‘Shh.’ His eyes darted around them once more. ‘Keep walking and look bored, please.’

They set off again.

‘Tell me then,’ she whispered.

‘The King has received a copy of an MI6 cipher sent to the Prime Minister. U-boats are being told to stop hostilities and return to base.’

‘Really?’

He nodded. ‘And in the last week the British and Allied troops have liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp – sixty thousand emaciated prisoners, starving and suffering from typhus were found barely alive, and the dead numbered many, many more.’

‘Dear God.’

‘Herr Hitler is dead. Suicide. He knew the end was coming and shot himself.’

‘Dead?’ Crawfie’s eyes sparked with hostility and abhorrence. ‘Good!’

‘The German armies are surrendering. On the western front eight hundred thousand of them are now captured.’

‘So – we’ve won?’

‘Looks like it. Stop smiling.’

Crawfie could feel the hope blooming within her. ‘I can’t help it.’

Windsor Castle, 2^nd May 1945

Crawfie woke early. She dressed and left the castle quietly, heading to the nearest newsstand. Early commuters near Windsor station were collecting their morning newspapers. The air was raw with cold and the queue was stamping its feet and blowing on cold fingers.

‘The Times, please.’ She handed over the money to the vendor, an elderly woman well-wrapped for the morning cold, who passed her the paper.

‘’Ere you are, love. You need gloves. Minus nine it was, last night – does me arthritis no good.’

Crawfie nodded. Leaving the paper folded and under her arm, she walked quickly back to the castle.

In the nursery, no one was yet up. She lit the fire, made a cup of tea and unfolded the newspaper. The headlines were thrilling:

HITLER IS DEAD

PEACE BY WEEK’S END HINTED BY CHURCHILL

She wanted to wake Alah immediately and tell her the good news, but Alah had not been well recently and needed her sleep. So Crawfie hugged the news to herself, got down on her knees and gave a prayer of thanks.

It wasn’t over yet, but it couldn’t be too long now. If only she was with George right now …

Windsor Castle, 3^rd May 1945

The weather was awful; sleet had turned to snow across the south of England, but the excitement in the Castle and across the country was building. Crawfie and Alah and the Princesses gathered around the nursery wireless for every radio broadcast, while poor Bobo was sent to fetch tea, make sandwiches and do the chores.

Each evening the King and Queen, who were in London, telephoned their daughters. Yesterday they had suggested that they should start packing to return to London at a moment’s notice. They were to be ready when the call came.

Windsor Castle, 8^th May 1945

Crawfie woke with a start. She had a strong feeling that today would be the day they all longed for, and she had a burning hunger to hear the news.

She had to get out and walk to use this inner energy. She needed to tire herself to settle her anxious nerves.