Daisy opened her mouth to reply when a tentative knock on the back door made the three of them exchange a glance. The back door, leading in from the mews, was used by clients who wanted the greatest secrecy.
Tess and Ellie peered around the doorframe into the corridor as Daisy went to answer it.
It was almost dusk. A carriage with no identifying crest on the panels waited in the cobbled courtyard, and a cloaked figure stood on the back step.
“May I help you?” Daisy asked.
“I wish to speak to Mr. King.” The speaker, an older female, had a distinctly foreign inflection. German, perhaps, or Swiss. Her wish sounded like “vish.”
Daisy swung the door wide in invitation, revealing Tess and Ellie, and gave the standard response they gave to everyone who wished to speak to their “employer.”
“I’m afraid Mr. King’s out investigating a case atpresent, but do come in and explain your situation. As his assistants, the three of us are in his strictest confidence.”
The figure nodded and followed Daisy into the front room, but when she pulled back her hood Tess bit back a gasp.
All three of them dipped into deep formal curtsies. “Your Majesty!”
Tess straightened, trying to hide her shock at seeing England’s very own Queen Charlotte—the wife of “mad” King George and mother of the prince regent—here, in their front room.
The queen removed her cloak and seated herself regally in the armchair Daisy had just vacated.
All three of them leapt into action.
“It is an honor to have you visit us, Your Majesty,” Tess said.
She’d seen the queen on numerous occasions at social functions, starting with her own debut presentation at court, just weeks before her wedding to the duke. But apart from a few brief social niceties, she’d never actuallyconversedwith the woman.
“Can I get you some tea, Your Majesty?” Ellie queried.
Queen Charlotte waved her hand. “Please, no ‘majesty.’ And no tea, either, thank you. Tonight, I come to you as plain Mrs. King.” Her gray eyes twinkled. “A name I suspect is as fictional as your employer.”
Ellie and Daisy shared a startled glance, but the queen only gave them a maternal smile. “Oh, fear not. Your secret is safe with me. I have no vish to meet your ‘Mr. King,’ provided I can engage his services. I have a sensitive matter that needs to be handled with the utmost delicacy.”
Tess seated herself behind the desk and pulled forward a piece of paper to take notes. “Of course, Your Maj—ma’am. How can we help?”
The queen frowned. She was a handsome woman of over seventy years, and her gray hair had no need of its powder, but the quiet force of her personality was evident in the direct look she gave each of them. She nodded, as if they’d passed some unspoken test.
“As you know, in less than a month my dear granddaughter, the Princess Charlotte, is to marry her beloved Prince Leopold.”
Daisy smiled. “The whole country is eagerly awaiting that happy event, ma’am.”
“It is a love match, it is true”—the queen smiled fondly—“which is why nothing can be allowed to interfere with it going ahead.”
Ellie raised her brows. “Isthere something that might cause that to happen?”
“Indeed. A most unfortunate situation has arisen, and because of the gossiping at the court—and the indiscreet nature of official channels—there is no one I can entrust to deal with it.”
Tess nodded, intrigued, but trying to remain cool and businesslike. “You can be assured of our discretion.”
“That is what I have heard. If, as I suspect, the three ofyouare the ones responsible for ‘Mr. King’s’ success, then I hope you will be able to help me with this little problem, too.”
The queen settled lower in her chair. “My granddaughter, you must understand, has lived an incredibly sheltered life. The prince regent was, I am ashamed to say, a rather neglectful parent. He allowed Charlotte very little freedom, and left her in the dubious care ofhis estranged wife, Caroline, the Princess of Wales, and a series of strict chaperones.
“Three years ago, aged just fifteen, Charlotte embarked on a foolish and youthful flirtation with a young captain in the hussars, a handsome rogue named Charles Hesse. The relationship wasencouragedby her mother, probably out of spite for poor George—they hate each other quite passionately.”
Daisy nodded. The dislike of the prince regent, George IV, and his wife, Caroline, provided the satirical caricaturists with endless fodder. It was entirely possible that the princess had promoted the match to enrage her unfaithful—and possibly bigamous—husband.
The queen continued. “Unfortunately, Charlotte and Hesse entered into a correspondence, and exchanged a series of ill-advised, and extremely embarrassing, love letters before the affair petered out. When the princess fell in love with Leopold, she had her friend Margaret Mercer Elphinstone write to Hesse—who was away fighting on the peninsula—and demand the return of the letters, some trinkets, and a portrait miniature she had given him.”
