Now there was no sign of anybody and, although he stood there for some minutes, the whole place seemed quiet and deserted.

Because it was impossible for him to be inactive he started to walk down Park Lane hoping there might be some chance of seeing Honora.

Then he thought that, if she wished to run away from him, she might have gone to her uncle’s house in Grosvenor Square.

In which case, he reasoned, she would have gone up Park Lane when she left the house and not down.

He had no idea whether or not she had any close friends in London, but he could not help hoping that if she had and had gone to them they were not the sort of people who would talk.

He could imagine the news that she had run away from him would be a titbit of gossip that would sweep like wildfire through the Social world.

That he, the most eligible and pursued bachelor in Mayfair, had lost his wife on the very day of their marriage would lose nothing in the telling.

He could almost hear the sniggers and the jokes that would be made about it.

He knew too it would enhance the story if it were known that he was tramping the streets looking for his reluctant bride and so he would look a complete fool.

‘How in God’s name could she do anything so reprehensible?’ he asked himself savagely.

He turned as he spoke and walked quickly back to the house.

James was still standing in the open doorway and, as the Duke walked past him, he said,

“I imagine Her Grace will be returning shortly. When she does so, inform me at once. I shall be in the sitting room.”

“Very good, Your Grace.”

The Duke walked back to the room where they had been earlier and automatically went to the grog tray in the corner.

But when he reached it he found that he had no desire to drink and instead pulled back the curtains to look out onto the garden at the back of the house.

There was a moon, which with the stars gave enough light to see the great trees that had been planted in his grandfather’s time, and the flowerbeds, which in the daytime were a riot of colour.

But the Duke was worrying about Honora and now, for the first time, he was thinking of how young she was and how inexperienced.

After all, she had said tonight that she had been in Florence for the last two years and he supposed it that had never occurred to her that she should not go out alone in London, especially after dinner.

He tried to remember if she was wearing any jewellery, thinking if she was, it might attract thieves.

Because the idea of her being attacked made him nervous, he walked across the room and opened the door, which he had shut when he entered it, so that he could hear anything that happened in the hall.