She considered. No, she didn’t have to ask. But she wanted to know what had happened to her friends and she wanted to stand her ground with her husband as far as she could. “Very well, I’ll stay in the house today, but I intend to write some letters. I assume you have no objections to that?”

“No, of course not. I don’t mind who you write to or who visits, I just ask that you remain inside.”

“As you wish.”

Guy nodded and went to the door. “I’m not going out myself so I’ll be in the library or my office, if you need me.” He left, closing the door softly behind him.

Petra wondered why she would possibly need him in the present state of affairs. He was far too intimidating in this incarnation to engage in a civilized discussion of the issue that she felt so passionately about, and a shouting match wouldn’t do either of them any good.

She sat down at her writing desk to write to Diana and Fenella, wishing she knew whether they’d found themselves in the dock at the Old Bailey for trespass or disorderly conduct, or even assault on a policeman. Quite a few helmets had been knocked off in the affray but she’d been too busy defending herself to see who had been involved. Perhaps they’d slipped away and were now sitting in Fortnum’s wondering where she was.

Tears pricked behind her eyes and she blinked furiously. She hadn’t realized how greatly Guy’s anger would upset her, but she felt strangely unmoored, as if she’d lost an essential support. She stared at the blank sheet of vellum, trying to summon a coherent sentence but she hadn’t got very far when a brisk knock at the door brought Diana and Fenella, agog with their own adventures and anxious to hear their friend’s experiences of the morning.

“What happened to you?” Diana asked, casting aside her coat and striped scarf. “One minute I saw you jumping on a chair and the next I was dodging away from an officer. When I looked again, you’d disappeared.”

“Guy happened,” Petra stated. “He came and carried me away. It sounds ridiculous, I know, but I couldn’t do anything to stop him. How did you get out of there unscathed?”

“I ducked out when they were arresting Christabel, she was making such a racket and everyone’s attention was focused on her, she’d already knocked one policeman’s helmet off and was kicking another one as he tried to carry her out to the Black Maria,” Fenella said. “I felt a bit of a coward cutting and running like that, but I thought it better to live to fight another day.”