“I don’t think I need the brooch,” Alyna said. “It would be too much.”

“Oh no, my Lady!” the maid cried. “The gown is very simple.”

“Almost Grecian,” Alyna murmured, looking at the narrow straps that spanned the shoulders and the very high waist.

But the only question she was asking in her mind was would Lord Dorrington admire her in it? Would he think her beautiful? Would he be proud of her as he once had said he would be?

“You will be ashamed of me,” she had said.

“I shall never be that,” he had replied. “I shall be proud to introduce you to my friends.”

Because she was so anxious to look lovely on this night of all nights, Alyna allowed the maid to undress her and she got into bed.

This room was very different from the one at Dorrington Park. Here there was no four-poster but a large bed with an exquisitely carved silver shell behind it.

From a corolla hanging from the ceiling there were soft curtains of blue silk that made Alyna feel that she was like Venus rising from the sea.

The maid drew the curtains and it was very quiet.

Alyna closed her eyes and was just about to fall asleep when she found herself once again worrying about Lord Dorrington.

He was only going to Carlton House, which was not far away. But would the Prince have anticipated such a move and perhaps had an assailant waiting for him outside in Berkeley Square?

She felt the fear of what might be happening stab through her.

‘How can I bear it?’ she asked herself. ‘How can I live like this forever?’

Chapter Nine

Alyna stepped into the coach.

Lord Dorrington followed her and the footman set a light rug over their knees.

The door was closed and the horses started to move towards Piccadilly.

The last time, Alyna thought, she had been in a coach alone with Lord Dorrington, he had carried her away from her mother’s house in Hertford Street so that she could escape the Prince.

She had been so distraught at the time that she was concerned only in thinking about herself, her own anxiety and her terror of the man who insisted on marrying her.

But now she could only think of Lord Dorrington.

She had not realised before how close and intimate a coach could be.

As they sat side by side on the cushioned seat, Alyna could see Lord Dorrington’s face in the flickering lantern hanging above the small seat, which had its back to the horses and was seldom in use.

The coach was not very large and Alyna wondered how women had ever managed when their skirts were full. Even with her thin straight gauze gown, her knee almost touched Lord Dorrington’s.

“Are you nervous?” he asked unexpectedly.

She turned her face to look at him.

“How did you know?”