“I shall look forward to seeing them,” Honora replied, “and I am sure that Emily will know what I should take with me.

When she was dressed, she walked slowly down the stairs feeling once again a little frightened.

‘I must try to behave naturally,’ she admonished herself. ‘It is what Mama would expect and we cannot go on for ever hating and resenting each other because we have been forced to marry in this precipitate way.’

This was easier to decide than to put into operation and she knew when she entered the attractive room where the Duke was waiting for her that she could not help trembling a little.

Because she had been at Tynemouth House for dinner parties she realised that they were not sitting in the large drawing room, but in a much smaller, more comfortable room in which there were a great number of books.

Forgetting the Duke for a moment she exclaimed,

“Oh, you have so many books here! How splendid! I was afraid I would find them only at The Castle.”

“These are the books I have bought for myself,” the Duke replied.

“Then you do like reading!” Honora exclaimed without thinking.

Then, as she saw the question in his eyes, she explained,

“It may sound – rude but I have often – wondered if all the books at The Castle were chosen by your forebears and you – yourself are not much interested in them.”

“As it happens, I read a great deal,” the Duke replied, “and I suppose from what you have just said that you do too.”

“Of course! Books mean so much to me and especially when I was at school.”

She was afraid he might think that she was referring to her lesson books and added quickly,

“I was left behind when the other girls went home for the holidays and, because the nuns then spent most of their time in prayer, it gave me a great deal of time to read.”

She gave him a little smile as she said,

“I am afraid I spent much more than I could afford on buying the books I wanted, for fortunately there was also a lending library in Florence, although not a very large one.”

The Duke poured her a glass of champagne before he said,

“I shall be interested to see what is your taste in literature.”

“It is very varied,” Honora replied, “and stretches from Elizabethan poets to the French novelists.”

The Duke laughed.

“I can quite see I shall have to have more bookcases added to this room and certainly more than there are already in your boudoir.”

“That will be a change from having them where they always were at home – on the floor! Papa and Mama read a lot too, so we always had more books than we could find room for.”

“I somehow never thought of your father as being a great reader,” the Duke remarked.

“Papa enjoyed everything he did, although it was Mama who encouraged him to read. He preferred books on horses, but we used to have animated discussions on all sorts of other subjects when he was – at home.”