“So you came down and let him out after dark?” Rollmar suggested with an incredulous smile.
“Yes, Excellency. I could not let him stay there all night.”
“It would have been too bad, certainly. I am waiting to hear, Countess, why it was necessary for the Princess to accompany you on this errand of relief.”
“The Princess was distressed at the idea of the poor fellow being boxed up in the organ.”
“So distressed that she was obliged to kiss him on his release?”
Minna threw up her hands in horror. She was beginning to feel at home in her part now. “Kiss! Excellency, you have been grossly misinformed. Someone has been maligning the Princess to you. It is abominable!”
“It is,” he agreed with a grim smile. “So there was no kiss, eh?”
“Most assuredly not My dear Princess kiss a man like that! You don’t know her, Excellency.”
He gave a shrug and a look which suggested that if he could not read the Princess he was at least able to decipher her maid of honour without trouble. “We shall see, my Countess,” he observed significantly. “And let me tell you at once that you are very foolish if you think to hoodwink me. Now, take care. Do I understand you to suggest that the Princess is engaged in no love affair?”
“A love affair? Perhaps. With the love on one side and that not the Princess’s. And a kiss! It is preposterous. I take upon myself to deny the kiss.”