For a moment Sorilda did not understand.
Then she realised with a little gasp that everyone in the room was looking at her.
Before she could speak the Duchess turned to the Duke,
“I am appalled, Edmund! Absolutely appalled that this should have happened! And when you were away from home! It’s hard to believe the evidence of my own eyes!”
The Duke had a look of anger on his face together with an expression of suspicion that made him look with narrowed eyes first at his wife, then at the Earl.
Slowly, as if he chose his words, he said,
“I cannot believe that my niece invited you here, my Lord. Unless my memory fails me, you have not even met her.”
“Then you must have been mistaken, Edmund,” the Duchess said quickly, “and now I think of it, I remember someone in the house – I think it
