Then, without waiting for Hannah to open the front door for her, she sped towards it knowing that if she left it open Hannah would close it quietly behind her so that it would not disturb her mother.

*

The Earl was waiting in the same place as he had been the night before and, as Thalia ran towards him, she had the strange feeling that in a way she could not explain, he stood not for disruption resulting from the discovery she feared but for security.

She reached him and he took her hand in his.

“You are cold,” he commented.

“I am – frightened.”

“Of me?”

“No, of what you are going to tell me. How – could you have – found out?”

“Shall we talk about it over dinner?” he suggested.

Thalia wanted to reply that she could not wait until dinnertime to know the worst, but after the anxiety of waiting all day for this moment, now that he was here, the urgency did not seem quite so intense.

They walked to where the Earl’s carriage was waiting and, as they drove away, the Earl said,

“Let me look at you. You are even lovelier than I remember and I have been thinking about you ever since we said ‘goodnight’.”

Thalia forced a wry little smile to her lips, but she had no ready reply.

He had again taken her hand in his, but he did not kiss it as she half-expected he would, but instead held it close so that she could feel the warmth coming back into it.

At the same time she felt as if in some way she did not understand she was drawing on his strength and absorbing it into herself.

The carriage came to a standstill and she looked out in surprise.

It had only been a few minutes since they had left Shepherd’s Market.

“Tonight I thought we would dine at my house,” the Earl said. “There are a number of things in it that I would like to show you and I realise that where we went last night is not the right place for you.”

Thalia stepped out and she followed him feeling, as she entered the large hall with its beautiful wrought-iron staircase twisting upwards to a painted dome, that she had stepped into another world.

The butler opened the door of the salon and Thalia thought that it was exactly the type of room she imagined the Earl would possess.

It was decorated sumptuously, at the same time in a manner that made it appear to achieve a perfection of design and furnishing that was like listening to great music or seeing a picture painted by a great Master.

But for the moment she had no interest in anything but what the Earl had to tell her and, having accepted the glass of champagne she was proffered without even realising what she was doing, she waited until the servants left the room before she said,