At Windsor, the Queen told them how happy she was at their betrothal; how the day would come when, as King and Queen and Emperor and Empress, they would both bear unimaginable responsibilities. ‘But I am sure,’ she said, clasping May’s hand tightly, ‘that the two of you will find strength in each other, as I and my darling Albert did.’

There was an obligatory visit to Prince Albert’s mausoleum, in order that they could receive his posthumous blessing.

‘It’s traditional whenever any of Grandpa Albert’s children and grandchildren marries,’ Eddy whispered, when May looked slightly alarmed by the idea. ‘It makes Granny happy.’

Before they left Windsor, the Queen insisted that, as May was so soon to be her grandchild by marriage, she should no longer refer to her as ‘Aunt Queen’, but as ‘Granny Queen’.

‘For that is how I think of you now,’ she said. ‘Eddy is a dear boy, who has experienced a lot of heartache. I sense that your feelings for him are deep and sincere and that any heartache, for both of you, is now blessedly at an end.’

‘What did Granny Queen mean by your “heartache”?’ Eddy asked when, for the first time since Luton Hoo, they finally had a little privacy together, walking arm-in-arm on a frosted path in the garden of Marlborough House. ‘God knows, my own heartache has been public enough, but I didn’t know that you’d experienced heartache as well.’

May was tempted to tell him of the seemingly hopeless crush she’d had on him for so many years, but was too unsure of how he might react to do so.

She said, ‘I suffered a great deal of heartache on my mama and papa’s behalf, when their financial difficulties were such that the bailiffs were called in and many of our family possessions were sold at public auction.’

‘That period of time must have been an utter nightmare for you.’ There was deep sympathy in his voice. ‘I wasn’t in England when it was all taking place, I was in Lausanne, attempting to get to grips with French, but my mother wrote to me about it.’ He took hold of her hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. ‘What was the immediate aftermath?’

It was the first physical touch of affection he had shown her since he had left Luton Hoo to inform his parents and the Queen of their engagement.

Weak with relief, she summoned up the nerve to give it an answering squeeze. ‘And then, at the Queen’s request, we left England in order to live somewhere that wouldn’t stretch our finances too much. After a short stay with some of Papa’s Württemberg relations, who have a villa on Lake Constance, we moved on to Italy and settled in Florence.’

‘Florence? Wasn’t that deathly dull?’