After they had done so, they rode beside a stream, over the meadowland yellow with buttercups and had a luncheon of bread and cheese at a black and white inn situated on a village green.

They sat outside in the sunshine and drank home-brewed cider, which the Duke warned Honora was very intoxicating.

“If you fall off your horse,” he smiled, “I expect I can carry you back on mine.”

“That would be very ignominious and I am sure that properly behaved Duchesses are never drunk.”

“Certainly not!” the Duke agreed and she laughed because he had answered her so seriously.

She gave him a little glance from under her eyelashes as she asked,

“Are you nervous that I might do anything to disgrace you?”

She was speaking without thinking.

Then she remembered that, when she had been captured by the two men who had taken her to Kate, the Duke had been afraid that they might talk or that Lord Roxton might have seen her.

Because he knew what she was thinking, he said quickly,

“That is all forgotten and the answer to your question is that I am quite sure, now I know you, that you will be an exemplary Duchess.”

Honora gave a little sigh.

“If only Mama was alive it would not be difficult and Papa would have looked after me and prevented me from making any faux pas.”

“That is now my job,” the Duke said.

“When we go – back to London you may find it very – boring to have a wife who keeps asking you – questions.”

He could not help feeling it was something she had thought of before and he said,

“I enjoy your questions, and that is the truth, but I am beginning to be afraid I shall not have an answer to them all.”

“I am sure you will,” Honora replied, “and shall I tell you that it is very exciting for me to have a private encyclopaedia all to myself?”

The Duke laughed and then he said,

“While I think about it, I have an idea that is the most flattering compliment I have ever received.”

“I should have thought, as you have had so many, you are blasé about them by now.”

“I am just wondering,” the Duke replied, “whether you are teasing me or shooting at me, Honora.”

She gave a little chuckle, which he thought was very attractive, before she replied,

“You are much too grand for me to tease you and I am definitely too frightened to shoot at you!”

The Duke replied unexpectedly,

“When your face is in repose, Honora, you look like a small angel, but when you are talking to me there is a dimple that appears to be mischievous and a look in your eyes that has nothing at all to do with Heaven.”

“If you are insinuating that I am a small devil,” Honora replied, “I shall definitely be affronted. At the same time I feel it would be more exciting than to be one of those snooty-nosed angels who sit perpetually round a sapphire sea twanging a harp.”