Eddy’s Hussar regiment was now stationed in Dublin and, after several months’ official leave, he left England in August to resume his military duties in Ireland. Looloo, Toria, Maudie and May all missed him, but only May was unable to voice quite how much.

In September, May’s industrious round of charity work continued. She organized the sorting of several hundred items being sent in to the Needlework Guild and arranged for their distribution. She made weekly visits to hospitals and orphanages, and she helped out on an almost daily basis at the many soup kitchens that her mother sponsored. On top of that, she also continued acting as her mother’s lady-in-waiting, accompanying her to an industrial exhibition in the East End that Princess Mary Adelaide opened; to a function at Finsbury in aid of factory girls; and to a concert given in order to raise money for soldiers’ widows.

In October, May and her mother spent a few days with her mother’s close friend, Lady Wolverton, whose home, Coombe Wood, was at Kingston-on-Thames and near enough to White Lodge that travelling to it was no hardship, and yet far enough away to make a pleasant change.

Sitting around the breakfast table, making plans for the day, they were interrupted by Lady Wolverton’s butler. ‘Forgive the interruption, Your Ladyship,’ he said apologetically, ‘but a letter from the Queen has just this minute arrived from Balmoral for Her Highness Princess Mary Adelaide.’

‘A letter for me?’ May’s mother’s knife and fork fell with an unladylike clatter onto her plate. ‘From Balmoral?’

That the Queen had written to her at Coombe Wood, instead of waiting until she was again at home at White Lodge, indicated that the letter’s contents were of unusual importance, and she practically snatched the letter from the butler’s tray.

Within seconds of opening it, a hot flush flooded her cheeks and she pressed a hand to where, beneath a mountain of flesh, she assumed her heart to be. ‘Oh, my goodness, May! The Queen is asking that Dolly accompany you on a ten-day visit to Balmoral. For a private visit!’

It was such an unlikely request that May’s immediate reaction was bewilderment. Informal family get-togethers took place at Osborne House. More formal get-togethers took place at Windsor. No get-togethers of any kind took place at Balmoral. When the Queen was in residence there – which she was every year from late summer to early winter – she kept very much to herself. Invitations for family to join her at Balmoral were virtually unheard of.

She was suddenly gripped by the fear that the only possible reason for the invitation was that the Queen was angry at her having rejected Prince Ernst Gunther’s marriage proposal and wished to see her, to tell her how foolishly she believed May had behaved.