Chapter ThreeWhen she was dressed, Gretel went downstairs to fetch Zita some steaming black coffee and hot croissants straight from the oven.
“It’s all right,” she said when she brought them to the bedroom. “Nobody’s going to worry about you. They’re all in a fever of excitement getting ready for the King.”
She then showed Zita to the room across the passage, where she could watch the King’s entourage as it came through Valdastien towards Aldross.
The Inn of the Golden Cross had been built, as its Proprietor claimed, exactly on the boundary.
“I am astride two nations,” he would say as he stood at the bar with his hands on his hips, looking like Shakespeare’s Falstaff.
One reason why the inn was patronised by the citizens both of Aldross and of Valdastien was that it was at the foot of
