In 1799 wigs were no longer worn, except by the powdered flunkeys with their gold-braided heavily-buttoned liveries, as they carried great silver trays laden with crystal glasses of champagne amongst the guests.

Lord Dorrington, moving purposefully through the throng, managed to avoid conversing with a number of people who wished to engage his attention.

He found his hostess. Lady Glossop, in an anteroom off the main ballroom talking to a lady he recognised as Lady Maude Camberley. Beside them was a dark skinned, over-decorated stranger, who Lord Dorrington guessed was the Prince.

“My dear Lord Dorrington,” Lady Glossop gushed, holding out her gloved hand, “you cannot be leaving us!”

“It is with deep regret that I must do so,’’ Lord Dorrington replied. “But I have an appointment to meet His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales at Carlton House and I am afraid I am already late.”

“Then, if His Royal Highness is expecting your Lordship, I must not detain you,” Lady Glossop said. “But his gain in the pleasure of your company is certainly our loss.”

“You are very gracious,” Lord Dorrington murmured.

“I am only sorry you cannot stay for a little ceremony that is just about to take place,” Lady Glossop said.

As she spoke, she turned to Lady Maude Camberley.

“I think, Maude, you know Lord Dorrington.”

“We have met,” Lady Maude said coldly.

“We have indeed.”

Lord Dorrington gave her so brief a bow that she instinctively stiffened as if at an insult.

“And, of course, you must know Prince Ahmadi,” Lady Glossop went on. “Your Highness, may I present Lord Dorrington, who is without exception the best dressed man in London.”

“I have heard of your Lordship,” Prince Ahmadi said with a flash of his white teeth.

“I am flattered,” Lord Dorrington drawled in a tone that conveyed the opposite.

He looked the Prince over as he spoke and thought that he could understand Alyna’s fear of him.

Prince Ahmadi was handsome in a fleshy flamboyant fashion. He was taller than might have been expected and had an assured polished manner that could only have come from a Western education.

At the same time there was something exotic and very Oriental about him.

Perhaps it was the boldness of his black eyes, which were too close together. Perhaps it was the sensual fullness of his lips, which had a touch of cruelty about them.

It was not difficult to understand that anyone as young and sensitive as Alyna would find him terrifying.

“May I thank you once again,” Lord Dorrington said to Lady Glossop.

He turned and walked without appearing to hurry from the anteroom across the marble hall to where the linkmen were calling the carriages.

“I dislike that man!” Lady Maude remarked when he was out of earshot.

“I cannot imagine why you accord him the importance of even thinking about him,” the Prince said. “After all, like so many ineffectual Englishmen, he is nothing but a clothes peg!”