“Then it is certainly an experience you should repeat,” the Duchess replied, “because Talbot comes to me every year for the salmon fishing.”
Sacha was pleased to know that she had been right in guessing that this was the reason for the Duke’s visit.
The Duchess led her from the room and down a long corridor where the floor was covered with tartan instead of ordinary carpet to a bedroom that was on the same floor as the drawing room.
It had, besides a large four-poster bed, an open fireplace where to her surprise there was a log of wood smouldering.
Sacha saw the Duchess looking at it and then she explained,
“Everybody who comes as far North as this is afraid of feeling cold, so I ordered a fire to be lit in your bedroom, my dear.”
“That is very kind of you,” Sacha exclaimed, “and wha
