in the surrounding countryside. The sound of bloodhounds baying could be heard all through the night, the schoolchildren were told to pray and sing hymns, and people wept openly in the streets.
At first her parents had thought it might be a kidnap attempt, and they waited every moment of every day for a ransom note but none came.
âShe canât possibly have run away,â said her mother. âNot when she had everything a girl could want.â
So had she met with some dreadful accident? Wells and rivers were searched, the lifeguards put out to sea, the Boy Scouts looked in potholes and cavesâbut still day followed day and there was no sign of the princess.
Both her sisters were sent forâSidony came with her husband, who had brought his stamp collection to sort out while they waited, and Angeline came with her husband, who sucked even more peppermints when he was worried. Both the sisters were expecting babies and they sat and knitted baby clothes and shook their heads.
âCould she have run away to a traveling zoo or something?â Sidony wondered. âShe was so nutty about animals.â
But there hadnât been any traveling zoos or circuses in the neighborhood for many months, and their mother always began to cry again when anyone suggested that Mirella had not been entirely happy at home.
After a week the schoolchildren were given a dayâs holiday; the flags flew at half-mast as people began to think that Mirella might be dead; and they could no longer put off giving the terrible news to Prince Umberto.
So Mirellaâs father went to Amora, where he found Prince Umberto in a mauve quilted dressing gown being measured for a new suit by his tailor while a hairdresser rubbed pomade into his hair.
The prince was very upset indeed to hear that his intended bride was missing and perhaps dead.
âOh dear,â he said. âThis is terrible. Quite terrible.â
And indeed it was. Umberto owed money to his tailor and his shoemaker and to the man who trained his racehorses, and he hadnât paid for his new carriage. Up to now he had kept everyone quiet by telling them he was going to marry a princess whose father was very rich and would pay all his debts, and now he didnât know what to do.
âI shall have to order some mourning clothes, I supposeâfortunately black suits meâor is it too early? I mean, there may still be good news.â
But as the days passed there was no news at all. In the war, when someone disappeared, they put out bulletins saying âMissing: Presumed Dead.â
It was these words that the police now wrote in their files.
CHAPTER
9
WHAT OGRES EAT
T he troll bent over the ogre, lying limply on the sofa. His breath was shallow, and when the troll levered up the giantâs huge wrist and felt his pulse, he found that it was far too fast.
âIf you hurry, you can free those poor wretches down in the dungeon,â said Ulf quietly to the others, âand then we can think what to do about the princess. Iâll stay here and if it looks as though heâs coming around Iâll warn you.â
So the others hurried downstairs and across the courtyard to the grating. There were no groping hands this time, but they could hear voices and the same wails as before.
âHullo there,â called Ivo. âWeâve come to help you! Weâre going to set you free. Do you know where the key is for the dungeon?â
A head appearedâit had thinning black hair combed over a bald patch and a drooping black moustache. A second head bobbed up beside itâthat of a woman with a sharp nose and tight, blue-rinsed curls.
âWhat key?â said the man.
âThere isnât a key,â said the woman. âYou can get in if you go down the steps over there to the oak door. Just open it; itâs not locked.â
âYou mean youâre not locked in?â The Hag was completely bewildered. âBut then