With great composure, young Drummond then turned upon his heel, returned the whip to his coachman and quietly resumed his seat within the carriage. Only once we had begun to roll away did his expression shift. He clapped his hand upon his face and began to snigger. I studied him apprehensively. The snorting and snuffling grew louder until all at once he threw back his head and emitted a scream of laughter. At first, I was quite startled at this, but soon found myself carried along by his mirth. I began to tremble and then, like him, burst into uncontained levity.

It had been an audacious act, to be sure, but one which Andrew Savill had merited. I snorted at the thought of it, of his drawn, terrified visage. Mrs Elliot was a genius with her cunning, I concluded, before a sobering thought came upon me.

‘But . . . but, Mr Drummond, I do hope you do not intend to see your challenge to Mr Savill to its conclusion?’

‘I shall fight for your honour, Miss Lightfoot, if that is indeed what is required,’ he replied with a smile.

‘You cannot! No, I insist – you must not . . .’

But my concerns did no more than amuse him.

‘Come, dear Miss Lightfoot, you must take a drink with me in celebration,’ was his only riposte. ‘I propose to show you the delights of the Café du Plaisir.’

I drew back from him uneasily. Although I was grateful for my champion’s defence of me, I had no intention of extending our acquaintance. I was certain I knew Drummond’s sort and had suffered my fair share of young men’s antics. How many dreary hours I had passed in the company of Mayfair bucks and bloods as they rolled dice and emptied bottles, I would not venture to recount. Such was the lot of the fallen sisterhood: to play the cheerful companion to the drunkard; to whisper sweetly in his ear as he lost at cards, to titter merrily while bouncing upon his knee, to permit his cold, rough hand into a bodice, to sit beside him in a hackney cab as he vomited down his waistcoat. I studied Mr Drummond and sighed with resignation. I supposed he had earned his night of revels.