‘My lady!’ he said, stopping short. ‘My lady princess... child... what is it?... What has happened here?’
She did not answer, but her distress was palpable.
His resolution hardened. The Queen was the key to it all. He must find her.
In the first audience chamber he found the bronze tripods that usually held the lamps overturned, furniture on its side, screens broken, but the personal rooms of the Queen beyond seemed to be untouched. The scene in her favourite day room took his breath away.
Everything was in order. Everything was apparently as it had always been. It was as though nothing had happened.
The Queen was seated on a couch with her back to him, gazing out to the distant sea. Her ladies were moving about the room doing what they always did, folding robes to be placed in the la
