“So this is Victoria!”
The voice sounded unexpectedly high.
The Queen’s eyes were perceptive and searching as Tilda curtseyed as she had been instructed to do, touching the pale soft cheek with her lips, then kissing the blue-veined hand.
“Yes, this is Victoria, ma’am,” Princess Priscilla said a little breathlessly.
“I want to talk to you, Victoria!”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Tilda thought that whenever people said that they wanted to talk to you, it usually meant they were going to scold or tell you something unpleasant, but the Queen continued,
“Your mother will have told you that you are to marry Prince Maximilian of Obernia?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“It is a position of great importance for several reasons.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“The first is because I consider Prince Maximilian worthy of having an Engl
