“They sent me for a cure at a spa, darling. Three months of utter torture, drinking carrot juice, cold baths, long runs through the forest at dawn and calisthenics for hours. But this is the result. Thirty kilos miraculously vanished. And then I was a year in Paris to pick up sophistication and voila. A new me.”

I still couldn’t stop staring.

“She looks utterly beautiful, doesn’t she?” Nicholas said. “I can’t believe my luck.”

Nicholas put his arm around her and I thought I detected a brief second of hesitation before she looked up at him and gave him a smile.

“You make a very handsome couple,” I said. “I congratulate you both.”

“And we will have such fun trying on our dresses, won’t we?” Matty went on. “I have shipped in a wonderful little woman from Paris, you know. I do love exquisite clothes. Nicky has promised we can live part of the year in Paris, which will make me very happy. But do you remember that awful uniform we had to wear in school? It will be just like old times together with my dear school friends again.”

“You have more friends from Les Oiseaux attending?”

“I do. You will never guess. Our old friend Belinda Warburton-Stoke is here.”

“Belinda? Here? You invited her to your wedding?”

I was really angry. She had seen me only a week ago and said nothing.

“Not exactly,” she said. “The most amazing thing happened. She was touring in this region and her car broke down right outside the castle. She had no idea who lived here or that I was celebrating my wedding. Wasn’t it an incredible coincidence?”

“Incredible,” I agreed dryly. “So you invited her to stay for the wedding?”

“My dear, I could hardly turn her away, could I? Besides, I knew you’d be thrilled to have her here with us. Belinda was always such fun, wasn’t she, and most of the people here are so horribly stodgy and correct. Ah, there she is, over in that corner.”

I followed Matty’s gaze to the darkest corner of the room. I could make out Belinda’s back in the elegant peacock blue and emerald green dress she had designed herself. She had her head on one side, listening earnestly to another handsome and blond young man. He was smiling down at her with the rapt attention on his face that most men adopted when anywhere near Belinda.

“Who is that with her?” I asked.

“That’s Anton, Nicky’s younger brother. I’m afraid it’s no good her setting her cap at him. He will have to marry royalty and keep the family firm going, like the rest of us.” And she gave a brittle laugh.

The dinner gong sounded.