'authorized' memoir of the, by now, famous soldier-poet. Daphne has married Cecil's younger brother, Dudley, and is now Lady Valance. The couple have two children and a tense, unhappy marriage. Though Sebby hints that he may have known about the affair between Cecil and George, the latter refuses to say anything of it, as does his mother, Freda, who accidentally became aware of it after uncovering love letters written by Cecil to George which she stole and claimed to have destroyed. Daphne, no longer enchanted by the feelings she once had for Cecil, nevertheless plays along with the fiction that he loved her. After a drunken dinner, Eva Riley, the fashionable designer engaged by Dudley to modernize the Dorley Court interiors, makes a pass at Daphne. The latter, however, prefers to spend the night kissing Revel Ralph, a family friend who – as Daphne well knows – prefers men. The following morning after many of the guests leave, Daphne's younger son Wilfred discovers that Clara Kalbeck, Freda Sawle's elderly German companion, has died in a fall. He tells his father about it and in the process accidentally uncovers an affair between his father and his nanny, although he is too young to understand it. Steady, Boys, Steady! In 1967, Paul Bryant, a young man in his 20s, has just started work at a bank. Walking his manager, Mr Keeping, home he encounters the matriarch of the family, Mrs Jacobs. Mrs Jacobs is Daphne Sawle, now on her third marriage and 69 years old. Paul is a closeted gay man and at work he encounters Peter Rowe, to whom he is immediately attracted and whom he recognizes as also being gay. Rowe is a young school teacher at Corley Court, which has now been converted into a private prep school for boys. He is also a friend of Corinna Keeping, Daphne's eldest child, who also teaches at the school. Because of their loose connections to the Keeping family both men are invited to Daphne's 70th birthday party where they meet George Sawle and they talk about Cecil Valance. George discusses Sebby's book and intimates that Cecil was gay, suggesting that with the imminent passage of the Sexual Offences Act 1967 this information will become more public. Paul and Peter sneak away from the party to have a sexual encounter and later make plans to meet again using the pretext of Paul