“I never thought I’d hear that word coming from your lips,” he said. “I bet your governess didn’t teach it to you. And that sister-in-law of yours would swoon if you ever used it in front of her.”

“It’s not a word I use often,” I said, “but in the circumstances it seems quite appropriate. I mean, it’s not as if I’m anybody important, is it? The Prince of Wales sneaks off with Mrs. Simpson. The Duke of Kent has the shadiest of pasts. I really don’t think the newspapers will find me very interesting.”

“You know what they’re like with anything to do with the royal family,” he said. “The public laps it up. Especially when it’s something shady, some kind of scandal.”

“So you really think I shouldn’t go?” I said. “What would you have done if my grandmother’s family had been in some kind of trouble?”

This made him laugh, a low, wheezing kind of chuckle that shook his body. “That’s how I met her, love. I’d arrested her brother for being drunk and disorderly outside the Nag’s Head. He was only a young kid, so I marched him home and it was his sister who opened the door. Blimey, she looked a right corker. Smashing, she was.”

“I wish I’d met her,” I said.

“Yer mum got her looks from her,” he said. “Luckily she didn’t take after my side of the family or she wouldn’t have earned tuppence on the stage. Have you heard from her recently?”

“Not since she went back to Germany.”

“I hope she’s not going to marry that German bloke,” Granddad said.

“I rather think she intends to.”

“No good will come of that. Those Germans, they’ll start to build up for another war, you mark my words. They were humiliated after the last one and they’re a proud lot. They’ll want revenge. And your mum will find herself on the wrong side.”

“Golly, I hope not,” I said. “But you never answered my question. If you were in the same predicament, would you go?”

He stared down at his plate for a moment, then looked me in the eye. “Yes, I believe I’d go. After all, what have you got to lose? If you get there and he won’t see you and he demands that you turn around and go straight home, then at least you tried. At least he knows how much you care about him.”