There was a footman to take the Marquis’s cloak and hat, another to open the door of a long low room where a fire burned brightly on the hearth and the tapers in crystal sconces revealed that the walls were lined with books.

Nervously Gretna moved across the room towards the fireplace, conscious that, although she had been running, the tips of her fingers were cold. As she did so, she knew that she was afraid, not of the Marquis himself but of what he might think of her.

“I wish to give you – an explanation, my Lord,” she said as she reached the hearth and saw that he was standing a little way behind her and watching her with an expression on his face that she could not fathom.

He did not answer and after a moment she went on,

“You must have thought it strangely ill-mannered of me to leave your house this morning – without saying ‘goodbye’ and without thanking you for – your hospitality. I intended, of course, to write you a letter expressing my thanks.”

“I shall await that letter with interest,” the Marquis said.

Gretna looked down into the fire.

“I-I thought it best that Mrs. Merryweather and I should – leave the instant the stagecoach was ready.”

“And yet I understand you had an hour’s wait. Surely to be so precipitous was unnecessary?” the Marquis enquired.

As Gretna still stared into the fire and did not speak, he came nearer and stood beside her, his eyes on her bent head.

“Why did you run away?” he asked her and his voice was low and deep.

“I – think I was – afraid, my Lord,” she answered.

“Of what?” he insisted. “Lord Wroxhall had left. You had only your host to frighten you.”

“Y-you did not really – frighten me,” Gretna murmured. “And, yet perhaps you – d-do. It was not really – that, my Lord. It was – m-many things.”

“I am sorry if I appear obtuse,” the Marquis replied sarcastically, but there was a smile at the corner of his lips.

Gretna looked up at him.

“Please, my Lord, the Hackney carriage – should be here by now. May I go? I am anxious to find my friend.”

“I gather she was not where you expected to find her.”

Gretna shook her head.

“No, she has moved to another part of London, but I only discovered this after I had sent away the carriage that I had taken from the Posting stage. Lord Wroxhall saw me standing – on the pavement and promised that he would drive me where I wished to go.”

Her voice ceased suddenly and then she added with something like a sob,

“H-he deceived me. He took me – to his h-house. That – that was why I ran away.”

“I see.”

The Marquis’s tone was dry and then when he spoke again his voice was kinder.