“Ah.” Henni cleared her throat. “It might just be rumours, you know.”
“You yourself said earlier today that it wasn’t.”
“I might have been mistaken. Aw. Don’t look at me with such sad eyes. It makes me want to cry, too.”
“From what you know of Prince Lucifer, would he ever make a promise of marriage to a commoner? A country nobody. A girl with no real connections.”
Henni’s eyes shifted aside.
Pippa nodded. “See. That is all the answer I need. There.” She handed the handkerchief back to her.
“What will you do now?”
Pippa stared at the whitewashed wall across from her bed. “I don’t know,” she whispered after a while. “I really don’t know.”
She had lost Papa.
She had lost Sepp and Lotta.
She had lost her home.
And now, it appeared, she had lost Klemens as well.
Except, she’d never had him, had she? The Klemens she’d thought she’d known had never really existed. It was like mourning someone who’d died, but they’d never even lived.
“I don’t think I want to stay here,” she found herself saying. “I don’t like this city. I don’t like the palace. And I certainly don’t like this job.”
“But what will you do instead? Where will you go?”
She had no place to go.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “I am so confused.”
“I know what you should do.” Henni straightened the blanket as she spoke. “Not jump to any conclusions and not act rashly. Just think it through logically. You are normally so good at it, yes? You just have to be very practical. There are several possibilities. One, the most likely, is that it is all coincidence, and the Archduke has an uncanny resemblance to your Klemens. Two, your Klemens has dressed up as the Archduke and joined the imperial parade. In which case you have to discover why he would do such a harebrained thing.” She sat upsuddenly as a new thought occurred to her. “Maybe he is a spy?”
That elicited an involuntary giggle from Pippa.
“Or three, he really is the Archduke. Which of the three is it likely to be?”
Henni was right. She had neglected to use her ability which she was normally so proud of: logic and deductive reasoning. Pippa nodded slowly. “I can follow your reasoning. According to Aristotle, one sets a premise that one tests. One has to analyse all three premises before one can draw a conclusion. The conclusion being that I need to investigate this further.”
Henni clapped her hands together. “Exactly! You cannot come to any reasonable conclusion unless you have actually talked to the man.” She bounced eagerly on her bed. “Talk to Prince Lucifer personally!”
Pippa looked at Henni miserably. “You do not know how terrifying that prospect is.”
They rose early next morning,washed their faces in ice-cold water, and ate a quick breakfast consisting of weak coffee and hard, black bread. Then, after they were done, Henni said, “They will still be asleep so you must be as quick and as quiet as a church mouse.” “His personal servant will leave the pot in the antechamber. Slip in quietly. Normally I merely retrieve the pot and leave again. But you must take the tapestry door that leads to his bedroom. There is a moment when his valet leaves his bedroom to fetch his clothes from the wardrobe. It usually takes him a while because he has tobrush the coat and shine the boots, before he returns. This is when you enter the bedroom.”
Pippa groaned. “In other words, I have to catch Prince Lucifer when he is still asleep in his bed. I shall court drama, chaos and disaster.” She steeled herself. “But very well. I shall do this. I must do this. Heaven help me.”
Henni pressed her hand. “Good luck.”
The footman who was waiting in front of the chambers recognised her. He looked pale and there were dark shadows under his eyes. “You cannot enter now. His Highness and his guests are still within.”
Pippa moistened her lips. “He had another of his revels?”
“They’re still sleeping off their excesses.” He looked left and right, then bent forward and whispered, “This was the worst ever. I’ve never experienced anything like it. The Tsar was so drunk, I had to carry him back to his chambers with the help of two others. You have no idea how heavy the man is. I just returned, but the other guests haven’t left yet.”
Pippa glanced nervously at the door. “What should I do? I was sent to clean up the mess.”
