Captain Moonlight's Notebook

HAVING lost Miss Peachblossom, my former soothsayer, I visited Bettina Luxon, 54, a palmist in north London. She was fresh from Champneys health farm, where she reads the runes for exhausted businessmen. We talked about her having been summoned to read hand imprints found in plaster behind panelling at Hampton Court Palace after the fire. She claimed one belonged to Christopher Wren and the other may have been King Charles II. They had the fingers of very rich men, the former self-made, the latter not.

She said she had been told that our Prince of Wales had left his hand imprint in plaster at Highgrove during repairs, but workmen had smoothed it over. She didn't think Charles would be king. Her bet was the Princess Royal as regent until Prince William came of age. She said a photocopy of the hand of the Queen's grandson suggested he would be artistic and a linguist. She did hedge her bet by saying William might not be crowned.