He sounded disinterested but he’d clenched his jaw and the tips of his ears had reddened. I’d heard him mention Alexander before. He’d told me he was a friend from Oxford but maybe they’d fallen out, for he seemed none too happy that he’d be at Crillick’s party. Not just Alexander, his whole family. Vincent had never said anything about a sister. I wondered what Crillick had planned. He often had get-togethers but usually only for the gentlemen. He must have something special in mind if there were going to be ladies present.

‘Your tea, madam,’ Sikkings hissed, from just over my shoulder, but before I could answer he’d already started to pour. I wasn’t sure I was hungry – the smell of the grease was turning my stomach a bit – but I picked up my fork. There’d been too many times without dinner for me to waste a meal.

Sikkings bent down and briefly whispered at Crillick’s ear. Whatever he said made Crillick smile.

‘Good man, exactly what I wanted to hear. Have the carriage brought round forthwith.’

The butler clicked his heels and melted away.

‘Come, Woodward, we have business,’ Crillick said, throwing down his napkin and pushing back his chair from the table.

Vincent shook his head, looking meaningfully at my plate, but Crillick was unrepentant in the face of the silent reprimand.

‘Zillah’s a big girl. She can eat alone. Besides, business waits for no man.’

Vincent himself still had a full cup of coffee to drink. I waited for him to explain that we were off to Richmond today. Instead, he avoided my eyes.

‘Right you are,’ he said and pushed away his plate, ready to leave. My mouth was too full of scrambled egg to allow for protest but Vincent had seen my hurt expression.

‘Go ahead, I’ll follow shortly,’ he said to Crillick.

‘The carriage will be round in five minutes,’ Crillick said. He rose and walked over to the door.

‘You’re looking very done up today, Zillah. I hope you have something nice planned.’

I heard him chuckling to himself as he disappeared down the corridor. He’d known we had plans, the bastard. How could Vincent let Crillick get away with it?

Once Crillick had left, Vincent bent down to me and rested his forehead lightly against mine.

‘You didn’t forget, did you?’ I said.

I could see he hadn’t. More like he’d chosen to put it out of his mind when Crillick needed him. He could lie to himself all he liked but I wasn’t fooled.

‘Did we say something about Richmond?’ he said.

Just like that, as if it was just a day trip. Maybe that’s all it ever had been to him and I had read too much into it.

‘I don’t think we’ll be back too late. We can go out this afternoon instead,’ he said.