Once they were both in the drawing room, he shut the door. Irritation made him puff out his lips in what was almost a pout, and his eyes looked larger than ever. When they were children she had thought of it as his angry frog face, though of course she had never told him that. She realized with dismay that he was drunker than she had thought.

“You bloody little fool,” he said. “What the hell do you think you’re playing at?”

“Marcus, there’s something I-”

“Do you realize what you’ve done?” he interrupted in a low voice. “You’ve probably scuppered my political career before it’s even begun.”

“That’s nonsense, you know-”

“Rex has got Mosley’s ear. But he’s prickly as hell, always ready to take offense. And he was about to offer me-”

She took a step toward him, her hands outstretched. “You don’t understand,” she began. “I-”

“I understand only too well,” he snapped. “Marrying you was the worst thing I ever did in my life.”

It was as if her mind was seized by a sudden frost. She felt nothing but cold. She could not think, let alone move. She stared blankly at her husband. Something about her passivity seemed to enrage him further. He lunged forward and slapped her cheek with the palm of his right hand. It was a relatively light blow that made her head jerk to one side. She gasped and lifted her left hand to cover the spot where his blow had fallen.

“Dear Christ,” he said. “You’re such a silly little bitch.”

As he was speaking, she knew he was going to hit her again. It was in a sense a continuation of the first blow. Having slapped her cheek with the palm of his right hand, he reversed the thrust of his arm and increased the impetus of the swing. The back of his hand smashed into her cheekbone. The force of the blow was enough to drive her against a chair. The top of its seat caught her just below the knee. She lost her balance and fell inelegantly so her body sprawled partly on the floor and partly on the chair. A jolt ran through her. She cried out with the snaking pain it brought in its wake. She was dimly aware of Marcus standing over her.