‘Out of the question right now, pet. Next week, maybe. Have you got everything you want? Why don’t you go out to lunch somewhere nice?’

For the rest of the day he would be barricaded behind a wall of papers. Kim’s pretty face clouded in a pout, then she sighed and leaned back in her seat to nibble at the last quarter of the single apple she allowed herself for breakfast. Staying slim was her religion.

‘Be thankful you’re not marrying a businessman,’ she said to Helen. ‘Masefield works so hard, but he does it all for us, doesn’t he, Pansy?’

‘Of course not.’ Pansy was brisk. ‘He does it because he’s a workaholic. And what could he possibly do if he wasn’t working? He lacks the concept of leisure. Poor man.’ She laughed merrily and Kim gazed at her blank-faced.

‘What does Darcy do all day?’ Kim asked.

‘Farms, mostly,’ Helen told her. ‘Worries about rain, and delivers lambs in the middle of the night, and drives round with bales of hay in the back of a Land Rover.’ Helen’s face softened, and Chloe and Pansy winked at each other.

‘Himself?’

Kim looked so disappointed that Helen hastened to add, ‘You see, there are so many hundreds of acres in the Mere and Montcalm estates that he feels he could never stay in touch with them without working the land himself. He’s responsible for dozens of farmhands and a whole village full of tenants, as well.’

‘Oh yes, of course.’ This picture of the feudal lord fitted in much better with Kim’s idea of Darcy’s grandeur. Helen kept her eyes firmly averted from Chloe and Pansy.

‘Do you suppose you’ll have to open village fêtes?’ Kim asked, envious. There was a muffled snort from Pansy.

‘I think they ask actors from The Archers to do that sort of thing, don’t they? Darcy’s never mentioned it as a regular feature of life, anyway.’