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  After another awkward moment had passed he said,

  “Usually Princess Udele has supper alone.”

  “Supper!” exclaimed Zoleka. “But surely now that Princess Udele has grown up and is old enough to take on a Lady-in Waiting, she will have dinner with her father and any guests staying at the Palace?”

  She paused before she continued,

  “I should be glad to arrange some dinner parties as soon as you help me with the names of the available young people. I shall also need the names of local musicians as I know we would all enjoy dancing afterwards.”

  If she had dropped a bomb, the Lord Chamberlain could not have been more astonished.

  Before he could speak, Zoleka carried on,

  “I can see you are surprised. But you must realise that now Princess Udele has grown up she must take her place in the Palace, and play her part as heiress to the throne in a way as she has not yet done.”

  The Lord Chamberlain still could not speak.

  “The first step forward is for Her Royal Highness to meet young people of her own age. Then I am sure that the Prime Minister will arrange a number of important public engagements for her.”

  She smiled confidently at Udele, who spoke up as if she had been prompted,

  “It all sounds so exciting. It has been so dull these last months, staying upstairs with nothing to do when I was not taken out riding.”

  “For the future,” asserted Zoleka, “it will not be a question of people taking you out. You will be giving your orders as to where and when you want to go, and as I love riding we will ride as much as we can and on your father’s best horses.”

  She paused for a moment before she added,

  “You will find that Count Franz von Hofmannstall is such an outstanding rider. He will be only too willing to accompany us.”

  As if the Lord Chamberlain felt the conversation was going too far, he addressed Udele,

  “I feel sure Your Royal Highness will understand we must have approval for all this from your father. I do not think he realised, when the Prime Minister suggested that you should have a Lady-in-Waiting, that so much change would be involved with the appointment.”

  “Of course, if you don’t want me here,” interposed Zoleka, “I can easily go home. I can assure you I have left a great many duties behind and my father is missing me very much.”

  “There is no question of that,” the Prime Minister intervened. “We are absolutely delighted to have you here. I think you are right, it is important that Princess Udele meets the people in the country, who have never seen her before, let alone met her.”

  “That is certainly something we can put right, and as I have already said to Princess Udele, the first thing we are going to do is to go shopping.”

  “Shopping!” cried out the Lord Chamberlain. “But why?”

  “Because every debutante is entitled to a trousseau. I have a suspicion, and I am sure I am right, that the poor Princess is still wearing the same clothes she wore in the schoolroom! But now she is eighteen and is ‘coming out’.”

  “Of course you are right,” the Prime Minister came in. “And I can see by your own style that you know exactly the sort of clothes our Princess should be wearing.”

  “And what I want to wear,” added Princess Udele. “It will be very very wonderful to have new clothes.”

  “You shall have the very best that can be provided here,” insisted Zoleka, “and if they are not good enough, we will send off to Vienna. I brought some lovely gowns from Vienna only last year.”

  If she had not been concentrating on playing her part, she could not have helped laughing at the expression on the Lord Chamberlain’s face.

  It had never struck him for a single minute that this sort of situation would arise from the Princess taking on a Lady-in-Waiting.

  He had supposed she would be some mousey little woman who would feel very honoured to be in the Palace. Someone who would just carry out her duties obediently without having an idea or thought of her own.

  Zoleka poured out another cup of tea for the Prime Minister, aware that he was quietly amused by the Lord Chamberlain’s consternation.

  Almost as if he had been prompted, the latter rose to his feet.

  “I think if Your Royal Highness will excuse me,” he said to Zoleka, “I will go and see His Royal Highness and inform him of your arrival.”

  “Tell him I am anxious to make his acquaintance. I quite understand that he was too busy to greet us when we arrived, but I feel that when he has the time we will have a great deal to discuss.”

  The Lord Chamberlain left the room.

  The Prime Minister looked at Zoleka and sighed,

  “Might I congratulate Your Royal Highness? You have started to blow away the cobwebs even quicker than I hoped. In fact I can only thank you from the bottom of my heart for coming to Krnov.”

  “Thank you, Prime Minister, but I shall need your help.”

  “You have only to ask,” he answered, “and I will support you in every way I can.”

  Before Zoleka could say any more the door opened and the Count and Pieter Seitz entered.

  “We were told Your Royal Highness was in here,” Pieter said to Zoleka, “and I have come to assure you that the horses are all comfortably bedded down and their riders are now looking forward to finding out what are the gayest places to visit in the City.”

  “Then you have done your work splendidly. Let me pour you a cup of tea.”

  Both men accepted and the Prime Minister said to the Count,

  “Tell me how your father is. I am a great admirer of his and perhaps one day I can persuade him to pay us a visit here in Krnov.”

  “If you were to invite him, I think he would enjoy it. In the meantime I would like to meet as many of your citizens as I possibly can. I always enjoy meeting people and visiting a new country where I have not been before.”

  “That is a tall order,” responded the Prime Minister, “but I will do my very best to fulfil it. There are a number of people I think would interest you. But please remember I myself have only just recently been appointed, so I have to tread very carefully.”

  “To miss the old people’s corns,” smiled the Count. “They are always getting in the way of new ideas and new interests. We too have had exactly the same trouble on my father’s estate, but I have managed to introduce quite a number of new methods.”

  “Then I congratulate you. The most difficult thing in the world is to pour new wine into an old bottle!”

  They all laughed at this remark and then the Count asked Zoleta,

  “What is the programme, Your Royal Highness, for tonight?”

  “That is just what I am waiting to hear. Apparently Princess Udele has not yet been allowed to come down to dinner. Now I have demanded that she should, there is a revolution going on among those who sit at the top table!”

  Everyone smiled.

  And then the Count seated himself beside Udele.

  “And what do you think about it all, Your Royal Highness?” he asked.

  “I think it is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened here. You have arrived here as if you were dropped down from Heaven! It has been so dull until you came.”

  “We will soon change things and I am sure Princess Zoleka can arrange for us to dance. If there is anyone who can play the piano, we can even dance tonight.”

  “Why ever not?” agreed Zoleka. “I suppose there is a Music room?”

  “Yes, of course there is,” answered Udele, “and a large ballroom too, but that is shut up.”

  “We will find some way to open it,” said the Count. “But what we need is someone to play the piano.”

  As he spoke Anton Bauer came into the room.

  “Oh, you are just the person we want,” the Count called out before anyone else could speak. “You live here and must know of someone who can play the piano and perhaps even the fiddle. Her Royal Highness and I want to dance.”

  “You want to
dance?” Anton repeated, as if it was something very extraordinary.

  “Of course we do. What else is there to amuse one in the evenings?”

  Before Anton could respond, the Lord Chamberlain returned and walked in.

  They all looked at him questioningly and everyone was silent.

  “I have spoken with His Royal Highness,” the Lord Chamberlain said to Zoleka, “and he will be very delighted if you will dine with him at eight o’clock this evening.”

  “And the rest of the party?”

  “His Royal Highness of course expects his daughter to come with you, also Count Franz von Hofmannstall and Herr Pieter Seitz.”

  Before Zoleka could reply to the Lord Chamberlain, Udele clapped her hands.

  “That is a party, a real party! And it is all so very thrilling.”

  “Surely there are some aides-de-camp in the Palace who should come too,” Zoleka asked.

  “They are mostly rather old,” the Lord Chamberlain admitted, “and although they usually dine with His Royal Highness, perhaps tonight it would be wise if they dined in another room.”

  He glanced at the Prime Minister as he spoke, who nodded.

  Zoleka, now using her Third Eye, suddenly knew the reason. Prince Majmir usually dined with a collection of men of his own age and they just ate and drank because there was nothing more interesting for them to do.

  She was as sure of it as if someone had told her.

  She thought that Anton Bauer had almost hinted at it when she had questioned him at home.

  ‘I must make sure it is a most interesting evening so that he will ask us again,’ reflected Zoleka. ‘At least we have jumped a good number of fences on our first day. In fact, if I am not mistaken, the winning post is in sight!’

  CHAPTER THREE

  They all went upstairs to dress for dinner.

  Zoleka walked with Udele into her room first where they found Marla with all the cases unpacked and her bath waiting on the hearthrug.

  Udele clapped her hands together.

  “Oh, it looks so pretty! It is wonderful that we can sleep in these rooms. I have hardly ever been inside them before.”

  “Now you are grown up the Palace is yours, Udele. We will make ourselves so comfortable here and tomorrow we will ask for large arrangements of flowers.”

  “I thought Your Royal Highness would notice there weren’t any,” muttered Marla.

  “Come and look at my room and see if it is as nice as yours,” Udele suggested to Zoleka.

  They walked through to the adjoining boudoir and Zoleka opened the door into the Lily room.

  It was a very large room, just like hers, except that the covers and curtains were white and the gilded canopy over the top of the four-poster bed was carved to represent flowers and angels.

  “I think you will love this room, Udele.”

  “It is certainly much nicer than the room I have been sleeping in!”

  The housekeeper was waiting to hear their approval of the rooms.

  Zoleka said to her with a smile,

  “Thank you very much for getting the rooms ready so quickly. Tomorrow the Princess and I would like plenty of flowers, I always feel lost without them.”

  “I will see to it myself, Your Royal Highness,” the housekeeper replied.

  Zoleka was about to return to her own room when Udele asked her,

  “What are you going to wear tonight? I am afraid that I shall look very dull in comparison, as all my dresses are so old and shabby. I have not had anything new for a very long time.”

  “We will go to the shops tomorrow. Meanwhile, as we are about the same size, I will lend you a dress to wear this evening – otherwise you might feel embarrassed.”

  “If you are as smart as you look now, I should feel very embarrassed! I have nothing but the dull afternoon dresses I changed into for tea with my governess.”

  “Come into my room and let me choose an evening gown for you,” suggested Zoleka.

  She turned to the housekeeper.

  “I would like you to come too, so that you can help Her Royal Highness into it.”

  When Marla heard what was wanted, she produced a most attractive blue gown of Zoleka’s, who often wore it when she dined alone with her father and wanted to look pretty but not over-dressed.

  Udele was delighted with it.

  “When you have put it on, come back and Marla will arrange your hair in a different way. Now you are so grown up, you will have to take a great deal of trouble over it, but I expect there is a good hairdresser in the City.”

  “There is, and he has come to the Palace once or twice, but only to do the hair of some grand guest who was staying here.”

  “We will send for him tomorrow and he must think out a new and smart way of arranging your hair.”

  Her father had told Zoleka that Udele had Russian blood in her, and her rippling, glossy dark hair and large deep brown eyes reflected her heritage.

  Her complexion was pale and clear and she looked very young.

  However, Zoleka was certain that when Udele was dressed up and her hair well arranged she would appear not only more sophisticated, but also extremely beautiful.

  She had not appreciated when she first met Udele how striking the contrast between them was.

  Zoleka had inherited her mother’s golden hair and blue eyes, as well as the pink and white complexion that is always associated with English beauties.

  But what made her so very unusual was the sparkle in her eyes and the joie-de-vivre, which seemed to vibrate from her like a ray of sunshine.

  Time was passing and she thought it would be very rude to be late for Prince Majmir.

  She hurried over her bath and let Marla choose the gown she was to wear – it was a very pretty pink one and as it was pink it was a compliment to the Rose room.

  She put on her pearl necklace and the two diamond bracelets her father had given her, twisting them on her wrist to remind her of his kindness and great love and to give her confidence for the evening ahead.

  She thought when she looked in the mirror that she looked Regal enough and hoped that Prince Majmir would appreciate her.

  Udele came running in through the boudoir to join her.

  She was looking so totally different from the rather crushed and badly dressed schoolgirl of Zoleka’s arrival.

  “Look at me! Look at me!” she cried as she came into the room. “Do I not look smart?”

  “You look very lovely, Udele, and that is how you will always have to look from this moment on.”

  Udele put her head on one side.

  “I doubt it, if I only have one dress to wear,” she quipped, stroking the soft fabric of her borrowed gown in wonder.

  “We are going shopping tomorrow and no one shall stop us, and then a real fairytale Princess will astonish and delight the whole of Krnov.”

  Udele was amused by the idea.

  When they walked down the stairs together, she was talking animatedly.

  An aide-de-camp was waiting in the hall to escort them to Prince Majmir’s private apartments.

  He was elderly and Zoleka thought Anton had been quite right in thinking it would be a mistake to have him to dinner with them.

  They walked slowly along numerous high-ceilinged corridors until they reached the end of the Palace, where the private apartments of the Prince were situated.

  The aide-de-camp ushered them into an anteroom where the Count and Pieter Seitz were waiting. For the moment there was no sign of Prince Majmir.

  The Count greeted them effusively.

  “I was beginning to be afraid that I had lost you both, but now you appear like two angels from Heaven!”

  “I am so glad we look like angels,” replied Zoleka. “Both Udele and I are hoping for compliments!”

  The Count laughed.

  “That is what I was just about to pay you. May I say I am very proud to be dining with two such beautiful young ladies?”

  Zoleka realised that Udele wa
s looking at him with wide eyes and she was quite certain that this was the first compliment the poor girl had ever received.

  “You may,” Zoleka mock-curtsied to the Count and smiled at Udele to encourage her too to accept the compliment graciously.

  Pieter was too much of the diplomat not to add his appreciation as well, so he bowed and kissed the hand of both the Princesses saying,

  “I am most honoured to be here tonight at what I believe will be the beginning of a new chapter for Krnov. And who could make it all more memorable than two such lovely Princesses?”

  As he finished speaking the door at the other end of the room opened.

  Another aide-de-camp, even older than the one who originally escorted them into the Palace, announced,

  “His Royal Highness is ready to receive his guests.”

  Zoleka walked towards the door.

  They had to cross a passage and into another room where Prince Majmir was waiting.

  She was not sure what to expect, but as the door opened she was surprised to see a rather decrepit man in the centre of the room waiting to receive them.

  His evening clothes did not seem to fit him and his hair, which was slightly grey, was unkempt.

  Even before she reached him, Zoleka’s instinct told her that there was something very wrong.

  However, she swept dutifully to the floor into a low curtsy and Prince Majmir bowed to her in return.

  “Welcome to Krnov. I very much hope Your Royal Highness will enjoy being here with us.”

  “I am certain I shall. It is exceedingly gracious of Your Royal Highness to invite me to your Palace and I am delighted to be your guest.”

  Then Zoleka presented the Count and she noticed that Prince Majmir was rather surprised to find he was one of the party.

  To Pieter Seitz he appeared condescending as if he thought he was of no particular consequence.

  It was then that Anton Bauer joined them.

  As he seemed a little flustered, Zoleka guessed that he had been making adjustments to the dinner or perhaps rearranging the seating plan.

  Dinner was to be served in Prince Majmir’s private dining room next to the room where he had received them.

  Neither room was at all impressive – there were no flowers in either and the silver on the dining room table was unpolished.