Rupert, filled with elation, wondered if his happiness showed on his face. Hélène was going to be his. He forced his attention back to Emile St Clair, who was still speaking.

‘Hélène is very young,’ he was saying, ‘and though she is happy to receive your visits, we want no pressure put upon her to further your friendship, unless and until she is certain of her own mind. Whenever you meet, decorum must be preserved; I will not have her reputation put at risk by any dishonourable behaviour.’

‘Thank you, sir,’ Rupert answered. ‘I thank you for your trust and I can make a solemn promise to you that I will do nothing that could be regarded as a slur on her honour… or my own.’ He could feel the smile spreading across his face as he added, ‘I swear I shall do everything within my power to make her happy.’

Chapter 24

Justin Chalfont collected his fly rod from the fishing closet and picked up his waders. He had been confined to the house all morning by thunder and lightning, but now the storm had passed and the persistent rain of the last few days had finally stopped, the air was less humid and he couldn’t wait to get out of the house. A couple of hours on the river bank was exactly what he needed to relax and calm his mind.

Since Kitty had accepted his proposal there had been talk of little but the wedding and their future together. One important question had been where the newly-weds should live. It had been suggested that they might move into a wing of Marwick House, but to Justin’s relief, Kitty had been as much against the idea as he had, and gracefully they had turned it down. There was no separate wing at Pilgrim’s Oak, but after much discussion, it had been decided that Sir Philip and Lady Chalfont must remain in their home and Justin and Kitty should move into the Dower House where his grandmother had ended her days. Together he and Kitty had inspected the house, which had been left empty since his grandmother’s death. It required some refurbishment and modernisation, and work had already begun so that they would be able to move in when they returned from an extended honeymoon. Justin had spent a great deal of time with the architect discussing the plans and making regular visits to the house to be sure that the work was progressing as it should. He didn’t mind, he wanted everything to be just so, but it was yet one more thing requiring his attention.

The day of his wedding was only four weeks away, and though he found he was looking forward to being married to Kitty, he was becoming fed up with all the palaver of the preparations. It would have suited him, and possibly Kitty too, to have had a simple ceremony in the church and a family gathering afterwards before they set off on their planned wedding journey. But his mother and Lady Blake had had their heads together for weeks, and there seemed always something to be considered.