Free Alice-Miranda at the Palace 11 by Jacqueline Harvey Page A

can recognise talent when I see it.’
    Lawrence gave her one of his megawatt smiles. ‘Thanks, Aunty Gee.’
    Jacinta beamed.
    â€˜And, besides, if he can’t play, at least he’s pretty to look at.’ Queen Georgiana winked.
    Hugh’s jaw gaped open and the rest of the group’s did too. Mrs Marmalade gasped.
    â€˜For heaven’s sake, Marian. He’s a good-looking man and I’m old enough to be his mother and then some. It’s just human nature to admire lovely things.’ Queen Georgiana rolled her eyes. ‘Chop chop, everyone! I’ll have points docked for tardiness.’

‘Caprice, if you’re going to be here you have to be helpful.’ Venetia Baldini washed her hands in the huge sink and reached over to grab a bag of onions for the sauce she was about to make.
    â€˜I have been,’ the child complained, hovering behind her mother. ‘I peeled loads of potatoes and look what it’s done to my nails.’ Caprice held  a hand aloft and picked at the dry skin around her cuticles.
    â€˜I appreciate your efforts very much but there’sstill a lot more to do.’ Venetia sighed and wiped her brow with the back of her hand.
    She’d brought in a whole team to assist her and had access to Her Majesty’s own chefs too, but time would be tight nonetheless. Venetia knew that all the best dinners happened this way and, truly, she thrived on the stress of it all. She just hadn’t been expecting to have to look after her daughter at the same time.
    Plans had gone awry when her husband had received an invitation to take their children on a camping trip in Africa. Given Caprice’s last camp experience, they’d decided it would be safer for the girl to stay at home for some mother-daughter time while her father and three older brothers went on a boys-only adventure. Venetia had made arrangements to leave Caprice with the nanny for the jubilee weekend but was thrown for a loop when the woman had telephoned to say that she had a family emergency and couldn’t possibly look after the girl. Venetia had her suspicions about the real reason. She hated to think that Caprice could have put the woman off but, knowing what she did about her daughter, she couldn’t help being concerned.
    Venetia had had a hard time convincing Capricethat, while she could come along to the palace and help out, she wasn’t actually a guest and needed to keep a very low profile. That was perhaps going to be more difficult than she’d first thought.
    â€˜Mummy, please may I go for a walk outside?’ Caprice begged. ‘I promise I’ll come back when you say I have to.’
    Venetia shook her head. ‘I can’t afford for you to get into any trouble. You know this is the biggest job of my life. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be catering for the Queen and yet here I am.’
    Caprice pulled a face. ‘It’s not that big a deal. Everyone knows who you are, anyway.’
    A chef in a white uniform and tall hat dumped another bag of potatoes on the edge of the sink beside the huge tub that were already peeled. He winked at Caprice. ‘Looks like you’re doing a stellar job with those.’
    The child groaned.
    â€˜Caprice, please,’ her mother said, turning her attention to the onions.
    It was true that Venetia’s television show, Sweet Things , was the highest-rating cooking program on earth. From her childhood in a tiny Tuscan village, Venetia Baldini had become one of the most highlyregarded chefs in the world and had a growing empire to prove it. But cooking for Her Majesty was in another league altogether.
    All around them, the kitchen bustled with activity. There were chefs preparing vegetables and others dressing meat while an entire section whirred with the sound of mixers and blenders as a huge group of pastry chefs worked on the evening’s desserts. The menu was the most complicated