“I daresay that’s true,” she said.
“I should take you home myself,” he said.
“No, sir, you need not. Mr. Bucknell told me that your society expects you to keep commons tonight, and I know how important it is that you do so. If you will find us a coach with an imposing driver who can be trusted to deliver us safely to Upper Brook Street, you will have done all anyone can expect.”
“But see here, I want to know more about this,” Ned protested.
“I shall be glad to discuss it with you later,” Letty said, shooting a speaking look in Liza’s direction. “This is neither the time nor the place, however.”
“But when? May I call upon you tomorrow, or must you go to the palace?”
“I’ll be at the palace just in the morning, but I have promised to attend the Horticultural Society’s fete tomorrow afternoon with Mrs. Linford and Miss Abby.”
“But that’s excellent! I need a holiday. I shall meet you in Upper Brook Street at noon and serve as your escort. Whilst my great-aunts are exclaiming their appreciation of all the medal-winners, you and I can find an opportunity to talk.”
Though the prospect did not thrill her, Letty agreed, thinking it would be churlish to refuse after he had been so kind. Nevertheless, when they had walked to Fleet Street by a much-less-unsavory route, while Mr. Bucknell gave directions to the brutish-looking jarvey they selected, Letty said to Ned, “I hope you won’t think it necessary to mention any of this to your brother, sir.”
“To Justin? Crikey, I should think not! You can trust me, ma’am. Not a word of this shall cross my lips. In any case,” he added naively, “I won’t see him before I see you at noon tomorrow.” Turning to Mr. Bucknell, he demanded to know if that gentleman had made it clear to the jarvey that he was to protect his passengers with his life. Upon learning that he had, he helped them into the coach.
Having watched the coach rattle away, Ned managed to extricate himself from Jerry Bucknell’s company by the simple expedient of telling him that he knew no more about the matter than what they both had heard and that he needed to study several points of law before dinner. He spoke truthfully, but he did not think he would be able to concentrate very well until he learned more about the incident that so amazingly had brought Lady Letitia to his doorstep.
Strolling back to his chambers, he replayed the conversation in his mind, becoming so lost in thought that he did not realize his cluttered front room was no longer unoccupied until a familiar voice said sternly, “I’m told that you’ve taken to entertaining females in your chambers, sir. Have you taken leave of your senses?”
“Justin! Crikey, what are you doing here?”
“I daresay I am not welcome, but you will have to accommodate me nonetheless. I have come to discuss your sense of humor, you see.”
Ned flushed but said nothing, trying to gather his wits.
“You should just be thankful that no more came of the incident than some small embarrassment to Miss Devon-Poole and myself,” Justin said. “Otherwise you would find me much angrier now, and would doubtless suffer accordingly. Just how much do you know about that house?”
Bewildered, Ned said, “I know what you know. What else could I know?”
“But you don’t deny that you sent messages to me and to Miss Devon-Poole, so that we would meet there.”
Ned grimaced. “Would it do me any good to deny it?”
“It would diminish my respect for you.”
“I didn’t know you had any,” Ned said resentfully.
“I am extremely displeased with you, as you will soon learn if you do not already know it, but I will believe what you tell me, Ned. You are not a liar.”
With an odd sense of gratification, Ned said, “I did play you a trick. I can see now that it was not well done of me, since Miss Devon-Poole has never done me any wrong, but at the time I thought only of getting back at you. I—”
“But why the Upper Brook Street house?”
Ned shrugged, thinking it a small point. “Mama said the aunts had not yet met Miss Devon-Poole, that’s all,” he said. “I knew it would prove embarrassing to you if you found her there expecting that you had invited her to meet them.”
“But what made you think she would go there on such a pretext?”
“Meeting your family, of course. You’re going to marry her, aren’t you?”
“Since I have taken great pains to avoid giving her or anyone else cause—”
“Oh, Justin, don’t be daft! Everyone knows.”
“No, everyone does not know,” Justin snapped. “Some may suspect. God knows, Puck Quigley says they do. But no one knows, Ned, and until today Miss Devon-Poole certainly had no reason to think such a thing. But thanks to you …”
At that point the lecture Ned had anticipated engulfed him. He stood it manfully (having expected it to be much worse) until Justin said, “By heaven, I’ll see to it that you mend your thoughtless ways and apply yourself more diligently to your studies. You are going to do exactly as I bid you, or—”
“Or nothing,” Ned retorted rudely. “I’ll apologize to Miss Devon-Poole because I agree that I should, but you are not my father, and I wish you would remember that. The worst you can do is to stop paying my fees here, but I’d survive. I am very grateful to you, Justin—truly, I am—but by heaven, neither that gratitude nor your generosity gives you the right to control my every breath and step.”
“That’s a damned exaggeration,” Justin snapped. “If I try to keep you from stepping over the bounds, it is through no more than concern for your welfare.”
“It is no such thing! You want to control everyone around you. Why, I daresay that is why Lady Le—” He broke off, instantly regretting his unruly tongue.
“Don’t stop there,” Justin said, his voice growing suddenly very quiet. “Finish your sentence, sir. You begin to interest me.”
“It was nothing,” Ned said.
“Who were the two females who came here? I want the truth, Ned. The chap who described them to me said that one looked like a servant but the other clearly was a lady and she had red hair. I could not believe my first suspicion, but now …”
“I won’t tell you,” Ned muttered.
“You don’t need to tell me now,” Justin growled. “Your refusal tells me enough. What the devil was she doing here? Surely you did not invite her.”
“Well, I didn’t, but I don’t know why you should be so certain of that, when you have accused me of much worse things. It just so happens—” He broke off. “No, I won’t tell you. I promised—”
“Promised, did you? By heaven, you’ll tell me if I have to—”
Startled by the fury in his brother’s expression, Ned interjected hastily, “It was nothing, really! She came to me for help, that’s all.”
“All? That explains nothing! Be plain with me if you don’t want to feel the full extent of my anger.”
Believing him, and angry himself now, Ned said, “It was Liza. Lady Letitia came to find her, and what I began to say before is that I can certainly see why she didn’t go to you for help instead, or want me to tell you what she’d done.”
“No doubt you can, but that is no explanation.” Justin took a step toward him, and Ned capitulated, telling him all he knew.
“I don’t understand the whole of it, myself,” he added when he had repeated everything Letty had told him. “I don’t think she should be traveling about the city in hackney coaches, and she certainly should not have walked into a house like the one she described to me, or shot anyone.”
“Shooting that scoundrel was the most sensible thing she did,” Justin snarled. “By heaven, when I get my hands on her—”
“She’s got less reason to listen to you than I do,” Ned pointed out. “You hold no authority whatsoever over her.”
“Perhaps not, but she is going to hear what I want to say to her nonetheless. I’d go at once, but I daresay even if she were at home, her servants wouldn’t let me in the house
this late in the day, let alone tonight. In any event, I daresay she will be going out somewhere or other. I’ll find her tomorrow, though, and by heaven—”
“You’ll be disappointed then, too, unless you think you can bellow at her right under the queen’s nose,” Ned said. “She is attending Her Majesty all morning, and then she is going to the Horticultural Society fete at Chiswick with the aunts, and tomorrow night, of course, there is Mama’s dinner party. Perhaps you can imagine ripping up at her there, but it would be dashed bad manners.”
Instantly Ned wished he had held his tongue, for Justin said grimly, “You needn’t worry about that. I don’t intend to wait that long.”
THIRTEEN
“THIS IS MADNESS,” RAVENTHORPE growled to Puck Quigley the next day as the carriage wended its way slowly—exceptionally slowly—toward the Royal Horticultural Society gardens.
Under an overcast sky, the line of carriages extended unbroken all the way from Hyde Park Corner to Turnham Green. Despite the seeming snail’s pace they moved steadily, so that at numerous points along the road it was impossible for a pedestrian to cross from one side to the other in safety.
“You needn’t have come,” Puck pointed out, letting down the window on his side so that he could look out. “In fact, we can still turn back.”
“You’ll soon have us covered with dust,” Justin said with annoyance.
Puck grinned at him, unabashed. “Is this the same man who led me and my best hunter through a bog last year, chasing an infernal fox?”
“Put up the damned window, Puck.”
“Very well, in just a moment,” Puck said amiably, his head still outside. “I must say, it says much for the police and the manner in which they carry out their duties that we have seen no accidents and that they have been able to preserve order here. I should not be at all amazed, you know, to see an outburst of fisticuffs in the midst of all this traffic.”
“There will be such an outburst inside this carriage if you do not put up that damned window. I cannot imagine why I brought you.”
“I don’t know, either,” Puck retorted with his usual candor as he put up the window at last. “You have been most uncivil to me ever since you picked me up at my digs. Since you are in this mood, I don’t know why you did not select someone like your hapless brother to be your companion today.”
“It was a hard decision, I’ll grant you, especially since Ned had made plans to attend,” Justin said, but he felt himself relax. Ruefully he added, “Sorry I’m such a bear, Puck. I already bit off Ned’s head and ordered him to stay in his chambers today and study.”
“Then who besides Ned has had the extreme bad fortune to annoy you? You cannot have got yourself this exercised merely over another tiff with him.”
Justin was silent.
“Ah-ha, it’s a wench! Tell me, my lad, can it be that the Honorable Susan has—No, no! Oh, my dear Puck, where have your wits gone begging?” he asked himself with a laugh. “It’s the little Tory, of course. She’s been a thorn in your tea since she first arrived in London. What has she done or said now to annoy you?”
“I am sure that what she says or does has nothing to do with me,” Justin said stiffly, irritated that Puck had hit the mark so swiftly. There were a number of things on his plate just now that would strain the temper of a saint, but the first that came to mind every time, was Letitia’s foolishness in going to Boverie Street. “Nobody tells her what to do, much less what to think,” he said, speaking the thought aloud. “She has her own approach to life, and she’s utterly indifferent to criticism.”
“And that’s what stings you to the prick, my lad,” Puck declared triumphantly. When Justin frowned, he added hastily, “It’s not altogether true that she’s indifferent, you know. She is constantly rising to someone’s bait. One has only to tell her that the Whig way of doing things is the best way.”
“I certainly don’t think she makes it her object in life to convert others to her political point of view,” Justin said.
“Didn’t say that she did,” Puck said. “She just loves a good verbal battle, if you ask me. In that respect, she is no different from you, my lad.”
“Don’t be absurd. That conceited independence of hers will land her in the suds before long. Indeed it has done so already, and she’s lucky to have got away with a whole skin—at least, so far,” he added on an ominous note.
Ignoring the danger sign, Puck said, “Conceited independence?”
“You heard me. She’s got away with it this long because of her father’s lofty position. She’s been spoiled, by God, and she wants someone to bring her to heel.”
“I’d like to see someone try,” Puck said, chuckling. “I think even you might fail in that venture, my lad. Whatever did she do to set you off like this?”
“She nearly got herself captured by villains looking for females to sell to an abbess,” Justin snapped, adding, “Has this carriage come to a complete standstill?”
Letting down his window again, Puck stuck out his head and said, “I can see the gate some distance up ahead. Do you hear the music? The papers listed at least seven regiments that have sent bands to represent them at this affair. What a racket it must be! Here now, what are you doing?” he exclaimed when Justin leaned across him to open the carriage door, then got up and kicked the step down.
“What the devil does it look like I’m doing? I’m getting out to walk,” he said, suiting action to words, then adding, “Keep the carriage, Puck. I’ll find you when I can, but first I’ve got business with Lady Letitia.”
“Dash it all, Justin,” Puck protested, “if you think I’m paying the fee for this coach of yours, you’ve got another think coming. My pockets are to let, so I’ll have to get out, too, and leave your coachman to fend for himself. Most likely, he’ll turn tail and drive off, leaving you to walk home.”
“Oh no, he won’t,” Justin said, shutting the door with a snap.
“Well, then,” Puck said through the open window, “he’ll pull into someone’s field to wait, and you’ll end up walking home because you won’t be able to find him again.”
“Don’t be daft; he’s got money to pay the entrance fee,” Justin said. “If you want to get down and walk, be my guest, but I won’t wait for you. My impatience to find her ladyship and tell her what I think of her recent activities is getting the better of me.” He turned away, but Puck’s cheerful voice followed him.
“Don’t kill her, Justin. I can rescue you from the law if you only knock her down, but if you murder her there won’t be much I can do to save you.”
Justin stopped, drew a long breath, then turned back to the carriage. Having made no effort to step down, Puck observed his return with open interest.
Waiting until he stood next to the open window, Justin said quietly, “I doubt that it is necessary to say this, Puck, but I trust you will keep all this to yourself.”
“I’m not the one whose tongue has been flapping,” Puck said virtuously, “but if Her Majesty should chance to ask me … She will be here today, will she not?”
“I don’t know, nor do I care.” Justin reached up to grip the other man’s arm, giving it a squeeze as he said, “You’re a good friend, Puck. Not many would put up with my fits of temper like you do.”
“You underestimate your appeal, my lad. Think of your riches and all the friends they draw to your side. Oh, don’t throttle me,” he added with a chuckle. “Go and do your worst to the Lady Letitia. Despite her lack of inches, she is more up to your weight than I am, assuming you can even find her in that crowd.”
Shaking his head, Justin turned on his heel and strode to the entrance gates, his pace much swifter than that of the lined-up carriages. He had to pause briefly to buy a ticket of admission, which he showed to the police officer at the gate, but then he plunged into the crowd to begin his search.
Puck’s witticisms had softened his mood, but a few minutes of battling the crowd in search of one small redheaded female soon stirred h
is temper again. He met more than one friend who tried to point out a particularly fine specimen of horticulture to him, or to draw him into conversation. Resisting these efforts, he continued the hunt, growing more irritable by the moment. Thus when he saw her at last, strolling casually ahead of him between his two elderly great-aunts, he felt a surge of fury quite out of keeping with the gaiety of the occasion.
“We shall view the pelargoniums next,” Mrs. Linford said to Letty and Miss Abby, consulting her program. That settled, she added with approval, “The recent showers have proven most beneficial to the turf and flower beds of these gardens.”
“Oh, yes indeed,” Miss Abby agreed. “The lawns look as smooth as velvet and are quite green, which makes the flower beds look amazingly colorful. Why, every hue and tint of nature must be represented here today. Quite relieving to the eyes, is it not, Letty, my dear, after living in a grey-and-white metropolis?”
Letty agreed that it was all very pleasant. The two old ladies had been behaving strangely ever since she had picked them up in her carriage. They kept up a stream of pointless conversation, flitting from topic to topic like bees buzzing from blossom to blossom in search of nectar.
Upon her arrival in Upper Brook Street, when she had asked politely how they were, Mrs. Linford had said, “Perfectly well; shall we go now?”
Miss Abby had colored up to her eyebrows, saying that she thought she always felt well, except when she didn’t. When she went on to provide examples to support the odd statement, Mrs. Linford made no effort for once to silence her.
Letty thought perhaps she had embarrassed them a trifle by showing up the previous evening with Liza in tow, so she did not press them further. Nor did she think it prudent to ask after Liza just then.
In the carriage and since their arrival at the gardens, she had been listening to their errant discourse with just half an ear, but they did not seem to mind that she offered no more than a vague comment from time to time.
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