The gentlemen conversed across the table in increasingly heated tones until the Prince cleared his throat. ‘This is hardly a topic of conversation suitable for the ladies. I think it is time for us to allow them to withdraw.’

With that, the party broke up, and the ladies retreated to the Blue Room.

The moment they set foot outside the grand ballroom, the men began their conversation anew. Jane could not help but feel sorry to be shooed out, because the topic had been of some interest to her.

After the overt glamour of the ballroom, the Blue Room seemed positively staid, though it was appointed in the best manner. The walls were covered in blue damask which matched the upholstery. Gilt frames bordered the walls, with cleverly rendered oysters on the half shell in each corner. By the very absence of glamour, the Prince Regent displayed his taste and means here as much as in the ballroom, because everything from the elaborate carpet to the massive crystal chandelier was real.

Real gold gilded the arms of the chairs. Real candles stood in the sconces instead of fairy lights, so rather than the faint glow of glamoured light, the room truly was bright and airy.

The only glamour in the room adorned the ceiling, which had a glamural of sky and clouds drifting in a simple repeating pattern. The clouds circled the chandelier so that the crystals would not catch and diffract their glamoured folds. The effect seemed one part dance, one part storm – very like life at court itself.

The ladies echoed the movements of the clouds, drifting together in small knots. Jane found herself in a circle of five women who were comparing the merits of the gentlemen who had attended dinner. The topics ranged from the cut of their coats to their hairdressers to what subjects the ladies had been forced to endure during dinner. More than one had learned countless details about the pointer that her dinner companion favoured. Then the conversation drifted – as it tended to in these circumstances – to those who were not present, with shockingly cutting comments directed at Lady so-and-so’s gown or Miss someone’s latest conquest.

Jane had been introduced to these ladies before dinner, but otherwise had no acquaintance with them, so she tried to find it perfectly natural that they should speak so of their supposed friends. And yet they drew closer to each other as they chattered, gradually leaving her standing outside their group. Ill at ease, she wandered to the walls of the drawing room to study the portraits there.