“It is here, you stupid child.”

“I was sure you dropped it,” Alyna murmured.

“Have you taken the tablet?” Lady Maude asked.

Alyna nodded her head.

“Then go to sleep. I am sorry if I was cross.”

“It’s all right, Mama,” Alyna answered.

She lay back against the pillows as if she was very tired.

Lady Maude blew out two of the candles and walked towards the door.

“Don’t forget to extinguish the light before you go to sleep,” she said. “Goodnight, Alyna.”

“I will not forget, Mama,” Alyna answered.

She waited until the door closed behind her mother.

Then she picked up the tablet from where she had dropped it under the bedclothes and put it back in the box.

*

As her voice died away, Alyna put the small box into Lord Dorrington’s hand.

“I have brought the tablets to show you,” she said, “so you can see that I have not made up the story. I expect they contain – opium.”

“I will find out,” Lord Dorrington stated.

He took three tablets from the box and handed it back to Alyna.

“You had better take this home with you. If it is missing your mother might ask questions.”

“Home with me?” Alyna exclaimed. “I am not going home! When you have released me from my promise – I am going to find some way to kill myself.”

“You are not going to do anything of the sort,” Lord Dorrington said sharply.

“But I cannot – marry the Prince, you must see that! Even if I am doped until I am senseless, he would still – terrify me. I could still not endure being – married to him – not for all the money in the world.”

“I can understand that,” Lord Dorrington said. “And that is why you are going to do exactly what I tell you, Alyna.”

“You mean you will – save me?” Alyna asked.

“I seem to have no alternative,” Lord Dorrington replied with a smile on his lips.

Chapter Three

Lord Dorrington left St. George’s Church before Alyna.

He walked down the stone steps from the gallery, the exit of which was outside the main body of the Church.

In the carved ornate pews, numbered neatly with the names of their occupiers, the Nobility worshipped sparsely on Sundays, but in hordes when there was a fashionable Wedding.

Lord Dorrington found his phaeton in Maddox Street, the horses having been walked several times round Hanover Square to prevent them from becoming restless.

He took the reins from his groom and drove into Bond Street where he alighted at Paytherus & Company, the most famous apothecaries in London.

Lord Dorrington passed through the front of the shop with its high jars of ointment, bottles of physic, pestles and mortars, and walked into the back room where Mr. Paytherus himself was busy mixing his special pills.