I WENT BACK to Rannoch House with a spring in my step. Not only was I to be invited to the wedding, I was to play an important part in welcoming the bride. I wouldn’t have to endure Fig’s barbs any longer and . . . I stopped, frozen on the pavement halfway up Constitution Hill. Oh crikey. I’d have to take Queenie to a palace. A palace full of princesses and with a master of house called Major Beauchamp-Chough. She’d already shown what havoc she could wreak in a normal house, with no royalty present and no priceless antiques around every corner. It was hard enough for me, who tends to be a little clumsy at times, but Queenie was far worse. She really was a walking disaster. And yet I couldn’t arrive at a palace with no lady’s maid. I’d have to make it quite clear to her that she must never leave my suite. If I had her meals sent up on a tray maybe we’d be all right.

Fig and Binky were sitting by the drawing room fire when I returned. Podge was with them, sitting beside his mother and showing her a drawing he had made, while Binky had Adelaide on his knee and was bouncing her while Nanny hovered protectively near the doorway.

“There you are, Georgiana.” Fig looked up. “So how was tea at the palace?” She almost spat out the last word.

“The cake wasn’t quite as good as the one I had at my grandfather’s,” I said with a smile.

“Was anybody else present? Was it a large tea party?”

“Just the queen and I. Oh, and the Prince of Wales came in for a moment.”

“Really?” She blinked rapidly and one could see the wheels of her brain turning, demanding to know why I should have a tête-à-tête with the queen and not she.

“I’m glad you’re going to be staying with us for a long while, Aunt Georgie,” Podge said.

“Unfortunately I won’t be here as long as I had thought, Podge,” I said. “But I will come to visit and maybe I can take you out to the park.”

“You won’t be staying here after all?” There was a note of hope in Fig’s voice.

“Unfortunately no,” I said. “The queen wants me to move into Kensington Palace and look after Princess Marina.”

It gave me great satisfaction that those words had the effect I had hoped for.

Chapter 7

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3

KENSINGTON PALACE, LONDON

Dear Diary: Today I move into Kensington Palace. Moving up in the world. Actually I’m partly excited and partly terrified. Please don’t let me break anything or knock an elderly princess down the stairs!