Then the Voivode drew a jewelled knife from his waist and he took the King’s right hand in his and Laetitia’s left.
He made a minute prick on the wrist of each of them, just enough to make a drop of blood appear on their skin.
Then he held their wrists together so that their blood mingled, before he bound them with a silk cord with three knots in it.
He did not speak, but Laetitia knew, because her father had told her, that one knot was for constancy, the second for fertility and the third for a long life.
She thought that, if the King understood that, he might be afraid that he was being tricked into a marriage that would last for longer than the five days which were all that were entailed by the breaking of the vessel.
Then the Voivode said, and his voice seemed to ring out in the s
