“I’ve found out all about ’er, my Lord. She lives at Number 82, a tidy little ’ouse it be.”

“Alone?”

“No, my Lord. ’Er mother lives with ’er and they tells me she’s always ill. A physician comes regular. And the woman she were with be a servant, my Lord, name of Hannah, a regular old battleaxe they tells me ’er can be when it comes to shoppin’. Expects the best cuts for as little as she can get ’em.

The Earl smiled.

He was aware that Henry would have made enquiries at the butchers of which there were traditionally a number in Shepherd’s Market.

“Anything more, Henry?” he enquired.

“Everyone speaks well of the young lady, my Lord. Said as ’er were having an ’ard time till she gets a job in Bond Street, since then ’as paid on the nail and never asks for favours like some they could mention!”

The Earl had learned what he wished to know.

“Thank you, Henry.”

“Pleasure, my Lord!” Henry replied cheekily.

With a grin that was an impertinence in itself, he went from the room.

The Earl, who would have permitted no familiarity from any other member of his household, was particularly lenient where Henry was concerned.

He supposed that it was because Henry was such a little man. At the same time he was not only useful but also trustworthy and that was something the Earl had found in the War was more important than spit and polish and an unbending conventionality.

Without hurrying himself, the Earl rose to his feet and, walking into the hall, took his hat and cane from the footman on duty.

“Do you require a carriage, my Lord?” he answered.

“No, I am walking,” the Earl replied.

He left the house. The south end of Berkeley Square was only a short distance from Shepherd’s Market and the Earl knew that he would anyway have to proceed on foot in the market itself.

Although it was late in the afternoon, the small shops were still open as the majority of them catered for those who worked and were so individualistic that they had no wish to copy the more important shops, which had certain closing hours and remained a law unto themselves.

It was obvious that those who shopped in the market were friendly and in most cases as familiar with each other as if it was really the small country village it had been throughout the centuries.

It was not difficult for the Earl to find amongst the modest little dwellings, which he suspected were occupied mostly by craftsmen, Number 82.

As he approached it, he liked what he could see of the curtains that hung at the windows, the cleanliness of the windows themselves and the way the ancient knocker on the door had been polished until it reflected its surroundings like a mirror.

The Earl raised the knocker with his hand and waited.