It was Lady Montcalm who was her real adversary. Helen felt her determination strengthening.

After Lord Montcalm had gone, she turned the full light of her attractive long-suffering smile on Helen.

‘Well,’ she sighed, ‘we must have a lovely long talk. I want to hear all about you and your life, and your family. I feel at such a disadvantage, not knowing you at all. Do you know, I thought you were a friend of Oliver’s. Weren’t you his guest at Christmas?’

Helen lifted her chin. Her grey eyes were very bright, and there was a faint flush across her cheeks.

‘Oliver and I are friends, yes. We met at Oxford.’

‘Helen lives in Rose Pole’s house,’ Darcy put in.

‘Oh yes. Poor Rose. I should go and see her one day. But I hear …’ Lady Montcalm’s fingers fluttered delicately. Plainly, belonging to the Follies circle was not much of a recommendation for Helen.

After sherry in the drawing room, they went in to lunch. Helen was reminded of her first visit to Montcalm. Then it had been Tom and not Darcy at Lady Montcalm’s side. Helen remembered admiring his suave self-possession. Now Darcy sat quietly. It was Helen who had to bear the steely focus of attention. The questions came one after another, subtly put and charmingly expressed, but Helen knew that she was being grilled. She made her answers as brief and dignified as she could, reflecting that she had nothing to be ashamed of. She was proud of her loving, supportive family. Prouder than she would ever be of her parents-in-law.

Suppressed anger put a bite into her voice. As she talked, Darcy watched her with pride and affection.

‘My father died last year. My mother is a part-time schoolteacher and I have a younger brother still at school. No-one else, really. Some cousins in Sunderland.’

‘Sunderland?’

Helen might have said Tashkent.

By the end of the meal Lady Montcalm was satisfied that Helen had come from nowhere, knew no-one and had no idea of the world she was marrying into. Darcy’s choice was as bad as it could be.

She dabbed at her lips with a napkin.

‘This is all wonderful.’ Helen knew that she had failed all the tests, and she knew equally that Lady Montcalm was far too clever to let her opposition show. ‘Is there any hurry, Darcy?’ she was asking. ‘Let’s all spend some time getting to know each other before putting the announcement in the papers and so forth.’

‘I’m sure you’ll deal with all that beautifully,’ Darcy said. ‘Helen wants to sit her Schools first, in June. She’s going to get a First.’

‘Oh yes. Helen’s exams.’ They might have been talking about some bizarre ritual engaged in by a remote primitive tribe, Helen thought, trying to raise her own spirits. No wonder Oliver had no interest in his own academic progress.