As Granddad prepared to go back to England I considered how long I’d like to stay and of course my thoughts turned to Queenie. I didn’t really need a maid and Mummy’s Claudette could help me in a pinch, so the kind thing to do would be to send Queenie back with Granddad. I broached the subject as she brought in my morning tea, miraculously on time.

“Queenie, my grandfather is going back to England,” I said. “I know you haven’t been happy here, so I wondered if you’d like to go back to England with him.”

She looked shocked. “Oh, no, my lady. I wouldn’t dream of it. My place is here with you. You need me to take care of you and help you on your road to recovery. . . .”

“Queenie!” I interrupted sharply; but she went on, “I know I haven’t been up to scratch in the past, but now I’m going to work bloody hard to be like a proper lady’s maid . . .”

“Queenie!” I said again; but she still kept talking, “and you’ll be so proud of me and . . .”

“Queenie!” I said for a third time. “You’re slopping the tea onto my bedspread.”

“Oh. Sorry, miss,” she said, looking down at the brown splashes. “Well, never mind. It blends in all right with the flower pattern, don’t it?”

I sighed. I was stuck with her whether I liked it or not.

So Granddad went home and a few days later Mummy announced that she was going back to Germany. She’d had a letter from Max. “Such a lovely letter,” she said. “All about how much he misses me and that life has no meaning without me. He wants us to get married. He promises that if I don’t like living in Germany we can have a château in Switzerland instead. On a lake. That sounds nice, doesn’t it? And he’s even hired a tutor to give him English lessons so that we can talk to each other more.”

“But you said he was boring,” I reminded her.

“I know, but one does want so much to be adored, and he does adore me,” she said. “And all that lovely money is rather nice too.”

“And will you really marry him?”

She wrinkled her pretty little nose. “I’m not quite sure about that part. We’ll have to see how it goes, won’t we?”

“So I presume that means you want to close up the villa and turn me out.”

“Madame Chanel says she’ll be delighted for you to come and stay with her,” Mummy said. “And I understand that the Duke of Westminster has said you’re always welcome on his yacht.”