It’s all so sad that I can hardly bear it. The entire wedding party broke up with everyone scurrying off home (once Granny Queen’s ultimatum had been given, she left for England and Windsor, with all the Waleses in her wake). Ella’s wedding to Sergei is only a few weeks away and, as Granny Queen doesn’t approve of it and isn’t going to attend it, Papa’s relief is vast.

I think that’s all for now. I’ve written so much my wrist is hurting. Please write back and tell me what living in Florence is like. I miss you and I hope that although you and your mama and papa weren’t at Vicky’s wedding, that you will be at Ella and Sergei’s.

Much, much love, your Kindred Spirit Alicky xxxxxxxxx

May laid the letter down on her lap. She felt deeply sorry for Alicky’s father, but thought he should have had more sense than to believe the Queen would have approved of his marrying a divorced woman, especially when his late wife had been one of her much-loved daughters. She wondered where Madame de Kolémine was now and, wherever she was, if anyone would ever hear from her again.

Her writing case was on her knee and she took a pen from it and began writing a reply:

Dearest Alicky,

It was so nice to receive your letter, although it made me very sad to learn of the very unhappy outcome of your papa’s marriage to Madame de Kolémine. I am afraid that not all my news is good news, either, for a few weeks ago my dear papa suffered a stroke and although we hope that he is slowly beginning to recover, his left arm is still paralysed and his left leg is no good at all for walking, which is a great shame since walking in the flower-filled countryside around here had become one of his greatest pleasures.

You ask what living in Florence is like and so, starting with the Villa I Cedri, I will tell you. In English the name ‘I Cedri’ means ‘The Cedars’. It is a very old house. Miss Bianca Light, the English lady who has kindly loaned it to us, claims it was built as long ago as the fifteenth century and I like to imagine Renaissance Florentines such as Lorenzo de Medici or Donatello riding past it on their way to Lucca and Padua.

Mama entertains a great deal, and we give and are invited to lots of tennis parties and, as the weather is so blissful and we do not have to worry about rain spoiling garden tea-parties, we give and go to a lot of tea-parties. We had a lovely such tea-party when it was my seventeenth birthday.