Raymond strode towards her, cupped her chin in his hand and tilted her face upward so that he could gaze into her glistening eyes. ‘Just a chambermaid? Just a chambermaid? Listen to me, Nancy Nettleton. Nobody is just a chambermaid. We all have stories. Lord knows, I have my own. And a chambermaid who has the courage to dress up and sashay into the ballroom before she’s been in the Buckingham a week? A chambermaid who risks everything, just for a glimpse of what goes on in there? No,’ he said firmly, and Nancy could see the most rapturous smile opening up on his face, ‘somebody like that isn’t just a chambermaid. And you want to know why I’d like to teach you? Why, it’s because anyone as brave as that, anyone as foolhardy, must have passion in them. Some sort of fire.’ He paused. ‘Believe it or not, Nancy, I know a thing or two about having to fit in.’ A peculiar look – wistful, perhaps even sad – drifted across Raymond’s face. ‘And maybe, just maybe, when you approached me in the ballroom that morning, I thought I’d stumbled on a kindred spirit.’

Nancy was used to the boys from the village buttering her up. She was used to deflecting them as well. Ordinarily there was something in the way they stood, some particular tone of voice that set the alarm bells ringing inside her mind. But standing here, gazing at Raymond, there was only silence. There was no other way of putting it: Raymond de Guise meant what he said.

‘Shall we?’ he ventured again, softly.

You’ve come this far, Nancy. You’re not a girl who runs away. And, besides, you do want to dance, don’t you?

She nodded and followed him down to the middle of the dance floor. And that was the first time Nancy Nettleton felt the warmth of Raymond de Guise’s arms.

Dear Frank,

It was strange. Unexpected. And dare I say it just a tiny bit wonderful. There was I, Nancy Nettleton – terror of every Lancashire boy – dancing in the arms of Raymond de Guise. I am sure you will think your sister has gone quite mad! But I had the most magical time. I stumbled and I was too tense and I was thinking so much about this leg of mine that Mr de Guise had to stop and remind me – ‘you’re meant to enjoy this, Nancy!’ But do you know what? He was patient and kind and didn’t mind at all when I froze or felt so embarrassed I couldn’t continue. And by the end, I really did enjoy it after all!