We passed old brick buildings, an old jail, a barracks—not the most attractive of areas. I was keeping quiet about what I thought of Dublin until we came out to the River Liffey. As we crossed the water on a bridge I caught a glimpse of the city center with its spires and domes off to our right. We followed a rough stone wall for quite a while before we came to a gateway. Darcy swung the motorcar and we entered an area of parkland. I was expecting a city park to be an ordered affair with rose gardens, flower beds, arbors, but this was wild enough to make one feel one was out in the country. We drove across a vast expanse of trees and grass. In the distance we spotted deer. Then we came upon a large gray building that Darcy said was the headquarters of the Garda. It certainly was in a nice setting for a police station. Then as we drove on, Darcy pointed out the entrance to the zoo, off to our right among the trees.

“A zoo!” the princess exclaimed with delight. “I adore animals, don’t you? When this is all over and settled we must come back and feed the giraffes. They have the longest tongues you’ve ever seen. So impressive! You have no idea what they can do with them.” She somehow managed to make this remark sound sexy and she followed it up with a glance at Darcy, making me wonder again exactly what those two had been up to and how long ago. Still, it didn’t do to torture myself with questions like this about Darcy. He loved me now, I reminded myself. That was all that mattered.

“Ah, here we are.” Darcy slowed the motorcar as we approached a white gate, manned by two American soldiers, or maybe marines. An American flag fluttered above it. Darcy wound down the window and before he could say anything, one of the uniformed men saluted and opened the gate to let us through.

“We must not look too disreputable.” Darcy turned to us with a grin.

“I’ve always found that arriving in a Rolls does somehow dispel the notion that one is disreputable,” Zou Zou said dryly.

As we came up a driveway and the bushes opened up, we got our first glimpse of the house, a handsome white Georgian building, surrounded by lawns. Darcy parked the Rolls in the forecourt then came around to open doors for us. “I think that maybe I should do the talking. We need to tread carefully here,” he said in a low voice. “And of course they may not tell us anything since we’re not official. Oh well. Here goes.” And he led us up to the front door.