AT THE APPOINTED TIME, Amelia and Arthur went to the car waiting to take them to Buckingham Palace. That there was an event scheduled at the palace, following a weekend spent by Arthur and Amelia together, had hardly been kept a secret from the public. Even so, Amelia was startled to find the short drive along the Mall from St James’s to Buckingham lined with people watching the cars as they passed. Some waved and tossed flowers; others stood unsmiling and impenetrably grave, as though the motorcade was something between a wedding and a funeral procession.
She wore a simple pale yellow dress with a navy blue jacket. In other circumstances, she might have liked to have worn a dress to match the stone in her ring. Except that stone was red and Amelia had refused to wear the color of Lancast
