone in their annals. Never had a ruler been more popular with all cla.s.ses. His military system, while it made no undue demands upon the people, provoked the admiration of Europe, and several important and successful industrial undertakings were due entirely to his instigation. Mr. Van Decht, fascinated by the climate, the primitive but delightful life, and a firm believer in the possibilities of the country, still lingered in the capital, and already the results of his large investments were beginning to be felt. Only a few people knew of the hidden danger which was ever brooding over the land--a danger which Ughtred had realized from the first, and which from the first he had set himself steadfastly to avert. A soldier himself, he knew something of the horrors of war. Nothing seemed to him more awful than the vision of this beautiful country blackened and devastated, her corn-fields soaked with blood, her pleasant pastoral life swept away in the grim struggle against an only partially-civilized enemy. He set himself pa.s.sionately to work to strive for peace.
Reist came to him one evening straight from the House of Laws with a suggestion.
"Your Majesty," he said, "the people are asking for a queen."
Ughtred laughed.
"I"m sorry I can"t oblige them off-hand," he answered.
"Has your Majesty never thought of an alliance through marriage with one of the Powers? Not a direct alliance, perhaps, but one which might be useful to us if the worst should come."
Ughtred shook his head.