“But please I do not understand!” she said plaintively.

Carstares bowed over her hand.

“May I be permitted to thank you for your kindly intervention, my lady? And to congratulate Miles on his marriage?”

She dimpled charmingly and curtsied. Her husband caught her round the waist.

“Ay, the saucy minx! Oh, me cousin Harry, forsooth! If it had been anyone but Jack I should be angry with ye, asthore, for ’twas a wicked thrick to play entirely!”

She patted his hand and smiled across at Jack.

“Of course, I would never have done such a forward thing had I not known that he was indeed a gentleman⁠—and had he not saved me from sudden death!” she added as an afterthought.

Miles looked sharply round at her and then at Carstares.