CHAPTER FOURThe next morning Ilesa awoke early and realised that she had not gone to sleep until very late.
She knew that it was wrong of her and the memory of it embarrassed her, but she had lain awake wondering if the Duke would go into Doreen’s room.
She had heard her sister telling him who slept in which rooms when they went upstairs to bed.
“Papa has the large room at the end,” Doreen had said, “which always seems to be out of proportion to the rest of the house. But he and Mama had a kind of suite with a dressing room for him and a boudoir for Mama where she wrote her letters.”
She smiled sweetly up at the Duke.
“I used to think it very big as a child, but that was before I had been in an enormous house like yours.”
She made the words sound caressing and then went on,
“Now, wh
