William stared at his wife. From the first moment he had set eyes on her at a lavish ball being held for a number of debutantes, of whom Arabella had been one, he had fallen hopelessly in love, so he knew how his son was feeling about this woman. But his situation had been very different to Alexander’s. Although her parents had wished Arabella to marry into the elite of society, they had at least both come from the upper classes and there had been no disgrace in her becoming his wife. She had been cossetted and protected as a child and young woman, and he had only been too pleased to continue in the same vein, and with her lineage she had never found herself the recipient of snubs or slights, just the opposite in fact. That would change if Alexander went through with this match. They would find certain doors closed to them and people would stop calling, and the London season would be a nightmare. Arabella had no real idea of what she was saying or the position she would find herself in.

‘My dear,’ he began, only for her to interrupt him as she had a habit of doing.

‘I know what you are going to say,’ she said quietly, ‘and I am not quite so naive as you think I am, William. Certain of our acquaintances will no doubt be otherwise engaged for any dinner invitations we extend and we will find our own social calendar diminishing, but our true friends will hold fast. It will sort the wheat from the chaff. Of course everyone will have a perfectly lovely time discussing it until the next juicy bit of gossip rears its head, but that’s only human nature. And to be honest there have been times of late, like tonight with that dreadful little man Enoch Wynford and even Lord and Lady Rockingham, when I confess I wished myself in another place entirely. Perhaps I am getting old, my dear, but really some of these people are quite objectionable, as Alexander pointed out.’

The last comment did not particularly warm William to his son. Everything had been tickety-boo until he had arrived home, and no doubt he would be off again in a few days to who knew where for months on end and it would be them who would be left to weather this storm Arabella had mentioned. Furthermore, as unpleasant as Wynford undoubtedly was, the man was reliable and astute when it came to any business dealings. The muscles in his cheekbones tightened and his voice was curt when he said, ‘Nevertheless, Wynford and others like him need to be kept on side.’

‘You keep them on side then, darling, but I shan’t shed any tears if they choose to treat us as pariahs.’