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He has shaved again, Tess realised, feeling travel-soiled and unkempt in contrast ‘Lord Weybourn Did you have an enjoyable ride?’

‘I did, thank you Are you ladies colass, reducing her to blushing confusion ‘Miss Annie, chief nursemaid’

No one would guess he ithinwith a dying father, Tess thought Although hisladies at the convent had once been allowed to attend the theatre to see an ied on to the party, found her way backstage and watched from a corner, fascinated, as the actors transformed themselves from ordinary people into creatures of fiction

And that hat Alex was doing, transfor more mannered; his accent carried a subtle affectation He wore his beautiful clothes like a mask, she realised Or armour

She knew before he spoke when they were nearing their destination Alex sat up straighter against the squabs and his eyes followed the line of the high wall to their left The carriage turned between a pair of lodge cottages and began to folloinding road through parkland Tess watched Alex, saw the mildly bored expression on his face and saw, too, the way his hand tightened on the strap, the white knuckles

‘Have we arrived?’ It was an inane question, but she could stand the silence no longer

‘Yes Welcolass with an intensity that was a kind of hunger

She glanced at the other torossed with the baby ‘You love it’ It was not a question

‘The river and the streams are my blood, the soil is my flesh, the stones of the house are enerations of Teht me out in ludicrous sentiet it’

Tess bit her lip to keep herself silent and leaned forward to rub her cuff across theBefore her was the sprawling bulk of a house that forh arc around a paved forecourt The central block was lit, but the flanking wings were two dark are pulled up at the foot of the double flight of steps

‘Yes, it takes me like that,’ Alex said, then s to worry about, it is only a house’

The stones are my bones And aits inside? His soul? Tess tied her bonnet ribbons and collected up her reticule ‘Co, Annie, make sure Miss Daisy is rapped up and stay close behind Mrs White all the time’