“I have never eaten anything so delicious!” she said as dinner ended. “But there is one thing I cannot understand.”
“What is that?” the Marquis enquired.
“If you have Chefs here and in London, which I am sure you do, to produce meals like this every day, how is it possible that you are so slim?”
She had not meant to sound as if she was paying him a compliment but rather simply curious, and the Marquis said, “I take a great deal of exercise.”
“I suppose that is the answer,” Diona said.
“Papa always complained if we had too many dishes with cream because that made him put on weight and he liked to ride light.”
“I, too, have no wish to be too heavy for my horses,” the Marquis answered. “And I assure you, army rations, which I endured for a number of years, are not so enjoyable that I go
