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forgotten to add “ma’am.”
    “Everyone knows everyone else on the Riviera, so I’m told. You said your family is going there. Well, Sir Toby has a villa in Nice, so I’m sure you’ll all attend the same parties. You’re a pretty young girl and you have royal connections. You’ll be invited everywhere.”
    I didn’t say that I thought it unlikely anyone would invite Fig and her unsociable sister, Ducky, unless they were really desperate. I felt a great weight of doom descending on me. For a moment I thought that I’d rather take up the offer of becoming Princess Louise’s companion, but then my sense of adventure took over. It was exciting, after all. Better than serving soup in dreary London. Much better than sitting alone at Castle Rannoch.
    I’d go to the Riviera. I’d do my best to carry out the queen’s request, and if I didn’t succeed, then that was too bad. At least I could ascertain whether Sir Toby had the snuffbox or not.
    I could sense the queen looking at me. “So can I count on you, Georgiana?”
    “I’ll do my best, ma’am.”
    She smiled then. “Splendid. You are a good girl, Georgiana. A credit to the family. I can’t understand why you’re not married yet. I had rather hoped that you’d find yourself a husband at Princess Maria Theresa’s wedding. So many eligible young princes there.” When I said nothing she added, “We are expected to do our duty, Georgiana. You need a place of your own in society. It’s not good to be dependent on others.”
    “I would like to marry, ma’am. It’s just that nobody suitable has asked me.”
    She patted my knee, which was an uncharacteristically familiar gesture for her. “I’m sure it will all work out in the end. And speaking of marriage, there’s one other small task you can carry out for me while you’re on the Riviera. My son David is shirking his duties again and is cruising the Med on a friend’s yacht. I understand that dreadful American woman was seen leaving London the other day on the boat train.”
    “Mrs. Simpson, you mean?”
    “Mrs. Simpson indeed. And one gathers that her husband was with her. She drags him around for respectability’s sake. The woman has no shame.”
    “I suppose we should be glad that she stays married to him. At least she can’t think of marrying the Prince of Wales if she already has a husband.”
    “Marrying my son? You surely don’t think that David is considering—preposterous. Quite out of the question. The nation would never stand for a divorced woman as our future queen! The church would not condone it. His family would certainly never stand for it.” She paused, as if considering. “So, Georgiana, there may be another little thing I’d like you to do for me while you’re there. . . .”
    “You’d like me to keep an eye on Mrs. Simpson, would you, ma’am?”
    She hesitated, then said firmly, “Yes, that’s it. Keep an eye on Mrs. Simpson. The king has always behaved impeccably, Georgiana. We can’t have the heir to the throne behaving like a common playboy and bringing disgrace to the royal family. So if you see him appearing in public with this woman, I’d like to know about it. You’ll write to me immediately to let me know whether she is actually staying on the yacht with him.”
    “I will, ma’am.”
    She stood up. I followed suit, as one doesn’t sit when royalty stands. “Well, that’s all settled then. This is most fortuitous, isn’t it? You go to the Riviera with the family and I achieve my objectives as well. Very satisfactory all around. I’ll instruct my secretary to make your travel arrangements.”
    I was escorted from the room. As I walked through the palace I mulled over the last part of our interview. I could have sworn that she wanted to ask me to do something quite different from spying on Mrs. Simpson. She had hesitated and changed her mind at the last moment. I wondered if it was another piece of cat burglary that she had wanted me to carry out. I