‘I don’t know if one of the lobsters was off, or if I was just being punished for my greediness, but the next morning I felt sick as a dog. There was no way I could stay in bed: this was the culmination of the whole week and I was expected to wear a morning coat and top hat to the service. The ceremony felt endless and I was so sure I was going to be sick.’

‘Oh, you poor thing,’ Margaret says with an exaggerated grimace.

‘It gets worse,’ Philip warns. ‘I made it through the ceremony, but then we had to get into the cars for a procession back to the palace and … well, that was it. I couldn’t keep it in any longer.’

‘Oh dear,’ says Elizabeth faintly. ‘How did you, er …?’

‘I had my new top hat,’ he confesses with a grin. ‘Probably not intended for the purpose, but it made for a very handy sick-bowl.’

‘Eeeuwww,’ says Margaret.

‘Then, of course, there was the problem of what to do with it,’ Philip goes on. ‘I should have just left it in the car, but I didn’t think of that. When we stopped and got out, I just pushed the hat and contents into the hands of an unfortunate aide-de-camp with an apologetic look and walked into the palace. I still feel bad about it,’ he adds as Margaret starts to giggle.

‘Poor man,’ says Elizabeth, but she is smiling too. She remembers Philip as a boy, with his white-blond hair and boisterous manner. She can imagine him bluffing it out.

The ice has been broken and her shyness fades as Philip chats easily about his experiences in South East Asia. He treats her just as he treats Margaret – if anything, he has more fun with Margaret who shows off outrageously and laughs when he teases her. He seems completely relaxed but there is nothing in his manner to suggest that he is doing anything other than having a casual supper with friends.

Not even friends, Elizabeth thinks despondently. He is treating them almost as if they are his younger sisters or cousins.

‘What are you doing now?’ she asks when Philip pauses.

‘Nothing very interesting.’ He makes a face. ‘I’ve got my first command, but it’s just overseeing the decommissioning of Whelp. After that, it looks as if I’m being sent to naval training,’ he says without enthusiasm.

‘Where will that be?’

‘I’m not sure. Possibly Wales, possibly Corsham.’

‘But you’ll be in the country at least?’

Philip nods. ‘There’s that. And I should be able to get up to London at weekends. Uncle Dickie says I can use the house in Chester Street.’

‘Then perhaps we’ll see you again?’ Elizabeth says, although if she had the choice she would spend her weekends in the country, not in town.

He looks straight at her and smiles in a way that makes her heart lurch alarmingly. ‘I hope so,’ he says.