The late Earl never raised his voice, but made his disapproval felt even more effectively than if he had raged or shouted at those who had offended him.
But while the Earl adored his father and tried to emulate him, his mother’s blood was also in his veins. Fiery, impulsive, sensual. The Alwards were noted for their uncontrollable tempers and their lack of emotional restraint.
They had figured in every scandal and in every social cause célèbre for the last five hundred years and the Earl knew it was only by a miracle that his father had not discovered the way his wife was behaving.
It was in fact only because he could never have contemplated that his wife would have a lower standard than his own and he had trusted her inexplicably.
“You’ve not altered an inch, my Lord,” Higson was sayi
