CHAPTER ONE
1887

The Duke of Inchcombe walked straight into his sister’s boudoir to find her sitting at the writing table by the window.

She looked up and exclaimed,

“Oh, I see you are back, Arthur. What was the funeral like?”

“Gloomy, as you might imagine,” he replied,“and there were not as many people as I had expected.”

Lady Rose got up from the writing table and moved across the room to the sofa.

“What am I going to do, Arthur,” she asked,“about a Lady-in-Waiting?”

“I have been thinking about that while coming back to London. She will have to be someone discreet.”

Lady Rose nodded her head and then she looked at him, a pleading expression on her face.

“Must I really do this? The whole idea horrifies me, and you know how much I want to stay in England.”

“I know, Rose, but if you do stay, you cannot go on as you are. People are sure to find out about it sooner or later.”

“And what if they do?” she demanded defiantly.

“Then you will most certainly lose your reputation and if the older members of the family are told all about it, you can imagine what they will say.”

Lady Rose made a helpless gesture with her hands and walked to the window.

Her brother sat down in a chair and looked at her.

She was very attractive with her hair glinting in the sunshine and her exquisite features silhouetted against the windowpane.

He was sorry, desperately sorry, at what she was being forced to do, but he could not think of any plausible alternative.

Lady Rose was nearly twenty years old and when she had‘come out’ as adebutante, she had been an instant success.

And at the end of last year she had fallen in love.

Wildly, head-over-heels in love with the Marquis of Dorsham.

As he was only twenty-seven, extremely handsome and exceedingly rich, it would, the Duke knew, have been a perfect marriage in every way.

Unfortunately the Marquis at the age of twenty-two had been pressured into marriage.

At the time it had seemed such an excellent union and likely to prove happy.

The young girl the Marquis had married was one of the greatest beauties of the Season. Her parents were both in-waiting to Queen Victoria and they had been delighted at the marriage.

They had, however, omitted to tell the bridegroom that their daughter was at times given to strange seizures, which in some way had affected her brain.

It was not until after they had been married for two months that the Marquis discovered his wife’s problem.

Later when he eventually realised the seriousness of her condition, the doctors were called in.

But it was too late– there was nothing they could do for the Marchioness.

Her seizures became more and more severe, until she was now permanently in the hands of her doctors and nurses. She did not even recognise her husband when he came to see her.

When he fell in love with Lady Rose, the Marquis realised exactly what he was missing.

They then despairingly faced a future in which it was impossible for them to be together.

It was only by a miracle, the Duke reflected, that their love for each other had not been uncovered already.

There were those in Society who were always ready to find fault with anyone who was popular and if they had found out, the gossips would have all run straight to Que