“I know you too well,” I said. “You’d soon tire of being left out of the fun and festivities, wouldn’t you? You’d only be there ten minutes and you’d find some good-looking foreign prince, reveal your true identity and leave me in the lurch.”

“I am cut to the quick,” she said. “Here am I, making you a generous and unselfish offer, and you keep finding reasons to turn me down. Wouldn’t it be a lark to be there together?”

“A fabulous lark,” I agreed, “and if I were going as an ordinary person, I’d take you along in an instant. But since I’m representing the royal family and my country, I have to observe protocol in every aspect. Surely you can see that?”

“You are becoming as stuffy as your brother,” she said.

“Speaking of my brother, you’ll never guess in a million years. Fig is in the family way again.”

Belinda grinned. “I suppose in their case it’s he who has to close his eyes and think of England when he does it. So you’ll be bumped back to thirty-fifth in line to the throne. It doesn’t look as if you’ll ever make it to queen.”

“You are silly.” I laughed. “It will be good for Podge to have a brother or sister. I remember how lonely it was to be a child living at Castle Rannoch.” I put down my teacup and got up. “Anyway, I must go on my quest for a maid. I’ve no idea where I’m going to find one.”

“I’ve offered my services and been rejected,” she said. “But the offer still stands if you can’t come up with anyone better by the end of the week.”

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

A semidetached in Essex with gnomes in the garden
Still Thursday, November 10

This was turning into a tricky problem. There was nobody else in London I knew well enough to ask to borrow their personal maid. I realized when I reconsidered that it would be the most frightful cheek to turn up on somebody’s doorstep and ask to borrow a maid, even if I did know them well. I wondered if I might get by with traveling alone and telling the dreaded chaperon that my maid had come down with mumps at the last moment. Surely they’d have enough servants at a royal castle to spare me an extra one. And I had become quite good at dressing myself. But probably not dressing myself in the sort of gown to be worn at weddings, with a thousand hooks or so down the back. There was nothing for it. I’d have to find an agency and hire a suitable girl, hoping that I could find some way to pay her at the end of the trip.