He moved closer to me and slipped his arms around my waist. “I’ll reserve those words for the bedroom at some more opportune moment,” he said and then he kissed me. “Mmm, what deliciously cold lips. They need warming up.” The second kiss was not so gentle and left us both breathing hard. “I suppose I should be getting back to help Nick and Anton,” Darcy said, releasing me with reluctance from the embrace. “Any minute now their father is going to want to visit the field marshal’s bedside. I’ve no idea how we’re going to pull this off, and I just wish that I had something concrete to tell them about Pirin’s death. I can ask Siegfried about Dragomir, but again I can’t find out much more about him until the telephone service is restored.”

“And Siegfried will want to know why you are interested in Dragomir’s past,” I said. “He may be obnoxious but he’s not stupid. He wanted to go up to the field marshal’s room to check on him last night, and I had to dissuade him with my feminine wiles.”

Darcy burst out laughing. “I don’t think that feminine wiles work particularly well on Siegfried,” he said.

We started to walk back up the slope to the castle.

“Siegfried talked about marriage again last night,” I said.

I’d expected him to find this amusing. Instead he said, “Perhaps you should accept. You might not get a better offer. Princess Georgie, maybe Queen Georgie one day.”

“Don’t say that, even in jest,” I said. “You wouldn’t wish me married to Siegfried, would you?”

“I’m sure he’d let you keep a lover, since his own interests lie elsewhere.”

“He actually said that. I suppose it’s the way it’s done in royal circles, but it’s not for me.”

I felt Darcy’s grip tighten on my hand. “Georgie, you know I’m a rotten catch,” he said. “I have nothing to offer a woman. I don’t even have a nice little castle in Ireland any longer. I live by my wits and I can’t see how I’m ever going to support a wife. So maybe you should think more sensibly and forget about me.”

“I don’t want to forget about you,” I said shakily. “I don’t need a castle.”

“I can’t see you being happy in a little flat in Putney,” Darcy said. “And I don’t think your family would be too happy either. But anyway, I’m not ready to think of settling down yet. I have to make my mark in the world first, and you have to experience more of life.”