She came from a family whose origins were impeccable, but which like many others had grown poorer with each generation.
Because Aline was outstandingly beautiful, her parents had hoped that she would make a good marriage.
They had therefore made tremendous sacrifices so that they could take her to London for the Season and she could make her curtsey to King William IV and Queen Adelaide.
There was no doubt that the moment she appeared in the ballroom at Buckingham Palace, positively outshining the other debutantes and drawing the eyes of every man in the room, she had been a sensation.
The invitations had poured into the house that her parents had managed to rent cheaply for three months and from which she had been married, as if to a fanfare of trumpets.
It had been, Aline had though
