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laughed. ‘You’re a cool one,’ he said.
    ‘Tell me, brother, is it not the Brunswick-Lüneberg estates I am marrying? Should you give your consent to my marrying one of your subjects?’
    ‘Assuredly not.’
    ‘Well then, I shall have all that was promised me – the only difference is that they will be handed me by a younger brother. A good establishment is all I care about and if it can be secured through the younger brother, I am indifferent to the change of man.’
    ‘You’re a wise woman, Sophia, and I’m glad. You can’t afford to be aught else at your age. Mind you, I think you’ll get on better with the younger brother.’
    ‘And why so?’
    ‘He seemed to me more amenable. You’ll make him dance to your tune, Sophia. I doubt whether you would have been able to have done the same with the other.’
    ‘Then there is nothing in the way of going ahead with the marriage?’
    ‘Nothing at all. I will write this day to Ernest Augustus and tell him that you will be delighted to take him to be your husband. I see no reason for delay, sister. You can begin making your preparations at once.’
    He looked after his sister as she left the room.
    Cold, he thought. Ambitious. But she would make a good wife for this Ernest Augustus. She was reasonable too, which saved a great deal of trouble.
    Sophia dismissed her servants and sat down by her mirror studying her reflection.
    So I do not attract him! she thought. He took a look at me, weakly agreed to have me, and then went away and changed his mind.
    Good God! How repulsive he must find me since he is ready to throw away a large portion of his estates and his chances of ever having legitimate children – all to be rid of me.
    She was not as cold as they believed her to be but as romantic as any young woman might expect to be. Before the smallpox she had not been uncomely – perhaps if he had seen her then …
    But he had, when they were children, and he had danced with her and played the guitar to her and she had, in the manner of the very young, conceived a romantic fancy for him. When she had heard she was to marry him, she had been exultant; she had changed, become more feminine, dreamed of the future. And when she had seen him, although he had been cool to her and made no pretence that he was in love with her, she had continued to dream.
    But he would not have her. Moreover, he was ready to pay a great price to discard her.
    Very few women could have been so insulted. She should be grateful that the engagement had not been made public – but it would be known, of course, throughout all the German principalities and throughout Europe. Cousin Charles would hear … in Breda or wherever he was … roaming about the Continent, waiting for a chance to get his kingdom back. And he would commiserate with George William; he would say: ‘I understand the fellow’s reluctance. She was offered to me, you know.’
    She would never forget how George William had insulted her.
    But by good fortune there was Ernest Augustus and as nothing helpful could come of brooding on her disappointment, she must take what she could get.
    Ernest Augustus! He had come to Heidelberg with his brother when they were boys. He was not unpleasant; he had some charm; it was merely that George William eclipsed him. Ernest Augustus had been interested in her, at that time; he would have willingly been very friendly indeed. But she had looked on him as a younger brother with few prospects and had no intention of allowing her name to be coupled with his, a matter which might work to her detriment if other suitors were being considered.
    That was when she was young, of course, before her complexion had been spoilt, when her mother still hoped that she would capture the Prince of Wales.
    And now he was to be her husband. He was not unlike his brother. When one did not see them together, he would appear very like him. In any case she had to make the best of him. Shecould endure no more delay. She