‘I’m an early arrival for Granny Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations. I wanted to speak with her before all the brouhaha starts. Unfortunately, we didn’t part on good terms, and so I couldn’t very well ask for Windsor bed and board. Uncle Bertie had been Windsor-visiting as well and, as he was leaving, he suggested that I keep him company and take the opportunity of a surprise reunion with Aunt Alix, Toria and Maudie. And yourself, of course. And so here I am, seeing you first, as you might well expect.’

They hugged and kissed each other on the cheek.

Ducky flopped down into one of the basket-chairs. ‘While I was at Windsor a telegram arrived with news that Alicky and Nicky had had another girl. Because of the Ernie situation, Alicky and I no longer get along too well – it’s obvious her sympathies lie with her brother – but even so, I feel sorry for her. She’s begun suffering quite badly from sciatica, and being pregnant so often doesn’t help.’ She quirked a glossy dark eyebrow and changed the subject. ‘Do you know about Ernie’s sexual preference for Hussars, footmen and valets?’

May wondered what it would be like to be as bluntly outspoken as Ducky, but found it too much of a stretch of her imagination.

‘Yes, Ducky. You’ve been quite vocal about it. I think everyone in the family now knows.’

‘As I want to have a divorce, I’ve had to be quite vocal about it. However, I’m not getting anywhere on that front.’ She let her arms hang loosely over the basketwork sides of her chair and, with closed eyes, raised her face to the sun. ‘It’s why I so desperately needed to see Granny Queen. She was the one who was keen for me and Ernie to marry, and so you would think – her judgement having been proved so wrong, when it comes to my husband’s suitability for marriage – that she would at least have the decency to allow me to divorce him. But she won’t. She says Ernie will grow out of his “odd little ways” in time, and that I must be patient.’

For the life of her, May couldn’t think of anything encouraging to say. Compared to Ducky’s marital difficulties and Cousin Marie-Louise’s marital difficulties – which were the same as Ducky’s, except that Aribert was a nasty piece of work, something Ernie most definitely was not – her own difficulties with George were trifling.

Ducky sat up straight and opened her eyes. ‘And I have been patient, May, but I can’t be patient much longer; not when I’m still so in love with Kyril.’

‘Oh, Ducky dear, I hadn’t realized!’ May’s eyebrows flew so high they nearly disappeared into her fringe of tight curls. ‘I thought that was over long ago.’