Although, were she perhaps to dig deep into the far chambers of her feminine mind – that place which she generally liked to avoid at all costs – might Fanny then discover that she had somehow known, all along?

She buried her face into the pillow and started to cry.

Though she was never to know who did the deed, Sir Edward’s unmistakeable roar rang through the house soon after nine. Sayce came in shortly after; Fanny affected deep sleep. But soon the noise of his grief, from the study directly below, pulled at her good, wifely nature. He was her husband! He needed her comfort! She rang the bell, called for Sayce and got dressed.

‘Oh my dear! The dreadful news has only just reached me,’ Fanny cried as she rushed into the study.

Sir Edward was bent over his desk, face sunk into arms. That full, solid form – which she had always found such a comfort – was racked with his sobbing.

‘I am so sorry, my darling. So very sorry.’ Fanny curled herself around him, leaned her head on his shoulder. ‘Still.’ She stroked his dear head in a gesture of soothing. ‘What’s done is done and, somehow, we must find it in our hearts to forgive them—’

Sir Edward wrenched himself up then, turned and stared at his wife with pure fury. ‘FORGIVE THEM?’ He stood, fists balled. ‘You expect me to forgive that which I had expressly forbidden?’ He shook his head violently. ‘Oh, no. They shall not get away with this!’

Fanny recoiled, took a few paces back to the plush armchair away from the desk, settled herself and chose her next words with care. ‘Husband,’ she beseeched him. ‘Pray, dearest, do think on it. They have been gone for some hours … By tomorrow, they will no doubt be wed and then’ – she held out both hands – ‘there is nothing that anyone can do.’

He looked back at her with contempt. ‘You must forgive me, madam, but that is naïve. What matters a marriage in Scotland? Bah! My lawyers will unpick that in an instant. I have summoned them already.’

‘But then, if they seek sanctification in a proper church – in England, I mean?’ Ned never did things by halves, as she well knew.

‘Trust me, that will not happen.’ He started to pace. ‘I intend to write to the Archbishop this very day and, by my word, he will instruct the whole clergy to turn them away.’ Sir Edward turned back then, in full pomp. ‘No priest will marry them!’