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visit old friends,’ said Playfair, ‘celebrating the freedom you and your husband have brought to lucky Lissenberg.’
    â€˜And to enjoy the hunting, if it is permitted,’ chimed in Lodge.
    â€˜Permitted?’ Martha looked him up and down. ‘An odd word, in our free country, surely? But it’s true, you will find things changed here, gentlemen. You will be free to hunt, just as all the Lissenbergers now are. It was one of my husband’s first reforms, to throw the forests open to the people.’
    â€˜With rather drastic effects on the supply of game, unless we were gravely misinformed,’ said Playfair. ‘When my friend spoke of permission, highness, he had in mind the area around Gustavsberg, where, we understand, the game is still preserved.’
    â€˜I see.’ What a fool they must think her. ‘Yes, my husband has reserved the hunting round Gustavsberg for his father and his little court. You will have to apply to Prince Gustav for leave to hunt there.’
    â€˜But we have your permission to do so?’ asked Lodge.
    â€˜Of course.’ It was what Franz would have said.

Chapter 3
    â€˜I never thought of those two young men as passionate huntsmen,’ said Tafur to Martha over a late breakfast next morning.
    â€˜I’m quite sure they are not.’ They were eating alone in her comfortable, chintz-hung private parlour. ‘It’s an excuse, to see Prince Gustav. I wish Franz would get home. Cristabel brought a letter for him from his brother, and I am beginning to wonder if I ought not to have opened it.’
    â€˜Prince Max is in Vienna still? And Lodge and Playfair have acted as Austrian trouble-stirrers before now.’
    â€˜You think that too?’
    â€˜I know it, my dear. I’ve had it in mind to apologise to you for introducing them as your cicisbeos, back in Venice. That was before I knew, you understand. But we soon began to suspect that they were in Venice to infiltrate the revolutionary movement there, destroy it from within.’
    â€˜Just what they tried to do here in Lissenberg. And then they turned up, bold as brass, as Austrian representatives at the anniversary opera. I happened to notice their faces while Franz was being acclaimed. It was not what they had expected at all. And they left first thing the next day, I remember it well. We said “good riddance”, Franz and I. He won’t be pleased to find them back here.’
    â€˜Trying to get in touch with his father. No. I think maybe you should open Prince Max’s letter, my dear, though I do see that it is awkward for you. But I take it your husband left you with absolute powers?’
    â€˜Of course. He trusts me.’ It was true, but had she managed to keep her voice quite steady?
    â€˜Naturally. And he will see, as you must, that this new alliance of Austria and Russia against Napoleon changes everything. I confess I am surprised that news of it has not brought the prince hurrying home.’
    â€˜New alliance? What new alliance?’
    â€˜You haven’t heard? Signed back in August. There were rumours, when I left Venice, of a campaign to be mounted in the Tyrol, rather near home for us all, but nothing certain. The Austrians were still trying to persuade Prussia to join them against Napoleon, and then, of course, there was the question of British subsidies to be negotiated. But you can see why I was surprised not to find your husband here. If it does come to war, and war in this part of the world, you and he will have some hard decisions to take.’
    â€˜Couldn’t we just sit it out as neutrals?’
    â€˜I doubt it, my dear.’ He smiled and passed her his empty coffee cup. ‘You must know by now that the minerals they mine in Brundt are too important to the cannon-makers.’
    â€˜I hate it!’ Her hand jerked as she poured his coffee, spilling it into the saucer. ‘I can’t tell you how I hate it.