choice but to make my way to the small salon and our dress fitting. A small voice in my head whispered that I was being silly to be afraid of a school friend, but I didn’t know what to believe anymore.
Some of the other bridal attendants were already in the small salon, talking together in German in a tight little group. They glanced up guiltily as I entered and I was sure they had been talking about me. Sure enough Hannelore called out to me, “We were talking of your betrothal to Prince Siegfried. We are not very happy for you. We feel perhaps you may not know the truth about him. You should find out about this Siegfried before you agree to marry him.”
“Thank you,” I said. “I will take your advice.”
She drew me closer to her. “We hear that his interest is not in women, you understand? He will not make you satisfied in the bed.”
What should I say, that I had no intention of marrying him? Her concern was genuine and touching. “Thank you,” I said. “I won’t rush into anything, I promise.”
“And if you think it is nice to be a princess,” Hannelore continued, “it is not so much fun. Always duty, duty, duty.”
The other girls who understood English nodded agreement. At that moment Matty came into the room.
“So are we ready to look divine?” she asked brightly. She had made up her face with bright circles on her cheeks and red lips. The fittings started. Our dresses were almost finished and it was only a case of a final nip and tuck to make sure they hung perfectly. To go over each dress was a floor-length white fur-lined cloak—one of the most heavenly things I had ever seen. When we tried them on we looked like snow queens. My own fitting was finished but I hung around by the fire, waiting for a moment to catch Matty alone. She was certainly acting in a bright and animated way, laughing and giggling with the other girls, making me wonder if perhaps it might be drugs and not being a vampire that accounted for her mood swings.
At last she came over to the fire and held out her hands to warm them.
“It’s freezing in this place, isn’t it?” she said. “Reminds me of school. Remember how cold it used to be in the dormitories?”
“That was usually because Belinda had left the window open to climb out at night and visit her ski instructor,” I said, smiling at the memory. I came to stand beside her and decided to take the plunge. “Matty, you and I need to talk.”
She reeled a little from the amount of garlic on my breath, but she didn’t collapse, run off or melt away as any good vampire should have done in the presence of garlic. “What about? Something is wrong?” The smile faded from her face.
I looked around the salon. Everyone seemed to be occupied. “I know,” I said in a low voice. “I know the truth.”
She looked startled, then she shrugged. “Of course you do. He was silly enough to come into your room by mistake, and I was foolish enough to forget about his picture on your wall. He painted that picture for me, you know. He’s a brilliant artist. He always had talent, even as a small boy.”
As she talked she slipped her arm through mine and steered me away from the other girls and the clatter of sewing machines. At first I hadn’t a clue what she was talking about, but gradually light began to dawn. She’d dropped enough hints that she didn’t love Nicholas, that she’d wanted to stay in Paris. So she’d fallen in love with another man. But the phrase about the small boy was baffling.
“You knew him when he was a boy?”
“Of course,” she said. “He grew up in this castle.”
“In this castle?”
She nodded. “His father works for us. We played together when I came here in the summers. We were always such good friends as children. And then I was sent to Paris and I found he was there too, studying art. This time we fell in love—wonderful, passionate love. Then my father informed me that I must marry Nicholas. I begged him to change his mind, but he wouldn’t listen. A princess always puts duty first, he said. I told him I loved someone else but he forbade me to see him again.” She reached out and covered my hand with her