Smithson cleared his throat. “Tell me, sir – what in your opinion are the qualities which make up a woman’s fitness to be a mother?”

Joan bit her lip. Please God, let him say it right.

“Love, tenderness, patience, a firm hand, solid Christian morals, and most necessarily, a sound mind.”

Lord Merrivale leaned from his perch. “And in your opinion, sir, does Miss Enid Campbell possess these qualities?”

Knocked by the voice from above, Douglas shifted to see him. “No, my Lord, I believe she possesses none of them.”

Smithson sat down and Enid’s council stood up. A man called Crowther. McKinley had said never heard of him.

“Mr Anstruther,” her man Crowther curled one hand in the other, “what proof do you have that Miss Enid Campbell is a Christian Scientist?”

“She spent two years living with them. I understand she visits a church in Chelsea. She tied our eldest son to a chair, and read the Christian Science manual over him. Isn’t that enough?”

“Enough proof? No, I’m afraid it is not. Did you not think she was searching for solace? That her son had suffered a terrible injury, and that she was carrying another child, a child forced on her under threat of losing an inheritance promised to her?”

“Promised to him.”

“Promised to her immediate family.”

“She wasn’t under threat.”

“As a result of his injuries, Lady George Campbell saw fit to disinherit him, leaving her fortune – hanging—” The pause filled the courtroom. He smiled and turned to Lord Merrivale. “My Lord, Miss Enid Campbell is not a Christian Scientist. She has joined no church; she subscribes to no doctrine, other than that of the good and honest Presbyterian beliefs of her mother, Lady George. Her behaviour immediately following her son’s accident was erratic and ill-thought-out, but here was a mother distraught – suffering not only the loss of her eldest son’s faculties but the loss of a security – a security promised to her on the death of her brother. Yes, she fled to friends in Norfolk who dabbled in unusual practices but where else—” he looked at Douglas again, “do you suggest she might have gone? Did she not give you another son? Did she not put aside everything to provide her mother with an heir? Is she not allowed friends?”

Douglas said nothing. Crowther lowered his eyebrows and carried on. “Mother’s Blues. Had you ever heard of such a thing before you were married?”

“No,” said Douglas.

“Grief?”

“Of course.”

“Exhaustion?”

“This is ridiculous,” said Douglas.

“What about fidelity? Is that ridiculous too?”

Douglas opened his mouth and shut it again.