Alyna wanted to hold onto his hand and beg him not to go and most of all make some excuse to avoid dining at Carlton House.

She had the feeling of being swept along on a tide that, if she were not careful, would drown her because she was too weak to combat it.

Vaguely at the back of her mind she had known that sooner or later she must meet Lord Dorrington’s friends and be presented to the Prince of Wales with whom he spent so much time.

But now everything was happening too quickly.

Her marriage, the attempt on Lord Dorrington’s life, the fact that they must leave the country and come to London at such speed, made her feel small, ineffective and curiously weak.

Without meaning to do so, she said involuntarily so that Mr. Greyshott could hear it,

“I have no wish to go to Carlton House tonight.”

“You will find it very interesting, my Lady,” Mr. Greyshott replied. “The house is magnificent.”

And then, because she looked very young and pathetic with her troubled eyes and wistful mouth, he added,

“If you will pardon me for saying so, my Lady, you will be far the most beautiful lady there.”

“Beautiful?” she questioned.

“Yes indeed, my Lady. And the family jewels will greatly become you. I never thought to see them worn by anyone more beautiful than his Lordship’s mother, but now I see I was mistaken.”

He spoke so respectfully that Alyna did not find it an impertinence and his admiration cheered her.

Because she felt a little stir of excitement in her, she was smiling as she went upstairs to her bedroom.

Here she found that in spite of the speed in which they came to London, Lord Dorrington in the fantastic manner he organised everything had arranged for the clothes he had ordered for Dorrington Park to be sent to Berkeley Square.

There was a riding habit and half a dozen new gowns. Three of them, designed for the evening, were so beautiful and so unusual that Alyna found it difficult to decide which she would wear.

She knew that this was a very important occasion.

Lord Dorrington was presenting her to his friends, a bride of whom none of them had ever heard, a wife they had never expected him to produce.

‘I must look my best,’ she determined.

Finally she chose a gown of deep blue gauze, which she knew would make her skin dazzlingly white and accentuate the red-gold of her hair.

“You will require sapphires and diamonds with that gown,” Mr. Greyshott said when Alyna asked that he should come to her room to be appraised of her choice.

A maid went downstairs with him and returned carrying a jewel box containing the most magnificent set that Alyna had ever seen.

There was a tiara of huge sapphires encircled with diamonds and there was a necklace, earrings, two bracelets and a brooch.