‘Why on earth?’ It wasn’t at all what she had been expecting and she almost missed a step as they negotiated a far corner of the ballroom.

‘Because of you not being ebenbürtig.’

‘But I didn’t accept Ernst Gunther’s proposal! Surely Dona should have been pleased that I wasn’t going to become her sister-in-law, not having tantrums about it.’

Willy snorted with laughter. ‘But don’t you see, May? Dona’s indignation was caused by someone not of equal birth receiving a marriage proposal from her precious brother and then having the effrontery to turn him down. God in heaven! I thought the insult was going to be the death of her!’

May didn’t share his amusement. As far as she was concerned, it was Dona’s response to her having rejected Ernst Gunther’s proposal that was the real insult.

‘Truth to tell, Kindred Spirit May,’ Willy continued, ‘Dona may be a good woman, but she is also a very difficult one. No one knows what I have to put up with. My dear friend, Phili zu Eulenburg, thinks me a saint.’

May was tempted to respond that Phili zu Eulenburg was the only person in the world who could possibly think so, but thought better of it.

Twelve years ago on the beach at Osborne, she, Willy and Alicky had shared confidences about their feelings of never truly fitting into the family, and they had done so in a way they had never done with anyone previously or, she was certain, since.

Alicky had declared that their conversation that afternoon had made them Kindred Spirits, a fact sealed by the blood-pact they had made. The surprising results of her childish play-acting had been a long-standing friendship between her and Alicky, and whenever she met up with Willy – which was far more rarely – he always referred to her as ‘Kindred Spirit May’ and was as informal with her as he had been that day at Osborne. She never forgot, though, that he was the German Emperor, and that liberties with his dignity would end their friendship in a flash.

His last words as the music came to an end were, ‘Nicky Romanov wants to marry Alicky. It’s a match I’m in favour of. I’d like the future Empress of Russia to be a German. However, Nicky’s parents aren’t in favour of it and are doing all they can to take his mind off her. The latest distraction they have put in his path is Mathilde Kschessinska, a ballerina with the Russian Imperial Ballet.’

Alicky’s letter to May that July contained no reference to Mathilde Kschessinska, but even though it was now two years since Alicky’s last meeting with Nicky in St Petersburg, her letters were still full of how frequently he wrote to her, and of how certain she was that they were destined for each other.