“No!” The word came out louder than I meant it to, and several people around us looked up. “No,” I repeated. “This is only for your ears. It’s up to you whom you decide to share it with when I’ve told you.”

“All right.” He looked amused if anything. “Where shall we go for this secret meeting?”

“Anywhere that obnoxious man Patrascue isn’t likely to overhear.”

“Who knows where his men are lurking?” Nicholas said. “It’s so easy to spy on people in a place like this. Oh, damn, speak of the devil—” Patrascue had come into the room and appeared to be making a beeline for us.

“You, lady from England,” he said. “You will come with me, please. I have something that I want you to explain to me immediately.”

“Do you want me along too?” Nicholas asked.

“Just the young lady,” Patrascue said.

I had no choice but to go with Patrascue, especially as he appeared to have two of his men in tow and I didn’t want to cause a fuss.

“I’ll see you later then,” I called after Nicholas, then I turned to Patrascue, who was standing close beside me. “What’s this about?” I asked.

“You will soon see,” Patrascue said. He marched ahead of me with great purpose, up the stairs until we came out onto my hallway. Then he flung open my bedroom door. A frightened-looking Queenie was standing by the bed.

“You will please explain this,” Patrascue said. He opened the chest and pointed at a small glass bottle lying there.

“I have no idea what it is or how it got there,” I said.

“I, on the other hand, have a very good idea,” he said. “I would like to deduce it was the receptacle that contained the poison.” He stepped closer until he was leering down at me. “I have had my suspicions about you from the beginning,” he said. “You were sitting opposite this field marshal. And why should the English king send you to the wedding? Why not send his own daughter, a princess, as would be more fitting?”

“Because Princess Maria Theresa personally asked for me to be part of her bridal procession, since we were old school friends. So the queen thought that it would kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.”

“Do not worry, as soon as the telephone lines are restored I shall be calling the garden of Scotland to verify this.”

The garden of Scotland? I grinned. He meant Scotland Yard.