As an adherent of Rational Dress, she was able to clothe herself without a maid’s assistance. She simply donned combinations, drawers, camisole, stockings, undershirt, petticoat, walking dress, and boots, and was ready to face the day.

It was not yet seven o’clock; breakfast would doubtless not be served for an hour or more since they weren’t shooting today. She came downstairs anyway, deciding to find a servant who would point her to a quiet back door, and came across Jimmy Yoxall sipping a cup of coffee.

“Goodness, you’re up early.”

“You too,” Jimmy returned. “Sleep well?”

“Very. You?”

Jimmy shrugged. “Up rather late.”

“Playing cards with your chums.”

“Well, with Maurice, Jack, and Preston,” Jimmy said. “Bill was wise to go to bed. Jack’s a devil with a pack of cards; he cleaned Preston out. Are you off for a walk?”

“I thought I would. How do I get out without waking the house?”

“Give me a moment to put on my things and I’ll come with you. There’s a pot of coffee here. I usually wake early these days.”

Pat gulped down the coffee—from the temperature it seemed that Jimmy had been up a while—and strode out with him into a very pleasant day. It was bright, sunny, and breezy, the wind rolling over the long open curves of the land.

“It’s lovely here,” Pat remarked.

“It is. Would you find it too remote? If you were called upon to live here, I mean?”

“I wouldn’t,” Pat said cautiously, “but I’m not much of one for society, or cities. Or towns, even. I’d be perfectly happy not seeing other people for days on end, going to dinner three times a year and visiting a tailor twice, but that wouldn’t suit everyone.”

“No,” Jimmy said. “It is rather a way to the nearest town, and that’s not awfully big. Fen remarked on it when she arrived.”

“Presumably Miss Carruth has been here before?”

“No. No. Our engagement was a—what do they call it when one proposes in a spur-of-the-moment sort of way? Not to say I didn’t consider matters, of course, just that it was terribly quick. All in London. This is the first time she’s seen the house, or the area.”

“Does she like it?”

“She’s awfully enthusiastic. Marvellous girl. I’m not sure she’s grasped what the winters are like up here.”

“Shan’t you live in London when you’re married?”

Jimmy made a face. “We have a house there, but it’s a terrible expense and I wanted to persuade the parents to get rid of it. But Anna and Maurice live there, you know, and it’s not as though one can ask them to move.”

“Do they not have a place of their own?”

“Not any more. Maurice lost his job and their money in the crash.”

“What crash was that?”