It was a conversation Honora remembered after she had gone to bed.

She could not help thinking that it would be very difficult to enjoy herself with the Duke unless he paid her a little more attention than he did at the moment.

He had hardly spoken a word to her all the evening, but she was not aware that this was because her aunt had contrived to keep him away from her.

When he said goodnight, she had thought his eyes looked at her without any admiration in them and she could sense the waves of resentment coming from him as they had been doing all the evening.

They seemed to intensify when one of the older great-uncles rose to propose a toast to the young couple and because it was expected of him, the Duke replied.

It was a quite short but witty speech saying that, although he had a large number of relatives of his own, he was quite prepared to add to their numbers.

Although everybody seemed pleased at the compliments he paid the Lang family, Honora was acutely conscious that he was making an effort and there was nothing spontaneous about the pleasant things he said.

The only comfort she had was when her uncle kissed her goodnight and told her,

“I was very proud of you tonight, my dear, and there is no doubt that you will do credit to the many beautiful women we have had in our family and I doubt if any of the Tynemouth Duchesses will rival you.”

“Thank you, Uncle George,” Honora said simply.

Then, afraid that she might be expected to kiss her aunt, she slipped away upstairs.

Only in her own bedroom did she feel safe, sheltered from the Countess’s fault-finding and dislike of her, which she made no pretence of concealing.

*

The following day there were more things to buy and more relations to meet.

The not-so-important ones had been asked to tea and because both the Earl and the Duke were in attendance at Buckingham Palace there was no dinner party that evening.

Honora had been afraid that she might have an uncomfortable dinner with her aunt, but to her relief the Countess said that she intended to have dinner in bed.

No one suggested she should do the same, so she ate a small and quick meal downstairs in the dining room and would have felt very lonely had not Dalton talked to her of her father while he served the meal.

‘It is extraordinary,’ Honora thought, ‘all the nice things everybody says about my Papa.’

She wondered if his relatives and servants would be equally warm-hearted about the Duke.

She very much doubted it because she was quite sure that they were as frightened of him as she was and she was apprehensive of meeting him again when they were to arrive at Tyne Castle.

When Honora thought about The Castle, she expected it to be rather austere with a tower.

What she did not know was that it was one of the finest and most historic castles in England and had been the ancestral home of the Tynes since the days of the Normans.