Once they had arrived at Windsor, her mother hurried off to speak to the Queen in privacy, and May was kept company in the White Drawing Room by her Aunt Beatrice. She had barely taken a sip of the Indian tea that the two of them had been served when a footman announced Frank’s arrival. He strode into the room, looking as tense as a tightly wound spring.

Overjoyed at seeing him, May sprang to her feet, saying swiftly in order to ease his tension, ‘Mama is already speaking with Aunt Queen.’

He didn’t look towards her. Instead he said urgently to Beatrice, ‘Please interrupt my mother’s conversation with the Queen. It’s vitally important she doesn’t ask on my behalf what she has come here to ask.’

May’s jaw dropped.

The teaspoon Beatrice had been holding clattered into its saucer.

‘Please, Beatrice!’ There was panic in his voice as well as urgency. ‘It’s vital you do as I ask.’

‘But my dear Frank, I can’t possibly do such a thing.’ Beatrice couldn’t have looked more horrified if Frank had asked her to stand on a table and dance the cancan.

May said, struggling to understand Frank’s request, ‘Are you frightened of Aunt Queen saying permission for you to marry Maudie is out of the question?’

‘No! The opposite! Beatrice, if you don’t interrupt my mother’s conversation with the Queen, I will.’

The thought of Frank Teck bursting in on her mother, when she had asked not to be disturbed, was so horrifying Beatrice stumbled to her feet and almost ran from the room.

May said bewilderedly, ‘What on earth is the matter, Frank? In all probability, Aunt Queen is telling Mama that if you and Maudie wish to marry, then you can.’

‘Hell’s bells, May! Didn’t you understand what I said a second ago?’ He ran a hand through his hair. ‘I don’t want to marry Maudie. I don’t want to marry anyone! I’m not the marrying kind, and it’s because I don’t want to marry Maudie – and because I care for her too much to want to hurt her feelings, by admitting to it – that I told her I would never be given permission to do so. I said it, God help me, because it was the only reasonable excuse I could think of for my not proposing to her!’

May put a hand on the nearest small table to steady herself, overcome by the horror of Frank having led Maudie on in the way he had, when he never had the slightest intention of marrying her. That he had behaved so dishonourably was almost more than she could grasp.

She said hoarsely, ‘Then you shouldn’t have compromised her!’

He sucked in his breath, stunned by how much she knew about his own and Maudie’s relationship.