The way he spoke told Laetitia that he had no idea of the underlying reason for the King’s visit.
She waited until they had heard about the manoeuvres Kyri’s Regiment had been doing in the mountains, the new apparatus they had for swinging the guns across deep gullies, the peaks they had climbed and the horses he had been riding.
Then, when her mother said she must go to change for dinner and Marie-Henriette went with her, Laetitia was alone with her brother.
“I need a bath,” he said. “I suppose it is possible to have one?”
“Yes, of course,” Laetitia replied. “In fact Gertrude, who expected you would want one, has been heating the water all day.”
Kyril laughed.
“Dear old Gertrude, I knew she would be thinking of me. I will go in the kitchen and give her a kiss.”
Gertrude was the old
