Kerensa also came into the span of his attention. She returned his every smile while laughing diplomatically at Sir Martin’s bawdy jokes and doing her best to ease James’s discomfort by warding off Oliver’s open sarcasm. Oliver had no interest in eating but gave much attention to the excellent variety of wines from his well-stocked cellar.

At the end of the meal he bid the gentleman rise to toast the King and Queen. He remained on his feet while his guests reseated themselves and drank to everything and everyone who came into his mind. He even started on national events.

‘This year we saw crowned a new king, the third in succession, although not quite father and son, to be called George. At the beginning of June the King was betrothed to Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, a dainty, pale-skinned lady of seventeen years – the same age my dear Kerensa was when I took her to wife.’

Everyone looked at Kerensa and murmured little nothings with accompanying smiles but she had the awful feeling she was being put up for public examination. Heads turned back expectantly to Oliver.

‘The marriage was solemnised exactly three months later and a fortnight after came the coronation which Sir Martin and I attended.’

‘Oh, I do wish I had been there,’ Ameline interjected. ‘It is said the dear Queen’s tiara and train for the wedding were so heavy—’ She stopped short, not because of the impatient sigh cast by Oliver but because she had brought herself under Hezekiah’s disconcerting gaze again.

Oliver unnecessarily cleared his throat and Ameline looked meekly at her hands. Kerensa would have liked to have got up and dug him in the ribs. James wished he had the courage to remonstrate with him – and ask him to hurry along and finish. Hezekiah smiled graciously at Kerensa, as if he wanted to give her moral support, then turned his eyes back to Ameline. Sir Martin, oblivious of all the tension, started eating again.

‘The coronation was a muddled rather unenjoyable affair, with people rushing off to fetch – of all the things to forget – the chairs of state,’ Oliver continued. ‘The banquet, because there was insufficient light in the hall, was eaten in semi-darkness, and,’ he looked severely at Kerensa, ‘I do hate important things being kept in the dark.’

Kerensa’s insides froze but she kept her wits together and smiled back at him with all the calm and warmth she could muster. Again came that look of understanding from Hezekiah and she took refuge by keeping eye contact with him.

Oliver suddenly seemed impatient with what he was saying and quickly rattled off his next words.