Toria pulled a well-worn pouffe to the foot of his chair and sat down on it. ‘Darling, darling Eddy. You are going to be so happy in a few minutes, because there is someone I’m sure you could very easily fall in love with, and who is the right age and is royal. It’s someone so obvious I can’t think why Granny Queen, and Papa and Motherdear, haven’t suggested her already.’

Eddy frowned. ‘Are you thinking of Cousin May? Because if you are, I’m sure she has already been thought of. She’s a Serene and her name has never been suggested, because of her bloodline not being up to snuff.’

‘And she’s plain and, at twenty-three, already something of an Old Maid,’ Toria said, conveniently forgetting that both labels could equally apply to her.

Maudie opened her mouth to spring to May’s defence, but Eddy got there before her.

‘Cousin May is actually quite pretty,’ he said, feeling that it was rather an exaggeration, but that as he quite liked her, he should show some gallantry. ‘Anyhow, I take it this person you are thinking of isn’t May Teck.’ He took a cigarette from his cigarette case and lit it. ‘Who is it, whose name hasn’t yet occurred to Granny Queen?’

With triumph in her voice, Toria said, ‘Princess Hélène of Orleans!’

Eddy blinked, opened his mouth and shut it again.

Maudie said, ‘Hélène is perfect for you, Eddy. She’s eighteen, beautiful and, being a daughter of the Count of Paris, is suitably royal.’

‘And we all know dear Hélène so well,’ Looloo said, as if this settled the matter.

Eddy was transfixed, his cigarette held in mid-air. Hélène: why hadn’t he, or anyone else, previously thought of her? She was certainly royal enough, for her father, the Count of Paris, was the legitimate claimant to the French throne. As such, the family had, for as long as he could remember, lived in exile in England and had always been on the very best of terms with English royalty. Why, then, hadn’t his grandmother ever mentioned Hélène as a suitable candidate, when it came to the question of his marriage?

He put his puzzlement into words and Looloo said gently, ‘Hélène and her family are at Windsor and Osborne so often, and someone who is under your nose can easily be the last person to be thought of.’

For once, Eddy thought, Looloo might be speaking sense.