The Secret Princess. Jessica Hart

at all. We’re small, but we have a very high opinion of ourselves!’

      The corner of his mouth lifted. ‘I see. Does everyone in Montluce speak such good English, or is it just you? I wouldn’t have guessed if I hadn’t heard you singing.’

      ‘I was sent away to school in England after my mother died,’ she told him. ‘You soon pick up the language when you have to.’

      ‘Must have been tough to lose your mother and be sent to a strange country at the same time,’ said Corran.

      ‘It wasn’t the best time of my life,’ Lotty allowed, ‘but I just had to get on with it.’

      She had begged her father to let her stay with him in Montluce, but it was her grandmother who had dealt with all the practicalities of life after her mother’s death. Lotty needed to speak English, the Dowager Blanche had decreed, and it would do her good to have a change of scene. The child was much too nervous as it was. She couldn’t be allowed to mope around Montluce. Yes, her mother’s death was sad, but Lotty had to learn to deal with whatever life handed her. There were to be no tears, no complaints. She was a princess.