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‘Don’t go too fast.’

‘He’s a soldier, you say?’

‘A former captain, why?’

‘Then you can be sure he has a good sense of direction.’

‘That’s rather churlish of you, Matthew.’

‘Is it, darling? Is it also churlish of me to wonder why my wife is indeed in the company of a man like that?’

‘A man like what?’ she snapped. She knew she was playing into his trap.

‘Ah, now, perhaps I could accuse you of being defensive.’

She pursed her lips and stared out of the window but the silence got the better of her. ‘I won’t dignify that couched barb by justifying myself.’

‘I can be more direct if you wish. I was seated between you. I saw it.’

‘Saw what, for heaven’s sake?’ she demanded, feeling ripples of fear. ‘I barely looked at Mr Blakeney.’

‘That’s my point. Both of you were so busy trying not to make eye contact that it was blatantly obvious.’

‘Oh, don’t be so damned ridiculous, Matthew. You should spend more time at home and then perhaps you and I can make more eye contact!’ Her fury was being driven by fear of discovery – he was so close to the truth now – she desperately wanted to tell him all of it but she did her utmost to channel her anxiety into sounding indignant.

It appeared to work. ‘All right, look, I’m sorry. That’s unfair of me.’

‘Oh, really? Do you think so?’

‘He’s already well ahead of us. Now, I’ve said I’m sorry.’

‘You should be. He’s a very decent man, doing something that’s kind. The least I could do was help.’

‘But you haven’t, apparently. While you were talking to your old friend . . . what’s her name, by the way?’

‘Eloise,’ she snapped, hoping her irritation would dissuade him from further probing, but she added just in case: ‘You don’t know her. She harks back to childhood days, as I explained.’

‘Anyway, he told me he is no closer to finding Kitty than the day he came up here. And tell me, darling, who goes hunting for the writer of a note, without the bloody note?’

‘That’s not how it is. He and I had already looked at the damn note,’ she lied. ‘It gave no clues, other than her name. Nothing at all.’ She didn’t need to see the note to recall it with vivid clarity.

‘Well, the handwriting alone might help.’

‘So you mean he should go around the county like Prince Charming holding the glass slipper? You suggest that Mr Blakeney should test every young woman’s handwriting in case she’s hiding that she is the Kitty from the note?’

He gave a sheepish shrug that seemed to answer that it was a ludicrous notion. ‘He certainly looks like Prince Charming. Very dashing, isn’t he?’

‘Matthew, it doesn’t matter which way I answer that, you’re going to trap me. If I say yes, then you’ll have something to say about that. Should I say I hadn’t noticed, you’ll howl I’m fibbing. Whatever has got into you?’ His silence infuriated her. ‘Yes, Mr Blakeney is extremely handsome, quite a catch – in fact, Eloise begged me to introduce her to him. I’m sure she’ll look him up anyway without my introduction, but I failed to mention to her and I don’t suppose you got around to learning about Mr Blakeney’s fiancée, did you, while you were jumping to all the wrong conclusions?’

‘Fiancée?’ He sounded choked.

She refused to look at him. ‘Yes, he’s about to go home and marry the woman who has loved him since childhood. He simply had to carry out this errand so he could sleep in peace at night.’ In her private shame Alex realised that was the most truthful sentence she’d said to her husband today.

‘That’s romantic.’

‘Yes it is,’ she ground out, hating to admit it. ‘For someone who is more away from home than in it, I could turn the same lens of suspicion on you,’ Alex challenged. It was the first time since their wedding day that she had taken him to task about his lack of emotional involvement in her life.

‘Darling Alex,’ he said, without hesitation, without even looking her way, but he did place a hand across his chest. ‘I promise you, with all I hold dear, that you are the only woman my heart belongs to. I have never once since I took vows with you been unfaithful to you with another woman. You have nothing to worry about there . . . ever.’ He waited but she remained silent. ‘Please assure me you understand that when I’m away there are no other women for you to ever concern yourself with. Why would I, when I have you to come home to?’