She glances at Philip. ‘But I liked your present best.’

‘I’m glad you did. I wasn’t in a position to send you fabulous jewels, I’m afraid, but I wanted you to know I was thinking of you.’

‘That’s why I liked it.’

‘The tour has changed you,’ Philip says after a moment. ‘In a good way,’ he adds when Elizabeth looks uncertain. ‘You seem … more sure of yourself.’

‘I think it made me realise that I could do the job,’ she says slowly. ‘A lot of the job is doing the same things and saying the same things over and over again. It’s not always exciting,’ she goes on in a dry voice. ‘But I watched my parents. I saw how they dealt with everyone, and I saw what it meant to the people who came to see us, too. It didn’t matter if they were at a ball or had ridden a horse fifty miles to wave as The White Train went by. It was … humbling.’

‘I listened to the broadcast on your birthday,’ Philip tells her. ‘You did well, Elizabeth.’

‘Thank you.’ Her face relaxes into a smile. ‘I’m glad you were listening.’

‘Me and two hundred and fifty million others, they say! It was a powerful speech. It made me feel hopeful.’

She turns to him eagerly. ‘Exactly. That’s what I thought. That’s what I wanted to say. It feels as if we’ve all been marking time since the war, and now we should start looking forwards.

‘And us?’ Philip stops and looks down at her. ‘Can we look forward?’

‘We can now that Papa has finally said yes to an announcement. When will it be?’

‘He didn’t say. There’s still a bit of him that doesn’t want you to marry at all. I hope the announcement is soon, though. I don’t see why it shouldn’t be immediately. I’m British now,’ Philip says. ‘I’ve renounced my Greek rights of succession, and now I’m just plain Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten.’

‘Mountbatten? Uncle Dickie must be pleased,’ Elizabeth says, her expression neutral, and Philip isn’t sure whether the comment is pointed or not.

‘Well, it was that or Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg,’ he says. ‘It seemed a bit of a mouthful and not the handiest of names to have in a British passport.’

‘I can see that.’

‘Someone suggested anglicizing Oldenburg, which is where my family originated, but that made Oldcastle and the feeling was that was rather plebeian. Honestly, when it was suggested that I use my mother’s name, I couldn’t think of anything better, so Mountbatten it is.’

‘But …?’ Elizabeth prompts.

‘But nothing,’ Philip lies, but her steady eyes on him make him continue. ‘It’s just … I owe the Mountbattens so much, but it feels as if my father has been written out of my story somehow.’

‘Couldn’t you have kept his title?’

‘I could but I want to be seen as British. While you were away, they published an opinion poll asking the public whether they think you should marry a foreign prince or not. Nobody showed it to me but I can read. Forty per cent of people don’t want you to have anything to do with a foreigner.’