CHAPTER TWOThe Countess wrote fluidly for half an hour.
She was most careful over her choice of words, as so much rested on the effect that her letter would have on Lady Florence Waterton.
She had been introduced to the twenty-five year old wealthy widow a few years earlier in 1878, when she had undertaken a trip to Biarritz without her husband.
He had been occupied with an important Bill in the House of Lords and so had exhorted her to go on her own accompanied by her lady’s maid.
Lady Florence was also travelling on her own and the two women quickly made friends with each other.
She had felt tears prick her eyes as she listened to her describe how she had just lost her husband in a tragic accident in South Africa earlier that year.
“But you are so young!” she had declared, patting
