This story takes our readers back to the year 971 AD, to follow the true (and truly gothic) story of Princess Theophano of Constantinople, who married the Saxon prince Otto. In the previous installment of this series, Theophano and Otto had a brief meeting in the court before heading to the evening's feast.

It was to be the greatest feast ever celebrated in the court of Otto I. The echoing hall which usually slept in gloomy darkness, its rafters wrapped in cobwebs, was now radiant with torchlight and decked with bright pennants. The long tables were laden with roast boar and venison from the forest around the castle, and the king's famous goblet twinkled in the light of many fires.

Theophano

The men had taken their places and were fidgetting; Prince Otto could see that his father was eager to begin eating.

Finally the women entered the hall. Otto could just imagine how his servant Heinrich would describe them in one of his endless songs - he'd say that the ladies-in-waiting were like little stars, and that Otto's mother was like the morning star herself. She was wearing the calm smile she always wore at public events, a smile which did not seem to come from any real joy. And then, dressed in a white gown quite unlike the clothes of Saxon women, came Theophano, beautiful as the sun, rising at dawn at the start of a summer day... Otto smiled at the comparison, for in fact he could see storm clouds in her eyes.

The women nodded to the men and took their places opposite them.

Otto's father helped himself to a plate of wild boar without further ado, but his mother turned to Theophano and began asking frosty questions. She must be used to even more magnificent feasts than this in Constantinople? The people there probably worshipped their princesses as if they were goddesses? And if anyone dared to kill the monarch and try to usurp the throne, surely he would be put to death instantly? She was obviously referring to the rumours about Theophano's past - for many people had been whispering that she was not a true princess at all, but the niece of a charlatan, a brute who had murdered the rightful king.

Theophano knew enough Latin to understand what Queen Adelaide was implying. Otto saw her blush deeply, her skin turning crimson.

Otto (a bit later)

"But tell me, child, what exactly would be the punishment for a man who dared to commit treason against his king and against God - for a man who tried to take the throne by force and pretend that his bastard children were royalty?" his mother asked, smiling her calm smile.

Otto could bear it no longer. "Mother!" he burst out. "Haven't you talked enough? You haven't eaten a single bite!" Queen Adelaide turned pale, but she laughed lightly.

"See how our children respect us here!" she exclaimed, turning again to Theophano. But Prince Otto had begun to speak to his princess, conquering his shyness. He couldn't bear to think that she should be insulted, that she should turn from him forever and never be able to love him... "Have you heard any of our poetry?" he asked timidly. "We have some excellent singers, who know great epics by heart..." He felt foolish, but to his surprise, Theophano smiled at him. A real smile, filled with hope.