“It must have been that injury I had the year before I married you,” he said. “That is what the old sawbones said anyway, Ellen. I can’t think why else. I’m sorry about it, though. For your sake. I would have liked…”

She lifted her head and kissed his cheek. “Charlie,” she said, “if I had a child, I would not be able to travel about with you so easily. I could not bear to be separated from you. You know that. I am not unhappy. I am not. And maybe the fault is in me, anyway. We do not know for sure.”

“I missed you,” he said, rubbing his cheek against the top of her head.

“And I you,” she said. “And I missed everyone else too. I am looking forward to seeing everyone. Is Mrs. Byng feeling better? I must call on her tomorrow. It was good to see Lord Eden. He is quite like one of our family, is he not?”

“Do you think he fancies Jennifer?” he asked. “I think she fancies him.”

“That would be hardly surprising,” she said. “And I think it is very likely that he will be taken with her too. He will come to tea tomorrow? He will not feel that he is unwelcome now that we are no longer alone?”

“He’ll come,” he said.

Ellen put one arm about his waist. “I don’t ever want to go away from you again,” she said. “I don’t mind too much this time because it was for Jennifer. But there cannot be another reason good enough to separate us, can there, Charlie?”

“No, lass,” he said. “We won’t be apart again.”

“There is going to be fighting, isn’t there?” she said.

“I don’t know,” he said. “We will have to wait and see.”

“That means there is going to be fighting,” she said. “Oh, I hoped so very hard that it was finally over.”

“It is, almost,” he said. “One more defeat, and no one will be hearing any more from old Boney.”

“One more,” she said with a sigh. “One too many.”

“Just one more,” he said, putting one hand beneath her chin and lifting her face to his. “And it won’t be just yet, lass. We have time. Shall we go to bed early too?”