“It maddens me.

It might have been so different. I was once on the point of telling my father what had happened to try to make him understand that I had met the only woman I could love and had married her. He could have borne it then. There would have been trouble and because I believed you dead I saw no point in raising it. These people had lied to me. I shan’t rest until I know why. I shall have Ilse brought here. I shall discover from her what it all meant and why she and Ernst interfered in my life. “

“You had commanded them to interfere in the first place.”

“I had commanded them to bring you to me. They were the witnesses of our marriage. But they lied to you and to me. Why? I shall soon know, for she is to be brought here. We will confront her and have the truth.”

“Do you think she will come?”

“My cousin has to visit Klarenbock on state business. I have told him that I want Ilse, if still living, to be brought here.”

“Your cousin?”

“Count Frederick.”

I felt uneasy. The Count always made me feel so.

“Does he know the reason for which you want Ilse?”

“Good God no. I wouldn’`t trust Frederick with that. Heaven knows what use he’d make of it. He’s getting as troublesome to me as his father was to mine.”

“And he is the one whom you have asked to bring back Ilse!”

“She would know she must obey him. She might even think it is her half-sister Wilhelmina who wishes to see her. I have not specifically said it is I.”

“How I wish she were here now! I should like to meet her face to face.

There is so much I want to ask her. She seemed so kind to me. I don’t understand why she should have tried to ruin my life. “

“We will discover,” said Maximilian.

The dawn was with us and it was time for him to leave. How happy we could be even though we could not look more than a day or so ahead and had come no nearer to finding a solution to our problem.

The next day Frieda, the wife of Prinzstein, the coachman, who had joined the two maids we already had in the fortress, brought in letters from England-one from Anthony, one from Aunt Matilda and one from Mrs. Greville.

Anthony wanted to know how I was faring. It was a long time since he had heard.

“Is everything well there, Helena? If not, give it up and come back. I miss you very much. There’s no one to talk to as I can talk to you.

The parents are very good of course, but it isn’t quite the same.

Every day I look for a letter from you which will tell me that you have had enough of it. Come home. I do understand that you are restless. What happened to you there makes that very understandable.

Don’t you think that dwelling on the past only keeps it alive?

Wouldn’`t it be better to try to forget it? Do come home, where I shall do everything possible to make you happy.

My love as ever, Anthony.

What peaceful calm that conjured up: the new vicarage with those lovely green lawns which had been maturing for more than two hundred years; the lovely house which was Elizabethan and built to represent the letter E as so many had been during that Queen’s reign. A fascinating house with its buttery and stiUroom, its walled garden, its little orchard which would be a glory of pink and white blossom in May. How far away it seemed from the schloss in the mountains!

Suppose I wrote to Anthony and told him I had found Maximilian.

Perhaps I owed that to him. I did not want him to go on thinking that one day I would return to him. But I must not do so yet. Maximilian’s father must be the first to know.

There was a letter from Aunt Matilda too.

“How are you getting on, Helena? Have you had enough of that teaching job yet? Albert says he reckons you’ll be back before the summer’s over. The winter wouldn’`t be good there. I believe they have a lot of snow. Take care of your chest. There are some that say mountains are good for chests, but chests are funny things. We miss you in the shop. On busy days Albert says “We could do with Helena, particularly in the Foreign Department.” He works like a slave, which isn’t right with one kidney a’

How those letters brought it all back I And Mrs. Greville’s:

“We miss you very much. When are you coming back? It’s been such a lovely spring. You should see the shrubs in the vicarage garden. And now the lavender’s a picture. The grass was a bit trampled by people at the fete, but it was a great success. Anthony is very popular.

There are so many willing helpers. A very nice lady, a Mrs. Chartwell, has come to live close by. She has a pleasant daughter who is being so useful in the parish. Anthony was saying what a great help she is.

She’s quite nice-looking too, is Grace Chartwell, gentle personality, gets on with people . “

I smiled. In other words, a perfect vicar’s wife. I understood Mrs. Greville was telling me: Come back before it’s too late.

A hush had fallen over the town, over the schloss and over the mountains. The Duke was very ill.

There was a note from Maximilian for me which told me that he was unable to leave the schloss. The doctors were in attendance on his father and it was feared that the end was not far off.

Frau Graben couldn’'t hide her excitement.

“Our Maxi will soon be Duke,” she whispered to me.

I avoided her eyes.

The children were affected by the general solemnity for a short while, but they soon forgot it.

Fritz was rarely seen without his hat although Dagobert had long grown tired of telling people whether it was going to rain or shine and one leg of Liesel’s doll had come off.

I should have given them all hats.

Through the next day the Duke lingered on. In the streets there was a hushed silence; people stood about on corners talking in whispers.

He had been a good ruler, they said, but ailing for a long time. It was a mercy they had a strong Prince to follow, with the country and the surrounding states in such a turmoil.

Those days of anxiety over the Duke were not allowed to interfere with the life of the schloss.

In the courtyard twice a week the children practised archery when other boys of noble families came in to join them, and very often there were as many as ten or eleven taking lessons. It had been considered that there would be greater competition for the boys if others were there; and there was always a great deal of activity and noise in the courtyard where they practised.

I was in my room when Fritz came running in. He was carrying his hat and protruding from it was an arrow.

“It hit me on the head,” he said, ‘but it went into my hat. It’ll have to be pulled out carefully or it might tear. Herr Gronken said I could bring it to you when I told him you would know how to get it out. Oh, Miss, do be careful with my magic hat. “

I took it in my hands: the thought immediately came to me that if he had not been wearing a hat, the arrow would have struck him in the head.

I withdrew the arrow very carefully and laid it on the table.

We examined the hat together. It had made a hole in the fabric.

“Never mind,” I said to Fritz, ‘that makes it more interesting, more your very own. Battle scars are signs of honour. “

That pleased him. He put the hat on again and went off to finish his lesson.

I picked up the arrow. The point was sharp. It had to be, of course, to hit the target. What struck me was that there was a faint discoloration at the tip. I wondered what it was.

I thought no more about it then, for a few hours later news came that the Duke was dead.

All the flags in the town were flying at half mast.

“Of course it had to come,” said Frau Graben.

“This will make a difference to our Prince. My goodness, he’ll be busy for a few days.

And then of course there’ll be the funeral. That will be an occasion for sure. “

A disturbing incident happened. The following afternoon Dagobert went into the forest on his new mount. We were unperturbed during the first hour or so when he didn’`t return, but when it grew dark and he had still not come back we grew alarmed.

Frau Graben sent the servants out to look for him. Herr Prinzstein, the coachman, formed a party which he divided into two and they went off in separate ways.

We sat together in Frau Graben’s little sitting-room and anxiously talked of what could have happened to him.

Fritz came in and said: “My hat’s gone. My magic hat. I’ve looked everywhere.”

“You can’t fret about a hat when your brother’s lost,” said Frau Graben.

“I can,” said Fritz.

“I think he’s taken it.”

“Oh, Fritz, why do you say that?” I asked.

“He’s always trying to take it.”

“Never mind about that hat,” I said.

“Let’s think of Dagobert. Have you any idea where he’s gone?”

“He likes to ride out to the Island of Graves.”

While we were worrying over the mystery of what had happened to Dagobert there was a shout from outside.

“He’s here.”

We rushed out and there was Dagobert, hatless and sheepish. He had a wild story to tell. He had been kidnapped.

Frau Graben said: “Never mind about that now. You’re damp.”

“It was misty,” said Dagobert.

“So we’ll get those clothes off and you’ll get in a hot bath with mustard. That’s it. You can’t beat mustard. And some of my soup and cordial.”

Dagobert was bursting to tell of his adventures but he was shivering with cold so he allowed himself to be immersed in the mustard bath, and it was later when wrapped in a warm dressing-gown after having drunk hot soup that he told us what had happened.