‘Good,’ she said. ‘And I shall get up. We are going to a breakfast at Lady Gilroy’s house, remember? I shall wear my white gown with the twilled white bonnet I think. And you, you must wear your dark green. Her daughter is miserably fair, you will quite drown her with that colour. And wear your hair long.’

‘Yes,’ I said. I went to the door and paused. Lady Clara raised her eyebrows to see what more I wanted of her.

‘You have planned a future for us all, have you not?’ I asked. ‘You had this in your mind for some time?’

She slid from the covers and went to her dressing-table. She gazed at herself in the mirror and patted the skin under her eyes where the fretwork of lines told of her age.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘When little George was alive I worked on him to ensure that when his father died and he had my fortune he would be utterly under my control. Then when he died, I knew it would have to be Perry instead.’

She sighed and sat before the mirror and pulled off the lace nightcap and tossed it on the floor.

‘Perry is easier in some ways,’ she said. ‘He always was a weak little boy, easily frightened. I can manage him. My only worry was that he would fall for some high-mettled slut who would set him against me.’

Her eyes met mine in the mirror and she smiled. ‘I trust you,’ she said. ‘You are cold as ice, like me. I recognized you the moment I saw you.’ She smiled. ‘When he brought you in to me, I said to myself, “Here she is, this is the one that is going to keep Perry steady and me safe.”’

I nodded. ‘You planned our marriage from the start,’ I said levelly.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘It was good for all of us. Perry could never cope with a high-spirited well-bred wife. She’d cuckold him in days, and then put her by-blow in the Hall. I needed a daughter-in-law I could trust, not some silly child with parents who would watch over the two of them. And you need someone to help you against the Wideacre trust and against Mr Fortescue before you are ruined. You need a family.’

‘It all sounds very convenient,’ I said.

She smiled. ‘Don’t think I’ll rule you,’ she said. ‘I’ve told you my feelings and I’ve hidden nothing. If you want to marry early and take Perry back to the country you can do so. I won’t stand in your way. You can marry him and order him as you please. All you must do for me is make sure my funds are safe, and that there is an heir to the estate. The rest is your own affair.’

‘I’ll go and see the lawyers today then,’ I said.

She smiled, as beautiful as a woman half her age. ‘As you wish,’ she said. ‘Send a footman round with a note to them. But get ready for the breakfast now, and try and do something about the smell of horse.’

I curtseyed, and left her to the contemplation of her lovely face in the mirror.


The lawyers could see me in the early afternoon so I left a message with Perry’s valet that his lordship must be up and dressed by three. When Lady Clara and I came back from the breakfast Perry was downstairs in the library, glancing at a newspaper, a mug of ale untasted on the table beside him. His mama glanced in at him and gave him a slight smile, and then went to sit in her parlour. Perry rose from his seat when he saw her, and remained standing, smiling and blinking at me.

‘I’m at your service,’ he said. ‘But I have a devilish head. Did you want us to do something special? I’m damned if I can ride, Sarah.’

I crossed the room and put my hand against his forehead. He was as hot as if he had a fever.

‘Are you ill?’ I asked.

‘No,’ he said. ‘It was drinking too much brandy, I suppose. It always makes me hot.’

His face was flushed, his curly blond hair a riot.

‘Go and wash your face, and brush your hair,’ I said. ‘We have an appointment to see the lawyers. I want us to bring the date of our wedding early.’

He was instantly wary. ‘What does mama say?’ he asked.

I shrugged. ‘She says we may do as we wish,’ I said. ‘I want to go back to Havering, back to Wideacre. Your mama is determined to have her Season. This town life is no good for you, Perry. You are drunk every night and ill every morning. We should go back to the country where we were happier.’

‘I’m happy here!’ he protested. ‘Dammit, Sarah! The whole point of our getting married was so that I could get my hands on my money and kick up some larks. There’s not much point being well breeched and stuck in the country in the middle of the Season.’

‘You were crying,’ I said flatly. ‘You were clinging to the railings this morning crying like a baby. You think you are having a good time but you were weeping this morning. You were never sad like that at Havering. We should go back home, Perry.’

He hesitated. His mouth downturned. ‘I had a bad night,’ he conceded. ‘It was some damned awful brandy which Miles had. It made us all maudlin.’

‘No,’ I said firmly.

Perry swayed slightly, put his head on one side and tried a charming smile.

‘No,’ I said.

‘We’ll bring the marriage forward but we’ll stay in town,’ he suggested.

‘No,’ I said again.

Perry made a face at me like a naughty child.

‘We’ll marry at once and we’ll go to the country,’ I offered.

‘We’ll stay there until you’ve stopped drinking every night. Then we’ll come back to town. But you might find you prefer the country, once you’re there.’

He brightened. ‘I might,’ he said agreeably. ‘And once it’s my own house we can always have some fellows down to stay. And there will be parties and hunting.’

He made up his mind. As fickle as a child with a new toy. ‘All right,’ he said, suddenly agreeable. ‘As long as Mama approves.’

‘She does,’ I said, steering him towards the stairs. ‘Go and wash your face, the carriage is waiting.’

He did as he was bid, and we were only a half an hour late for the lawyers. I had made the appointment in Perry’s name and when Mr Fursely came forward bowing low, he looked surprised that we had got there at all.

I told him that we wanted the marriage brought forward, and the contracts written quickly and he retreated behind his desk and rang for the right papers to be brought to him. His servant brought us glasses of madeira and little biscuits. Perry had three glasses to my one, and his face lost its hectic flush and he looked better for it.

‘We are nearly ready,’ Mr Fursely said. ‘The trustee’s lawyers have been most helpful. There is still some problem about the Wideacre estate if you should die without heirs.’

Perry poured himself another glass of madeira and strolled over to the window and looked out.

Mr Fursely looked up and saw that at least I was listening.

‘The entail,’ he said. ‘It specifies that Wideacre is inherited by the next of kin, whether male or female.’

I nodded.

‘Normally, it would pass to your husband’s family, as your dowry which you bring with you to marriage,’ he said. He put his fingers together one by one, placing them like a pyramid over the papers. ‘But here’ he said, ‘I think one could argue that the situation is quite different.’

I waited. He was slow. Perry turned back and poured himself another of the little glasses. I looked at him, but he was careful not to catch my eye.

‘The intention of the entail is quite clear,’ he said. He looked at the papers. ‘Harold Lacey set it up,’ he said. ‘Your grandfather, Miss Lacey.’

I nodded.

‘A solid document,’ Mr Fursely said, complimenting the long-dead lawyers who had drawn up the entail. ‘The wishes are clear. The estate goes to the next of kin of the Laceys whether male or female. I don’t think it can revert to the Havering family in the event of your death.’

Perry turned back from the window and seemed to waken to the discussion.

‘That’s all right,’ he said, dismissing a fortune in good agricultural land with a wave of his glass. ‘We can agree to that. Mama said we could. If we have a male heir first, then he gets both estates. If we have a girl first she gets Wideacre. If we die without children then Havering goes to Havering kin, and Wideacre goes to the Lacey next-of-kin.’

Mr Fursely blinked at this sudden explosion of information from Perry. ‘I should prefer Wideacre to come to the Haverings,’ he said. ‘It is Miss Lacey’s dowry so Wideacre is really part of the Havering estate once you two are married.’

There was a high cool singing noise in my head, the sound I had heard when I first came to Wideacre, that lonely night in the dark. It was as if Wideacre was calling me, calling me home to the house which waited for me in the burnished woodland of the autumn trees where the lawns were white in the morning with frost and where the sun was bright red when it set at early evening. As if Wideacre should belong to me, and to no one else.

‘It’s fair enough as it stands,’ Perry said expansively. ‘Mama said we could take it as it is. Don’t you think, Sarah? Wideacre comes to the Havering estate as Sarah’s dowry, but it’s entailed on our first-born child. If we have no children it goes back to the Laceys.’

I shook my head to clear my ears of the calling noise. It was too late to think that I was signing the land over to Perry and to Perry’s family. I wanted us to be away from London, I wanted to take Perry away from the clubs and the gambling hells. I wanted to be back on the land with the money and the authority to run it as I pleased.

‘I agree to that,’ I said.

Perry went to the table and brought the decanter towards me. ‘We’ll drink to that!’ he said happily and poured us all another glass. I noticed his hands were quite steady.

‘And will Mr Fortes…Fortescue’s lawyers agree?’ he asked, slurring his speech a little.

Mr Fursely put his fingertips against each other once more. ‘I think so,’ he said. ‘It is a reasonable proposition. They cannot have wished to face the problem of breaking the entail if we had been stubborn.’

‘Good,’ said Perry. ‘We'll be off then. How soon can the papers be drawn up?’

Mr Fursely nodded. ‘As soon as Mr Fortescue’s advisers are ready,’ he said.

‘And the deeds?’ Perry asked. ‘I should like to take them with us.’ He put one finger owlishly to his nose. ‘I could raise some cash using them as security,’ he said. ‘Absolutely safe, of course. But if I had them in my hand they could tide me over some little difficulties.’

Mr Fursely looked as if he had suggested something improper. ‘I could not possibly ask Mr Fortescue for such a thing until the contracts are signed and the marriage has taken place,’ he said shocked. ‘And I would warn you, with respect, Lord Peregrine, against using your lands as security against debts. If the deeds fall into the wrong hands…’

‘Oh gad no!’ Perry said with a smile. ‘This was an arrangement between gentlemen. But no matter. It’s nothing urgent. We’ll have a crust to eat tonight.’

Mr Fursely permitted himself a thin smile. ‘Of course, my lord,’ he said.

Perry held the door for me as we left the office and then Mr Fursely escorted us to the carriage and stood on the street bowing as we drove away.

‘Y’know what?’ Perry said pleasantly. ‘If they can sport some canvas on these contracts, there’s no reason why we should not be married at once.’

I nodded.

‘I’ll go and see the vicar,’ Perry said, suddenly confident. ‘You can drop me off on your way home and I’ll go and see the rector or the vicar or whatever he is. You wanted a quiet wedding anyway, Sarah. I’ll ask him when we could be married.’

I paused. High over the noise of the cart and carriage wheels, I could hear that warning singing noise again. It sounded loud in my head. I shook my head to clear it, but I could not be rid of it.

‘You all right?’ Perry asked.

‘It’s nothing,’ I said. ‘Yes, we could be married this month. Do go and see the parish priest, Perry. I want to be home at Wideacre. I want us to go home as soon as we can.’

‘You’ll miss all the Christmas parties,’ he warned me.

I smiled. ‘I don’t care that much for them, Perry,’ I said honestly. ‘I’d rather be at Wideacre for Christmas.’

Perry smiled. ‘Well, I’ll see what the vicar says then,’ he said pleasantly and pulled the cord to warn the coachman to stop. ‘You don’t have some money on you, do you, Sarah?’ he asked. ‘I have to pay a fellow some money I lost at cards. It’d suit me to settle at once.’

I opened my reticule. My purse was inside with a couple of gold sovereigns I was carrying for a dressmaker bill.

‘Here,’ I said, handing it over.