As she spoke, she thought that it would be always the backdoor in his life where she was concerned and yet he was treating her not only as a woman he could possess, but something infinitely more precious. It reminded her of the way her father had always treated her mother.

‘I love you, I love you!’ she wanted to say to him, over and over again.

But she remembered that the groom was sitting behind them and might hear what she said.

The Earl drew up his horses outside the back door of the shop.

“You are quite certain I cannot help you further?” he asked.

“No – I am all right,” Thalia replied.

She put out her hand and, as he took it in his, she felt herself quiver because he was touching her.

The groom helped her to step down from the phaeton and she slipped in through the back door, hoping that none of the work-women would be aware of the way in which she had returned.

Fortunately when she was inside, it was to find that Mrs. Burton was still serving in the front of the shop.

It was easy for Thalia to go to the desk where the bills were made out and procure a plain sheet of paper.

On it she wrote,

“The Trustees of Sir Denzil Caversham’s estate enclose the sum of one thousand pounds owed to Lord Dandish and deeply regret that this sum has been overlooked and was not paid three years ago as it should have been.”

She took an envelope from the desk, slipped the one containing the money inside and also the letter.

Then she folded the top of the envelope down and sealed it with sealing wax that Mrs. Burton kept to use when money had to be taken to the Bank.

Thalia then addressed the envelope to,

“The Right Hon. Lord Dandish,

White’s Club,

St. James’s Street.”

When she had finished, she asked,

“Is Bill here?”

“Yes, Thalia,” one of the work-women replied. “’He’s just a-goin’ to take this bonnet round to Lady Wentmore. She said at first she’d take it with her then she changed her mind.”

“I will give it to Bill,” Thalia said.

She picked up the box from the work-table and went down to the basement where Bill sat when he was not delivering packages containing the purchases that the customers had made.

He was not idle for Mrs. Burton found innumerable things to occupy him.

There were parcels and crates from Paris to be unpacked. There were bonnets to be mended and a great deal of his time was spent in cleaning and polishing. Mrs. Burton saw no reason to engage anyone else to do the work that he could do.

He was a man of over forty with grey hair who was terrified of losing his job and, when Thalia called him, he said quickly,