‘Not him,’ she spat, cutting him off. ‘You’re engaged . . . and I’m already wed!’

His hand dropped from her arm like he’d been burnt, the wig falling to his feet. ‘What?’

The pain flared in his eyes and she was pleased to see it. He had treated her like a fool but she was nobody’s victim; she felt her own tears threaten, but they would not fall, not for as long as she stood here. Let him suffer for once! Let him know how it felt to lose!

She glanced at Sibyl and without a word turned imperiously upon her heel, driving the satin stiletto into the cruel woman’s bare foot. A scream pitched through the cedar-panelled room but Effie walked on – the only true wildling in a room full of pretenders.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

The skies were clear, stars already peeping as Effie tore through the night, the very edges of her jagged and sharp. She felt contaminated by the louche debauchery of those people for whom nothing and no one mattered. It was almost more than she could bear that Sibyl was still back there, in her brother’s clothes, holding court while everyone laughed at Effie and at John, and all they were proud to be – but nothing would make her return. The scales had fallen away. She had always known that she didn’t belong here but only now did she realize that she didn’t want to—

‘Effie!’ Sholto’s voice carried over the gardens.

She whipped round in surprise. He couldn’t have followed her out here? It was an impossible thing. She had cut him down before all those people.

His blonde hair was shining in the lights as he stood at the top of the steps, scanning the grounds for sight of her – but there were so many people, lovers everywhere carousing, high on life, good fortune and even better champagne. A couple was sitting on the wall by the fountain, the tips of long lighted cigarettes dancing in the dark, their laughter tinkling like the water.

Every instinct told her to run home, to race across the grass in the shortest possible distance. He would see her in the lights, but she was fast, fast enough to outrun him, she was sure of it. Almost sure. Besides, he wouldn’t make a scene and chase her . . . Would he?

His eyes found her. ‘Effie!’