“Yes,” the Marquis said briefly.

“And you believed her? Oh, what fools men are!” Maria exclaimed. “You believed that she did not care for you just because she would not obey your command to leave me – someone she has known and loved ever since she was a baby?”

She paused for a moment and then she asked,

“Would you have respected her if her loyalty had been so shallow – such a superficial thing?”

The Marquis looked at her in almost a startled manner.

“I had not thought of it like that.”

“But of course not,” Maria said scornfully. “You told her what she was to do, ordered her to desert the one friend she has ever had in all her quiet lonely life, the one person who had known her father and mother and had proved her affection through the long years of her growing up. You ordered her peremptorily to abandon this person and expected her to obey you.”

“I was only doing what I thought was best for her.”

“Of course,” Maria agreed. “But you could hardly expect her to think of herself and not of me. She believed that I needed her. I had told her so for she meant a great deal to me in my life. I too am lonely at times.”

She saw that the Marquis was frowning over her words and she went on,

“Gretna has never confided in me where you are concerned, my Lord, but perhaps because I love her so deeply I am extra sensitive and perhaps a little intuitive about her. I have known that Gretna has loved you since the first moment she arrived in London.”

“It’s not true,” the Marquis said harshly.

He walked towards the window and stood with his back to Maria, staring out at the glistening sea, but she had the idea that he was looking into the darkness of his soul and his eyes were blind to the sunlight.

“I only tell you this, my Lord, because there is no one else I can turn to in my anxiety and my fear for Gretna. I would not have the fact that she has disappeared talked about. You know what gossips will make of such a story. And I had hoped although without much assurance that you as well might be worried about her.”

The Marquis turned round at that.

“I will find her,” he declared at once. “You can rest assured that I will find her.”

Maria rose to her feet.

“Thank you,” she replied with deep sincerity. “Thank you more than I can say. And I know that the Prince will be grateful to you. He is deeply fond of Gretna and he is fond of you too, my Lord.”

“It is gracious of you to tell me,” the Marquis said with a note of humility in his voice. “You know that I have been your enemy and yet you are generous enough to say such things to me.”