‘“If only I had not lost your mother! If only I had not lost her ring!” he had said to his daughters a thousand times or more as they sat by the small hearth of an evening, warming their weary limbs on the flickering glow of the fire.

‘Time passed and the three daughters blossomed and bloomed like spring flowers. One year, autumn shivered her bones and gave way to a cold, hard winter. Their last surviving cow withered, breathed her last, and the sisters knew they could not continue. As they dug a grave, a man on an elegant white horse came riding past. It was clear from his beautiful clothes and his thoroughbred steed that he was a man of wealth. He looked over the three young women and his eye settled on No One.

‘“You cannot marry a stranger!” Nothing and Nobody told their sister. But the wealthy man promised them money in exchange for her hand, money that would pay for a new cow, new tools and a better strip of land. No One, determined to save her sisters, settled the matter herself and the next day she was gone, swallowed up into the deep woods. She travelled for days through ice and snow before arriving at a huge stone palace where she was to live. Weeks passed until, one day, No One’s husband told her he must go away. He handed her the keys to the entire palace. Dozens of keys for dozens of doors. Bedrooms and store cupboards, kitchens and cellars. But there was one key, a small golden one, he told her she must not use.

‘“You can do anything you wish,” he said. “You can go anywhere you like but there is one thing you must never do and that is to enter my private room. None must cross its threshold bar me and me alone.”

‘And so No One explored the whole palace whilst her husband was away. Every door locked and unlocked a dozen times or more. Every corner of every room explored, every shelf examined. All except one. Her husband’s private chamber. She put her eye to the keyhole, looked through into the darkness. Put her ear to the keyhole, heard only silence. And so it was that curiosity got the better of her.’

‘She opened the door!’ cries one of the children.

‘She did,’ Natalya says, with a smile. ‘But can you guess what lay inside?’ Three little heads shake at her and the youngest starts anxiously sucking her thumb.

‘When No One unlocked the door, she found rows of shelves, empty save for two large glass bottles, and a huge barrel filled with black tar. She looked into the barrel and saw, floating on the top, a golden ring with a familiar green stone.’

‘The Emerald!’ cries the oldest child and Natalya nods.