family heir. Collette Preminger Nadja's mother, whose pink gown and diary were sent to Nadja around her 13th birthday. Collette is the eldest daughter of the rich Austrian nobleman Duke Preminger. She eloped with Raymond, a French musician and her piano teacher, when her father fired him after learning they were involved. They lived in poverty but happily in Paris until Raymond died in an accident. Both Nadja and Collette were very ill at the time. The Duke's retainers gave Nadja to the orphanage and told Collette that she had died. The grief-stricken Collette was easily convinced to return home where she has lived a quiet life in the company of her father, second husband (her old friend, Count Waltmüller, a good man who takes care of her very well) and younger brother Herman. Collette is remarkably similar to Nadja: trusting, good-hearted, stubborn when she wants to be, and slightly klutzy at times. They cross paths several times not knowing that they're mother and daughter until almost the end. Herman Preminger Nadja's uncle and son of Duke Preminger, who openly scorned his son after he failed to meet his expectations and almost impoverished the clan with his poor financial decisions. As a result, Herman became a cynical, scheming, money- and power-hungry man who only wants to disprove Nadja's worth as the possible future heiress of the Premingers. He first sends the private detectives Rosso and Bianco to steal Nadja's brooch, and later hires Rosemary to pose as Nadja - a move he would later regret, as Rosemary proves to be less tractable than he thought and whenever he threatens to expose her as a fraud she reminds him he cannot do it without getting himself into bigger trouble for being responsible for this hoax. Near the end of the series, it's revealed that, as a result of being forced to train in order to one day succeed his father, Herman never had a chance to make friends during his whole childhood and that he resents Nadja because she was chosen over him despite having a happy childhood. Eventually, Rosso and Bianco start taking advantage of Herman, forcing him to buy stuff for them as he cannot let his father find out about them. As a revenge, when they lock Nadja in Herman's mansion catacombs, Herman locks them in with her. Rosso and Bianco betray Herman and let Nadja escape so