‘We’ll see about that. Now I suggest you go to another room and feed the infant. Tomorrow I will advertise for a wet nurse, and I will also visit the prison.’

‘Piers won’t see you, Grandmama,’ Alexander said firmly. ‘The prison isn’t the sort of place for a lady to go to.’

‘Which is why I intend to demand that Piers be allowed out on bail. I will speak to the magistrate myself.’

Rosalind knew from experience that to argue with Lady Pentelow when she was in this mood was pointless. She took her squalling baby to Hester’s parlour and closed the door.

‘Have you had enough of her already?’ Hester asked, chuckling. ‘I keep out of her way as much as possible.’

Rosalind sank down on the sofa and unbuttoned her blouse. Dolly latched on immediately and Rosalind sat back against the cushions. ‘Lady Pentelow is impossible, Hester. She wants to take over completely. She even had the gall to say she would hire a wet nurse for Dolly. The cheek of the woman.’

‘You should have known that she would arrive sooner or later, but you don’t have to let her have her own way.’

‘Don’t worry, I have no intention of allowing her to tell me what to do in my own home. She thinks she can get Piers out of prison and she wants to take him to Trevenor to live with her. I am welcome as long as I do exactly what she says.’

‘She doesn’t want to admit that her beloved grandson might actually be a criminal.’

‘Neither do I, Hester. I’d go to the prison myself if I thought that he would speak to me, but I know him as well as anyone. Piers is stubborn and he won’t want to admit that he’s done wrong, even if it’s true. I suppose I should have suspected something, if only because he always seemed to have unlimited funds. I never questioned whether the mine could have made so much profit. Maybe I should have done so.’

‘You can’t blame yourself, poppet. Piers is a grown man who can make his own choices. Unfortunately it looks as if they were the wrong ones, and now we will all suffer the consequences.’

Lady Pentelow set off next morning for Exeter prison, accompanied by Alexander, who had tried to dissuade her and failed. Rosalind was adamant that she did not want her daughter fed by a wet nurse and nothing Lady Pentelow could say made any difference. Aurelia made it plain that she found babies distasteful and boring, but she was eager to learn about Patricia’s engagement to Sir Michael. She insisted upon Gurney driving her to Greystone Park to visit her old friend. Rosalind was only too happy to oblige as it gave her a day of relative peace and a respite from the questions with which Aurelia bombarded her.