Marjorie Plunkett sat at the dressing table and checked her reflection in the mirror. She sprayed her wrists and neck with perfume before straightening her glittering headband. She was pleased with the way the diamonds and emeralds highlighted her eyes and matched her green dress perfectly. She hadn’t realised that Lloyd’s dear departed mother had left him such an enviable collection of jewels until she’d persuaded him to give her a peek in the family vault the week before. She was just borrowing the headband for now but, soon enough, the entire Lancaster-Brown collection would be hers.

‘Are you ready, Marjorie?’ Lloyd called from the sitting room. ‘We’re late. Although, if you’d prefer not to go, I can be out of this monkey suit in minutes and we can watch the Saturday movie.’

‘Oh, Lloyd,’ Marjorie huffed. He was going to have to learn to love these occasions. As she reached for a tissue she noticed the face on her watch light up. ‘What now?’ she muttered.

‘What was that, darling?’ Lloyd said, standing in the doorway.

Marjorie spun around in her seat. ‘There’s a problem with Her Majesty’s hat for tomorrow’s picnic,’ she said, trying not to look flustered. She smiled and stood up, smoothing her dress with her hands. ‘I need to pop up and make a couple of alterations.’

‘Really? Are you sure it can’t wait?’ Lloyd asked. He walked towards her and gently kissed her cheek. ‘Or I could come and help you. You never let me see you work.’

‘I’ve told you before that I don’t fare well with an audience,’ Marjorie said. She linked arms with him and led him to the door. ‘Why don’t you go ahead, and I’ll meet you there? Dinner isn’t until eight.’

Lloyd pouted and gave a nod. ‘If I have to, but don’t be too long. Aunty Gee surely has a whole cupboard full of hats she could wear instead. And it’s only a picnic, for heaven’s sake. You know I won’t enjoy a second of it until you’re by my side.’

‘I’ll be there as quickly as I can. Remember, it is Her Majesty’s special weekend and she could wear ten different hats if she wanted to,’ Marjorie tutted. She accompanied him to the end of the hall and waited until he’d disappeared downstairs before racing back to their suite and locking the door behind her. Marjorie pressed the winder on the side of her watch and waited.

‘Good evening, Chief,’ Fiona answered.

‘Hello Fi. What is it?’

‘There’s been a security breach at the cottage, ma’am, but I cannot determine the extent of the intrusion.’

‘When?’ Marjorie asked.

‘Earlier this afternoon,’ Fiona replied, ‘but I have only just received the information. I think something is interfering with our reception.’

Marjorie listened as Fiona explained the situation. ‘Is she all right?’ Marjorie asked.

‘I believe so, ma’am.’

Marjorie paced the room, her mind racing. ‘Is she in danger?’

There was a long pause.

Marjorie stopped pacing. ‘Fi, is she in danger?’

‘No, ma’am, but depending on what he saw, you may have been compromised.’

‘We need to find out what he knows as soon as possible,’ Marjorie said.

‘Yes, ma’am. I’ve already generated a new assignment for one of our operatives on the ground,’ Fiona replied.

‘Well done, Fi. Let me know as soon as you have anything,’ Marjorie said.

As Head of SPLOD, the Secret Protection League of Defence – the most secure and powerful spy unit in the country, Marjorie’s cover was paramount.

‘And what about the footage from the camera?’ she asked. ‘Is there anything coming through?’

‘Yes, ma’am. The owner of the camera seems to take it everywhere with her and she rarely leaves Alice-Miranda’s side.’

‘Transmit the photographs to Bunyan – I mean, Treadwell,’ Marjorie directed. ‘I’d like her to review them and make sure there’s nothing unusual.’

‘Of course, Chief,’ Fiona replied.

‘Thank you, Fi,’ Marjorie said.

Alice-Miranda followed Millie upstairs with Jacinta and Sloane, and Caprice slunk along behind them. The boys had been cornered by Lord Tavistock, who was teaching them the finer points of clay-pigeon shooting in anticipation of tomorrow’s picnic by the river.

‘Having fun, girls?’ Edgar asked as he and his brother stepped out to block the girls’ path.

Millie nodded. ‘Yes, it’s a lovely party. We were just going to look at the paintings.’

‘Boring,’ the twins said in unison.

‘There are loads more interesting things to see around here,’ Louis said.

‘Like what?’ Jacinta challenged, folding her arms.

Edgar looked at his brother with a sly grin. ‘Well, there are the dungeons and the torture chambers.’

‘There’s a rack where our relatives used to take their enemies and stretch them until their arms and legs popped off,’ Louis added.

‘What do you mean our relatives used to take their enemies there?’ Edgar said. ‘Grandmama still does.’

‘No, she doesn’t,’ Alice-Miranda said, shaking her head. ‘Daddy said Evesbury was built as a beautiful home, not as a castle or a fort, so I’m sure there aren’t any torture chambers or dungeons here.’

The twins looked at one another. ‘So cute, isn’t she?’ Louis said.

‘Yes, always thinking the best of everyone,’ Edgar replied. ‘She has no idea what Grandmama is really like. Just wait until bedtime when the palace is quiet and you can hear the wailing of all those lost souls on the shadows of the wind.’

‘You should be a poet, Edgar,’ Alice-Miranda said. ‘You’ve got a wonderful imagination and a rather good way with words.’

‘A poet! What stupid romantic nonsense,’ Edgar scoffed. ‘I’m going to be an inventor.’

Louis stared fiercely at his brother.

‘What would you invent?’ Millie asked.

‘I can tell you,’ Caprice chimed in.

The twins looked as if they wanted to throw her off the balcony. But just as the girl was about to spill the beans on the boys’ secret hideaway, a loud gong reverberated throughout the hall.

The crowd hushed and a man dressed in red-and-white livery appeared in the middle of the upstairs gallery. Alice-Miranda recognised him as the young footman she’d spoken to when they’d arrived that morning. She smiled and waved at him.

He caught her eye and gave her a wink, then took a deep breath as he unfurled a short scroll. ‘Your Majesty, My Lords, ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, dinner is served.’

‘I jolly well hope not or it will be cold by the time we get there,’ Freddy grumbled.

Queen Georgiana rolled her eyes. ‘Must you always make such banal comments? You know exactly what he means,’ she whispered. ‘You’d better up your game, or you’ll be the laughing stock of the country – when and if I hand over the reins.’

Freddy flushed. He’d been hoping his mother would announce her retirement at her jubilee celebrations, but that hardly seemed likely now. Elsa, meanwhile, stood beside her husband with her mouth gaping open.

Her Majesty grinned sweetly at her daughter-in-law. ‘Close your mouth, dear. Gawping like a stunned carp is hardly becoming of the woman who would like to one day call herself Queen.’

She quickly turned her attention to the handsome man beside her.

‘Robert, darling, would you mind escorting an old woman to dinner?’ She smiled at Lord Adams, whose wife, Lady Sarah, was chatting animatedly with Charlotte Highton-Smith.

‘It would be my pleasure, Your Majesty,’ the man replied with a bow.

From the other side of the room, Thornton Thripp had been watching the exchange. Whatever had just happened, the look on Freddy and Elsa’s faces was priceless. Thornton shook his head. How on earth a woman with as much grace and dignity as Her Majesty possessed had managed to produce such a gormless worm of a son was anyone’s guess.