Early November in the first year of the millennium and the Duke of York is on his travels again.
As so often, he is combining pleasure with royal business. On this occasion his journey has brought him to New Mexico and a wilderness so vast it makes the royal estates at Balmoral and Sandringham seem like suburban gardens in comparison.
For the next week, his home from home is Zorro Ranch; 8,000 acres of scrub and brush prairie, at the centre of which stands a hacienda-style mansion surrounded by manicured lawns and secluded lodges.
HRH was the guest of a man with whom he had only recently become acquainted. But what a beneficial friend to make — or so it seemed at the time. Zorro was but one of several fantastic properties owned by Wall Street billionaire Jeffrey Epstein.