CHAPTER SEVENGretna awoke to find Maria peeping round the bedroom door at her.
“You have slept late, dearest! I had not the heart to waken you until now. But we have a luncheon party for twenty. If you don’t rise now, you will be late and that would never do for, of course, the Prince is coming.”
Gretna looked at the clock on the mantelshelf with dismay. It seemed that she had but closed her eyes for two minutes, having been awake until dawn. And yet now it was nearly luncheontime.
She did not wish to explain that she had lain sleepless, tossing and turning from the time they had returned from Carlton House, thinking over what had happened and going over again and again in her mind all that the Marquis had said to her.
“I am sorry, Maria,” she apologised. “I will rise – immediately.”
