The Duke looked at the Countess as if she had taken leave of her senses.

“Did you say – married?”

“Yes, darling, and as I say, it may seem mad. But surely to be married to an ordinary English girl who is young, pleasant and complacent and ready to do what you wish would be better than having all those Royals sitting on top of you?”

“I have no wish to marry Princess Sophie or anybody else,” the Duke insisted.

“I know that,” Aline agreed, “but it would be much worse to be married to her and have Prince Albert lecturing you from morning to night than it would be to choose your own wife.”

There was a certain amount of twisted logic in this, the Duke thought, and after a moment’s silence he said somewhat grudgingly,

“I suppose even to be engaged might prevent them from ordering me to marry the Princess.”

“Exactly!” Aline said. “And, although I cannot bear to think about it, you have to be married sometime.”

“But not for many years.”

“But you cannot afford to wait for years, the Queen will see to that.”

There was silence until the Duke said disagreeably,

“Well, who do you suggest I should marry? Before you suggest again ‘a young girl’, I don’t know any.”

“I am aware of that,” Aline answered, “and besides there is no time for you to go wooing one. Your engagement, if you are to be saved from the Princess, will have to be announced immediately.”

“Can I not invent some woman I have never seen and who does not actually exist?” the Duke asked hopefully.

“No, of course not!” Aline replied. “But I have somebody in mind that you can marry and there will be no difficulty in announcing your engagement the day after tomorrow.”

There was silence before the Duke remarked,

“I suppose I am being rather obtuse, but I cannot see quite how you come into this, Aline, or why you are so interested.”

“Can you really ask such foolish questions?” she enquired. “I love you, Ulric, you know that I love you, and I will do anything to prevent us from losing the happiness we have found together.”

Her voice sharpened as she finished,

“You know as well as I do that if you marry the Princess we shall never have another chance of being alone together.”

She gave a groan as she added,

“You have been at Buckingham Palace long enough to know that the Queen is aware of everything that concerns her household and I expect too that she knows about us however discreet we have been! But if you were actually one of the family they would keep you so occupied that you would never have a free moment to yourself.”

The Duke knew that this was true, but, as there was no point in merely agreeing with Aline, he said nothing.

“I have been thinking,” the Countess continued, “ever since George told me what was going to happen that if you married somebody completely outside the Royal Circle, then it would be impossible for the Queen to interfere between you and me.”