Alice looked startled by her husband’s outburst. ‘It is not only he who has thought to examine the real matter of things. I only mean that Russian exports and Russian expansion are considered inevitable in some quarters.’

‘Well then, perhaps those quarters would care to winter out in the rain and snow, dying of cold and hunger and disease; or to survive such privations into the spring, only to be felled by a passing shell? And afterwards, let us hear again from them about the Russians and their marvellous expansion.’

‘I believe that a politician may sometimes take a wider view than a soldier, however nobly he has served,’ said Alice. She knew she was being obstinate, yet she felt compelled to speak.

At this William’s face paled. ‘I did not cradle the bodies of my men – and my own brother – in order for you to form such opinions. I will thank you to keep such views to yourself, in the future. You would do better to attend to the management of this household with greater attention. I do not wish it raised more.’

‘William, I …’ said Alice. ‘I sincerely beg your pardon.’ To restore the peace between them mattered more than what she thought, after all.

‘Will you pass me the butter and we’ll turn our minds to pleasanter things,’ he said.

Their nights together were at least more harmonious, more joyful, than their daily discourse. And at the end of November she was able to tell him, as they lay drowsily together, that she was sensible of the signs that a child might at last be on its way to them.

This intelligence made her husband soften towards Alice. He no longer seemed out of temper. He no longer appeared at the door of whatever room she was in with some small and peevish question, as if hoping to catch her out in some trifling insufficiency. As the weeks passed and the child quickened within her – was it fancy, or did she perceive a sensation like a butterfly beneath her ribs at certain times? – William was more and more his old self.

As her term proceeded, it was Alice’s wish to consult with Dr Nolan. She knew him to have attended many a confinement and if he had modern views on the delivering of a healthy baby, she would be more than glad to profit from them. Thus it was that before Christmas she and William repaired to Cheltenham to stay a week at her aunt’s.