Even as he spoke there was a knock on the door.
*
It was after eleven o’clock when Zoia and her father sat down in the dining room to a somewhat inadequate meal. They had not thought of eating while there was so much to do for the Duke.
“You met His Grace in St. Petersburg?” Pierre Vallon asked her,
“Yes, he came to visit the Princess when Tania and I were ‒ dancing in the little theatre.”
Pierre Vallon looked at his daughter and they were too close for him not to realise that the way she spoke merely confirmed the impression that he had gained when he had seen her looking at the Duke upstairs.
“You mean something to each other?” he asked her quietly.
“It was – very strange. Papa, but the moment I – met him I knew that he was – different from any man I had ever met before.”
“In wha
