I stayed talking with Daisy, mainly about my life at the Grand Schloss, which interested her very much.

"You've not found out anything yet?" she asked anxiously.

I shook my head and told her that I had seen Gisela who had said she tidied up my sister's grave.

"She would, Gisela would. She'd want to tidy up the place. She's got the German passion for tidiness."

"It looked more than just tidying up," I said. "It looked as if someone tended it with care."

I said goodbye to Daisy and rode back through the town to the Grand Schloss. As soon as I came near the gates I was aware that something had happened. A man on horseback was riding out as I came up to it, and he passed me as though he were in a great hurry.

The guards were about to challenge me and then, recognizing me, they let me pass. As I entered the hall one of the servants hurried to me.

"Frau Strelitz would like to see you in her room without delay."

I went there in some trepidation, wondering what could have happened.

She was waiting for me.

"Ah, Fraulein Ayres, I am glad you are back. The Grand Duke has had a seizure."

"Is he-"

"No, no, but dangerously ill. He has had this sort of thing before. But if he should die, Baron Sigmund would become Grand Duke immediately. As you can imagine, this could cause trouble. Because of this unfortunate death of Rudolph, who was the undoubted son of the Grand Duke assuring the accepted succession, it is not quite so straightforward. There are some who feel that another has prior claim. He is called Otto the Bastard because he claims to be the illegitimate son of the Grand Duke. Our great desire is to keep the Grand Duke alive ... but we must make sure that he does not die before Sigmund arrives."

"Where is the elusive Sigmund? I hear so much about him."

"He is travelling abroad. It is his duty to meet the heads of state in various countries. We have sent couriers to him at once. He'll have to come back now. The only thing is he must do so because if the Grand Duke dies ... You understand. We don't want to be plunged into war."

"So that is why there is this change. I sensed it as soon as I passed the gate."

"It may be necessary for you to take the Countess away from the Grand Schloss for a while. We are not quite sure yet what is going to happen. But I wanted you to be prepared. We must pray for the recovery of the Grand Duke."

I went to find Freya. She was waiting for me.

"You see what happens when you go away," she said. "Now the Grand Duke is ill."

"That has nothing to do with my going out for the afternoon."

She narrowed her eyes and looked at me steadily. "I think it might," she said. "Fraulein Anne, you are not what you seem."

"What do you mean?" I asked sharply.

She pointed her finger at me. "You're not a witch, are you? You're one of the goddesses returned to earth. You can assume which shape you like ..."

"Stop this nonsense," I said. "You know this is very serious. The Grand Duke is very ill."

"I know. He is going to die and I can only think of one thing. Anne, Sigmund is coming home."

Frau Strelitz sent for me the next day.

She told me at once that the Grand Duke was a little better. The doctors were with him and they had made an announcement. He had had a seizure like this before and had recovered. There was every hope that he would do so again.

His ministers had been talking through the night, she told me. "They eagerly await the return of the heir. In the meantime they consider that the Countess Freya should not be in the Grand Schloss ... in case of trouble. So we have decided that she should leave with you and Fraulein Kratz and a few of her servants."

"I understand. When do we leave?"

"Tomorrow. The Grand Duke's ministers think the sooner the better—just in case, of course. We have every hope of the Grand Duke's recovery. It is thought that she should not be too far away. The Margrave of Kollenitz would be very suspicious if we moved her away from the capital, so we have arranged that she shall go to the schloss on the other side of the river, and the Graf von Bindorf has offered you all hospitality until the situation is clarified."

I felt as though the room were spinning round me. I was to go into the household of the Graf and Grafin von Bindorf. Some members of that household had seen me before, including the Grafin and her daughter Tatiana. Would they recognize me? And if so, what would happen? I was sure that my coming here under an assumed name in order to attempt to uncover a mystery involving my sister would not be regarded with any great pleasure.

I was in my bedroom getting my things together when Freya came in and sat on my bed. I was holding the glasses which Miss Elton had procured for me and considering whether I should wear them on entering the von Bindorf schloss.

"What have you got there," demanded Freya. "Oh ... spectacles. You don't wear them, do you?"

"Sometimes ..."

"Have you got weak eyes? Oh, you poor Anne! All that reading you have to do. Do your eyes get tired? Do they make your head ache?"

"I suppose I should wear them more," I said.

"Put them on and let's have a look at you."

I did so and she laughed. "You look different," she said.

I was glad to hear that.

"You look severe," she went on. "Just like a governess. You look quite alarming."

"Then I should certainly wear them more."

"You're prettier without them."

"There are things more important than looks."

"I think you're just wearing them for a reason."

She alarmed me. Sometimes she seemed to see right into my mind. She was now looking at me slyly, teasing me as she loved to do.

"What reason?" I said sharply.

"What reason could there be but to try to make me afraid of you?"

I laughed with relief. But sometimes her comments shook me.

As we prepared to leave for the von Bindorf schloss, I kept remembering fragments from that long ago meeting. Could the Grafin remember anything about me? I had been young then, a schoolgirl, nondescript, like so many other girls of my age. I had grown several inches taller because I had shot up rather suddenly, and from being a small girl had become a fairly tall young woman. I supposed that anyone who had known me would have recognized me, but the Grafin had seen me for only a short time and then she had obviously been so much more interested in Francine.

The spectacles might well be useful. I would wear them when there could be a need to do so, and I did not believe that Freya had any real suspicions about them. I was over nervous. I had nothing to fear. It was hardly likely that the Grafin would take much notice of her important guest's English governess.

The next day the carriage drove us over to the schloss. There were little knots of people in the streets and quite a crowd outside the Grand Schloss. The comptroller of the household had attached a bulletin of the Grand Duke's condition on the gate and there was a crowd reading it. I noticed the faces of the people as we passed through. They gave a little cheer for the Countess, who acknowledged it with the grace and solemnity which the occasion demanded.

I thought: She will make a good duchess when the time arises.

Fraulein Kratz and I sat well back in the carriage as we went through the town and across the bridge to that other schloss. I thought: I shall be nearer Daisy, and Hans will be under the same roof. It was a comforting thought.

We went under a kind of portcullis and into a courtyard where the Grafin and the Graf were waiting to greet the Countess. On either side of them stood a young man and a young woman. The young woman looked vaguely familiar and I immediately thought: Oh yes, Tatiana. And again I was touched by a shiver of apprehension. I had to escape detection not only by the Grafin but by her daughter, and casting my mind back it occurred to me that Tatiana would have been interested in one of her own age. I should have put on the glasses.

Freya was helped out of the carriage by one of the footmen and she went straight to the Graf and Grafin who bowed and then embraced her.

Fraulein Kratz stepped out of the carriage and moved to one side. I followed her, head lowered. She had taken up her stand on the edge of the group; I kept close to her, and I was relieved that everyone seemed intent on watching Freya and that I did not receive more than a cursory glance.

I watched Tatiana greet Freya, and the young man clicked his heels and bowed. Freya smiled graciously and the Grafin took her by the hand and led her into the schloss.

I mingled with a group of people. Those, I thought, who are of little importance; and I thanked heaven for them.

I saw Hans suddenly. He was looking for me, I guessed, and he came over and spoke to me.

"I will take you to the apartments which have been" assigned to you and Fraulein Kratz," he said. "They are next to those of the Countess."

I smiled my appreciation and with Fraulein Kratz slipped away from those surrounding the main party. We were conducted through a narrow passage and up a stone staircase— the spiral kind, each step being built into the wall at one end and consequently very narrow and much wider at the other end. There was a thick rope hand-rail.

"Your apartments can be reached by the main staircase," Hans told me, "but on this occasion it is better to use this one."

I was grateful to him. He must have guessed that I would be apprehensive.

He showed us a suite of rooms. Fraulein Kratz and I were next to each other, and there was a large room which could be used for a schoolroom. On the other side of this were those apartments allotted to the Countess.

Fraulein Kratz nervously said that she hoped the Grand Duke would soon recover.

"They say it is almost certain that he will," Hans told her.

"I feel quite exhausted," she said.

"Have a little rest," I suggested.

"I must settle in first," she said, and went into her room, which left me alone with Hans.

I looked at him questioningly.

"They'll never recognize you," he said. "You look quite different. I didn't know you again when I saw you after all that time. They hardly ever look at people unless they are grand dukes or counts. It will be all right."

"Hans, if I am discovered, I hope it doesn't make trouble for you."

"I shall disclaim all knowledge. Daisy will come up with something. You can trust Daisy."

He tried to restore my spirits by giving me an imitation of one of Daisy's winks, which looked so grotesque on him that it made me smile.

"I reckon you won't be here long," he said. "As soon as the Grand Duke's better you'll be going back. And he will recover. He has before."

I was in my room when I heard the Countess being brought up to hers. There was a great deal of conversation and I could detect Freya's high-pitched voice.

Then I heard her say: "Grafin, you must meet my very good friend, Fraulein Ayres. She's an English lady and teaches me English ... just for fun."

I felt suddenly sick with fear. I put on the glasses and pretended to be looking at the view as the door opened and Freya came in with the Grafin. I stood with my back to the light.

When I turned I saw that Tatiana and the young man were with them.

"Fraulein Ayres," said Freya, very much on her dignity, "I want to present you to the Grafin von Bindorf and to Count Gunther and the Countess Tatiana."

I bowed low.

The Grafin's eyes momentarily swept over me and, I thought, dismissed me. As for Tatiana I could only faintly recognize in her the girl whom I had seen at the Grange. Her blond hair was elegantly dressed and piled high on her head, and although she had grown considerably, she was far from tall. She could have been a beauty but for those too closely set eyes, and her rather tight lips made her appear somewhat forbidding.

Gunther was quite different. Though as blond as she was with similar closely set eyes, there were laughter lines about his, and his pleasant expression implied that he looked upon life as something of a joke. Tatiana repelled me, but I immediately liked her brother.

"Welcome," he said. "I hope you will be happy here."

"Oh, we shall be," said Freya. "Fraulein Ayres and I are always happy. We love our English chatter, do we not?"