Naughty In Nice (A Royal Spyness Mystery)

little Highland fling type of move that made Her Majesty raise an eyebrow. But then she smiled and held out her hand to me. “Georgiana, my dear. Come and sit down. It’s bitterly cold out there, isn’t it? The king has been pacing up and down like a caged bear because his doctor won’t let him go out in this sort of weather with his delicate chest.”
    “It is very bleak,” I agreed, “especially at Victoria Station. The wind whips right through.”
    “You’ve done most admirably, my dear. Setting a splendid example. That was a lovely picture of you in the Daily Express . I hope it inspired other young women to follow in your footsteps.”
    “I’m afraid my stint may be coming to an end,” I said.
    “Of course. I understand your brother wants to shut up the London house and is concerned about you.”
    “Yes, ma’am. I don’t know anybody else in London, and I don’t have the funds to stay at a club.”
    “Frightful waste of money—clubs,” the queen said.
    “However, my secretary and I put our thinking caps on this morning and we have come up with what seems like a perfect solution.”
    “Really, ma’am?” I think my voice trembled a little.
    “The king’s aunt Princess Louise, who is your great-aunt, is very much a recluse these days. She’s in her late eighties, of course, and has become rather frail. I’m sure it’s lonely for her, living alone in that great house. So I thought you could bring some youth and gaiety into her life.”
    I gulped. All right. My worst nightmare was about to come true. The queen had made murmurings about sending me to be lady-in-waiting for an aged aunt before, and now it was actually going to happen. Binky and Fig would be sipping cool drinks and eating foie gras and I’d be walking a Pekinese and holding knitting wool. I opened my mouth but no words would come out.
    “I gather you weren’t keen on going back to Scotland with your brother at this time of year. I don’t say I blame you. Terribly bleak and cut off in the winter.”
    “Oh, no, ma’am,” I said, as her words sunk in. “My brother is not going home to Scotland. He and my sister-in-law are going to the Riviera.”
    “The Riviera? I had no idea.”
    “For my sister-in-law’s health. She’s feeling rather frail at the moment.”
    “I didn’t think that ‘frail’ would ever be a word to describe your sister-in-law,” the queen said, looking up with a half smile on her lips as a tray of coffee was wheeled into the room. “I managed to have six children without making a fuss. One just got on with it.” The maid poured coffee and hot milk into a cup and put it down beside Her Majesty, then did the same for me. The queen then motioned her away and we were left alone. “Did you not want to go to the Riviera with them, then? I thought it was the aim of all young people these days.”
    “I wanted to go,” I said. “It’s just that—” I hesitated. It was bad form to discuss money problems. “Well, my brother has been saddled with horrendous death duties on the estate, so . . .” I left the rest of the sentence unsaid.
    “Such a silly, selfish thing to do,” the queen said, stirring her coffee fiercely. “Your father, I mean. We were always raised to face the music, not take the easy way out. Goodness knows the king and I have been through our share of trials and tribulations.” She took a dainty sip of coffee then looked me directly in the eye. “So you want to go to the south of France, but they haven’t invited you, is that it?”
    “I was told that I was welcome at the villa where they’ll be staying.” I hesitated to say to Her Majesty that I wasn’t sure whether that was true or not. “They didn’t feel that they could pay my travel expenses to go with them.”
    The queen took a long drink of coffee, put her cup down then sat staring out the window at the clouds racing across the sky. “This puts a different complexion on things. If I arranged for you to go to the Riviera with your family,” she said carefully, “I wonder if you could do something for me.”
    “Of course, ma’am,” I said cautiously.
    “I’d like to entrust you with a rather delicate and difficult task.”
    She had entrusted me with tasks before. They had usually proved difficult, dangerous or both—from entertaining foreign princesses to spying on her eldest son, the Prince of Wales. I remembered that he was currently on the Riviera himself and wondered if I was going to be thrust