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The room was almost as grand with three windows across, their many panes of glass fracturing the view of Nonsuch parkland into a kaleidoscope of fragmented gold and green.

In the centre was the great four-poster bed, its silk curtains falling from a coronet suspended in the dusky heights of the ceiling.

‘Thank you, Mrs Plover, it’s a room fit for a queen. ’

Polly had followed her and stood there awestruck. ‘Bless me, Miss Gray!’ She unpacked Eliza’s clothes, looking askance at the boy’s jacket and breeches she found folded at the bottom. ‘This house is so grand I feel all atwitter.’

‘Don’t fear, Polly. It’s just Mr Shilton’s home, it’s not a palace. He is the best of men and I’m sure his servants are equally friendly.’

‘It’s that housekeeper. Looks as unforgiving as the Gorgon.’

Eliza laughed. ‘Really, Polly, you shouldn’t let your imagination run away with you. We’re only here for a few days then we go back to Town.’

‘Will you need my help later to dress for dinner?’

‘To save us time, I’ll dress now.’ Eliza too was rather intimidated by the grandeur of Nonsuch Place, but she would not admit it, even to herself.

Polly headed for the door. ‘I’ll get some hot water, Miss Gray.’

‘Oh, Polly, I’m too tired. I think I’ll just put on my dress, spend a little time at dinner, then early to bed.

’ She slipped on the pale rose gauze dress with the ivory rosebuds round the neck and sleeves.

It was comfortable and yet she knew it suited her colouring well.

She threw a Braganza shawl around her shoulders as it was chilly in the window seat where she settled with her book .

Eliza loved this poem that reminded her of Lord Purfoy, and determined to learn it so well that, like a creeper, it would twine into her heart and become one with her.

Carried away in her reading, she lost track of time and a soft knock on the door sprang her from the Aegean Sea and a mysterious and lonely hero.

Polly popped her head around the door. ‘Mr Shilton asked me to tell you it is time for dinner.’

In a fluster, Eliza closed her book, dashed to the dressing table and attempted to tidy her coiffure.

She had so much very fair hair she wondered how she was going to disguise it tomorrow, under a hat, riding as a male jockey.

Anxiety and shame suffused her spirit. She hated the deception involved in keeping her promise to Mr Flynn.

Sticking her hairpins back into the relaxed bun on the top of her head, she noticed it was already unravelling into fine ringleted strands round her face.

Still wrapped in her shawl, she ran down the stairs, just as Lord Purfoy entered the hall.

His dark eyes imperceptibly changed from their usual narrow gaze. ‘Why, Miss Gray, you seem in a hurry. Are we late?’

Eliza was unexpectedly breathless. ‘I’ve been lost in my reading.’

‘Still The Corsair? ’ he asked in an amused voice.

‘Indeed. I intend to learn it.’ Then without thinking she quoted:

His heart was formed for softness – warped to wrong,

Betrayed too early, and beguiled too long.

She stopped abruptly. What had induced her to say that? She had so clearly exposed her feelings for The Corsair, and for him.

But the subject of her effusion just smiled. ‘Indeed.’ He offered his arm to escort her into the dining room and, as she laid her hand on his, he murmured,

Yet tempests wear, and lightning cleaves the rock;

If such his heart, so shattered it the shock.

There grew one flower beneath its rugged brow,

…The granite’s firmness and the Lily’s growth.

Eliza coloured. ‘You know it too?’

‘I do. When you mentioned you were enjoying the poem I determined to read it, to keep step with you, to beat with your heart as it beats, follow the story where it leads.’

Eliza felt something inside her unfurl, all tension fled. They walked into the dining room together and she felt entirely at ease, at one with another, no longer an orphan, no longer alone.

Everyone looked up. ‘Oh there you are, Rav! And you’ve found Miss Gray, too. Come and sit down. It’s haunch of venison.’ Ferdinand Shilton waved them to their seats as his best burgundy was broached and its ruby liquor splashed into rummers engraved with the Shilton crest.

‘As I’m in the position of your honorary chaperone for the night, come and sit beside me, Miss Gray.’ Alick Wolfe’s avuncular warmth was extended to her and Eliza slipped into the seat next to him while Lord Purfoy was shown to a chair on the opposite side of the table.

The talk between the men turned to last night’s gambling. Alick was ladling buttered carrots onto his plate from a dish proffered by the under-butler and called across the table, ‘Purfoy, I saw you at White’s deep in play. What time did you get to your crib last night?’

‘’Twas more like this morning.’

‘And did you win?’ Alick was intrigued by his friend’s virtuosity at the tables.

‘I’m on a prolonged mission against a dastardly foe.’

His lordship’s face was severe in the candlelight and Eliza, her imagination still full of her reading, said, ‘ There was a laughing Devil in his sneer .’ She thought she had barely spoken out loud but everyone turned to look at her, not certain to what she referred.

Raven Purfoy knew and answered, ‘ That raised emotion both of rage and fear.’

Their eyes met as he raised his glass, watching her intently over the rim. Ferdinand Shilton expostulated, ‘Don’t know what you’re both going on about, but luckily you seem to understand each other.’

Still looking at Eliza, his lordship said, ‘Luckily, we do.’ He put his hand on his dandy friend’s arm. ‘It’s just one of Lord Byron’s poems both Miss Gray and I have been separately reading.’

‘Well, that noble cove must know you well – laughing Devil in his sneer – he’s certainly got your humour to a T!

’ His friends snorted in amusement and Eliza watched the brotherly comradeship between them.

Ferdy continued, ‘I hope you’re going to beat Davenport in the race tomorrow, otherwise there’ll be no end to it. ’

Eliza’s warm sense of belonging drained away as quickly as if a sinkhole had opened up in front of her, and every good thing in her life was fast disappearing into the void.

She looked across at Zadoc Flynn who appeared oblivious to her moral crisis.

She would have to speak to him again. She could not ride against Lord Purfoy; this was the man she loved, who seemed to return that feeling – there was no way she could be implicated in such a dastardly plan.

It was difficult to get Mr Flynn alone. The men were all intent on opening the port and discussing playing a few rounds of hazard. Eliza was tired and desperate to go to bed when to her relief, Zadoc Flynn called out to his friends, ‘I must get some coin from my luggage.’

As he left the room, Eliza slipped out after him and waylaid him on the stairs.

She determined not to weaken by telling herself it was better to betray Mr Flynn and go back on her word than to betray Lord Purfoy, who mattered to her more than anything in the world, even her good name.

In a steady voice she said, ‘Mr Flynn, I cannot ride Ohio for you.’

He stopped and whirled around. ‘What do you mean? Are you ill?’

‘No, I’m not ill, but I cannot in good conscience ride Ohio against Lord Purfoy.’

His colour was heightened and his look suddenly exasperated and condescending. ‘Why? Because you fancy yourself in love with the arrogant lord?’

Eliza felt similarly riled. ‘No, I do not. But it is a poor way to repay him his kindness to me.’

Zadoc Flynn snorted. ‘What kindness? In running you over and cracking your crown? You owe him nothing and you owe me the value of your word. I cannot take Ohio back to Kentucky as a brood mare of the highest quality without winning a place in a Blue Riband horse race in the old country.’

Eliza felt her chest tighten with a knot of panic. ‘You didn’t mention she had to be placed in the race. I thought she just had to compete and we could come in last.’

‘No, fourth, or at a pinch fifth, is the minimum that will be registered.’

‘But there is little chance I could ride Ohio to such a placing and not be noticed by Lord Purfoy. I can’t risk it.’

Mr Flynn turned steely in a way Eliza had not seen before. ‘So with a belated missish sensibility, you are prepared to go back on your word and rob Ohio of her chance of glory?’

This appeal to her respect for the mare and the horse’s celebrated future in America did catch at Eliza’s heart.

She did not want to be the reason for Ohio’s failure in her new role as the mother of the next generation of Kentucky racehorses.

She was aware her ramrod spine was beginning to buckle.

This was something she would have to follow to the end, with the minimum of fuss.

‘All I ask then, when the race is over, is that you help horse and rider to disappear into the crowd. If you promise you’ll whisk Ohio and me away so no one properly sees us, then I’ll ride her.

But, Mr Flynn, you have to protect my anonymity. ’

Zadoc Flynn took her hand and with a gentle voice said, ‘If you married me, Miss Gray, you wouldn’t have to worry about your reputation, or Lord Purfoy, or anyone.

You’d have a stable yard of beautiful horses to ride and everything you could possibly desire.

The offer is still there, should you change your mind. ’

Eliza squeezed his hand. ‘Thank you, Mr Flynn. I don’t disdain your offer at all.’

He turned serious. ‘Leave your riding clothes by my door tonight and I’ll take them to Epsom in the curricle.’

‘Thank you. I’m travelling down with Mr Wolfe and Polly in one of Mr Shilton’s fast chaises. He has so many carriages, and even more horses!’

‘He’s a rich man who loves his bloodstock. As do I.’ He was about to resume his journey up the stairs when he paused. ‘I’ll see you at the racetrack tomorrow. Don’t be alarmed. It will all work out fine.’