CHAPTER SEVENThe day of Princess Marianne’s engagement ball dawned brightly, but in the distance, over the snow-capped mountaintops, black thunderclouds swirled and gathered.
The inhabitants of Montdeaves glanced out of their windows early that morning and knew that by evening they would be experiencing one of the great summer storms that often lashed their pleasant mountain home at this time of the year.
Housewives decided not to hang their washing out to dry and farmers made certain that vulnerable animals were safely undercover.
There was nothing anyone could do to protect the crops in the fields, except pray that most of the heavy rains would fall in the mountains and so only the river meadows would be flooded as the water gushed down into the deep valley.
At the Palace of Montdeav
