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When the colonel protested, Hilda told him he was acting like a silly schoolboy; that she had helped the nuns nurse soldiers for years. She went off to put the kettle on. After enlisting the help of Darcy’s valet, Hilda goaded Richard into Darcy’s cabin, where he was laid out on the sofa and covered up for propriety’s sake by Mr Finn. Hilda returned with a steaming brass can containing a poultice she had made from rye bread, which she promptly laid on Richard’s bare backside. Never having been subjected to this mode of treatment before in such a sensitive area, Richard shouted a most ungentlemanly word, upon which Hilda roundly chastised him for being a baby. Darcy listened to this interchange with amusement. When the poultice was finally removed a quarter of an hour later, Hilda proudly showed him the success of her ministrations, which Richard declared to be truly revolting. Two more applications had Hilda satisfied she had nipped a nasty infection in the bud. Listening to Richard’s protests during his treatment and the princess’s placid but determined rejoinders brought the only smiles to Darcy’s lips on their trip up the Danube.

Following their arrival at Ulm, they had to transfer to a coach for the journey back to Stuttgart. As expected, this proved to be the leg that most tested Darcy’s fortitude. When Mr Trevor departed to procure transport, the princess expressed a wish to pray. Richard offered his escort to the church with the gigantic spire. Much to his bemusement, this turned out to be neither catholic nor a cathedral. Not being much of a churchgoer and definitely not a Lutheran, Richard hesitated in the narthex, but the princess drew him inside and he dutifully kneeled beside her as she prayed. While pretending to admire the impressive organ and stained-glass window, he surreptitiously watched the princess’s face through her veil as she whispered her prayer.

Afterwards, she lit a candle for Darcy before they walked back to the dock past the Krone Inn, where Hilda had stayed with her father on many occasions.

When Mr Trevor went off to hire transport, his intention had been to find a large coach and have planks cut so that Darcy could lie diagonally across the interior. Instead, he arrived back at the Baden with a military ambulance, a light chaise and a fourgon. Soon the luggage was loaded, and Darcy’s stretcher was carried out by the crew. Mr Trevor opted to ride in the ambulance to help Finn, although this turned out to be very uncomfortable for both men. With no proper seating, they were forced to sit directly on the floor beside Darcy’s palette. Richard handed Hilda into the chaise, which they shared only with Hilda’s maid. Despite the camaraderie that had developed between them on the Baden, Richard suddenly felt awkward about travelling alone with his brother’s betrothed, without really understanding why. However, he was soon able to distract himself in viewing the passing countryside when they set off for Stuttgart. Hilda glanced at him occasionally, wondering if she had managed to offend him somehow or if Richard’s sudden reticence could be attributed to worry for his cousin.

Snow had fallen on the previous two days, but it was not deep. By following the ruts of the other traffic, they were able to cover the ground with little stress to the horses. Because of the difficulty of moving Darcy, they did not stop at posting inns, only taking what food and drink was offered to them at their carriages.

By the time they arrived at Stuttgart, everyone was tired and dispirited. They repaired to the Schlossplatz where Mr Trevor feared they might be turned away from the inn where Caroline had terrorised the staff. The innkeeper recognised him and assured him they were most welcome. The Bingleys had stayed there briefly again on their return journey. Their custom and that of their friends was his pleasure, their host assured Mr Trevor with a smile. He just charged a little more for guests who broke china.

Darcy was so pale and haggard looking when they transferred him to his hotel room that Mr Trevor quietly asked Mr Finn if he should fetch the local physician. Overhearing this conversation, Darcy assured them he was just exhausted. Worried for his cousin, Richard insisted on taking one end of the stretcher and sat beside Darcy’s bed after he was dosed with laudanum until his cousin fell asleep. Afterwards he repaired to the hotel’s salon to have a stiff drink. After ordering some whisky upon encountering their host on the stairs, he was dismayed to find the princess drinking sherry alone in the salon and would have taken his glass off to his room.

“Stay, Colonel!” begged the princess. “You Englishmen are so strange! Always wanting to drink only in male company!”

“We do not like to offend ladies’ sensibilities,” said Richard, sitting down to stare into the fire rather than look into Hilda’s cool grey eyes.

The princess expressed her deep regret to the colonel that his cousin’s life had been irrevocably altered by his trip to Vienna, for which she felt culpable. When her uncle had departed for Russia, she explained, she had wanted to travel to England with a courier, but Uncle Friedrich would not contemplate her making the journey accompanied only by servants.

Richard dismissed her guilt as nonsense before admitting his own regret in not making the journey to meet her himself.

“Father asked me to come to Vienna, but it was difficult to get leave. I’m not doing anything but drills these days, but my major-general takes frivolous applications for leave very ill—someone has to be dying in the family. I never imagined anything bad would happen to Darcy coming over here. I know plenty of fellows who have taken the grand tour since Napoleon abdicated.”

Richard stirred the fire before continuing. “Darcy’s so smart, he makes me feel like a regular lobcock! But he’s never been outside England. In that sense, he’s not much better than a green boy. I shall never forgive myself.”

“I guess we will have to just share the guilt then,” said the princess sadly.

“I will not give up hope that something can be done to help him regain the use of his legs until the best English physicians have seen him,” replied Richard.

“Well, we shall hope that English physicians can work miracles, but Dr Freud is highly esteemed in Vienna. If he says it will be difficult and require determination, then I believe him.”

Noticing the princess had finished her sherry, Richard downed the rest of his whisky in one gulp before offering to escort her upstairs, saying goodnight in a gruff manner at her door.

It was drizzling dismally in the morning. When Mr Trevor repaired to the docks in search of a boat for their return to Rotterdam, he was dismayed to discover that only trading vessels with one or two rough cabins for passengers were available. The best of these, which was loading a shipment of grain, intended to depart on the morrow. After consultation with the colonel, who was impatient to be on their way, it was decided to book passage on this vessel.

When they arrived at the docks on the following day, they discovered their accommodations left much to be desired. Richard and Darcy were forced to share a single cabin with bunks. The captain gave up his more spacious cabin to the princess and her maid, moving into the other small cabin. Mr Trevor and Mr Finn were left to string up hammocks below decks like common sailors.

The whole party kept to their cabins for the best part of the voyage, mostly because of the weather, choosing only to sit on deck for a short period in the middle of the day. As the ship was too confined to use Darcy’s wheeled chair, they were obliged to carry him to the stern where some bags of meal were arranged to make a couch for his comfort. Transported there on the first day as if he also was a sack of meal by the colonel and Mr Finn, Darcy later protested that he would rather stay inside than be carried about like a baby. Richard assured his cousin that he weighed far more than a baby.

Nonetheless, the next day they did their best to carry Darcy upright, under his shoulders. Richard successfully hauled his cousin to his feet in the cabin. But moving proved difficult because Darcy was taller than both Finn and Mr Trevor by several inches. Together, the three of them managed to move Darcy out of the confines of the cabin but Darcy’s feet dragged, and it was cumbersome for them to coordinate their movements in the narrow gangway. The problem was solved when the princess shooed both the shorter gentlemen away and got under Darcy’s left shoulder herself. Richard was inclined to protest but when he saw how easily they lifted Darcy together, he bit his tongue. He flashed Hilda a tight smile once they set him down onto the bags of meal.

The princess eased the awkwardness of the moment by renewing the topic of Napoleon’s battles. When Darcy joined in with the first real animation he had displayed since they had met in Vienna, Richard was glad to expatiate on his own war stories. A sufficient rapport sprang up between the three of them that the princess began peppering her tales with some blue jokes, and Richard added a few salted anecdotes of his own. While Darcy would have been happy to respond in kind had he been alone with Richard, he could not think it right in the presence of a lady. When it started to drizzle, he used that as an excuse to request a return to his cabin.

Hilda helped Richard support Darcy to his cabin door before relinquishing him to the support of Mr Trevor and his valet. Once Darcy was safely installed back in his bed, and Finn and Mr Trevor had departed to procure some lunch, Darcy asked Richard cautiously what he thought of the princess. Richard threw himself into the only chair in the room and laughed.

“Lord, the picture didn’t lie, but what they couldn’t capture in that! She may be tall, but her proportions are very good and she dresses very elegantly. Robert does not deserve her, of course.”

“What do you think his reaction will be?”

“What can you mean? She’s a gem!”

“I do not think Robert will be happy that she has the advantage of him in height. He always used to rabbit on about how much taller he was than either of us when we were children.”

“Yes, until you caught up with him! Idiot! What did he expect when he was a year older than me and three years older than you?”

“I do not think he will like the forward way she speaks either,” said Darcy quietly.

“Well, she’s no shrinking miss and she swears like a trooper!” agreed Richard. “But I know several ladies of the Ton who could match her.”