Maria, who had seated herself after curtseying to the Marquis, rose to her feet. She turned her back on him and taking Gretna’s face between her two hands looked down into her eyes.

“You must do what is best for you,” she said softly. “Whatever your choice may be, I shall understand.”

She kissed Gretna on the forehead and then, turning again to the Marquis, she went on,

“I will leave you, my Lord, to discuss this with Gretna. It is her interests that are at stake. You will understand that I would not wish to influence her one way or the other.”

Gretna thought that there was a look of surprise on the Marquis’s face as if Maria’s gentle dignity was something he had not expected.

And then he crossed the room to open the door for her as she left, her soft satin skirts billowing out around her as she moved.

Gretna stood very still save that her small fingers twisted each other together.

The Marquis closed the door and came back to the hearthrug to face her.

“It would be best for you to pack your box immediately,” he suggested.

Gretna took a deep breath.

“Do you really believe – I would go with you?” she asked.

“But, of course. It is not correct for you to stay here.”

“Not correct!” Gretna repeated. “That comes strangely from you, my Lord. You made, I think, very different suggestions as to what hospitality – I should enjoy when I first came to London.”

“That episode was, I hoped, forgotten. It was unfortunate, exceedingly unfortunate, but it was brought about, I may remind you, by a very stupid deception that you practised at our first meeting. Had you told me the truth, then you would not now be staying in this house.”

“A house where I am very happy – where I have been invited by a friend whom I have known all my life and who has befriended not only me but both my father and my mother,” Gretna retorted.

“I am not denying anything that has happened in the past. In fact I see no reason why we should argue about anything. My grandmother has invited you to stay with her at her house in Richmond.”

“And why this sudden interest in me?” she asked. “I shall be eighteen next birthday and this is the first time in the whole of my life that your grandmother, or any other relation, has invited me under her roof. Why this interest? And how did she know of my existence?”

“She knew because I rode to Richmond this morning and told her that we had met and, where you were at present residing,” the Marquis answered. “She instantly extended you an invitation to visit her for as long as you wished.”