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through it at last and waited for her aunt’s reaction.

      ‘To be sure I have seen those high-perch phaetons about,’ she said. ‘They look extremely dangerous to me. It is a wonder you were not upset and killed.’

      Sophie had been expecting to have a peel rung over her. This calm acceptance that all that mattered was that she was not hurt took her by surprise. ‘You are not angry with me?’

      ‘No, child. I did far worse things when I was your age and it never did me any harm, but it is to be hoped the young gentleman will not boast of it.’

      ‘He has promised Teddy he would not. Teddy trusts him. They have been friends since their schooldays. That’s how I met him.’

      ‘Then, there is no more to be said. Thankfully I have no more engagements to take me out without you, so I will be able to accompany you in future. Tomorrow we will take one or two afternoon calls and we will shop and buy that ribbon you are so set on. We can play a hand or two of whist in the evening. Mr and Mrs Frederick Malthouse usually come to me on a Thursday evening and Margaret makes up a four, but she will forgo it so that you may take her place.’

      ‘But, Aunt, I do not excel at cards,’ Sophie protested. ‘In fact, I am the world’s worst at whist. Teddy is the card player in our family.’

      Teddy joined them at this point and heard Sophie’s last remark. ‘Not me,’ he said. ‘I have forsworn gambling, as Sophie well knows.’

      ‘I am glad to hear it,’ Emmeline said, giving him a beaming smile. ‘But a little game among family and friends is perfectly in order. You may join us if Sophie does not care for it.’

      He had a cup of tea with them and, hating the idea of spending the whole evening indoors with them struggling to converse, he made his excuses and took his leave. If Sophie wondered where he was off to, she dismissed it as none of her business, and she really had no right to haul him over the coals when her behaviour had hardly been exemplary.

      * * *

      ‘Mark, you have been closeted in this room long enough,’ Adam said. ‘Leave all that paper and come out and have dinner with me at White’s.’

      ‘It is this concert,’ Mark said. ‘You have no idea how much preparation is involved. Musicians, singers, all of them temperamental in their demands, have to be appeased, the programme decided on and the order of all the items arranged so as not to offend any of them. Refreshments and the moving of the furniture must be organised, besides deciding how the donations are to be accepted, on a tray, in a bag, during the interval or at the end. That is, if I have any. If I don’t, it will all have been a dreadful waste of time and effort, not to say money, and Jane will be very disappointed.’

      ‘Don’t you have a secretary to do that sort of thing?’

      ‘I left him behind at Broadacres. I thought he would be more useful there.’

      ‘There is still a week to go, Mark. You can afford to take one evening off, surely? Who was it said to me, not two days ago, that all work and no play is not good for a man?’

      Mark laughed and stood up. ‘You are right. Let us go out.’

      They could have used Mark’s town carriage or hired chairs but decided to walk. The rain had gone, the night was fine and balmy and Mark said he needed some fresh air. ‘How have you been amusing yourself?’ he asked as they walked.

      ‘I would hardly call it amusement. I have been endeavouring to track down Henry Hunt to find out his intentions but no one will tell me where to find him. I think he is avoiding me.’

      ‘I am not surprised. You represent the enemy, the hated oppressors of the poor.’

      ‘But I do not.’

      ‘They don’t know that, do they? I am sure if you were to infiltrate his meetings you would be looked on as an agent provocateur and quickly bundled out of it.’

      ‘You are probably right. I shall have to rely on my speech. Perhaps after that, they will see I am on their side.’

      ‘How is the speech coming along?’

      ‘Slowly. I begin to wonder if I did right to come to London and might have fared better staying in Saddleworth.’

      ‘Well, you are here now, so you might as well enjoy your free time.’

      Adam laughed. ‘And the same goes for you, cousin.’

      ‘Touché.’

      They turned into the club and were soon seated in the dining room, giving an order for onion soup, turbot, roast partridges, raised mutton pie, broiled mushrooms and a selection of vegetables. They followed this with sweet pastries, clotted cream and a jelly. Once replete, they adjourned to the card room for a few hands of whist.

      They played well together, not too deep but enough to satisfy the two gentlemen who made up the four, one of whom was Sir Reginald Swayle, known to Mark, and the other Captain Mountworthy, of the Hussars, on leave and looking for a little diversion. The captain, not being as well up in the stirrups as the other three, broke the party up a little after midnight, having come to the end of the stake he’d allowed himself. Adam and Mark both said they fancied an early night and rose to go.

      They were about to pass two gentlemen who had just arrived when Adam heard his cousin address one of them. ‘Teddy, you here?’

      ‘Yes, you cannot expect me to sit listening all evening to Sophie trying to hold a conversation with Aunt Emmeline. I should die of boredom or laugh aloud and disgrace myself.’

      Mark turned to Adam. ‘Adam, may I introduce my wife’s brother, Mr Edward Cavenhurst. Teddy, my cousin, Adam Trent, Viscount Kimberley.’

      The two men shook hands, murmured, ‘How do you do?’ then Teddy, indicating his companion, said, ‘Do you know Captain Toby Moore?’

      ‘I do.’ Mark’s voice was clipped and made Adam turn to him in surprise. There was obviously no love lost between the two men. He shrugged his shoulders and followed his cousin, leaving Teddy and Captain Moore to make their way into the club. They heard Teddy greeting Sir Reginald with great affability as they made their way out of the building.

      ‘A young dandy,’ Adam said as they walked on. ‘You seemed not pleased to see him.’

      ‘Oh, I like him well enough, but he is too fond of the gaming tables. He is in town to escort his sister, not to indulge his weakness.’

      ‘His sister being the young lady you have recently left in the care of her aunt?’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘I would have expected her parents to bring her to town.’

      ‘Lady Cavenhurst is a very poor traveller and Sir Edward much wrapped up in his estate, which is only now recovering from a near disaster two years ago—a disaster I might add, partially brought about by that rake shame, Captain Moore. I wonder at Teddy associating with him. I fear I shall have to keep an eye on him while I am here, though what I can do to stop him, I have no idea. Besides, I shall have to go home to Hadlea after the concert.’

      ‘You are not his keeper, Mark, and he is surely of an age to know what he is about.’

      ‘Gambling is an addiction with him, Adam. He has the best of intentions, but they fly away at the least temptation. I wish he had not come to town, but he was the only person who could escort Sophie, and Sophie was determined.’ He grinned ruefully. ‘When Sophie is determined, there is no gainsaying her. Being the youngest she has always been indulged, not only by her parents but by her brother and older sisters.’

      ‘She sounds like a spoiled filly to me.’

      ‘No, you mistake me. She is a charming young lady, if a little headstrong, which don’t signify to the young blades who crowd round her at Hadlea. Whether she will enjoy the same adoration in town, I cannot say. She will be at the concert, so you may be able to judge then.’

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