“One moment, if you please.” Patrascue stepped between us. “I do not understand. It was a Bulgarian field marshal who was poisoned. This I was told. Is it not true?”

“The poison was intended for me,” Nicholas said. He was staring at Matty with horror and disbelief on his face. “Pirin was a peasant. He had no table manners. He grabbed the nearest full glass and it was mine.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe this of you, Maria. If the idea of marrying me was so abhorrent to you, why didn’t you tell me? I would never have expected you to subject yourself to a life of unhappiness.”

“No, Nicholas.” She went over to him and put her hand gently on his arm. “You are not abhorrent to me. You are a kind, decent person and I should not object to spending my life with you. I just happened to fall in love with someone else. Someone beneath me whom I could not marry. But I swear that I didn’t try to kill you. Neither did Vlad.”

“Then you admit he was here?” Patrascue threw himself into the fray. It was almost like watching a play.

“All right. I admit it. But he just came to say good-bye to me, that’s all.”

“Where is he now?” Patrascue asked.

“Gone. Long gone.”

“How could he leave the castle when we are snowed in?”

“He had skis with him,” Matty said. “He left before that man was poisoned.”

I didn’t believe her for a minute and neither did Patrascue.

“You say that you saw him, Lady Georgiana?” he asked, spinning sharply to address me. “When was this?”

“On my first night here he came into my room by mistake. He thought that it was Princess Maria’s room. And someone else spotted him, observing the banquet—Miss Deer-Harte, the English lady who is now also dead, whom we can conclude was pushed from a staircase as she was snooping at night.”

“So, it is a question of two murders, not just one?” Patrascue asked.

“The English lady could have fallen,” Siegfried pointed out.

“She would not have been going down those stairs if she had not been following somebody,” I said. “She was determined to catch the man she had seen.”

“I can prove to you that Vlad had nothing to do with this second death,” Matty said. “All right, he is not long gone. He was with me all night. He didn’t leave my side once.” And she tossed her head defiantly.

“Maria!” The king opened his mouth in horror. “You do not announce this shameful conduct to the world. Do you think your bridegroom would want you now that you have told the world you are no longer a virgin?”