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“Yes, still moving on,” Trevor said, with a glance at the clock on the mantle. “While you have
all been gadding about waltzing and taking saunas and joining the revolution, I have spent the last
hour going through the diary of Mrs. Kirby.”
“She kept a diary?” Rayley asked with surprise. “An odd thing for a spy to do, is it not?”
“There’s no such thing as a British spy, remember?” Trevor said. “But unless there’s some sort
of embedded code I have yet to break, the diary appears to be merely the ramblings of an older
woman spending time abroad. What she wore, what she ate, palace gossip, that sort of thing. Only
one line jumped out at me as potentially significant and I don’t know quite what to make of it. The
day before her death she wrote this: Alina said she is immaculate.”
“Who is Alina?” Tom asked.
“Ella’s personal maid,” Trevor said. He pulled the thin blue book from his folder and
consulted the last page again, as if to make sure.
“So Alina is a good maid who keeps things clean,” Tom said. “An odd thing for Mrs. Kirby to
note in her diary, but I scarcely see what it has to do with her death.”
“The ‘she’ is not necessarily Alina,” Rayley said. “The pronoun could refer to another woman.
I’d say most likely the Grand Duchess Ella, considering that both of the women served her.”
“So Ella is immaculate?” Tom asked. “Once again, a pointless statement.”
“She might mean immaculate in the religious sense,” Emma said, setting aside her scarcely
touched tea. “Immaculate is also what they say of a virgin.”
“The Grand Duchess has been married four years and yet remains a virgin…” Rayley said.
“That seems unlikely.”
“But possible,” Emma said. “Not every marriage is consummated, and royal unions are often
more a matter of politics than passion.” They all sat back, each absorbed in their own thoughts.
“Even if it’s true, does it matter?” Tom finally asked. “I mean, as gossip goes, it’s quite
fascinating, but how could an unconsummated marriage have anything to do with two ballet dancers
being killed?”
“I don’t know,” Trevor admitted. “I don’t even know if we’re interpreting the line correctly.
There are no children from the union of Ella and Serge, which I suppose somewhat supports the
theory.”