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was the Equerry. He, at least, seemed friendly.
    Unless somebody prevented her from having lessons with him, she would be able to ask him everything she wanted to know.
    The Captain’s cabin had been put at Sophie’s disposal and it was where they dined that evening.
    The English Channel through which the ship was now moving was, Titania thought, as smooth as the proverbial duck pond. However, the Duchess said she preferred to eat in her own cabin and Sophie was already in bed.
    The dinner party therefore consisted of the Captain, the Minister of State, who Titania found was a rather charming man, the Equerry and the two Ladies-in-Waiting.
    They both spoke very little English, but were quite fluent in French, which made it easy for Titania to converse with them.
    The Captain and the other two male passengers had a great deal to say to each other and they were talking about the role British Battleships played in the Mediterranean and whether it was still important, as it had been some years earlier, for them to patrol the Aegean Sea.
    Titania knew that when the Russians were infiltrating the Balkans and threatening Constantinople, Queen Victoria had sent five Battleships into the Straits and the Grand Duke Nicholas had been forced to move his forces back, losing a great number of Russians on the way.
    In addition the reverse had cost the Russians a great deal of money which they could ill afford at the time and was the main reason why they dared not provoke Great Britain into war.
    Because Titania was a woman, the three men did not draw her into their conversation, but she listened carefully to what they were saying and found it all extremely interesting.
    Her father and mother had always talked intelligently to her as they were both wrapped up in the political situation of the different European countries and other places in the world they themselves had visited.
    Titania had found the conversation at Starbrooke Hall very dull and uninteresting.
    The Duke, who spoke very little, would occasionally complain about the farmers and workers on his estate as well as deprecating the lack of game birds as being the fault of the gamekeepers, but at least he did approve of the number of his horses in foal.
    The Duchess, unless the servants were in the room, was continually moaning about the staff. She found the younger members frivolous and careless and those who had been at the Hall for many years she said were growing lazy.
    Titania was not expected to join in with this sort of conversation nor did she want to. She merely thought miserably of the interesting discussions there had been at home between her parents, who had invariably let her join in and express her opinions.
    There was always some new book just published, which her father found enthralling and he received many letters from his friends in Egypt, India and Japan.
    Invariably he had an anecdote or story about the country concerned which made Titania and her mother laugh.
    â€˜I wish Papa was with me now,’ mused Titania. ‘It would be so helpful if he had been to Velidos and could have told me all about the country.’
    When dinner was finished she went up on deck. It was twilight and the stars were just coming out and a new moon was creeping up the sky.
    She was leaning over the rail when the Equerry joined her.
    â€œWhat are you thinking about, Miss Brooke?” he asked.
    She had learnt over dinner that his name was Darius.
    â€œI was thinking it is fascinating to be at sea again, but I wish I was going to a country I knew something about.”
    â€œWhat do you want to know about Velidos?” Darius enquired.
    â€œEverything you can tell me,” replied Titania eagerly. “Its history, its people and of course its King. I know very little about him.”
    â€œI find him a most interesting man,” said Darius slowly as if he was choosing his words carefully. “But at the same time he is very little known to the people of