38656356325923

about the older generation if one isn’t their real father,’ he complained to his beloved
daughter Patricia, ‘not that I blame them tho’ it makes me feel a bit sad at times.’ As
time passed, however, their relationship got back to normal. ‘Philip is right back on
1946 terms with us and we’ve had a heart to heart in which he admitted he was fighting
shy of coming under my dominating influence and patronage.’ 19
On 20 November Elizabeth flew out to join her husband and, after spending a few
courtesy nights at the Governor’s residence, moved in with the Mountbattens.
Mountbatten, who seemed never to tire of the excitement of having royal relations, was
enchanted to have the heir to the throne actually staying in his house. He was, perhaps,
a little in love with her. ‘I don’t think I need to tell you how fond I’ve become of her,’ he
told Patricia. ‘Lilibet is quite enchanting and I’ve lost whatever of my heart is left to
spare entirely to her. She dances quite divinely and always wants a Samba when we
dance together and has said some very nice remarks about my dancing.’ He was anxious
to know what she really thought of him since Philip had told him ‘she used not to like
me’ and commissioned Patricia to find out. Elizabeth’s original opinion of Mountbatten
may well have been influenced by her mother’s reservations about him, but in Malta,
getting to know him better, she became fond of him. He was good company and easy to
talk to and there was a distinct shortage of royal uncles since the Duke of Kent had died
and the Duke of Windsor had become a skeleton in the family cupboard. She found it
easier to communicate with older adults than with most people of her own age unless
she knew them really well. Then there was polo, which involved horses, her real
passion. Philip became bitten by the polo bug in Malta under the influence of his uncle.
Elizabeth used to sit beside Mountbatten at polo matches watching her husband play.
Significantly while Mountbatten pointed out the players to her – ‘There’s so and so
playing’ – Elizabeth, recognizing the horse rather than the man, would correct him: ‘No,
it can’t be so and so because it’s Grayling.’ Elizabeth’s entourage remained suspicious of
him. One lady was despatched to Malta with strict instructions from Browning, who
knew his old chief well: ‘Remember you’ve got Dickie – he’d always rather do something
under the table than above.’ Further, he told her to make sure that ‘Princess Elizabeth
wasn’t bossed about by Dickie’.
At Guardamangia Elizabeth gazed wide-eyed out of a window, fascinated by the
experience of seeing people living in caves. It was all a long way away from
Buckingham Palace and Clarence House. The few months in Malta were to be the only
period in which Elizabeth could lead a near-normal life as a naval wife out of the public
eye despite the inevitable presence of her detective. Mike Parker was there too – ‘He
and Prince Philip were like boys together,’ a courtier said. ‘He [Parker] jollied things
up.’ There was swimming, dancing, picnics, expeditions by boat to the beaches and
coves round the island and to Gozo. She could even go shopping and out to the
hairdresser and enjoy in-jokes with the other naval wives. She was happy and pregnant,
apparently not missing her son, at home in London with his grandparents and his
nannies. He spent Christmas with them at Sandring-ham; it was perhaps the beginning
of his lifelong devotion to his grandmother. The King too doted on him, writing to his