What a success! She wriggled her toes with great satisfaction and allowed herself a short moment to bask in the glow of it. Mary had been such a dear that Fanny could not think why she had not tried earlier to form a rapport. After all, every girl needed a mother, as she herself knew. Well, it was never too late … Now Mary had that particular confidante, she might finally flourish and find her way.

There then came a scream from the floor above. The crash of a tray. Running of footsteps. The bedroom door was flung open.

‘Madam!’

‘Sayce!’ Fanny scolded. ‘Really.’ She pulled her bed jacket around her. ‘What on earth is the matter?’

‘She’s gone, ma’am!’

Fanny let out a cry, became all over cold. She leaped out of bed but her legs would not carry her.

‘My baby!’ She fell to the floor. ‘My baby,’ she gasped. ‘My baby is gone!’

‘Madam!’ Sayce crossed the room in a flash, flung open the drawer of the bedside cabinet and found the salts. ‘The baby is upstairs having breakfast with Nurse.’ She held the vial beneath Fanny’s nose. ‘And we need to pull ourselves together. There’s trouble afoot.’ Gently, she drew her mistress up and then lowered her into a chair, placing a hand on her forehead.

‘Trouble?’ Fanny repeated, feeble. ‘But if not the baby, then what … Even so – dear, oh dear – that is a pity. Sir Edward does not like trouble.’

‘He certainly doesn’t and he’s not going to like this.’ The maid swept her mistress’s hair back and took her face in her hands. ‘It’s Miss Mary, ma’am. Looks like she scarpered.’

‘Scarpered?’ Fanny was not entirely familiar with the word or its usage, yet still she knew fear.

‘Gone,’ Sayce said, impatient now. ‘Left in the night.’

No! Fanny would not believe it. She cast about, frantic: found one, last straw of hope and grabbed at it. ‘Then she must have been taken! Taken by someone – against her will! The child is surely in terror!’

Sayce rolled her eyes in a somewhat impertinent fashion that Fanny did not care for one little bit.

‘Well, if she was, he made a nice job of it. Chamber’s all cleared …’

Fanny listened to the litany of evidence, and then said quietly: ‘I see.’ She tilted her head back and closed her eyes. ‘Thank you, Sayce, for that detailed report.’

So there it was. Ned had – as ever – got his own way. They were now all in disgrace. The servants knew everything … And this was a moment of peril.

She thought quickly. Mary Dorothea – weak, silly creature! – might choose to destroy her own reputation, but she would not take her family down with her. The next hours were crucial. Sir Edward and Lady Knatchbull must be sure to mark their own conduct, or the household would gossip and hell be let loose.