She wanted to, but he had never met Nathaniel. Nevertheless, as he came over to her and helped her up, she said softly, ‘Thank you, I think I will take a nap.’

‘Do, do.’

Once in her own rooms she found Jinny waiting for her, jogging a baby on each arm. ‘I’m sorry, ma’am, they won’t be pacified until they’ve been fed. I’ve tried everything.’

‘I’m sure you have.’

The feed worked its usual miracle, and once the babies were sleeping in their cribs after Jinny had changed their nappies, Rose told the nursery maid to go down to the kitchens and have her breakfast. Her sons’ need of her, their total helplessness, had banished the earlier feeling of weakness and replaced it with anger. How dare he come into the grounds of the house, right to where her bairns were, how dare he? And William was right, she wouldn’t allow herself to be intimidated and neither would she let him drain the joy out of her days. Her thoughts and prayers needed to be centred on Alexander, keeping him safe, and she wouldn’t let herself brood about Nathaniel.

She lay down on the bed, drawing the coverlet over her, and within a few minutes was sound asleep, and when Jinny returned from the kitchens and gently wheeled the babies through to the nursery she didn’t wake.

Christmas came and went, and although the adults put in the effort to make it a happy time for Betsy with a magnificent tree in the drawing room and lots of presents on Christmas Day, each one of them was vitally aware of the missing place at the table.

Among all the dire news, there was one reported incident about a truce in the trenches on Christmas Day that shocked the generals and heartened many a mother and wife. In one corner of the Western Front, where the British Tommy in his trench was only a few yards from the enemy in his, the war came to a halt, briefly, on the day of Christ’s birth.

A second lieutenant of the Royal Field Artillery raised his head above the parapet, and was astonished to see British and German soldiers standing in the open and making no attempt to shoot at each other. The lieutenant met another officer and together they walked along the line as Germans waved and called out. Speaking in simple French, the Germans, holding out cigars, asked for English jam, and for a while the rival troops put the war behind them.