‘If you hadn’t telephoned, I would have been with her at a Needlework Guild meeting, but when I told her of your suggestion she said she could quite happily attend the meeting on her own.’

As that was not quite what her mother had said, May avoided Maudie’s eyes by opening up her parasol.

What her mother had actually said was: ‘Maudie wants to speak to you, without there being any other listening ears? Then it can only be about Frank, and as I suspect he is playing with dear Maudie’s affections in a most regrettable manner, you should certainly meet her and find out exactly what is going on between the two of them. I don’t want an unpleasant run-in with your Uncle Bertie, and if Frank really is overstepping the mark with Maudie, that is something that will most certainly happen.’

The family carriage they had arrived in was waiting in the Academy’s courtyard and, before they reached it, Maudie came to a halt.

‘I wanted to see you so that I could talk to you about Frank. I thought I could perhaps do so as we walked around the exhibition, but the minute we arrived I realized it wasn’t the right place.’ She looked towards the waiting carriage. ‘Would you mind if we walked down Piccadilly, towards the Circus? It will be crowded, but we should have more privacy than in the Academy. And Jim will keep us in sight and will be only yards away, when we are ready to return to Marlborough House.’

‘Jim?’

‘The coachman. He’s quite a chum and regularly covers up for me.’

This knowledge did nothing to ease May’s peace of mind.

Moments later they walked out in the street, their parasols shading their faces to lessen the likelihood of anyone recognizing them.

‘It’s Frank,’ Maudie said. ‘He wants to marry me, but he says that because he is only semi-royal, neither Granny Queen nor Papa would give their permission.’

Whatever May had been expecting, it certainly wasn’t that Frank wanted to marry Maudie, and that he had told Maudie so without first speaking to her father, or Aunt Queen. She was so taken aback she couldn’t think of a suitable response, for how could she congratulate Maudie, when she knew Frank was quite right in supposing that he and Maudie were unlikely to be given permission to marry?

‘And because Frank is so certain that permission wouldn’t be given,’ Maudie continued, ‘he hasn’t asked for it, which I think is too silly for words. After all, until he asks, how can he know? And if Looloo has been allowed to marry a non-royal aristocrat, surely I – the unimportant baby of the family – will be given permission to marry a Serene Highness?’