The Earl was delighted.

After that the weekend parties took place in Buckinghamshire, but to Honora they were very little different from that at The Castle.

There were still people pouring in for every meal, all relations of some sort, and she never had a chance of speaking to the Duke alone, even though she was actually beginning to think that it was something she would like to do.

‘I am sure there are things we should talk about,’ she thought as their marriage drew nearer and nearer, ‘and I should get to know him.’

But how she could do that when they never sat next to each other at meals and her aunt seemed always to be guiding him away from wherever she was going, she was not sure.

He certainly came riding with her and her uncle when they were in Buckinghamshire, but he never joined them in London and in the country he would often ride ahead or jump high fences, which her uncle would not allow her to attempt.

“I like jumping, Uncle George,” she protested.

“Then get the Duke when he is your husband to lower the jumps on his private Racecourse,” the Earl had answered. “At the moment they are too high for any woman.”

Honora wanted to reply that she was determined if she had the chance to try the jumps as they were and was certain, despite her uncle’s apprehension, that they would not be too high for her.

She had ridden with her father since the time she could walk and, although their horses were not as well bred or expensive as either the Earl’s or the Duke’s, she was quite certain that no jump would be too high nor was she frightened of them.

Because she found that her aunt disapproved of almost everything she said and snubbed her openly, she had learned to say very little.

She thought a little wistfully that she would like to talk to the Duke and find out what interested him.

She had not forgotten that he had asked her if she had composed and he had not seemed surprised when she told him that she could.

‘Perhaps he is musical,’ she said to herself, ‘and that at least would be one point in his favour.’

She was not certain what the others might be, but she had the uncomfortable feeling there were very few of them.

She had seen his enormous library at The Castle and was aware that the books had been collected over the centuries, but she had not liked to ask him if he himself enjoyed reading.

She would also have liked to discuss with him what were his special interests in Parliamentary affairs.

She studied the newspaper reports of debates in the House of Lords to see if he had made a speech, but could not find one and thought perhaps that was because he was so involved with getting married.

Now that she was back in England she read the newspapers very carefully every day.