“Georgie, I did not think that you would grow up to be so chic,” Matty said. She came to stand beside me and put her arm around my waist as we stared at ourselves in the mirrors. “Wouldn’t Mademoiselle Amelie and the other teachers be surprised if they saw us now. What a shame we are wasted in a remote castle in Romania. We should be on the French Riviera, or in Hollywood, flirting with all the men-about-town, don’t you think?”

I laughed with her but my cheeks were very pink. It was the first time anyone had ever suggested that I might be elegant one day. Maybe there was some of my mother’s blood in me after all.

I had just been unpinned from my dress and was retrieving my more practical jumper and skirt when there was a tap at the door. One of the seamstresses was directed to go and returned with a letter. Matty looked at it, then handed it to me. “From one of your admirers.” She gave me a knowing look.

I glanced up at the door as I recognized Darcy’s firm black scrawl. I need to speak to you immediately, it said.

“I’ll be back,” I said.

“A midmorning tryst. How romantic. Siegfried will be jealous.” Matty wagged a finger and the other girls giggled as I went to the door. I hoped she was just joking. For a second I felt a stab of a different kind of fear—had I been brought here to be bride of this particular Frankenstein after all? Frankly if it was a choice between life with Siegfried and a bite from a vampire, I think I’d prefer to be undead. But I didn’t have long to consider this as Darcy was waiting outside the door for me.

“Ah, there you are,” he said, drawing me to one side. “Look, something has come up and I have to go.”

“Go? Go where?”

“We’ve run into a complication,” he whispered. “Nicholas’s father demanded to be taken straight to see Pirin.”

“Oh, Lord, so I suppose the game’s up.”

“Not yet. We kept the curtains drawn so that it was pretty dark. The firelight actually made his skin look reddish. I slipped into the room and hid under the bed, then I snored loudly to make it sound as if he was still breathing.”

I started to laugh, it was so absurd.

Darcy smiled too. “It worked once, but the king is very concerned. He wanted to send one of the cars to bring his personal physician from Bulgaria immediately.”

“How did you stop him from doing that?”

“Nick persuaded him that there was a good hospital with modern equipment in the nearest city and it would be better if Pirin were transported there immediately.”

“Oh, no, what are you going to do?”