She realised that their marriage had been an arranged one and that it had been greatly to Aldross’s advantage for the Grand Duke to marry into the British Royal Family, for it meant that they could call on a certain amount of British friendship and support should the necessity arise.
The Grand Duchess, very English in appearance, very stiff and shy and, as Zita thought when she grew older, cold and unemotional, was very different from the warm, extroverted, fun-loving people of Aldross.
They laughed because they were happy and they sang while they worked.
When it was dusk, the voices of the labourers going back to their cottages from the fields would ring out like bells and seem somehow to rise towards the snow-capped mountains as if carried on wings.
It was only this year, when she wa
