Milan, 30 October 1816, 7:30 p.m.
Palazzo Clerici
Irina met with her chief butlers Imre and Elspeth, a married couple of Magyars who’d been at the service of Count Laszlo Esterházy since their childhood.
A red-haired woman with a plump, freckled face, Elspeth was dumbfounded by the sight of her mistress in evening dress.
‘Am I really so ugly? Should I change?’ asked Irina.
A tall man with an aquiline face and limpid hair, Emre answered first:
‘Milady, you are a splendour’.
‘How so very kind of you, Imre, but I’d like the opinion of your wife. Be honest with me as always, I pray’.
‘I don’t know what else to say apart from that you’re a charm. I’ve never seen anything of the sort until now,’ noted the woman.
‘You can thank my friend Marie Claire of Paris for that; she cr
