“Well, of course it is, although you really do need a good hairdresser. I must say I was stunned to find you were here. I would have thought the Princess Royal should have been part of the wedding party, and not you.”

“The bride particularly requested me,” I said. “We were school friends.”

“Ah. Well at last something useful has come out of that school.” She leaned across Max and lowered her voice. “You know, this might be a good opportunity for you. Lots of eligible princes and counts.”

“Too many,” I said, glancing at Siegfried, who was chatting away in German to Max.

“You have to do something with your life, darling. You desperately need a good wardrobe and the only way you’re going to get it is to find yourself a rich man.”

“Some mothers might actually pay for their daughter’s clothes,” I said dryly, “but failing that, I’d like to find a job. It’s just that there don’t seem to be any jobs going for someone like me.”

“Girls of your station are not supposed to find jobs,” she said with distaste, overlooking the first part of what I had just said.

“You had a job for years until you met Daddy,” I reminded her.

“Ah, but I was an actress. I had talent. I see nothing wrong with making use of talents, if you had any.”

I was glad when Matty demanded my attention and regaled those around us with tales of our school days, none of which were how I remembered them and all of which put Matty center stage in the escapades. But I smiled and nodded agreement, wishing that the dinner would hurry up and be over. Of course it went on for hours—course after course. The main dish was venison and I was given a leg shank, such a sweet delicate little thing that all I could think of was fawns leaping through the forest. It was cooked very rare and blood rushed onto my plate as I cut into it.

As I pushed it around my plate, pretending to eat it and wondering if I could drop it under the table, I remembered what I had pushed to the back of my mind until now—the figure who had climbed up the castle wall. I wanted to ask Matty about it, but one can hardly say at a royal banquet, “By the way, do you have creepy things that climb up your castle walls?”

Instead I said, “So I hear there are legends of vampires associated with this castle, Your Highness.”

“Vampires?” And she gave a peal of laughter. “Oh, yes, absolutely true. Half our family are vampires, aren’t they, Siegfried?”