Bride to the King by Barbara Cartland Page B

what I have to be,’ she told herself and quickly looked away from the mirror in case she should see the crown again.
    *
    The State Banquet was certainly impressive.
    In the Banqueting Hall of the Palace over three hundred guests sat down to a very elaborate dinner with eight courses and appropriate wines for each one.
    It would be impossible, Zosina thought, for anyone to look more magnificent or more regal than her grandmother.
    Wearing some of the Lützelstein Crown Jewels, which she had brought with her especially for the occasion, her gown glittering with diamante and with five ropes of huge diamonds round her neck, she looked like every woman’s ideal of a Queen.
    In contrast Zosina felt that she must pale into insignificance.
    Her gown instead of being white, which she knew was being kept for her wedding, was the second most elaborate one in her trousseau.
    Of very pale blue, the colour of the morning sky, it had a tulle train which frothed out behind her like the waves of the sea and tulle encircled her shoulders accentuating the whiteness of her skin and making her eyes seem unnaturally large in her small face.
    As a concession to her impending marriage, the Grand-Duchess had lent her one of the small tiaras which had always been considered too unimportant for her to wear herself.
    It was in fact, a wreath of flowers fashioned in diamonds and turquoises and, as it glittered and shimmered under the huge crystal chandeliers, it made Zosina, although she was not aware of it, look like the Goddess of Spring.
    There was a necklace of diamonds and turquoises to match and bracelets for her wrists.
    When she was dressed, she wished that her sisters could see her, especially Katalin.
    Katalin had had a great many amusing things to say about her gowns before she left Lützelstein.
    “You will look exactly like the Prima Donna in an opera!” she had exclaimed, “except of course, you have not a large enough bosom to be a singer! But doubtless the King will be bowled over by your beauty the moment he sees you.”
    ‘Well, that at least is something that will not happen!’ Zosina thought now.
    She hoped, however, that the Regent would think she was appropriately dressed for the part she had to play and perhaps if she tried very hard she could at least charm the King into being polite to her.
    In a way she could understand how he resented being under the authority of his uncle. After all he was the King and to have someone else, however pleasant, ruling for him must be frustrating.
    She thought of how her mother had always insisted that they should take no part in any of the celebrations that took place in Lützelstein, except for those which involved their going to a special Church Service or standing on a balcony to watch a procession pass beneath them.
    Now that the idea had been put into her head that her mother was bossy, Zosina began to remember dozens of occasions when her mother had overruled her father’s wishes or forbidden them some treat that he would have given them only too willingly.
    ‘A petticoat government!’ she whispered to herself and wondered how she could make the King understand that she had no wish to boss anyone around, least of all him.
    ‘I want to get to know the people,’ she thought, ‘and, as the Regent said, for them to love me.’
    It was in fact a terrifying thought that those who had brought her to Dórsia had done so because they had thought she would keep the King in order and influence him from behind the throne.
    It made Zosina feel almost panic-stricken to think that the plan was that anything that happened in the country would be done at her instigation or because she could influence the King into the right way of thinking.
    ‘I am quite certain of one thing,’ she told herself. ‘Whatever I suggest, he will do the opposite, just out of spite.’
    Then she told herself that was not how Katalin would tackle the problem.
    ‘I have to will him into listening to me,’ she