The New Palace was in uproar with wedding and travel preparations. Ladies-in-waiting and chambermaids were scurrying here, there and everywhere with armfuls of day gowns, afternoon gowns and lavish evening gowns, which all, folded in layer upon layer of tissue paper, were then packed into enormous travelling trunks. Even though it was high summer, furs aplenty were also being carefully packed, for to travel without furs – especially to St Petersburg – was unthinkable.

‘I don’t see why Ella has to take furs with her,’ Alicky said to Vicky, who was supervising the packing of their jewellery into locked travelling cases. ‘Not when Sergei will be drowning her in Russian sable when she arrives in St Petersburg – and with jewels,’ she added. ‘Madgie says the Romanovs’ jewellery collection is the largest in the world.’

‘And I dare say your governess is right, although I’m surprised she was vulgar enough to say so to you. And although having enough jewellery will never be a problem now for Ella – who doesn’t, incidentally, give two hoots about jewellery and furs – it would be very shameful to arrive as if we didn’t have a diamond to our name.’

‘I’m not sure I do have a diamond to my name.’ Being only twelve, Alicky’s jewellery was still restricted to pearls. ‘It seems to me that everyone is much more excited about this wedding than they were about yours. Don’t you mind?’

‘Silly goose, of course I don’t mind. All Romanov weddings are hugely magnificent events, and Sergei isn’t just any Romanov. He’s the Tsar’s brother. And although the wedding will be impossibly splendid, I will always think my own wedding was even more wonderful, for how could it not be when I was marrying Louis, and when I love Louis so very, very much?’

‘And Ella loves Sergei very, very much, doesn’t she?’

She’d meant it as a statement, not a question, but Vicky pursed her lips, handed the jewellery case to her maid, saying, ‘Would you put this box with the rest of the jewellery cases, Jenny?’ and then, as the maid left the room, said, ‘I’m sure she does, Alicky. But not, I think, in the same way.’

Alicky frowned, sensing a secret she wasn’t supposed to know. ‘Then in what way?’

‘She feels that Sergei needs her. Papa says he is a different kind of person when he is at home in Russia, and that he isn’t much liked. Ella believes she can change that.’

‘It doesn’t sound a very exciting reason to marry someone.’

‘No, it doesn’t.’ Vicky thought of the other reason why Ella was marrying Sergei, but it wasn’t one she could share with Alicky.

‘Sergei being twenty-seven and not yet married is causing open speculation,’ Ella had said to Vicky in confidence on the day before her engagement to Sergei was announced, ‘and he wants to put an end to it.’