At the thought of a third wedding in the family, Alicky’s eyes widened.

‘Don’t spread rumours,’ Ella chided. ‘Irène may well have a crush on Henry, but I don’t think it’s being reciprocated. At least not yet.’

‘Ah, but there will be further opportunities for Irène to wow him with her charms at St Petersburg. The Hohenzollerns are going to be there in full force, aren’t they?’

Ella, who wasn’t at all sure that Willy would be there, said, ‘I imagine so. Everyone in the entire family has been invited. The Waleses, the Edinburghs, the Connaughts, the Albanys, the Battenbergs, the Hohenzollerns, the Schleswig-Holsteins, the Saxe-Meiningens and then there will be all the Romanovs – and goodness only knows how many of them there will be. The Winter Palace and Peterhof will be knee-deep in Russian royalty even before we arrive.’

She said it without any sign of concern. Alicky envied her. How could Ella be so relaxed when, during the wedding service, she would be the focus of hundreds of pairs of eyes? When, on her carriage ride through St Petersburg’s streets, she would be the focus of thousands of pairs of eyes? The mere thought of being the object of such public exposure made Alicky feel faint, and she was grateful to the bottom of her heart that at this family wedding she wasn’t expected to be a bridesmaid.

‘Only girls who are Russian Orthodox can be bridesmaids at a Russian Orthodox wedding,’ Vicky had explained to her when arrangements for the wedding were being made, ‘and so all the bridesmaids will be members of Sergei’s family. I hope it isn’t too much of a disappointment?’

Hugely relieved, Alicky had shaken her head to show that it wasn’t. Later, though, she had said, puzzled, ‘How is it that the bridesmaids have to be Russian Orthodox when the bride is a Lutheran Protestant?’

Vicky had looked uncomfortable and Alicky had known it was a question her sister had rather she hadn’t asked. ‘Ella is taking instruction,’ she had said, her eyes not meeting hers. ‘Sergei expects her to convert to Russian Orthodoxy in the not-too-distant future.’

If it hadn’t been for Ernie joining them, Alicky would have asked Ella how she felt about taking instruction in a way of worship that was vastly different from the one they had all been brought up in, but she doubted Ella would want to talk about such a subject in front of Ernie. Ernie was carelessly flippant about everything, and one thing Alicky was certain of was that changing from Lutheran Protestantism to Russian Orthodoxy was not a subject to be flippant about. She would talk about it later with Ella when they were next on their own.

Ernie was now gossiping about the Waleses and of how, although Maudie was fun, Toria and Looloo were tedious beyond belief.