“That depends on your perspective,” she said. Nick made a noise of disbelief and Eleanor straightened a little. “Georgina had everyone wrapped around her finger, and she milked it. Daddy adored her. The press delighted in her. Our family friends flocked past me straight to her. Even Grandmummy thought she could do no wrong, while I was nothing but a disappointment. She got to go away for school, make friends, see a bit of the world, and have the sorts of life experiences that are thrilling for a young girl, but which were deemed too common for me. I had to stay home, locked away, preparing for my life of duty. All I gave was effort, day in and day out, and it was never enough. But Henry looked out for me, first as my tutor then as my friend. And when I lost…” She stopped and covered her mouth.

“Her first love,” I filled in for her to the others. “Her parents sent him away, and he died.”

Freddie paled. “That’s awful.”

“Henry was a girlhood crush, but Robert…Robert was real.” The last word was almost inaudible. “He was undone by it all, and drank too much and was flattened on a road in Wales. They didn’t find his body for three days, and when they did…” Her eyes closed. “I fainted when they told me, can you believe it? Like something in a silly film.”

None of us dared move. Eleanor stared into the fireplace, visibly fighting to compose herself. “When you’re my age, of course, you realize that people can recover from anything. But I didn’t understand that then. My heart didn’t feel like it would ever work properly again, and I told myself loving anyone that much was too painful a risk to take twice. But then Henry put me back together, and I realized I’d already reinvested myself in him. Trust. Affection. Love. And need. I did not think I could do this job without him.

“Then one day I found him out in the gardens playing croquet with Georgina, and there it was. I saw the way she looked at him, and I saw it start to have an effect on him. The same effect she had on everyone, our entire lives. That old Georgina charm,” she said. “I hadn’t thought she would bother with Henry. He was very nearly too old for me, and she was only seventeen. But seventeen felt more mature back then, I suppose, and Georgina certainly always thought of herself as sophisticated. I remember looking at them and thinking, I cannot lose him. Not to her.