‘Then what is it? You look as if you’ve lost a pound and found a penny.’

Unable to keep his unhappiness to himself any longer, he said explosively, ‘I’ve lost more than a pound, Irène. Thanks to damnable royal protocol, I’ve just been told I can’t marry Julie.’

May nearly fell off the fountain. Julie? Who on earth was Julie? It wasn’t a name much used within the family. She couldn’t think of a single first or second cousin called Julie.

‘Who,’ Irène asked, as taken aback as May, ‘is Julie? And why can’t you marry her?’

Georgie ran a hand over his hair. ‘Julie is Julie Stoner. Her grandfather was one of Granny Queen’s Prime Ministers, and her late mother was once a lady-in-waiting to my mother. Her family live very close to Sandringham and I’ve known Julie all my life. She’s so pretty and sweet-natured . . .’

His voice broke and, for a hideous moment, May thought he was going to burst into tears.

‘. . . and damn it all, when Julie was orphaned, Motherdear encouraged me to spend time with her and to be kind to her.’ It was the second time Georgie had been so het up that he’d used a swear word in front of them without even noticing, let alone apologizing for it. ‘When I’m away at sea we write to each other all the time, and we’ve known that we love each other for ages and ages. It never occurred to me that I wouldn’t be allowed to marry her. It’s Eddy who is going to be King one day; not me, thank God. He’s the one who has to have a wife of flawless royal pedigree.’

May felt sick at heart for him. To love someone so much you wanted to marry them, and for them to love you in the same way and then to be unable to marry because of a difference in status, was a situation so hideous it didn’t bear thinking about.

It was, however, a situation that Georgie should have been aware of, long before his relationship with Julie had reached the point it had. After his father and then Eddy, he was third in line to the throne. It was generally accepted within the family that Georgie wasn’t much of a thinker, but even he must have realized that marrying a commoner wasn’t something someone in his position would ever be allowed to do.

She was just trying to think of something encouraging to say to him, when he blew his nose and said, ‘Motherdear says she wishes things could be different, because she adores Julie. How could she not, when Julie is so special in every way? But she says the Roman Catholic thing is simply too much of an obstacle.’