A Royal Affair

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About the Author

Copyright Page

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TO MY NEPHEW, BENNET,

WHO ILLUSTRATES HIS STORIES SO BEAUTIFULLY,

AND LIVES HIS LIFE EVEN MORE SO.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In addition to sources cited in her previous work, the author gratefully acknowledges books and articles written by Philip Eade, Fiammetta Rocco, Hugo Vickers, Anne de Courcy, André Gerolymatos, Sir Compton Mackenzie, John Sakas, Paul Halpern, and Father Simon Thomas. Questions on smaller points were more than adequately answered by Paul Negus, Stewart Gilles, and Peter Gilbert.

The author takes full responsibility for any errors made. Indeed, she cheerfully embraces them as evidence of her own humanity.

No plinths were harmed in the making of this book.

A Greece truly independent is an absurdity. Greece is Russian or she is English; and since she must not be Russian, it is necessary that she be English.

—EDMUND LYONS, BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO GREECE, 1841

The most important tool for a King of Greece is a suitcase.

—ATTRIBUTED TO GEORGE II, KING OF GREECE, 1922–1924; DEPOSED KING IN EXILE, 1924–1935; KING OF GREECE, 1935–1947 (INCLUDING SECOND EXILE, 1941–1946)

CHAPTER 1

“Men find me intimidating,” boomed Miss Hardiman. “That’s the problem.”

“Surely not,” Sparks protested.

“Oh, it’s been like that ever since I was little,” Miss Hardiman continued, at a volume that made Sparks fear for her eardrums. And the windowpanes. “Not that I was little for long. I was the tallest early on. You have no idea what that’s like.”

“I never have,” Sparks agreed, shrinking back at the onslaught. “But they must have caught up with you eventually.”

“By that time, they had grown up terrified of me,” said Miss Hardiman. “And I had got used to being the Terror of Tiny Town. I liked it, to tell the truth.”

“The truth is what we require here at The Right Sort,” said Sparks.

From our clients, at least, she thought.

“So, you came to London in thirty-nine?” Sparks asked, holding her steno pad in front of her, painfully aware of its inadequacy as a shield.

“Right. Perfect timing. Things went potty right after I showed up.”

“Not cause and effect, of course.”

“Oh, dear! You are a caution, and that’s no lie! No, I showed up in July, two months of dashing about, looking for work, then came the war. I joined up right away, of course.”