She was warmly wrapped in the cloak that she had worn when she had escaped from her mother’s house in Hertford Street.

The hood, edged with white fur, framed her little pointed face and there was an occasional glimpse of her red-gold hair as she turned her face up to Lord Dorrington.

His own coat had been dried and, because the rain had stopped, he did not avail himself of the many-tiered driving coat, belonging to his brother-in-law, which Elizabeth insisted on their taking with them.

A high-perch phaeton held only two people with any comfort and his Lordship’s groom had borrowed Major Warden’s hunter, which Lord Dorrington had ridden in search of Alyna to carry his Lordship’s instructions to Dorrington Park. They were therefore alone.

The rain had left the earth smelling sweet and fragrant. Everywhere the flowers and the pale green leaves of late spring made the countryside a picture of beauty.

Alyna realised that Lord Dorrington was right in saying that there was no other choice she could make unless she was prepared to return to London and face her mother.

This was something she knew that she could not do.

The thought of receiving ten thousand pounds had expelled any consideration that Lady Maude might have had for her daughter.

However reluctant Alyna might be at the thought of marriage with the Prince, her mother was still completely convinced that it was in the girl’s best interests.

It also seemed to Alyna that Lord Dorrington, having thrashed the Prince, had dismissed him from his mind as unimportant. But she was not so sanguine where the Prince was concerned.

She had read too much of the vengeful feelings that exist in the Orient and how an insult is never forgiven or forgotten, how a feud can last from generation to generation, from century to century!

She could not believe that the Prince would endure the humiliation of being whipped like a schoolboy without attempting to revenge himself. For one thing he might abduct her forcibly and, having ravished her, then refuse to marry her.

What was more, would he ever, Alyna asked herself, cease to loathe Lord Dorrington with a bitterness that could only be assuaged in blood?

She trembled at the thought and Lord Dorrington, who had seemed to be concentrating on his horses, asked,

“Are you cold?”

“No,” Alyna replied, “I only thought of something rather frightening.”

“Then cease to think of it,” Lord Dorrington admonished. “There is nothing further that can happen to you. You will be my wife and it will be a very foolhardy man who would attempt to insult you once I have the right to defend you.”

“Elizabeth told me that you were thinking of founding a Bachelor’s Club,” Alyna said.