At the tender age of seventeen, I had fled the home of my father, the 4th Earl of Stavourley, and thrown myself under the protection of a gentleman. The fact that I had fallen in love with George William Allenham, the 4th Baron Allenham of Herberton, the man to whom my late half-sister had been betrothed, was not the error to which I refer. His affection for me was as true as mine was for him, and returned with as much devotion and ardour. In that regard we had sinned no more than had my father and my mother, Kitty Kennedy, a celebrated woman of the town. Our affaire de coeur was enacted with far more discretion than was theirs. For a time we lived privately in a cottage on Lord Allenham’s estate, and passed our days as simply as might plain country folk. No, my misstep was not that I ruined my character so that I might live as my heart dictated, but rather that I had abandoned Orchard Cottage and set out in search of Allenham when he vanished from it. I ought not to have taken my leave of it for London with scarcely a ha’penny to my name. While this sort of adventure generally ends well for young men, it rarely does for young ladies. I shall spare you the sorry tale of my descent into the demi-monde, but merely say that as the winds of dissipation and debauchery whirled about me, my heart remained fixed on Allenham alone. My constant thought was of locating him and, in time, fortune favoured me and directed me to sail for Calais.

Allenham was delighted at our reunion, but in the days that followed took pains to explain the circumstances of his absence to me. He informed me that he presently served as a secretary to Viscount Torrington, who was then His Majesty’s ambassador in Brussels. His duties necessitated that he undertake frequent travel and so he had found himself regularly in Paris, Coblenz, Spa, Geneva and Turin.

‘However,’ he explained, ‘my title is but a formality, for the role I am charged with is far more critical than this.’ He then hardened his blue-eyed gaze upon me. ‘You apprehend what has occurred in France? That a good many of the nobles, a good number of the court have abandoned their country since the fall of the Bastille?’

I nodded.