Ned’s face cleared. ‘So we were, Father!’ He was now happily reconnected with his strong social self-confidence. ‘Splendid part of the world – know it at all? Excellent people – kind enough to suggest I might give it a whirl – thought it could be amusing – hustings do look rather fun. I say, sir, you are now in the same line, are you not? We could end up in Westminster together! Happy this, happy that, band of brothers, so on, so forth …’ He was quite liberally spraying his unique charm around the Godmersham dining room.

Yet Sir Edward remained uncharmed. ‘My dear young Knight,’ he intoned. ‘Representing one’s own community …’

There followed a short treatise on parliamentary democracy. Fanny put down her spoon. She had rather lost her appetite.

‘And I wonder if you have even yet considered the huge cost of the endeavour?’ Sir Edward went on.

There then came a merciful pause, during which Sir Edward recharged both his plate and his wine glass and Fanny dared hope he might drop the subject. But with strength reinforced, he returned to the fray.

‘POLITICS’ – his voice was pitched more for a countywide open-air meeting than a family dinner – ‘is neither a SPORT, nor a GAME, sir!’

And at that, Ned suddenly met with the end of his tether. ‘And more is the pity!’ His fist thumped down on to the table. ‘The country might be a much better place if it were!’

As her brothers gave voice to their approval, Fanny’s heart sank.

Tilting her head towards her plate, she peered around the table from under her lashes. She had so wanted Sir Edward to make a good first impression on her big family. Sadly, this was not a promising start. She knew Lizzie’s hostility was set in well before dinner. One course down and it was clearly solidified. Even Marianne – the famous friend of all living things – looked a little concerned.

Curiously, the only person who seemed to be enjoying the evening was Mary Dorothea. The dead eyes now sparkled; those pale, invisible lips were rosy and host to a smile. Her pallid face was lit up with amusement and rapt admiration.

The child must love her father very much indeed, Fanny thought. And her anxiety duly increased.

CHAPTER V

Fanny’s nerves were still raw on the following morning, when her fiancé drove her over to see Mersham-le-Hatch: the seat of the Knatchbulls and her future home.

‘And here it is,’ Sir Edward exclaimed as he steered the gig through the gate, pulled on the reins and the couple drew up in front of the mansion.

‘Oh, Sir Edward!’ Although her heart would always belong, first and forever, to her sweet Godmersham, Fanny could not help but be encouraged by the vision before her. ‘It is indeed as fine as everyone says.’