"You took too long," said Duke Kurt, as he came face to face with 'Purple Mask' at the meeting point.
With the Duke, there was a huge Moor with a scimitar around his waist and a strange turban, and a masked female figure that Alexa supposed to be Lady Duvignes.
"The message has only just arrived," said the Second Prince. "But we're not at a social meeting. Where is Father Gianpietro and what will we possibly face?"
Ironically, while trying to sound like a noble and assertive prince, the frightened princess was imitating the men in her family and was aware of it.
"It's possible that we face the same dangers that your wife has recently narrated, and others that you have seen yourself. In fact, I hoped she had come, given her fame," said the Duke, looking again at the men with the Prince, and showing his disappointment.
Alexander snorted,
