Henry looked at him again, a piercing look. It was natural the boy would want to know of his background. He smiled then, a cruel smile. His mother would be a revelation to him if he knew.

‘Come and sit on the bed with me and I’ll show you all the photos I have. I’ve only one of my father, but his portrait is up in the attics. He was painted in his full dress uniform. He was a lancer.’

‘Did you like him, Papa?’

Henry laughed at the childish enquiry and shook his head. ‘No, I didn’t, actually. He was a nasty-tempered man.’

Benedict bit his lips and stared trustingly into his father’s face. The sentence hung on the air.

‘You’re thinking I take after him, aren’t you?’

Benedict shook his head furiously, unwilling to break the friendliness of the moment; it was so rare to speak to his father like this he couldn’t bear for it to end.

Henry sighed heavily. ‘Maybe I do, boy. You inherit things from your parents, you know. I inherited my father’s bad humour. I wonder what you’ll inherit from me and your mother?’

As he spoke he looked at Isabel and she felt herself sinking inside at the expression on his face.

Briony awoke the morning before Eileen’s wedding in high good humour. In the weeks since her showdown with Tommy and Mrs Horlock, she had gradually become more like her old self. Only now she had a touch of hardness to her that was not apparent before.

She opened the bedroom curtains herself and frowned slightly at the two men lounging against their Cowley motor car, smoking and chatting. She still hated to be watched like this. To have minders everywhere. They never did a real day’s work and they ate their heads off. Tommy laughed at her complaints, telling her that if they ever had any serious trouble, the men would more than earn their dinners. But it galled her just the same to have those two standing around constantly, have them follow her everywhere she went, and even vet visitors to her home. It was necessary, but that didn’t mean she had to like it.

‘Come back to bed, Bri, it’s too early to get up.’

Briony smiled. ‘Listen, Tommy, I have a full day ahead of me. The final preparations for Eileeir’s wedding, plus a meeting with Mariah, and on top of all that I have a special date this morning.’

He pulled back the covers and Briony saw he was aroused. ‘You can have a special date now if you like!’

‘Oh, Tommy, you’re terrible! I have to get bathed and dressed and off to Regents Park for ten-thirty.’

Tommy pulled the covers back over himself and said, ‘Do you want me to come with you?’