“Who was it? I’ll see to him.”

“Nobody I knew,” I said, secretly delighted by this response. “In fact I think it might have been a vampire.”

I saw the smile spread across his face.

“Don’t you dare laugh,” I said and hit him. He caught my hand in his and held me, looking down at me.

“Come on, Georgie. I know this is Transylvania, but you don’t believe in vampires any more than I do.”

“I didn’t, until I came here,” I said. “But there was definitely a strange young man bending over my bed, smiling at me and saying something in a strange language, and when I sat up, he just melted away into the shadows.”

“Then I’d have to say that he was probably in the wrong room and got as big a shock as you did when you sat up. That sort of bed hopping goes on quite a lot in places like this, you know. Or perhaps you don’t. You’ve led a sheltered life.”

“But he looked just like the man in the portrait on my wall,” I said. “Only last night the portrait had been changed, and someone was climbing up the castle wall. . . .”

“Up the wall? That’s a pretty suicidal thing to do.”

“Well, someone did it and there was a cloak in the chest in my room, with snowflakes still on it, and then it vanished.”

“Dear me, it all sounds very dramatic,” he said.

“Don’t you believe me?”

“I’d suspect that the rich food has given you vivid dreams, my sweet.”

“It wasn’t dreams,” I said. “I’ve felt a sense of danger since I came here. Lady Middlesex’s companion said that she sensed death as we arrived. And explain to me why all these other strange things have been happening.”

“What strange things?” His tone was suddenly sharp and his grip tightened on my wrist.

“Well, to begin with there was someone spying on me on the train. He tried to come into my compartment and then at the station—” I broke off because he was grinning again. “What now? Don’t you believe me?”

“Oh, absolutely. I have to confess something. The person on the train was I.”

“You?”

“Yes, I got wind of which train you were traveling on and I thought it would be a good idea to keep an eye on you. I hadn’t counted on the old battle-ax keeping me at bay.”

“But wait a minute,” I said. “If you were on the same train as us, how did you get here? An avalanche blocked the pass right after we came through.”

“It certainly did,” he said. “By the time I’d found a car willing to drive me to the castle, the wretched road was blocked.”

“So how did you manage to make it here?”