‘You will not make trouble, Mademoiselle, if I tell you the truth? You were kind to me and therefore I wish only to do you a service.’

‘I promise you I will not make trouble for you or for anyone else,’ Mistral said.

‘It was Potoc,’ Stella said.

‘The Prince’s servant?’ Mistral enquired.

‘Yes,’ Stella repeated. ‘He stabbed Sir Robert in the back as he walked through the Casino Gardens.’

‘Stabbed him!’ Mistral gasped. ‘But why and for what reason?’

Even as she asked the question she knew the answer herself. He was revenging himself for the wound Robert had inflicted on the Prince. He would never forgive anyone who harmed his beloved master and he had taken his revenge swiftly and secretly. Mistral clasped her hands together as if to steady her self-control.

‘Sir Robert’s life is not in danger?’ she asked.

‘Not now’ Stella replied. ‘Luckily he was found very shortly after it happened. He was taken back to the Hôtel Hermitage and the Doctor stopped the bleeding and sewed up the wound. Tomorrow, as I have said, Sir Robert leaves for England.’

Mistral put her hands up to her eyes.

‘What can I do?’ she asked.

‘I’m telling you this, Mademoiselle, because you were kind to me,’ Stella said. ‘You made a decision for me which has altered my whole life, which has brought me unbelievable happiness. I know, because my husband is working as Chef at the Hôtel Hermitage, that Sir Robert loves you. Servants talk, especially French ones, Mademoiselle, and when he was delirious the first night, Sir Robert called your name over and over again. You may think I am presumptuous in coming to you on such a slender pretext, but one day when you were standing on the shore talking to Sir Robert I passed by in a carriage. I think you did not see me because you were oblivious to all save each other. I thought then that you loved Sir Robert, and when he called for you all through the night, I knew that he loved you. If I have been impertinent and indiscreet in coming here, you will perhaps forgive me.’

At the humility in Stella’s last words Mistral put out her hand impulsively and laid it on the older girl’s arm.

‘No, you were right to come. I am more grateful than I can possibly say. It means everything to me to know that he loves me. You were right in thinking that I love him.’

Stella smiled happily.

‘Thank you! You have set my mind at rest. Now I will return to the Hotel and to my husband.’

‘You have been married recently?’ Mistral asked.

‘Yes,’ Stella replied. ‘It was entirely due to you, Mademoiselle, and I can never thank you enough.’

The hands of the two women met in a warm handshake of friendship, and then Stella had gone leaving Mistral alone again.