“We are free of him,” Lord Lynche repeated. “Oh, Carina, what can I say to you – ?”

A knock on the door interrupted the rest of his sentence.

“What is it?” Lord Lynche asked testily.

“I am sorry to interrupt you, my Lord,” Newman said, “but Colonel Wakeford has returned from the hospital and wishes to speak to you.”

“Yes, yes. Of course I must see him,” Lord Lynche said.

He turned to Carina.

“Wakeford has been to the hospital fixing things up. He took with him Percy’s valet and his luggage. I must go and hear what he has to tell me.”

“Yes, of course,” Carina said.

“But I want to talk to you,” Lord Lynche said. “I must talk to you. There is so much that we have to say to each other.”

“Is there?”

She looked up at him and felt herself quiver because of the look in his eyes.

“I love you,” he said softly. “I cannot get through the day without talking to you of that and so many other things. Now I must go.”

“But of course,” Carina said quietly.

He took her hand in his.

“Come downstairs to me this evening,” he begged. “What time do you put the child to bed?”

“About six o’clock,” Carina answered.

“Then come here at about seven,” Lord Lynche said. “That will give us a short time together before dinner. I am afraid that Arthur is staying until tomorrow.”

“Perhaps – ”

Carina was stopped by the impetuous pressure of his fingers.

“Promise me you will meet me here then. I have to see you and this afternoon there are a number of things that must be attended to. You understand that?”

“I understand,” Carina agreed. “And I will be here about seven, as you suggest.”

“I shall be waiting,” he said and she felt his eyes on her lips almost as if he kissed her.

Then he was gone, hurrying from the room across the hall.

She realised that he had left her with the box containing the necklace and, after a moment’s thought, she walked across the room and put it in the drawer of his desk.

She would tell him about it later, she thought, and ask him to put it away in the safe.

Then she went upstairs to Dipa.

After luncheon when Carina had wrapped the little boy in his thickest coat, she took him for a walk, but he whimpered about the cold and so she took him upstairs again. They played games in the nursery until it was time for bed.

She tried not to hurry over bathing him. She dried him in front of the fire and warmed his nightshirt.

At the same time her heart was lifting and she knew that, however much she pretended to herself, she was thinking about Lord Lynche.