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here. But you are right – it will be a lovely colour on which to work.’
    Emmaline spun round, half pleased that he had approved her choice and half disbelieving that he was right about the method that must be used to achieve it.
    She turned back. ‘There is something else that I wanted to ask you, if you don’t mind?’
    ‘Of course. Please ask me anything you wish.’
    ‘You seem very different from the person I met in America. Is it because I – well, is it because I disappointed you, once I was here? Because if this is so I will quite understand.’
    Julius stared at her, astounded.
    ‘Disappointed? Gracious, no, and I am only sorry that I could have in some way given you that idea.’
    ‘I was wondering whether or not you might wish to discuss the reasons – the reasons for my being here at all,’ Emmaline replied, staring at the top of Julius’s head of luxuriant hair. ‘In England, in my being in England, here.’
    ‘Well, I thought it might be obvious,’ Julius said, looking away. ‘It is because I was so taken by you that I—’
    ‘I am here at your express invitation,’ Emmaline persisted, clasping her hands tightly in front of her. ‘To fulfil a specific wish. Perhaps proposal might be better.’
    ‘There is no need to be too frank – an understanding is what we have, I will agree. An understanding of a certain nature.’
    ‘Julius,’ Emmaline went on, taking her courage now firmly in both hands. ‘We are engaged to be married.’
    ‘That is a fact I had not forgotten, Miss Nesbitt.’
    ‘Until such a time as we are duly married,
Mr
Aubrey,’ Emmaline said quietly, ‘I need to know where and how I am to live. I trust I shall not be expected to spend the rest of my days here, as that would not be in the least satisfactory.’
    ‘I see.’ Julius raised his eyebrows, then sat back in his chair. ‘As it happens I shall be returning to my house shortly, once I have finalised my intended designs for this place and had them approved, and when I do you can rest assured you will be provided with suitable accommodation locally until – until you take up residence at Park House – with me. Now, if that will be all?’
    ‘I should be grateful for a little more detail, Mr Aubrey.’
    ‘Perhaps, but that is all the information and
detail
that you require.’
    ‘I need a personal maid, Mr Aubrey.’
    ‘You will have everything you want when we return to Bamford, Miss Nesbitt.’
    ‘But until that time, sir—’
    ‘Until that time, madam,’ Julius told her, looking at her with sudden sympathy, ‘I suggest you try to manage. If you must know, I intend to leave here in the morning. And now I should continue with my endeavours. Thank you.’
    ‘Very well, Mr Aubrey,’ Emmaline replied, as she saw the far door opening and a servant hovering. ‘Thank you. Perhaps I shall see you at dinner tonight with all the other strangers?’
    ‘Perhaps you will,’ Julius agreed, but then he smiled suddenly, and leaning down he touched her cheek with a suddenly tender hand. ‘Perhaps you will,
Emma
.’

Chapter Four
    SHE HAD ALWAYS wondered about the beautiful little hand mirror he had made her a gift of, which Emmaline had appreciated not just for its delicate inlay and the warmth that the old silver-backed glass gave to her image in it, but also for the note that had come with it, written in a sloping artistic hand.
    You are infinitely more beautiful than you think yourself to be. JA
.
    After another distinctly uncomfortable evening in the company of the same unpleasant group, although this time with Julius among their number, Emmaline remembered the note with gratitude as she sat alone in the carriage the following morning on her way to her new life in Bamford. She straightened her change of travelling clothes. The pale grey paletot, the yellow-lined sash of her travelling coat, and the hat with the mixed feathers, had given her the confidence to realise that she could look stylish, that she was