‘And because you have compromised her, if Aunt Queen tells Mama she will give permission for you and Maudie to marry, then that is what you are honour-bound to do.’

‘I know.’ There were beads of sweat on his forehead. ‘But if I do have to propose to her, there will be little chance of her accepting me, when I tell her how unfaithful I have been to her. Of how incapable I am of fidelity and of how, for the last six months, I have been in love with a married woman several years older than myself. If, when I admit all this, she still wants to marry me, then I will do the right thing and marry her, but somehow I don’t think Maudie will still want to marry me, do you? In fact, I don’t think she’ll ever want to see me again.’

They were interrupted by Beatrice hurrying back into the room and saying, with a smile on her face, certain that the news she was bringing was good news, ‘Your mama will be with you both in a couple of minutes, and she has asked me to tell you that her premonition was correct and that all is well.’

Frank drew in a deep, steadying breath and then said, ‘Thank you for the message, Aunt Beatrice. When my mother joins you, will you please give her my apologies and tell her I’ve left for Marlborough House?’

And then, ashen-faced and without another word, he strode from the room.

Chapter Sixteen

JUNE 1890, MARLBOROUGH HOUSE

The next few weeks were deeply distressful for May. Frank had proposed to Maudie and, after admitting to her that he had never been faithful to her and was presently having an affair with a married woman – and that it was an affair he had no desire to end – it was a proposal she had broken-heartedly turned down.

Not knowing the circumstances, both his mother and his father were almost hysterical with disappointment – Princess Mary Adelaide because the wedding would have been such a prestigious one for Frank, and the Duke of Teck because he had imagined that, on becoming father-in-law to one of the Prince of Wales’s daughters, the Queen would fulfil his heart’s desire and bestow on him the title of Royal Highness. It was a distress that doubled when Frank abruptly left the country, doing so for an unspecified destination and for an unspecified length of time.

Her parents and the Queen believed he had done so because he’d been jilted by Maudie and therefore couldn’t bear the pain of constantly seeing her at family events. Everyone else believed that things had simply got too hot for Frank, where his gambling debts were concerned, and that he had fled abroad until things had cooled down.