‘There are certainly plenty of both of those, but they are far from being boring, and I loved visiting them.’ She was so overcome with the longing to be back in Florence that she had difficulty keeping her voice steady. ‘There is also lovely countryside within easy walking distance of the town, and the most stunning wild flowers – flowers that we never see in England. There were always lots of parties being given: afternoon parties, tennis parties, even musical mandolin parties. There were Saturday dinner parties, and my mama would sing and we would play charades. Sometimes there was a small dance. And on top of all that, there were painting classes and singing lessons to go to, and lots of new people to make friends with.’

She thought of Rowena, Belinda, Miss Light and Thaddeus, and a lump formed in her throat. In the two years since she had left Florence, all four of them had written to her, and she had received a letter from Thaddeus only that morning. His letter had been posted not from Florence, but from Algiers, where he had gone to study Oriental art. His interest in Orientalism had sparked her own interest in it, and whenever she could persuade her mother to accompany her, May had visited London galleries to see first-hand examples of Orientalist paintings.

Frank had called her a bluestocking, which meant he thought her passion for self-education was distinctly unfeminine.

‘I don’t see why it should be thought so,’ she had said crossly. ‘I’d far rather read a book, or visit a gallery, than sit gossiping about which member of the family is destined to marry another member of the family – especially when it’s often someone they barely know and, if they do know, have no particular liking for.’

As if she had been reading May’s mind, Toria said, as she made the opening move on the Halma board, ‘Aunt Beatrice says Granny Queen has a list of German princesses, any one of which would make Eddy a suitable bride – or will make him a suitable bride, when they become of marriageable age.’

Maudie’s eyebrows lifted. ‘Poor Eddy. He’s not going to want to be pushed into marriage in the same way he was pushed into spending years at sea with Georgie. He’s only twenty-two.’

From the depths of an armchair where he had been pretending to be interested in a Horse & Hound magazine, while all the while imagining Maudie with her gown unbuttoned to the waist, Frank said, ‘Your Grandpa Albert was only twenty when he married Granny Queen, and your papa was only twenty-one when he and your mama married. Going by family example, Eddy is being very lax in his reluctance to marry at twenty-two.’