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‘But why not? I really know about horses and love being with them.’

‘Well, ye’re a lady and come from the Quality.’

‘I’m no lady. And I’m not elevated in any way.’

Taz looked at her quizzically. ‘’Ow d’ye know? Ye lost yer memory, haven’ yer?’ He was watching her and Eliza suspected, as she had from the beginning, that he knew far more than he let on. She was so tempted to tell him the truth but he changed the subject.

‘Ye look like ye’ve always ridden side-saddle. Very elegant, Miss Eliza.’

Eliza titled her head in acknowledgement, her cheeks flushing. This was praise indeed from such an equine master. ‘But as you know, I long to ride without a saddle.’

Taz lost his twinkle. ‘Everything ye say, miss, is shocking in polite society. Ye had a ‘oyden upbringin’, ain’t ya?’

They were just cantering back towards the entrance to the Park when a man rode towards them, a gleam in his eye. It was his horse that Eliza first noticed, a flashy grey with a very long tail, luminous in the light. The rider was dark and lean-faced. He gave her a piercing look as he passed, then stopped and wheeled his horse to come alongside. ‘Do I know you, madam?’

Eliza was startled. She gazed into his face, striking in a furtive, ferrety way, and said emphatically, ‘No, sir. We have never met.’ In a protective gesture, Taz rode Horatio alongside Clio’s flank.

The man peered closer. ‘I didn’t say we’d exactly met, my dear. But that charming profile is unmistakeable. Once seen never forgotten, eh, Miss Clorinda? Although looking slightly more ladylike than when I last saw you.’ He leered.

Eliza flinched. She had not expected to be recognised and his impertinent innuendo alarmed her. She had to brazen it out and pulled herself up to her full height in the saddle. ‘I don’t know who you have mistaken me for, sir,’ she said in her most haughty voice, ‘but I tell you again, I do not know you.’

Taz reached for his whip, tucked into his saddle, and said with fierce authority, ‘Move away, sir. Ye’re discomfortin’ the lady.’

The stranger’s vulpine eyes flickered towards him. ‘Such insolence from a mere groom. You deserve to be horsewhipped. Your master is Purfoy, is it not?’

‘No man’s me master, sir. But m’job is to care for Lord Purfoy’s horses.’

‘Well then, I’ll take my complaints to him. You can tell him you’ve crossed swords with Davenport.’ He tipped his hat to Eliza before spurring his horse into a fast trot and disappearing into the crowd of horsemen congregating around the Serpentine.

Eliza was shocked by this chance meeting; he had brutally reminded her of her duplicity and the vulnerability of her situation. She turned to Taz with a worried expression. ‘I should tell you something, Taz.’ Her voice dropped.

‘No, Miss Eliza. Ye don’t need to tell me anythin’. I already know. But ye do need to tell Mr and Mrs Wolfe.’

Eliza was astounded. ‘How do you know?’

‘When I first saw ye I suspected then ye was a circus chit.’

This answer unsettled her. ‘Oh no! Was it so obvious?’

‘Only to me.’

‘Had you seen me performing?’

They had arrived back in the mews when he answered, ‘Like to keep up to snuff on all good prancers. Circus folk ’ave an eye for a flashy steed.’ He dismounted and walked round to offer a hand to her. Lithe as a dancer, Eliza extricated her foot from the stirrup, stepped lightly onto Clio’s back, picked up her heavy skirts, sprang to the ground in a balletic move and bowed, a mischievous smile on her face. Taz chuckled. ‘Yer a knacky one! Ye can manage far greater feats than that, I ken.’

Eliza felt her exhilaration rise. Taz understood and accepted her. ‘Thank you, Taz. I really enjoyed our ride.’ She stroked Clio’s neck and went on tiptoe to kiss her. Then she realised with a jolt that this friendship would be short-lived. This morning she would tell Corinna the truth of her life.

‘Ye like to ride again tomorrow, Miss Eliza?’

She hung her head. ‘Once I tell Mrs Wolfe where I come from I don’t expect to still be living here. But it has been a pleasure to meet you, Taz.’ Eliza put out her hand to him. ‘If the man who accosted me causes you any trouble with your employer I’ll vouch for your behaviour.’

Taz swore and spat on the cobbles. ‘Davenport, that scurvy nob! World would be a better place without such ’ell-begotten brawlers. I’m not worried, lass. But for ’is ’orses, Lord Purfoy’s as unmoved as Lucifer. Cares not a whit about Lord Dastard.’

Despite her worries, Eliza laughed and said over her shoulder, ‘That’s not his name, as you know!’ She walked out of the mews and, turning into Brook Street, was startled to see a giant travelling coach pulled up outside the Wolfes’ house, disgorging brass-bound trunks and portmanteaus. She picked her way through the luggage where the kindly old butler was directing everything to be carried upstairs. ‘Good morning, Gibbons, where’s Mrs Wolfe?’ Eliza’s anxieties about her coming revelation to Corinna were amplified by this unexpected arrival.

‘The lady’s in her studio,’ Gibbons said in a distracted way as yet another trunk entered his domain. Eliza knocked on the door and found Corinna in front of her easel, deep in thought.

‘Excuse me, Mrs Wolfe.’ She stood uncertainly on the threshold.