As an excuse to be introduced to Malise, Molly got up and, wandering over to Lady Dorothy, thanked her for a delicious lunch.

“Absolutely first rate,” agreed Colonel Carter, who’d followed her.

“Would you like to see around the garden?” said Lady Dorothy.

Malise Gordon looked at his watch.

“We better go and supervise the junior jumping,” he said to Miss Squires.

“Oh, my daughter’s in that,” said Molly Maxwell, giving Malise Gordon a dazzling smile. “I hope you’ll turn a blind eye if she knocks anything down. It would be such a thrill if she got a rosette.”

Malise Gordon didn’t smile back. He had heard Molly’s laugh once too often and thought her very silly.

“Fortunately, jumping is the one event in which one can’t possibly display any favoritism.”

Colonel Carter, aware that his beloved had been snubbed, decided Malise Gordon needed taking down a peg.

“What’s the order for this afternoon?” he asked.

“Junior jumping, open jumping, then gymkhana events in ring three, then your show in ring two, Carter.”

A keen territorial, Colonel Carter was organizing a recruiting display which included firing twenty-five pounders.

“We’re scheduled for seventeen hundred hours,” snapped Colonel Carter. “Hope you’ll have wound your jumping up by then, Gordon. My chaps like to kick off on time.”

“I hope you won’t do anything silly like firing off blanks while there are horses in the ring,” said Malise brusquely. “It could be extremely dangerous.”

“Thanks, Dorothy, for a splendid lunch,” he added, kissing Lady Dorothy on the cheek. “The garden’s looking marvelous.”

Colonel Carter turned purple. What an arrogant bastard, he thought, glaring after Malise’s broad, very straight back as he followed Miss Squires briskly out of the drawing room.