He looked down at her and smiled. ‘What’s the matter,’ he mocked, ‘didn’t the Englishman kiss you properly like this?’

‘Certainly not!’ she cried. ‘He was a gentleman!’

‘Ah, but you see, husbands don’t have to be gentlemen,’ he told her. Holding her face firmly between his hands, he bent his head once more to claim her mouth – one last taste before, in two days’ time, he could claim the rest of her. But as he lowered his lips to hers, she twisted away, letting out a piercing scream. With an oath he slapped her cheek, cutting off her scream, and let her go.

Annette, still standing shivering in the porch, heard Hélène’s terrified scream and flung herself in through the front door, and took the stairs two at a time. As she reached the landing, they were coming towards her with Simon saying in a loud and hectoring voice, ‘For goodness’ sake, Hélène, it was only a spider! A large one, I’ll grant you, but only a spider nonetheless. I’m afraid that you’ll have to get used to those here. The Garden House is an old building and there are bound to be spiders.’

As he spoke his fingers gripped more tightly round her wrist, the stone of his signet ring biting painfully into her flesh. She dared not speak out, and he knew it. He turned his wrath on Annette. ‘I thought I told you to wait outside,’ he growled.

‘I beg your pardon, monsieur.’ Annette was all contrition. ‘I thought perhaps Miss Hélène had had a fall. I came to help.’

‘There is no need of your help when Miss Hélène is with me, and I’ll thank you to remember it!’

Annette ducked her head submissively and murmured, ‘Yes, monsieur.’ She had seen the mark of his hand on Hélène’s face, but wisely dropped her eyes again, giving no indication.

‘Well,’ he said briskly, ‘enough of that now. It’s time to get your mistress back to Belair. I’m sure she’s longing to tell her parents of the arrangements I’ve made here for her comfort.’

They went back downstairs, and having handed Hélène into the chaise, Simon turned back to lock the house while Annette waited for permission to get in beside her mistress.

Simon, turning back towards her, gripped Annette by the wrist. ‘Miss Hélène was disturbed by a large spider,’ he said softly, ‘and I wish to hear nothing else about it.’ His voice was menacing as he added, ‘You understand me, Annette? One word and I’ll throw you out on the street.’

‘Yes, monsieur, I understand you very well.’ And she did. She didn’t know exactly what had happened upstairs in the bedroom, but seeing the red mark on Hélène’s face she could guess. Hélène sat beside her, pale-faced and mute, as Simon drove them back to Belair.

Simon did not stay once he had seen Hélène into the house. Before he turned back towards the front door, he said, ‘My compliments to your mother, my dear, but I must beg her to excuse me. I have to return to Gavrineau directly. My mother’s sister is arriving today and I must be there to greet her.’ He reached for Hélène’s hand and lifted it to his lips. She kept her eyes lowered but he squeezed her hand hard, his signet ring again digging into her skin, leaving a deep indentation as if in wax, as if he had sealed her as his own.