Nikky, bowed again.
Karl fixed him with cold eyes. “But before you take leave of us,” he said ironically, “I should like the true story of the night before last. Somehow, somewhere, a letter intended for me was exchanged for a blank paper. I want that letter.”
“I know no more than you, sire. It is not reasonable that I would have taken the risk I took for an envelope containing nothing.”
“For that matter,” said His Majesty, “there was nothing reasonable about anything you did!”
And now Karl played his trump card, played it with watchful eyes on Nikky’s face. He would see if report spoke the truth, if this blue-eyed boy was in love with Hedwig. He was a jealous man, this Karl of the cold eyes, jealous and passionate. Not as a king, then, watching a humble soldier of Livonia, but as man to man, he gazed at Nikky.
“For fear that loyalty keeps you silent, I may say to you that the old troubles between Karnia and Livonia are over.”
“I do not understand, sire.”
Karl hesitated. Then, with his twisted smile, he cast the rigid etiquette of such matters to the winds. “It is very simple,” he said. “There will be no more trouble between these two neighboring countries, because a marriage has to-day been arranged—a marriage between the Princess Hedwig, His Majesty’s granddaughter, and myself.”
For a moment Nikky Larisch closed his eyes.