Modest women did not go visiting at such times, or appear in public at all, but she wasn’t about to let a thing like that get in her way now. She packed away her workbook and went straight to the carriage house. Ignoring the shocked expression of the groom, Rosa gave the order for the carriage to be made ready and a driver to be summoned. A short while later she was seated in the velvet interior as the carriage jolted its way to her friend’s home. She instantly knew Beatrice was indeed there, because of the black apple trees. They were not in the orchard as usual, but clustered beneath the window that Rosa knew to be Beatrice’s bedroom. She frowned as she recalled something her friend had once told her about how the trees only did that when they were worried about her. So perhaps something was amiss after all?

When the carriage stopped in front of the main entrance, Rosa didn’t send her driver in with her card but climbed awkwardly down from the carriage instead, wincing at a twinge in her lower back. The slightest exertion seemed to make her out of breath these days, and she was puffing slightly by the time she’d climbed the steps to the door. A butler answered it promptly at her ring and could not have looked more aghast to see Rosa there than if she had been stark naked.

‘Good afternoon,’ she said, forcing a smile. ‘Is Lady Beatrice home?’

The butler began to shake his head and make excuses, but Rosa cut him off. ‘I don’t mean is she “at home” to visitors, I mean is she physically present in the house? Because if so, then I will not leave without seeing her, even if it means I have to sit on these steps all night.’

She very much hoped she would not have to follow through on her threat, because she had no idea if she’d be able to heave herself upright again, once she was down. To her relief, the butler invited her to take a seat in the lobby whilst he conveyed her message. And a short while later she found herself announced into Beatrice’s study.

Beatrice was seated behind Lord Sitwell’s desk, slowly turning the pages of a book about mushrooms. She looked up at Rosa’s arrival and an expression of genuine pleasure brightened her face. Rosa noticed immediately that Beatrice was thinner than when she’d last seen her and had a sallow look to her skin.

‘G-Good afternoon,’ Beatrice said, rising to her feet. ‘I am s-sorry for n-not replying to your l-letters. I h-have not b-been w-well.’

‘You look rather peaky now, if you don’t mind my saying so,’ Rosa said, peering at her.

‘I am m-much recovered,’ Beatrice replied.