“Then perhaps you would be k-kind enough to convey my – compliments to your grandmother, the Dowager Marchioness, and thank her for her kind but – b-belated invitation. Tell her that I hope we shall meet while I am in London, but that I am already previously engaged to stay with my d-dear friend – Mistress Fitzherbert.”

Gretna had spoken a little hesitantly as she started, but by the time she had finished her voice was firm and her eyes met the Marquis’s squarely.

She saw his lips tighten, the sudden squaring of his jaw and knew that he was incensed with her.

He answered her quietly enough,

“I am afraid I must insist that you accompany me.”

Her eyebrows went up at that.

“Insist?” she queried. “On what grounds?”

“I am your cousin.”

“A very distant one.”

“Nevertheless a blood relative and high in seniority when it comes to family affairs. I hesitate to say this, but I do not consider the environment of this house suitable to a young girl.”

“What you think does not carry the slightest weight with me,” Gretna said, feeling her anger mount at the calm assumption of the Marquis that he could speak with such authority as if she was only a slave or a chattel who must obey his wishes.

“My mother was cast off by your family because she married – the man she loved. She died in great poverty. I was turned out of my house and had nowhere to go, but none of my smart rich relations, who are suddenly appearing from n-nowhere, was worried about me any more than they worried – about my mother,”

Her voice faltered for a moment and then she continued,

“I have my friends who have stood by me – in trouble. It is they who should be allowed to dictate what I shall do and what I shall not do.”

She spoke passionately, but it seemed as if her words had made little impact on the Marquis. He still regarded her coldly until suddenly, when she least expected it, he smiled and held out his hand.

“We are quarrelling again. Don’t be nonsensical, Gretna. Let me take you to my grandmother.”

A moment or two earlier he might have beguiled her, but now she was too angry.

“I am staying here with Mistress Fitzherbert,” she persisted. “I know what you think about her – as it happens, I overheard what you said to Lord Wroxhall at Stade Hall. But you admitted then that – you had never met her. If you knew her, if you were with her for only a little while, you would not be able to believe that she is capable of any of the things that you accuse her of.”

The Marquis hesitated for a moment and then he stated,

“I don’t want to argue, Gretna. Come and stay with my grandmother and we will talk it over on another occasion.”