“Now I know you are teasing me. The King has hardly noticed me since I came here.”
“That is what you think,” the Marquis said. “But the King is very shy. You don’t know how reserved he has been since he was a child and was incarcerated in a Spanish prison and brutally ill-treated by his jailors.”
“I have heard how miserable he was,” Sheena agreed.
“It has made it impossible for him to express himself, except when he is alone with a few old friends like myself. To women he appears tongue-tied and morose.”
“I think that the King has eyes for only one woman,” Sheena pointed out.
“You mean the Duchesse?” the Marquis enquired. “She is old. Did you not know that she was eighteen years old when the King was born? Though he loved her for many years she has now become a habit. She makes things
