“Papa loved me!” Alyna cried again.

“He loved hearing the sound of his own voice, he loved having someone sitting adoringly at his feet. The pupil for the Master! You played the part perfectly.”

Lady Maude made a gesture with her hands.

“Can you not understand, you little idiot, that he indoctrinated you with the idea that men were horrible, merely because he wished to keep you at his side until he was old.”

She laughed.

“He did not want you to marry in a normal fashion! Oh, no! He would have lost his little disciple! That was why he put you against men!”

“It’s not true,” Alyna cried. “It’s not true!”

And yet somewhere deep in her heart she knew that there was some semblance of truth in what her mother was saying.

Lady Maude drew a deep breath as if she fought to control herself.

“There is no point in all this argument,” she said more quietly. “We are only wearing ourselves out and it is giving me lines on my face. We will talk about it tomorrow, Alyna.”

She put out her hand and took Alyna’s in hers.

“In the meantime go to sleep and don’t be upset by what we have been saying to each other. If I have been unkind you will have to forgive me, it is only that I am so worried about money and the future.”

“I know, Mama, and I am – sorry,” Alyna said.

“I know you want to help me,” Lady Maude went on in quite a different tone. “And in the future when you are married and secure and have all the money you can possibly want, we will laugh about this and you will realise that all the time I was thinking of you and wanting your happiness.”

Alyna did not answer.

Lady Maude went to the washstand, poured out a glass of water and put it beside the bed.

“I want you to take a little tablet tonight,” she said. “It will make you sleep, Alyna, you will feel calm and happy and in the morning we will forget all the horrid things I have said.”

As Lady Maude spoke, she opened the reticule that had been over her arm ever since she came into the room.

Of blue satin it matched her gown and now she pulled it open and drew out a small box that Alyna was certain the Prince had given her downstairs.

“Take one with a glass of water,” she said. “I want you to have a good night, dear child.”

Alyna took the tablet from the box.

“Take it,” Lady Maude insisted.

“I will,” Alyna answered. “Oh, Mama, you have dropped your comb!”

“Have I,” Lady Maude asked, looking down at the floor. “I cannot see it.”

“I thought I saw it glisten,” Alyna answered, “perhaps I was mistaken.”

“I think you must have been,” Lady Maude answered.

She straightened herself and then she looked in her reticule.