Read Skeleton-in-Waiting for Free Online Page A

bit deaf these days.”
    â€œHow very extraordinary,” said Aunt Bea in her breathy near-whisper. “I had no idea. Of course HRH could be peculiarly secretive.”
    She sighed. Mother had settled her on a chaise longue and arranged a rota of the family to cheer her up, but none of them had achieved much, Louise guessed, until Count Alex settled beside her and started to talk, apparently focussing the whole of his bubbling attention on Aunt Bea’s soft, white, grief-dulled countenance. Louise was impressed. Most newcomers would have shown at least disguised reluctance to be transferred from talk with a newsworthy princess to a dull ex-lady-in-waiting. She was threading her way back towards Piers when her path was blocked by Father’s private secretary, Sir Savile Tendence. His attempt to stand aside was hampered by the three plates of walnut meringue he was balancing on one arm and the several brimming glasses in the other hand. He smiled his controlled tired smile.
    â€œHello, Sir Sam,” said Louise. “When you get sick of us you can always get a job as a juggler’s mate.”
    â€œI shall come to you for a reference, ma’am. Impressive little ceremony the kontakion made it, don’t you think? Life’s going to be quieter without her.”
    â€œDon’t you believe it. She’ll make a pretty effective ghost. Uncanny harp-twangings at the wrong moment. Where did you find Count Alex Romanov?”
    â€œThe little shiny one? We didn’t find him. HRH left instructions that he was to be invited to the funeral. He is named in her will as literary executor—not a very onerous responsibility, one would think, with just that monograph on the harp. Presumably he has an interest in things musical.”
    â€œI don’t know. He says they were pen-pals. He’s still got a lot of her letters. They used to send each other family gossip.”
    Sir Savile had already been on the move with his teetering load. He stopped.
    â€œ Our family?” he murmured.
    â€œYes.”
    â€œDear me.”
    â€œHe says he doesn’t necessarily believe everything she told him.”
    â€œOh, it wouldn’t need to be true. Has he any idea what he’s got there, d’you imagine?”
    Louise considered. People, especially intelligent ones, could be extraordinarily naive about what mattered once you became involved with the Family, but Count Alex had given the impression of being fully aware of the nuances around him. You wouldn’t be much good as a gossip­-relay if you weren’t.
    â€œYes, probably,” she said.
    â€œDear me.”
    â€œThey’re all in Russian.”
    â€œI suppose that’s something. I’d better have a word with HM. How did you run into the chap? I mean, did he come beavering over to you to tell you?”
    â€œNo. He was talking to Piers about AI, and then when I showed up he got on to the letters.”
    â€œAI?”
    â€œArtificial Intelligence.”
    â€œIs there any other kind?”
    â€œIt’s Count Alex’s job too.”
    â€œIs it, now? Perhaps you might suggest to Lord Chandler that he keeps in touch, hm?”
    â€œThey seemed to be getting on. Tell Father to ring me if he wants to know any more.”
    Sir Savile moved away but before Louise could do so too she felt a touch on her elbow and turned to find it was Albert.
    â€œGot a moment?” he said. “Not in here. Shouldn’t be anyone in the Stamp Room.”
    â€œI’ll just tell Piers.”
    Great-grandfather, King Victor I, had been a man of few interests. He shot and went racing, because he was expected to. He played simple card-games for large stakes, and snooker. His rumoured youthful­ enthusiasms were not permissible under the steely rule of Great-grandmama­. But somebody must have decided that a monarch ought to be publicly known to have concerns of a vaguely intellectual kind, and that in King