‘You would have been more mortified if you had appeared in public in something that looked as if it had been made for a hunchback. That is what friends are for, to let you know the things you cannot see.’

‘Which makes you also sound like some second conscience, Charles, and I really do not desire one.’

‘You know that is not what I mean. Your papa did not send me to spy upon you, I swear it.’

‘So is it simply that you had an urgent need that your shirtmaker in Ludlow could not supply, or was it’ – she smiled – ‘that you could not stay away from me?’

‘Shirts are very important.’ He dared not take the other option.

‘Having them is important, but last time I looked, you were not going about Shropshire with frayed cuffs, nor had you grown so much as to burst forth from your linens.’ She paused. ‘Are you making a long sojourn in London?’

‘You wish to be rid of me?’

‘No. It was a “polite question”. I have learned a whole list of “polite questions” that one may use in conversation and which indicate sufficient interest in the other person without being in any way personal.’ She looked smug.

‘You would have us reduced to that, Miss Gaydon?’

‘Oh, do not look reproachful like that, please.’ The violins ended with a long note. Henrietta made her curtsey and gave him her hand to lead her from the floor. ‘We have been waltzing together at Almack’s; what more could we want?’

It really did not help that he had a very long list.

CHAPTER SIX

Lady Elstead was not a great patroness of the visual arts, but she knew where to be seen, and from a variety of sources found out that which she ought most to admire. The British Institution had opened its Exhibition of British Artists in early February, and now, at the beginning of April, she felt provided with enough information to appear well-informed. James Felbridge evinced a desire to accompany his mama and sister, and, incidentally, Henrietta, and his mama, resigned to the fact that the son and heir was in the grips of infatuation, agreed. As she wrote to her lord, still in the country, far better he get such things out of his system with his cousin, who showed no likelihood of being bowled over by his adoration, rather than some foolish girl who might be equally smitten, or worse.

‘Oh dear!’ Henrietta put her hand to her cheek. ‘But last night, Aunt, Lord Henfield said he would present himself here this morning, to give me all the news of Papa, and home.’

‘Well, my dear, if he comes betimes he may accompany us, since I am sure there will be nothing quite so private that it needs four solid walls about it.’