Royden, although still a young man, was too old to change his ways and certainly not to marry a girl who was so much younger than he was.
Even though he was quite certain that he would have to go a long way before he found anyone as attractive or intelligent as Malva.
‘But I am prejudiced,’ he told himself.
Then he began to open the letters waiting for him on his table.
*
It was the day after they arrived in the country that Malva was riding one of the fastest of her father’s horses when she realised that there was a man coming out of the wood that bordered their estate with the Earl’s.
One glance told her instantly who it was.
She deliberately turned her horse round and started to ride in the opposite direction.
She had lain awake for several nights thinking over what her father h
