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‘Please call me Alex.’

‘I shall, for it’s a pretty name, one I would have favoured had I been graced with a daughter.’

‘Did you consider Alexander for your sons?’ she replied, cutting her companion a genuine smile, finding it hard not to like this woman instantly.

‘I did, as a matter of fact. But my husband pressed upon me the need to go with family names. I would have got away with it for a girl but not two boys, so Edward and Henry it was, both suitably regal, don’t you think?’

‘I’m desperately sorry about Edward, Lady Blakeney.’

She sighed with genuine regret. ‘I am too. He was a fine person. We all loved him so very much and the only reason you see me in navy and not my preferred black is that I promised Harry I would, just for the month of his wedding, not look like “an old raven”, as he put it, but do my utmost to be cheerful because Ed would want it that way.’ The woman chuckled at the memory.

She swallowed. ‘How is Harry?’

‘Secretive, as usual. Especially about you, my dear.’ She pointed the way forward, ignoring the obvious path and leading them onto a curving bend, flanked by shrubs and ornamental trees. ‘I wish you could see this in spring. In a couple of months, this will be a riot of blossom – pinks and whites. Glorious! I used to run through here when the boys were little and they’d chase me and I’d hide because I could get away from them, then leap out from behind this tree,’ she motioned again with her stick, ‘and they’d both scream with delight at being so terrified by their monster mother.’

Alex laughed; it was a sound she hadn’t heard from herself in what felt an age. ‘I can imagine it. It must have been such an amazing place to grow up in.’

‘Yes, they were fortunate boys and I’m pleased both did their duty for their country for that privilege of leading such a good life. Edward was one of too many young men who gave a life and his future for others so I don’t allow myself to get too morbid. Every next person is grieving and it’s no different if you’re from the slums of Glasgow or Ockenden Manor . . . we all mourn our men as one.’

‘You’re so pragmatic. My brother died in a boating accident when very young but my mother still can’t come to terms with her loss. Her grief finds its way out in ways that colour her character somewhat unfairly.’

‘Don’t be too harsh on her. We all handle our sorrows in our own ways. So, Alex, I’m guessing that you are the reason my son spent time in Yorkshire when he should have returned to Cuckfield?’

The switch in topics and mood caught her off balance. There was no point in lying; Harry’s mother was far too shrewd and Alex recalled Harry’s warning about her alert mind. ‘I don’t know if I was the reason but we met a couple of times, formed a friendship and I introduced him to my parents . . . my, er, husband even.’

‘He never mentioned you,’ Lady Blakeney admitted.

Alex looked back, shocked. ‘How did you know . . .?’ Her voice trailed off.

‘Oh, my dear. Cuckfield believes itself a town when in fact it has a village mentality that everything is everyone’s business. You’d likely barely set your bag down in the hotel before I was hearing about the beautiful woman from the north asking about us.’

Alex cleared her throat. ‘I don’t mean to intrude.’

‘I realise that. So I can only believe you came down to see Harry and I presume you were not invited to do that or he would have arranged to be here.’

‘You’re right.’ She looked down at her feet as they strolled slowly. Her companion gave her time to consider her next words. ‘But I needed to speak with him.’

‘He’s abroad, my dear, on his honeymoon with my new daughter-in-law. Bethany has been in our lives for years, so much so that she has felt like the daughter I never had for long enough that I can’t imagine her any other way. I am delighted that Harry married her . . .’ There was another pause. ‘But I’m guessing that you do not share that delight.’

Alex stopped walking and drew a shaking breath. ‘Forgive me. I didn’t come to disrupt anything, least of all Harry’s happiness. I was under the impression he and Bethany were not to marry until mid-February.’

‘It was Harry’s decision to bring the wedding forward. He was a man on a mission when he finally came home, refused to take no for an answer, even though it meant a lot of hasty organisation to ready ourselves for a wedding weeks earlier than scheduled.’ Alex smiled faintly, sick at the thought of Harry’s fervour to marry Bethany and be done with his affair with his Yorkshire lover. ‘He would not be drawn on why there was this burning need for advancing the date, despite me trying everything to persuade him otherwise. I suspect I can put two and two together.’ She twitched a smile at Alex. ‘I’m sorry, my dear. You are one in a long line of women whose hearts have been broken by Harry.’

Alex bristled to be thought of this way.

‘I see I’ve offended. But let me finish, Alex. Many women have wanted to be Mrs Henry Blakeney over the years and I’ve helped to wipe away pools of tears of many eligible girls who truly believed they’d won him . . . but Harry was not the marrying type and until we lost Edward, he didn’t really have to consider marriage as being important to the family. He told me about his mission to find someone called Kitty on behalf of a dead soldier who seemed to represent all the men he lost and felt responsible for. I’m gathering that in his endeavours he didn’t find Kitty but he found you. He seemed different to the son I remember when he returned from York.’

‘He’d been to war, Lady Blakeney. I imagine that changes anyone.’

‘Yes, but you’d think it would change a person to be harder. In this instance, Harry had become more sensitive; when he spoke of York there was a tenderness in his voice I hadn’t heard before. A mother knows her boy, Alex. I knew something emotional had occurred in Yorkshire and it wasn’t about a dead soldier and his chocolate tin.’

Alex nodded, hating the way her chin crumpled. She breathed out, refused to weep. ‘Harry’s a good man; he did something extraordinarily kind for my family but I misread his intentions and I came here simply to set things right between us. I promise you, Lady Blakeney, I have no desire to create any problems for him or his wife.’

‘Nor would I think that of you, but I believe it’s a blessing that Harry is not present to hear your explanation or absolve you of any transgression. Perhaps it is easier this way all round, for I think to see you might hurt him. It would surely hurt you.’ She squeezed Alex’s hand. ‘What’s more, Bethany has been patient. She’s a fine girl and will make an exceptional wife for Harry because she’s a rare breed of woman who makes no demands. Meanwhile, my dear, I am very demanding. I want a grandson – several grandchildren, in fact. I’m hopeful Bethany returns from her honeymoon already blooming and I won’t have anything upsetting her or threatening a pregnancy.’

Despite the gentle tone, even the friendly smile, Alex felt riveted by a gimlet stare that pressed the point.

‘There is surely no man alive who could resist you, Alex.’