‘Well, this is peculiar.’ Her father now looked quite bemused. ‘Ned has assured me of a very deep friendship. And your sisters have all confirmed it to be genuine.’

The couple was in love … the girls were all in on the secret … and she had been excluded. It was as if Fanny were caught in a nightmare. She fought back the tears, gathered herself, sighed – and stared at the ceiling. The new gilding really was very successful. How lucky she was to live in a house with such perfect features. She really must make an effort to look at them more.

‘And Mary herself accepted him at once! How do we explain that?’

This was enough to bring Fanny out of self-pity and into a state of cold fury. ‘I can only presume that, in the moment, Ned turned the silly girl’s head.’ She brought her gaze back to her father and adopted a brisk tone. ‘But whatever her reasoning, ’tis of no matter. Sir Edward simply cannot approve any immediate match. Mary is simply too young.’

‘Ned is prepared to wait,’ her father shot back.

‘That is too kind.’ She smiled tightly. ‘Yet still immaterial. Sir Edward is particularly sensitive on the subject of scandal, and the mere thought that it might, once again, attach itself to his family upsets him greatly. Apart from all the other objections, he is very much of the view that Ned is, in effect, Mary Dorothea’s uncle and—’

‘Yet, my dear, he is not!’ Mr Knight thumped his fist on the table, giving Fanny rather a shock. ‘That is what is so hard to comprehend! There is no scandal here. Especially when all the world knows he is indeed plotting for the girl to marry his own brother.’

Fanny took a deep breath, determined to maintain her poise. There was, she must grant, some slight inconsistency in her husband’s argument. In fact, no – that was not quite true. Last night, when Sir Edward was with her and – even in his fury – able to carefully explain, in that excellent way of his, his position had seemed to make perfect sense. It was afterwards, in the solitary small hours, that the reasoning seemed rather to fall apart in her hands. So it was fortunate, really, that she would only ever allow herself one way to turn.

‘Papa,’ she began, keeping her voice as steady as she was able. ‘I shall not go against my husband on this matter – or any other, come to that. Nor, I know, would you expect me to. I have given you Sir Edward’s opinion, and I do not expect him to change it. Especially as Mary has not asked that he might. She did not utter a word on the subject last evening!