The horses broke into a trot and she continued, ‘I believe you are an excellent secretary to your dear mama. Lady Wolverton tells me your mama’s many charities benefit greatly from your clear-sighted input when committee meetings take place. Talents such as these mean that when you make a suitable marriage, you will be a very great support to your husband, and he will need such support, for the life of a royal prince can be a very stressful and lonely one. Now, look over there to the left, May. The peak you see is that of Lochnagar. A hike up its lower slopes is very invigorating and is an expedition you may well enjoy embarking on with Dolly and Henry later in the week.’

‘And was that it?’ Dolly asked when, after dinner, they were finally on their own. ‘No hint as to which royal prince she could have been referring to?’

‘No, but with all the emphasis on how German I was, and how I was able to speak German and had grown up visiting Germany regularly, I can only assume you’re right in thinking it’s Max of Baden that Aunt Queen has in mind.’

‘Then why aren’t you punching the air? There isn’t an unmarried princess in the family – or outside it, for that matter – who wouldn’t happily accept a proposal of marriage from Max.’

‘But I haven’t met him yet. And if, when I meet him, I don’t feel I will be able to live happily with him, then even if he does propose to me, I won’t accept him. And no one – not even Aunt Queen – will persuade me to change my mind.’

For the next eight days there was no further hint that matchmaking plans were being made for May. The basic routine of the house never varied. The Queen breakfasted at ten and then went for a carriage drive, always taking May with her. Lunch was at two and then there was another obligatory carriage ride, the conversation never again touching on marriage, no matter how obliquely.

‘Lord only knows how poor Henry survives the tedium,’ Dolly said glumly as the days passed. ‘I couldn’t. I’m sick to death of going out on the hills with him, his equerry and half a dozen ghillies. By the end of the day I’m frozen to the marrow.’