Outside, Park Lane was dark and slick with rain. The streetlamps gilded the puddles and headlights glittered on the tarmac.

‘Who are we w-w-waiting for?’ asked the Duke.

Lilibet flapped her hands at him. ‘Here they come.’

A Fuller’s Brewery dray, pulled by a handsome pair of black horses, was trotting along Park Lane towards them.

Margaret pushed her way to the window and Lilibet held her up. ‘There! See them.’

‘And these are your friends?’ the Duchess asked fondly.

‘Wait, Mummy. If the lights go red he’ll have to stop and the driver always waves up at us. But I worry about the horses if they have to stop because then they have to pull even harder to get going again and it is a horrid wet night and they might slip.’

The little family watched as the dray approached the traffic lights. ‘They’re still green!’ the girls shouted. ‘Come on! Keep going.’

But as the horses approached, the lights turned red, and they were pulled up by their driver.

‘Oh dear!’ The Duchess clutched her daughters’ shoulders with genuine anxiety.

‘Mummy, look, he’s waving at us! The Coachy! Wave back everyone!’

The coachman squinted up at the familiar window and the two little girls – and the two highly recognizable adults with them today. With a grin, he immediately doffed his cap and gave them a thumbs-up.

The Duke and Duchess were delighted and waved graciously.

‘The lights are green!’ Still waving, Lilibet pointed at the traffic lights. ‘The lights are green.’

‘I don’t think he can hear you, darling,’ laughed the Duke. ‘And they’re off!’

‘Bye-bye horsey,’ Margaret squealed.

‘Goodness.’ The Duchess smiled. ‘That was more exciting than Aintree!’

Crawfie hugged these special moments to herself, saving them up in order to share them in one of her weekly letters home.

145 Piccadilly, July 1935

Dear Mother and Dad,

The Princesses and I have been on some new adventures. Hamilton Gardens has become our Wild West. I was a Red Indian chasing after those two cowboys. Honestly, if you could have seen them! There were some pretty hairy ambushes in the shrubbery, but of course they captured me and took me back to their ranch where I became a horse again and was groomed to death. They are so funny! We all got a ticking off from Alah though, when we arrived in the nursery with dirty clothes and faces. I don’t think they have ever been allowed to get really dirty before now.

I think I’ve started something now though, because when I asked the girls over tea what they would like to do as a treat, you wouldn’t guess the list I was given:

1. Walk to the Round Pond in Kensington Gardens and watch the toy yachts being sailed. (Ordinary children fascinate them!)
2. Travel on an underground train.
3. Ride on the top deck of a bus.
4. Take a trip to Woolworths to buy Granny (Her Majesty to you and me) a wedding anniversary gift. The whole family love the Woolworths trinkets. The girls have their eye on a tiny horse ornament with a rider on its back, and have been counting up the pennies in their money boxes.