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‘Thank you!’ The Prince almost looked as if he had tears in his eyes. ‘You don’t know what this means to me, Herr Ambrose, coming from a man like you. I truly hope that once the bustle of the wedding is over, you will come visit me and my bride at Buckingham Palace?’
‘I should like nothing better.’
‘Attention, please!’ All eyes went to the herald again. ‘I have just received word that Her Majesty is approaching. Would everyone return to their places, please?’
Mr Ambrose squeezed the Prince’s hand one more time, then let go and, still smiling as if he had lockjaw, steered me away. He had to steer me because I was too busy staring suspiciously at the grin on his face to think of moving my feet.
‘What is this?’ I demanded in a low voice. ‘What’s wrong with your face?’
‘Miss Linton?’
‘Yes?’
‘Shut up!’
‘I won’t shut up! I want to know what… Hey!’
Ignoring my protest, Mr Ambrose manoeuvred me into a corner and only stopped when we were firmly situated at the left end of the front row of guests.
‘What is the matter with you?’ I pressed. ‘Three thousand pounds sterling? You gave three thousand pounds sterling to an orphanage? Did someone knock you over the head with an iron bar?’
He turned that radiant smile on me - that smile that sent a shiver of danger down my spine.
‘Is it so unbelievable that I would do a generous deed out of the goodness of my heart?’
I eyed him for a moment. ‘Frankly - yes!’
‘I see you’ve come to know me well, Mr. Linton.’
‘I have, unfortunately. And that’s Miss Linton to you, Mr Ambrose, Sir.’
‘Miss. As you wish.’
‘Why did you give away three thousand pounds?’
‘You cannot catch fish without bait on the hook, Miss Linton.’
I didn’t really know what he meant by that. But I would have eaten a pot full of pus before admitting that to him.
‘Three thousand pounds is a pretty big bait.’
That smile flashed again, and this time I saw what I hadn’t seen the first time he had pulled this trick on me: the underlying ice behind the smile, and the calculating coldness in his eyes.
‘Oh, the three thousand pounds aren’t the bait, Miss Linton.’ Half-turning, Mr Ambrose nodded towards Prince Albert. ‘He is.’
My eyebrows shot up. ‘Then you have to be catching a fish with pretty strange tastes!’
‘Indeed. There she is.’
I followed the stiff nod of his head just in time to see a figure in white appear at the door. My eyes shot back to Mr Ambrose. He couldn’t be serious! Could he?
Mr Ambrose saw me looking and gave me the tiniest of nods.
Yes. He could.
My eyes went back to the door, just as the herald pounded his staff onto the floor. ‘Her Majesty Alexandrina Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland!’
The Queen smiled shyly and nodded at the assembled crowed, who all bowed deeply. With her pale, moon-shaped face and too small mouth, she wasn’t really much better-looking than her husband-to-be. But when her eyes met Albert’s, a smile lit up her face, a real, live smile, and an answering smile spread over the Prince’s features. Suddenly, he didn’t look quite so silly anymore.
