Georgie, too, was suffering from pre-wedding nerves and at White Lodge, with the wedding only days away, he and her mother had a most undignified falling-out. Princess Mary Adelaide’s chatty exuberance and her constant interference with everything to do with the wedding had long been a source of intense irritation to Georgie and suddenly, when she was happily in full flow, his face flooded red and he shouted that he was tired of listening to her.

May’s poor mother collapsed into a chair with shock. May was stupefied with horror. And Georgie speedily left the house.

A full day passed without an apology from him and May knew it was up to her to break the deadlock, if her wedding day wasn’t to be one on which her mother and her bridegroom were not on speaking terms. So she wrote conciliatorily, and then a little untruthfully:

Dearest Georgie,

Mama has already quite forgotten your little spat of the other day. I quite sympathize with your outburst of temper. Mama can be very irritating, and at the moment things annoy us which we would not normally bother about. It is a very stressful period, and I am looking forward to the time after the wedding when we will be alone together.

She paused and then quickly, before she lost her nerve, she added:

Forgive me for being so shy with you. I am trying hard not to be, for it is too silly for us to be uncomfortable together, when we are so soon to begin lovingly spending our lives together.

Believe me when I say this little note comes with all my heart, May x

Ill at ease expressing his emotions verbally, Georgie much preferred putting his feelings on paper. Ever since he had been in his teens, his mother’s deafness had been so profound that writing to her had always been the way he expressed his love for her; and it was to be the way, all through their marriage, that he would most comfortably express his feelings for May. He wrote back to her now:

Thank God that we are able to understand each other so well. I will try in the future to have patience with your mother, who I know means well. I, too, suffer from being shy, and my shyness may make me appear cold and indifferent, and for that I can only apologize.

Your husband-to-be, Georgie

The remaining days until the wedding were taken up with receiving deputations of ladies from towns all over England, presenting their wedding gifts; sitting to have her portrait painted – wishing it was being painted by Thaddeus; attending a dinner for two hundred, in her own and Georgie’s honour, at Marlborough House; going to command performances at the Royal Opera House and the Theatre Royal; making the obligatory trip to Frogmore to receive Prince Albert’s posthumous blessing; and, most importantly, having fittings for her wedding gown and trousseau.