Princess Elizabeth's Spy(87)

There was a nervous rap. Maggie jumped up and went to the door. “Who is it?” she asked.

“C’est moi, Mademoiselle. It’s Audrey.”

Maggie opened the door a crack. There was the young French woman, carrying a tray of sandwiches and pots of tea. “Come in, Audrey,” she said. “Look, children,” she said to the room. “Audrey’s brought you something to eat!”

The young people nearly fell over themselves to get to the sandwiches, while Alah set to work pouring the tea. Maggie noticed that the two Princesses held back, waiting to make sure there were enough sandwiches for everyone, before helping themselves.

“Thank you so much, Audrey,” Maggie said. “The children were getting hungry, although they didn’t complain.”

“Poor little things,” she said. “I couldn’t help but think of them here, especially the little Princesses.”

“They’re doing fine,” Maggie said. “I’m sure this drama will all be over soon.”

“I’ll be on my way then, Mademoiselle,” Audrey said.

“No,” Maggie said. “You couldn’t possibly go back. It’s bad enough you risked yourself by coming here. Stay until it’s over.”

“Of course, Mademoiselle,” Audrey said. “Of course I’ll stay with the Princesses.”


“We hadn’t planned on a lockdown, for Christ’s sake!” Boothby said to Gregory, looking down at David’s body lying on the cold stone terrace.

“No,” Gregory said. “But if we don’t act tonight, we’ll miss our chance. I’ve already contacted Hess. If we don’t do it tonight, we’re stuck here until God knows when. And,” he said, poking a toe into David’s body and jostling him, “he’s our ticket out of Britain.”


“Sir, you can’t enter this area,” the Coldstream Guard said. He was standing in front of one of the entranceways to the kitchen. Then he took a closer look at the man. It was George Poulter, out of his usual footman’s uniform, as he had been for the pantomime. The guard narrowed his eyes. “Wait—aren’t you—?”

Poulter pulled out his gun from the waistband of his trousers and shot the guard through the heart. As the man’s eyes glazed over, he dropped to the floor.

“Sorry, mate,” Poulter said as he shoved the gun back into his trousers, then took the narrow stairs down to the wine cellar and began rolling up the carpet. Hidden underneath the carpet was the trap door in the floor, leading into the castle’s dungeons.


It was getting late. In the nursery, Maggie was next to Margaret on the sofa, while Lilibet had settled near one of the windows, peeking out behind the blackout curtains. Audrey sat down on a needlepoint footstool, close to the Princesses. One of the corgis growled low in his throat and bared his small, sharp teeth. “Dookie!” Lilibet snapped. “Stop that!”

“Thank you, Your Highness,” Audrey said. “I must confess, I don’t like dogs very much.”

“Oh, Audrey, thank you so much for bringing the sandwiches and tea,” Lilibet said earnestly. “It was extremely brave of you.”

“It was nothing, Miss,” Audrey said. She looked around. Everyone, including Alah and Crawfie, was either engaged in low conversation or sleeping where they could.

She lowered her voice. “There was a phone call for you, Miss. From—Lieutenant Mountbatten.”

“Philip?” Elizabeth said, hand going to her heart.

“Yes, Miss. I told him about the shooting, then that you were being kept in the nursery. He sounded beside himself with worry.”

“Oh, no,” Lilibet said. “Poor Philip. And we’re fine. I must let him know.”

Audrey leaned in. “He asked if you would call him back,” she said. “He practically begged me. He’ll be waiting by the phone in, let’s see,” she looked up at the clock on the mantel. “In ten minutes.”

“Ten minutes!” Lilibet said. “Why, if I don’t call, he’ll think something is terribly wrong!”

Audrey whispered in Lilibet’s ear, “Pretend to get something from Margaret’s room. I’ll follow you a few minutes behind, and then we can go down to the kitchen so you can call Philip.”

Lilibet’s face clouded as she looked over at Alah, dozing peacefully in the tufted chair in front of the fire.

“He’s waiting for your call, Miss.”

Emboldened by her feelings, Lilibet made up her mind.


Slowly, slowly, David began to regain consciousness.

“You gave us all quite a scare,” he heard Gregory say over the loud noise of an engine.