“Then there is something I want to say to you,” Maria went on. “You have come here to London. I want you to live with me. But I want first to know that you love me enough to trust me.”

She moved suddenly and knelt down beside Gretna as she sat on the sofa, her full-skirted dress of white satin billowing around her with the soft fichu round her shoulders and her breasts moving a little convulsively as if with the intensity of her feelings.

“Listen to me, Gretna, you are going to find London a very difficult place to live in. You will hear things said that will shock and surprise you. People are only happy when they are repeating unkind gossip or taking away someone’s character. They will talk of me, they may even tell you many wicked and cruel things about me.”

“I should not believe them,” Gretna smiled.

“You may find it very hard to refute them,” Maria said and her eyes were full of pain. “But because we love each other and because you have known me for so long, will you promise to trust me?”

“But of course.”

“No, don’t say it like that,” Maria interrupted. “I don’t want you to make a promise that you cannot keep. But I want you to be sure in your heart that I would never do anything that was wrong or anything that would hurt my soul or my hope of everlasting life.”

“I just know – you would never do anything like that,” Gretna cried.

“It will not be easy for you,” Maria went on, almost as if she had not heard. “I ought really to send you somewhere else, but I am selfish enough to want you to stay here with me. It will be so lovely to have a friend, someone who believes in me and someone whom I too can trust.”

“Oh, let me stay, dearest Maria, let me stay,” Gretna begged her. “I could not bear to go elsewhere when I want so much to be with you.”

“We will not speak of this again,” Maria, answered. “But you will remember that I have asked you to trust me and to do so with your heart and not your mind.”

“I will – remember,” Gretna promised and it was almost in the nature of a vow.

Maria put her arms around her and kissed her and then, still linked together, they walked up the stairs to the bedrooms.

Gretna’s box containing the few meagre things she had brought with her had already been unpacked and the fire was lit in a pretty little room overlooking the square. There was a small four-poster draped with muslin curtains and a dressing table with muslin petticoats round it to match.

It was all very fresh and gay and made Gretna think of the gardens of the Fitzherberts’ home at Brambridge.