“I am certainly very thirsty!” Tarena exclaimed. “I would also like to wash my hands after having had them shaken by so many rather dirty ones.”
The Lord Chamberlain stared at her.
“Dirty hands! How could you have encountered those, Your Royal Highness?”
There was a twinkle in the Count’s eyes as he said,
“Her Royal Highness insisted on meeting all the people on the quayside who were there to welcome her. She must have spoken to at least two or three hundred of them and shaken them by the hand.”
“Spoken to them,” the Lord Chamberlain repeated as if he had not understood what the Count was saying.
“Unless I am very much mistaken, the City will be talking of nothing else tonight. In fact I think, my Lord, you should be prepared for a great number of visitors in the next hour or so who
