Those who were there would all be middle-aged or elderly friends who came because Lady Beecham asked them to. Another reason was that they knew that after the meeting was over there would be an excellent tea. And this would take place in the drawing room.
Sadira thought that, when the audience started to move away from the breakfast room, she and Anne could escape upstairs.
They could talk in what had once been the schoolroom but was now her friends’ sitting room.
Watkins opened the door quietly and Sadira walked past him into a vacant chair that was right at the back.
As she did so, she was aware that a soberly dressed man was giving a lecture and she was not surprised to find that it was about North Africa.
It was a part of the world that Lady Beecham was particularly interested in.
