I have no idea for how much longer you are to be at Windsor, but I doubt Mama and I will be there again before you return to Hesse and there is news I want to tell, before you are told it by others. Mama’s distress this afternoon was because something we have long feared has now become a certainty. White Lodge and our apartment at Kensington Palace are to be given up and we are soon to leave for a new life in Italy. The move is not one of choice, but of a very essential need to live more economically (although my mama, out on another shopping trip, hasn’t grasped this yet). I didn’t say anything this afternoon, as I was hoping another way would be found to resolve Mama and Papa’s unhappy financial situation. When we are settled I will forward you an address so that you can write to me. I do so want to be kept in touch with everyone and with extended family gossip – especially anything to do with your love life and with Vicky’s love life!

Best love, May x

Not wanting Alicky, who was so much younger, to be distressed on her behalf, she wrote:

Dearest Alicky,

Just a little note to tell you some very exciting news. I am shortly going to be leaving dear old England and moving to Italy with my mama and papa and three brothers. (Although only my youngest brother, Alge, will be staying permanently with us in Italy, as my older brothers, Dolly and Frank, attend an English boarding school and will continue doing so.) Italy is going to be a wonderful adventure and, when I have an address, I will make sure I send it to you. I’m so sorry Mama and I had to leave Windsor yesterday before I’d had the chance to meet up with you, but Mama was taken a little unwell and so we had to leave for home in rather a hurry. (And please don’t worry about my mama. She is much better now.)

Much love, your Kindred Spirit, May x

And to Willy she wrote:

Dear Cousin Willy,

You will no doubt soon hear on the grapevine that, in their best interests, my mama and papa have been asked to withdraw to the continent for a period of some years. I, of course, will be going with them and so, as well as being of unequal birth, I will be an exile as well – all of which will make me a double outsider. Not something that anyone else in the family (apart from Alicky) has the faintest perception of. To everyone else I shall, of course, be putting an extremely brave face on things, but it is a welcome relief, in this short letter to you, not to have to do so. Please give my best regards to Dona and to your parents.

With much affection, your Kindred Spirit, Cousin May