“She is very young,” I said tactfully. “She may wish to experience life a little before she takes on the responsibilities of royalty.”

Siegfried sniffed. “This I find ridiculous. Girls of her station marry at eighteen all the time. It is not good to let them have too much freedom and to become too worldly. Look at my sister. She was allowed to spend a year in Paris and now—” He broke off, checked himself then said, “At least she too has come to her senses. She realizes where her duty lies and has made an excellent match.”

At the edge of the dance floor I saw Belinda’s face light up and realized that Anton had rejoined the crowd. So had Nicholas. But there was no sign of Darcy. The music ended to polite applause. Siegfried clicked his heels to me. “I enjoyed our dance and our little talk, Lady Georgiana. Or now I shall call you simply by your first name, and you may call me Siegfried when we are in private. In public I still expect you to call me ‘sir’ or ‘highness’ of course.”

“Of course, sir,” I replied. “Oh, look, Prince Nicholas has returned. I wonder if he has news about the patient.”

Luckily Siegfried took the hint and strode over to Prince Nicholas. I saw the latter gesturing and explaining, presumably preventing Siegfried from taking a look at the patient for himself. Belinda and Anton passed close to me.

“You and Siegfried looked awfully pally,” she muttered. “If you’re trying to make Darcy jealous, it’s not going to work. I gather he’s sitting at Pirin’s bedside all night.”

“That’s as pally as I ever plan to get with Siegfried,” I said. “Let’s just say that I did it for a good cause.”