An Infamous Army (Alastair-Audley Tetralogy 4)

She glanced round, but they were alone in the antechamber. ‘Thank you: you are very obliging!’ she said and opened her reticule.

The pins once discovered, it was a matter of a minute or two only before the frills were in place again. Miss Devenish was quite astonished by the Colonel’s deediness. ‘I made sure you would prick me at least!’ she said merrily. ‘But I am quite in your debt! Thank you!’

He offered his arm. ‘May I take you to your aunt, if we can find her?’

‘Oh—! I should be very happy: but am I not trespassing on your time?’

‘How should you be? Perhaps your aunt may be waiting for you in the ballroom.’

No trace, however, of Mrs Fisher was to be found there, nor was she discovered in the corridor leading to the second supper-room.

‘I am afraid there is nothing for it but for you to accept me in place of your other supper partner,’ said the Colonel. ‘Your aunt must have gone in already, and from what I have seen of the crowd there you will be lucky indeed if you contrive to find her. Shall we go in?’

She looked doubtfully at him. ‘But are you sure you are not expected in the other room? I thought—someone told me—that nearly all the staff officers were invited, and you are one, are you not?’

‘I am, but no one will care a button whether I sup in the other room or not, I assure you,’ replied the Colonel. ‘It will be very dull, if I know these staff functions.’

‘Will it?’

‘Oh, I give you my word! It will last an interminable time, and a great many people will make interminable speeches. I should infinitely prefer to sup with you.’

Miss Devenish smiled. ‘I shall be very happy to go with you,’ she said. ‘Indeed, I think I should feel wretchedly lost by myself. There are so many people!’

They fell in with the slow-moving stream of guests, and presently found themselves in a large, brilliantly-lit room set out with any number of tables, and already bewilderingly full of people. As they paused within the room, looking about them for a couple of vacant places, Miss Devenish exclaimed: ‘Oh, there she is!’ and started towards a table near the door, at which was seated a stout, good-humoured-looking lady in purple sarsnet and a turban.

‘There you are, my love!’ said Mrs Fisher. ‘I came in early to be sure of obtaining a good place. Well, and are you enjoying yourself? For my part I find the rooms very hot, but I daresay young people don’t notice such things. You had better sit down while you may. I assure you I have been quite put to it to keep these seats for you.’

Miss Devenish turned to Colonel Audley. ‘Thank you so very much! You need not miss your engagement in the other room after all, you see.’

Mrs Fisher, having favoured the Colonel with a sleepy yet shrewd scrutiny, interposed to invite him most hospitably to join her at the table. ‘I would not go into the other room if I were you,’ she told him. ‘I daresay they will be making speeches for as much as a couple of hours.’

‘Just what I have been saying to your niece, ma’am,’ he replied, pulling out a chair for Miss Devenish.

As he did so a hand smote him on the shoulder. ‘Hallo, Charles! How are you? What are you doing here? I thought you were supping in state! Judith and Worth are.’

The Colonel turned. ‘Hallo, Perry!’ he said, shaking hands. ‘How do you do, Lady Taverner? Yes, I ought to be in the other room, but I missed Worth, and so came here instead. Are you staying long in Brussels? Do you like it?’

‘Oh, pretty fair! ’Evening, ma’am—’evening, Miss Devenish. Look, Harriet, there’s Dawson waving to us: he has secured a table. Charles, are you staying with Worth? Oh then, I shall see you!’

He passed on, and the Colonel turned back to Miss Devenish to find her staring at him in the liveliest surprise. He could not help laughing. ‘But what have I done? What have I said?’ he asked.

‘Oh! nothing, of course! But I had no idea you were Colonel Audley until Sir Peregrine spoke to you. Lady Worth is such a particular friend of mine!’

Mrs Fisher interposed to say in rather a bewildered voice: ‘My love, what is all this? Surely you have been introduced!’

‘No,’ admitted Miss Devenish. ‘I came upon Colonel Audley quite by accident.’

‘But we were as good as introduced, ma’am,’ said the Colonel, ‘for I distinctly remember my sister telling me that she would present me to Miss Devenish. But just then the King and Queen arrived, and the opportunity was lost.’

Mrs Fisher smiled indulgently, but remarked that she had never known her niece to be so shatterbrained.

A couple of hours later Lady Worth, coming back into the ballroom on her husband’s arm, was dumbfounded by the sight of Colonel Audley waltzing with Miss Devenish.

‘Oh, so you contrived it, did you?’ said Worth, also observing this circumstance.

‘I did no such thing!’ replied Judith. ‘In fact, I had quite made up my mind it would be useless to present him to poor Lucy, straight from Bab Childe’s clutches! But was there ever such a provoking man? Not but what I am very glad to see him with Lucy. Even you will admit that that would be preferable to an entanglement with Lady Barbara! I wonder who introduced him to her?’

She was soon to learn from the lady herself in what manner the Colonel had become acquainted with Miss Devenish, for Lucy joined her presently and confided the story to her sympathetic ear.