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Adelheid made a small, broken sound. "I feared she would bring ruin upon us. She said she would tell you. I kept her from your room and called the physician. I believed that if I could get her away for a little while, she might recover and forget what grief had made her imagine. Vogel was to arrange it. When he said a journey could appear accidental, I agreed."

"You knew she might die."

"Yes."

"You intended that she should."

Adelheid covered her face. When she lowered her hands, she answered in a voice barely audible. "I told myself it was necessary."

Albrecht did not speak for some time. The room's clock marked the seconds with absurd steadiness. Somewhere beyond the closed door, a footman crossed the corridor, unaware that the foundations of a family were being destroyed on the other side.

At last Albrecht asked about Elizabeth.

"You knew Minna's daughter was alive. You came to England with me. You kissed her, brought her gifts, spoke of welcoming her into our family. Did you order that second accident?"

Adelheid looked at him and saw the answer already forming in his eyes.

"I did not know what Minna had told her," she said. "Your niece remembered a terrace. She spoke of nightmares. She might have possessed letters or recollections that would have led back to me. I could not permit everything to be taken from our children after so many years."

"Everything?" Albrecht repeated. "You mean the title and the estates. You would have sacrificed Minna's only daughter for them?"

"I had sacrificed too much already to let it be in vain."

He recoiled as though she had struck him. "You speak of my brother and sister as expenses you must recover."

"You do not know what it was to live every day expecting the past to rise against me."

"I know what it was to live every day believing my brother dead by misfortune and my sister dead by accident. And I know what it is to discover that the woman who consoled me made both sorrows happen."

Adelheid reached for him. He stepped back.

"Albrecht, I have loved you. Everything else was madness, but my love for you was real."

He looked at her with an expression she could not bear to see. "I believe you loved me. That is what makes the rest so monstrous. Love ought to have taught you that I would never have wished to purchase a prince's title with my brother's life."

She began to weep, but he did not move toward her. His own eyes were wet.

"I held Minna's shawl while I mourned her," he said. "You brought it to me. You told me the river had taken her. Did you watch me weep and never think to tell me she might be alive?"

"I believed she was dead."

"When you learned she was not, you tried to kill her daughter. How could you?"

Adelheid had no answer that was not an excuse. She sat down and folded her hands in her lap, suddenly looking far older than she had upon entering.

Mr. Harcourt spoke quietly in English. "Your Highness, you should understand that what has been said may carry grave legal consequences. This has been a private conversation, not an examination before a magistrate. You are not obliged to say anything further in my presence, and you ought to have counsel who represents you alone."

Adelheid looked from him to Albrecht. She understood enough English to grasp his meaning and requested her own counsel. Lord Matlock ended the meeting. Mr. Harcourt secured the notes he had taken of the German exchange, preparing afterwards an English memorandum that identified what he had heard directly and what other witnesses could confirm. Neither the notes nor their translation were presented as a sworn confession or a judgment; their use, if any, would be considered by the proper authorities.

Albrecht remained by the window after the others withdrew. He did not ask Adelheid to stay. When she reached the door, she turned once.

"What shall become of our children?"

He answered without looking at her. "They are innocent. I shall do everything within my power to protect them from the consequences you have brought upon us. But I will not purchase their peace by hiding another crime."

The door closed softly.

In the corridor Richard was waiting, though he had not been admitted to the meeting. He had promised his father he would not interfere. One look at Albrecht's face when the prince emerged ended any thought of a question.