Almost without noticing, Lou passed through the gates. Blinding snow whipped about her like ocean foam. Through the confusion of darkness and whiteout, soft smudges of colourful light glowed. Lady Mandeville’s Chinese lanterns. By their dim light, Lou wove an unsteady path up the drive. She pulled at the lapels of her coat and put her head down. Halfway up the drive and through the eerie quiet of the snow, a different sound came out of the darkness. Lou imagined it was the wind whistling through the branches of the trees in the woods. Its volume rose.

Louisa. Louisa!

It couldn’t be … She tried to see through the blizzard. Surely nobody would have ventured out of the house on foot in this storm. It was too early for any guests to have arrived. In any case, no guest would know her name.

Louisa. Louisa!

There it was again! She stopped and strained to hear.

We need you. We trust you!

She spun around. Her mind was playing tricks on her. There was nobody and nothing, apart from the dense white of the snow and the smudges of light.

Lou entered the house through the conservatory and paused to let the heat warm her cold bones. Trailing melting snow, she made her way through the billiard room. If she could get back to her room unnoticed, she might just be able to get a grip on her thoughts.

Out in the hall, the maids were so busy hurrying this way and that with trays of crockery and cutlery that they barely had time to dip a curtsey. Lou bobbed past a footman bearing a tray of glasses and made her way up the stairs with minimal fuss. She managed to get halfway along the landing when a door opened, and a maid flew out with a dress over her arm. Before she could close the door behind her, a voice called from within.

‘Louisa. Come in, do.’

The maid disappeared, leaving Lou before the gaping door of Emma’s bedroom.

‘I’m sure you’re busy getting ready,’ Lou said.

‘Nonsense.’ Emma was seated at the dressing table and spoke to Lou’s reflection in the mirror. ‘Fielding has gone to stitch the hem of my dress. Come and entertain me for a few minutes. You can spare that for me, can’t you?’

Lou checked along the corridor before stepping inside and closing the door behind her. This guest room was similar to hers but the feel of it was very different. Any number of dresses hung from the open wardrobe doors, while accessories for each had been laid out on the bed – gloves, necklaces, headbands and feathers. There wasn’t an inch of space on the dressing table between bottles and jars and potions and lotions.

Amidst this chaos sat Emma, surveying her face in the mirror, tweaking the corners of her eyes as though to tease out non-existent wrinkles. Her hair, not yet dressed, hung in a long, dark coil down her back. ‘My lord, where the devil have you been?’ she laughed. ‘You look as though you’ve been dragged through the proverbial hedge!’