When I first met him I had thought him a wild Irish playboy opportunist, living by his charm and his wits. But now I suspected he was more than he had told me. In fact I thought he might be some kind of spy. For whom I couldn’t say, but definitely not for the communists. He had taken a bullet that almost cost him his life to save the king and queen.

I just wished I knew where he was. I wished I had the nerve to show up on his doorstep. But I was rather afraid of what I might find there. When it came to men, I seriously lacked confidence—probably because the only male I knew until the age of eighteen was my brother.

I fell asleep eventually and woke to the sound of the milk-man’s horse and the rattle of bottles. The air had cooled overnight and the sweet smell of roses and honeysuckle wafted across from the gardens in the middle of the square. I got out of bed feeling energized and renewed, the black mood of the day before having vanished with the night air. My nature is such that I can never stay down in the dumps for long. And today I had a task ahead of me, one that might set me up with a splendid income for the foreseeable future.

I sat at my desk and composed an advertisement for the Times. When I had finished I was rather pleased with myself and wanted to show it to Belinda. But I knew better than to disturb her before eleven o’clock and especially when she was probably not alone. So I printed it out neatly and delivered it to the Times office. I thought the girl who wrote the receipt for it looked at me strangely and I wondered if she recognized me. I do appear in the odd photograph in the Tattler, since the press thinks of me as an eligible young woman of good pedigree. (Little do they know the state of the Rannoch bank accounts.)

“Are you sure this is what you want it to say, miss?” she asked.

“Yes, quite sure, thank you.”

“Very well.” She took my money. “So this will appear for the first time in tomorrow’s paper and run until you tell us to stop it.”

“That’s correct,” I said. She was still staring at me as I left the office.