But she could not think of anything except her father and the trap he would walk into the moment he arrived in England.

It seemed to her that she waited for a long time before the door opened again and the butler said,

“Will you come this way, miss? His Lordship’s in the library.”

Feeling as if it was impossible to think of what she would say, conscious only that her mother’s life as well as her father’s freedom rested on what happened in the next few minutes, Thalia followed the butler across the hall.

He opened the door of a room where the walls were lined with books.

She could, however, see only the Earl moving towards her and was aware, with one glance at his face, of his surprise at seeing her.

He waited until the door had closed behind the butler and then he asked,

“What has happened? Why are you here?”

She raised her face to his and, when he saw her eyes, he looked at her for a long moment before he said quietly,

“You have had a shock. Come and sit down and tell me about it.”

It flashed through his mind that perhaps her mother had died. Then, because of her expression, he knew that something unexpectedly traumatic had happened, otherwise she would not have come to him.

The Earl had, in fact, been astonished when just as he was about to leave the house the butler had come into the library to say,

“There is a lady to see you, my Lord.”

“A lady?” the Earl had asked sharply, thinking it might be Lady Adelaide and having no wish for her to delay his departure.

“It’s the young lady who dined here last night, my Lord.”

For a moment the Earl thought that he could not have heard aright and then he said quickly,

“Show her in here.”

“Very good, my Lord.”

When the butler left the room to fetch Thalia, the Earl told himself that something very strange indeed must have occurred for her not only to communicate with him so early in the day but also to come in person.

He had been worrying ever since he awoke this morning as to whether Thalia would once again refuse to dine with him unless he could find a very reasonable excuse to force her into doing so.

She had certainly not said last night when he left her that she was not prepared to listen to the plan of which he had spoken or that they could not meet as he intended, but he had been afraid that when she left him she would once again be making difficulties.

Only because she was afraid of what he had discovered about her, and Heaven knows what her secret was, had she dined with him last night.