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An inquiry half parted Trusia's lips as she turned to hear Carter's confirmation, but checking her curiosity, she signed for Josef to proceed. "Then they came to Posner's Inn. You know, Highness, what preparations were going forward there. These the spies noted. They even tried to bribe Posner into telling where Count Zulka could be found. They knew there was a heavy price upon his head.
Elated at the opportunity, the Cockney leaped into the landau beside him. Pulled, pushed and surrounded by a cheering, happy pack, the entire suite was whirled along toward Trusia's castle. When well under way, the New Yorker turned to the man beside him. He seemed to beg Carrick for an explanation of the day's mystery.
Bowing to Carter, he had turned an indifferent scrutiny upon Josef, who, though smiling, would have apparently foregone the inspection. All eyes were upon the accuser, however. Trusia's voice broke the silence as she addressed him. "You may speak, Josef." There was a trace of regret in her voice. "I fear you have been over-zealous." "Listen, Highness," he said.
They were hungry, for the last crumb of food had been lost in fording a boisterous stream in their road, and in the darkness they had been unable to recover it. Rough stones cut Trusia's feet, but she uttered no complaint. The brambles tore her clothes, and scarred her hands, while more than one low-hanging limb clutched at her hair. Nor did Carter fare any better.
Here he comes now," she added, as the clatter of hoofs on the flags approached from the direction of the stables. The Cockney approached leading two horses. He held Trusia's foot as she leaped lightly into the saddle. After he was satisfied that she was properly mounted he came to the off side of Carter's horse. There was a request written in every line of the earnest face.
When near her I have to keep a tight rein on my tongue for fear of being guilty of a faux pas. A pinch of a round cheek, a warm kiss given and returned, an arm about a lithe waist, is what I like. Her Grace is an iceberg." Carter flushed angrily at the comparison. He restrained with some difficulty the stinging words of rebuke which sprang to his lips in Trusia's defense.
The uniforms will be a part of your paraphernalia." "Will there be no risk?" "Is Your Majesty unwilling to take the least? Your subjects must indeed seem reckless to you." Trusia's tone indicated the depth of her reproof. "I suppose that did sound rather selfish," he hastened to confess, "but the truth is that I do not yet realize that I am actually a king.
The other's made his heart bound hopefully. It was Trusia's. "Let us speak in French, Natalie," she was saying to her companion in that language. "My maid need not understand all we talk about." Then she continued in evident answer to some previous question, "His name is Calvert Carter."
King Stovik's conduct for this new journey was exemplary. Nor were there other pretty coquettes available. He even exerted himself sufficiently to take an interest in the general conversation, at which Trusia's face brightened with appreciation. Houses, fields, woods, mountains and sky fled by as the train sped on. At last the Vistula was crossed.
When he was asleep he didn't have that awful pain in his head. As he opened his eyes he smiled vacuously into Trusia's face. That brought him to his senses with a jerk. A candle sputtered fitfully in a gilt stand beside him on the ground. Trusia's arm was about his shoulder. The King and, yes, Sobieska were there. And that other figure, that was Josef. He glanced at his own right hand.
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