The building, of course, had been modernised and enlarged all down the centuries and the third Duke had in Georgian times spent a fortune on the interior.

He had employed the greatest architects not only to alter the rooms and their decoration, but also to design the furniture for the State rooms.

This, according to the Countess, had made it immeasurably finer than anything that the Queen could boast of at Windsor Castle.

Honora was to find that her aunt always seemed to speak as if The Castle belonged to her and to point out how it was superior in every way to anything possessed by anyone else.

As usual she made sure that Honora appreciated what was being done for her.

“I see you have been given the Queen’s room,” she said when they arrived. “I hope you know enough history to be aware that Queen Elizabeth stayed here when she was a girl and again when she was on the throne.”

As Honora obviously had no idea of this, her aunt sneered,

“I cannot think what they taught you in that expensive school, but I suppose, being foreigners and, of course, jealous of the British, they played down our achievements by cracking up their own.”

Honora longed to say that the teachers had actually taught her the history of every important country in Europe, but she knew to say so would be a mistake.

The Countess rattled on,

“Try to make a few intelligent remarks about The Castle – not to the Duke, for he will not listen to you, but his family will be only too ready to say that he should have married somebody with more brains.”

She did not wait for Honora’s answer, but left the bedroom in a manner that told her that she was contemptuous of everything her niece could do.

Honora did not understand and fortunately because she was so young and innocent it never crossed her mind that the Countess was suffering agonies in knowing that another woman would fill the place in the Duke’s life that she longed for.

Nevertheless she was too clever in the presence of his relatives to make herself anything but charming and she praised Honora publicly, saying that in every way she would make the Duke a very suitable wife.

Only Honora sensed the insincerity of the way she spoke and it made her feel uneasy and very thankful that her uncle was there.

“Help me, Uncle George,” she said as they went down to dinner the first night. “I am frightened of these strange people who are looking at me as if I was a freak in a circus.”

The Earl laughed.

“Not a freak, my dear.”

“That is what I feel like,” Honora said, “and now I know exactly what the ‘Bearded Lady’ feels and perhaps the calf with six legs.”

The Earl laughed again.

“How can you know about such things?”

“I read a book when I was in Florence which described King George IV’s Coronation and the fete that took place in Hyde Park where there was a huge circus and a number of very strange sideshows.”