Courted by the Captain. Anne Herries

room and opened her arms to Jenny, who went into a perfumed and tearful embrace with every evidence of warmth and affection.

      ‘Where is my poor darling girl?’ the lady said, sniffing into a handkerchief heavily doused in lavender water. ‘I do not know how she will bear this terrible blow.’

      ‘She is sitting with Mark,’ Jenny said. ‘I fear she is suffering greatly, ma’am, but we shall help her to bear her grief.’

      ‘He has gone then...’ Shock was in the lady’s face and she made the sign of the cross over her breast. ‘How terrible for Lord Ravenscar—and my poor child. She was so happy...’

      ‘Yes, I know. This has been a terrible blow—to lose the man she would have married, her childhood hero...it is devastating.’

      ‘You will not leave us,’ Lady Dawlish said. ‘My poor child will need you to support her in this her hour of need. I know it will be hard for you and not what was promised.’

      ‘Do not fear, ma’am. I shall not desert her. Lucy is as dear to me as the sister I never had. You may rely on me to be there for her whenever she needs me.’

      ‘I was certain I might.’ Lady Dawlish blew her nose. ‘My sensibilities are almost overset. I do not know how I could have borne to see my child in such affliction, but you will be my strength, Jenny. You will help us to face what must be.’

      Adam saw that Jenny was well able to cope with the lady’s slightly histrionic behaviour and felt it a good thing that Lucy would not have to rely solely on her mama for support.

      He rang the bell and asked for tea to give the distressed ladies some temporary relief and left them to comfort each other. Having remembered that Mark kept some of his belongings in the boot room, he decided to go through the pockets of his greatcoats. There might just be a letter or a note of some kind that would give him a starting point.

      Watching Lady Dawlish’s distress and seeing the reflection of it in Jenny’s eyes had affected him deeply. Anger and grief mixed in him, sweeping through him in a great tide.

      When he discovered who had murdered his cousin in cold blood he would thrash him to within an inch of his life.