The dancers suddenly spotted the prince and there was laughter and applause. More people crammed in to watch David dancing with Marina. I’m slightly claustrophobic and hate the feeling of being trapped in a crowded, sweaty and noisy room, so I wandered instead into the dining room next door. This room was only populated with odd knots of people, it being too early for supper. A lovely spread had been laid out on the table against one wall—a whole cold salmon in the middle, oysters, prawns, cold chicken and pheasant, caviar and all the nice little things that go with it. When I had been one step away from starvation and living on baked beans I would have fallen upon it. Now I was content to scoop a little caviar onto a cracker and was just biting into it, careful not to spill it down my décolleté front, when I heard something that made me prick my ears up.

“No, I haven’t seen her for ages, darling.”

I turned around and saw two rather glamorous women, older than me and of that brittle, witty kind I had just been considering, standing together by the window, each with a cocktail glass in one hand, a cigarette holder in the other.

“She was away all summer, wasn’t she? Let it be known that she was going to the Med, but that wasn’t the case. I was there myself in August and she certainly wasn’t at any of the parties.” The voice was lowered. I could just make out the words. “Tell me, did you hear the rumor going around?”

“That she was preggers, darling? Oh yes, I did hear that. One finds it hard to believe. I mean, who knows how to take care of herself better than Bobo?”

The first voice grew even lower. I moved around the table, pretending to pick a grape from the bunch but actually positioning myself closer to the women. With the thump and wail of the music next door it was hard to overhear. “And if she was . . . you know . . . why didn’t she just pop to Harley Street and have it taken care of like any civilized person?”

“Catholic, darling. Doesn’t believe in that sort of thing.” This latter phrase was whispered but I managed to lip-read. Our class of person does have such good diction.

“So you think she actually went away to have the baby?”

The first woman nodded. “Must have. She wouldn’t have risked being recognized in London.”

“Switzerland, do you think?”

“Possibly. But there are places closer by, aren’t there? That one on the south coast . . .”