It was an answer that pleased everyone, apart from Alicky. Happy as she was that Ella was going to marry Sergei, she most certainly wasn’t happy at the prospect of being a bridesmaid again – and especially a bridesmaid at a wedding that would, she knew, be far grander and more opulent than Vicky and Louis’s wedding had been.

‘Why so glum?’ Irène asked her.

Alicky told her.

‘I think you can stop worrying, poppet.’ Irène’s eyes were still on Willy’s brother, Heinrich, who was deep in conversation with Uncle Wales. ‘It’s going to be a huge Russian Orthodox affair, and I’m fairly sure there will be no Protestant bridesmaids in attendance. In fact there may not be any bridesmaids at all. Russian Orthodox weddings are very different from Protestant weddings. All I know is that there will be lots of incense and that the ceremony will go on for hours, probably days.’ She changed the subject. ‘It’s a shame Uncle Wales put the kibosh on Eddy and Georgie being here today. According to Toria, he simply refused to allow them to take time off from their studies.’

‘Studies?’

As Alicky looked blank, Irène said helpfully, ‘Eddy is at Trinity College, Cambridge, and Georgie is training to be an officer at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich.’

Apart from Maudie, Alicky wasn’t much interested in her Wales cousins. Nor was she much interested in having a horde of her relatives telling her how much she had grown, and how she had to stop blushing with shyness whenever she was the focus of attention.

She was just about to slide away and feed her rabbit when Vicky marched up to them, not looking at all like the radiant bride of a little while ago. ‘Papa is nowhere to be found,’ she said tautly to Irène. ‘I’ve got the most dreadful feeling that he’s gone to ask Alexandrine to join us and that, when she has, he’s going to announce their engagement.’

‘In front of Granny Queen – and after the way she reacted to news of Ella’s engagement to Sergei?’ Irène was disbelieving. ‘I don’t think so, Vicky. Not even Papa could be so rash.’

‘Let’s hope he isn’t, but he isn’t circulating among the family and I think we need to go in search of him. You check out the east wing of the palace, and take Ella with you. I’ll round up Ernie and do a search of the west wing.’

Still without a word to Alicky, they set off in different directions.

Alicky hesitated, but only for a moment. And then, not wanting to be left out of anything interesting, she set off at a brisk trot in the same direction Vicky had taken.