“I’m sorry,” said Mrs. Bainbridge.

“It’s the risk one takes in joining the navy,” said Buchanan-Wollaston. “I should have been out there this time, too. They didn’t want me. Did what I could with training and bureaucracy and all that, but it’s a younger man’s navy now.”

“Well, this has been fascinating,” said Mrs. Bainbridge as she and Sparks rose to their feet. “We shall be in touch…”

“But you haven’t heard about the Battle of the Falklands. I was the exec on the Cornwall. Captain was Walter Ellerton, good man, but without much imagination. Now, we were chasing the Jerries south along with the Kent and the Glasgow…”

Slowly, Mrs. Bainbridge sank back into her seat. Sparks gave her a rueful smile, then turned her gaze towards the handsome young cadets in the distance.

“It was a good story,” admitted Gwen as they walked back to the station. “I never knew how complicated the mathematics were in launching shells from one moving ship to another. It almost made me want to learn to use a slide rule. Thankfully, that feeling has passed.”

“If he told us how he was mentioned in the dispatches one more time, I was going to dispatch him,” said Iris. “But we are getting somewhere. There was something left behind in Corfu, and that upset Princess Alice.”

“And our Mr. Talbot knew about it,” added Gwen. “Do you know if she ever went back to Mon Repos?”

“Nothing in my research so far says she did,” said Iris. “She was in Athens when Greece was occupied.”

“I wonder if Talbot went back on her behalf.”

“I wonder why he would. What could be so important that a British Intelligence operative would turn errand boy for an impoverished princess?”

“She inspired chivalry in his buttoned-down soul,” proposed Gwen. “We know what a gallant he must have been, coming to the rescue of that French war widow. How could he resist the plight of a beautiful, distraught mother with an uncaring husband?”

“If he did go back,” said Iris.

“You know, I feel badly about giving the admiral false hope about preening before a group of upper-class biddies for an afternoon. Perhaps I should start a ladies club just for the occasion.”

“Think your mother-in-law will join?”

“No. Oh well. We should at least send him copies of those photos that you took.”

“What a nice idea,” said Iris. “Too bad there wasn’t any film in the camera.”

CHAPTER 6

“Two lady’s maids,” said Gwen on the return train. “One nanny, one governess, one valet. A small group to take along.”

“You consider that small?” asked Iris.

“For a royal family of that size, yes. They left the butler behind. And the chauffeur.”

“They left the cars and the villa behind, too,” pointed out Iris. “If they could have loaded them on the ship, I’m sure they would have.”

“So they only took who they needed,” said Gwen. “One lady’s maid for the princess, one to manage all of those girls…”