At dinner, Jeremy was his own sweet self and quickly engaged Isaac in a conversation about organic gardening and the use of one type of insect to naturally control the damage caused by another. Nory was glad that Pippa had shifted the table settings, so that Isaac was protected on either side by Ameerah and Pippa and sat opposite herself and Jeremy. Guy was thankfully at the other end of the table near Charles and opposite Camille. Camille had been quiet all evening and had a wan look about her, despite her exquisite dress and carefully pinned hair. Nory made a mental note to catch her after dinner and engage her in conversation, to try and gauge how she was. She felt protective of her and wanted Camille to know that she had allies here.

They all raised a glass to Nory’s excellent vegetable slaying when the side dishes were brought to the table. The meat tonight was pork; the pheasants shot today would need to hang for twenty-four hours to be eaten at their best. Nory could only imagine the levels of testosterone at tomorrow night’s dinner when Charles and Guy were presented with food they’d actually killed.

Dev had seemed delighted to have another new person in the group, and Nory could understand why. It was probably a relief to have the focus on someone else. With Isaac at the table, the space that had been left for Tristan was filled, and though nobody said it, Nory sensed that everybody felt it. But it would have been filled soon anyway, when Katie arrived, and Tristan was too much of a part of their shared history to be forgotten simply because his place was occupied.

“It must be nice taking over the role that your father had before you,” Jenna said to Isaac when the plates from the main meal were being taken away.

“It is. I never expected to ever be working here, but now that I am, I’m glad.”

“It’s not something that happens so much these days, I suppose,” said Dev. “Not like it used to be, where you’d follow your father down into the mines, or the factory, or the bank.”

“Although my brother has gone into the family business,” Nory put in.

“I think Jezzer’s family were hoping he’d step up and take over the running of the family pile, but he prefers the creepy-crawlies to the landed gentry,” said Charles.

“No, you’re wrong there, Charles,” said Jeremy amiably. “My sister always wanted to do it, and she’s far better suited to estate management than me. I’m not equipped to take on that kind of responsibility.”

“But surely you must have been your parents’ first choice,” Guy persisted. “Or one of your brothers?”