“Good luck!” he called over his shoulder as he hurried down the stairs. She left a few minutes later, and Lord Hatton had one of the grooms drive her to the train station, where she boarded with her single battered suitcase, feeling like an orphan again, and not a royal princess.
The trip to Aberdeenshire in Scotland took eight hours, changing several times, and the scenery was beautiful along the way. The area around the castle was very rural, which was what the queen and Queen Mother loved about it. She had already spent most of the summer there, and was now at Sandringham in Norfolk with friends. And she was leaving this time in August to the young people. Annie knew that the family usually spent Christmas there, and only went to Balmoral in the summer, for a proper holiday. Of all of them, Balmoral was the queen’s favorite castle. It had a romantic history. Victoria and Albert had rented it in 1848, and had liked it so much, they continued to lease it for four years, until Prince Albert bought it as a gift for Queen Victoria in 1852. They had built an entirely new castle there, and it remained their favorite holiday home. The rest of the time, they used Windsor Castle as their main residence, and preferred it with their nine children when they were growing up. They lived at Buckingham Palace for part of the time, but Windsor was the main seat of the monarchy during Victoria’s reign.
Balmoral was on the bank of the River Dee, near the village of Crathie, and the queen’s private secretary picked Annie up at the station, and was surprised to see she had come with only one very small bag, which he carried for her, and put in the queen’s Rolls for the short drive to the castle.
“Did you have an easy journey, Your Royal Highness?” Sir Malcolm asked pleasantly. He was happy to see her again, and she was relieved to see a familiar face.
“The scenery was beautiful.” She had brought a picnic lunch to eat on the train, prepared by the excellent chef at the stables.
“Dinner will be at eight o’clock,” he informed her. “Family in the drawing room at seven.” A wave of panic washed over her as he said it.
“Is it formal dress?”
“Never at Balmoral. Her Majesty prefers to keep things informal here. A simple dress will do nicely. There’s a picnic lunch planned tomorrow, and a barbecue the day after. Her Majesty’s children love barbecues. They visited a ranch in America last summer, and the queen enjoys barbecues too.” He smiled at her, and a few minutes later they reached the castle. It was more of a large estate house, and was less daunting than Buckingham Palace, or the other residences like Windsor, which was a real palace, and one of the oldest castles in the world, and rivaled Versailles in France. Balmoral was far more human scale.
A flock of corgis greeted them when they got out of the car, and the queen herself appeared a few minutes later to welcome her, and escort her inside. She hugged Annie when she saw her. Annie was wearing a navy blue linen skirt, which was sadly crumpled from the trip, a white blouse, a blazer, and sandals, and looked like a schoolgirl as she followed her aunt into the house.
There was a striking redheaded woman playing the piano and singing, with a crowd of young people around her, and Annie recognized her immediately. It was Her Royal Highness Princess Victoria, her other aunt. She waved from the piano with a broad smile, and three handsome young boys glanced at the new arrival and went on singing. They were singing American show tunes, and knew all the words, as Annie approached cautiously, the queen went outside with the dogs, and the head stewardess took Annie’s bag from the secretary, who followed Her Majesty outside for a brief conversation before he left.
The song ended a few minutes later, and Princess Victoria stood up and came around the piano, observing her niece closely, and looking deeply moved. Annie looked so much like her mother that there were tears in Victoria’s eyes when she hugged her.
“At last! I was in India for a month when you met my mother and sister. I’ve felt quite cheated not to meet you before this. Do you sing? We do a lot of it here,” she said, and the boys laughed. “I have no voice at all, but that never stops me,” she said easily and laughed. But she played the piano beautifully, and sang better than she admitted. She did a lot of it at parties. “I’m your naughty aunt,” she said happily. “The queen is the good one. And these are your cousins, my dear.” She introduced her to the queen’s three sons, who were eighteen, seventeen, and fourteen, close to the ages the three princesses had been during the war. They were Princes George, Albert, and William and were good-looking boys. They had the Teutonic blond looks of their father, who appeared a few minutes later to welcome her as well. He was Prince Edward. He had renounced his German nationality when he married Alexandra and exchanged his German title for a British one.