In The Name Of Love

Chapter 17

We spent half an hour walking through the crowds of the pedestrianised part of the city centre. Again we shook hands, had short conversations. We posed for photos (I felt like an idiot doing that) and then we were able to sit under pretty parasols at pretty café tables in the middle of the square. We were on a dais and the huge TV screens that had been set up were playing what the cameras pointing at us captured. We were introduced to the owner of the café whose food we were eating. She was a bit flustered, but very polite and smiled a lot. She described each of the foodstuffs we were given, complimented Elisabeta's red dress, my peacock blue one and my hair, and Mircea's looks, and then waited at the side to serve drinks from the cooler whenever we needed a refill.

On the pristine white table cloths there were programmes for us. Mine was in Welsh.

We watched hours of performances, ballet, modern dance, Shakespeare, poetry recitals, choral and solo singing. Every single bit was amazing, the little kids dancing was charming. The colours of the costumes were bright and in your face, but artful and delicate, the smiles on the performers faces as they bowed and curtsied themselves out were joyous and everyone in the crowd was having a brilliant time too.

The last performance was a recital of the national anthem which the watching crowds joined in with was spectacular. Part of it was the performance itself, the rest of it was the atmosphere gained by the cheerful, exuberant crowd. Everyone who could stand was on their feet, hands over hearts and flags waving. All the performers joined in, standing around the edge of the crowd and joined in with the flag waving. Mircea had made sure I knew this song by heart so I was able to join in too. Everyone burst into a round of applause and cheers which continued as we thanked our host for the delicious food and walked back to the car.

I nearly fell asleep half an hour into the train journey. The town we were next visiting was a couple of hours away and there was nothing to do since we were getting dinner at the inn we were staying at. Yeah, I did just say inn.

"We can't leave the small places out," Elisabeta trilled just as Carol and Lina walked into the carriage. "You managed to get the dresses ready in time?"

Lina curtsied. "Yes, Your Majesty. Though Miss Anwyn's might need a little adjusting." She passed a couple of sketches to Elisabeta.

"Dresses?" I asked. "Can't we just stay in these clothes?"

"We thought we'd surprise you," Elisabeta said and passed a sketch to me.

The dress was beautiful, but... "Why am I on a horse?"

"We're doing the parade on horseback," Mircea grinned.

"What?" I squeaked and my heart hammered and my pulse thundered in my ears. My head was going not good, not good, not good.  

His face faltered and he stammered, "We... we thought you'd... like the idea. Surprise."

"Surprise," I said faintly.

"Mircea said you know how to ride a horse," Elisabeta frowned.

"Oh, really? What gave him that idea?" I asked and slowly turned to face him.

He was now looking pretty nervous and uncomfortable. "You..." he squirmed a little and cleared his throat. "... live on a farm."

"So? Have you ever seen horses on my farm?" I demanded incredulously, my voice getting higher and higher at the end.

"So, you... can't ride –"

"Ride? Ride?" I asked cutting over my mother-in-law. "No I can't ride a horse! I don't even like horses! They're skittery and jumpy and..." I got up and slowly walked over to the fridge and got myself a bottle of water.