Regency Buck (Alastair-Audley Tetralogy 3)

She shook her head. ‘I brought none. I must play from memory, and beg you all to pardon my deficiencies.’

‘That is a very prettily-behaved, unaffected girl,’ whispered the Duchess of Dorset to her hostess. ‘Did you say eighty or ninety thousand pounds, my dear?’

Miss Taverner settled herself on the music-stool, and spread her fingers over the keys. The Earl placed himself in a chair near the pianoforte, and fixed his eyes on her face.

She sang a simple ballad; her voice, though not powerful, was sweet, and well-trained. She accompanied herself creditably, and looked so beautiful that it was not to be wondered at that her performance should be greeted with extravagant acclaim. She was begged to sing again, and accused of hiding her light under a bushel. She blushed, shook her head, sang one more ballad, and resolutely got up from the pianoforte.

‘If she had had the benefit of good masters she would sing quite tolerably,’ said Mrs Crewe in an undervoice to Lady Jersey. ‘It is a pity she puts on such an air of consequence. But so it is always with these lanky, overgrown females!’

Miss Taverner had moved away from the instrument towards the window embrasure. The Earl followed her, and sat down beside her there. ‘There is no end to your accomplishments,’ he remarked.

‘Please don’t be absurd!’ said Miss Taverner. ‘You at least do not want for sense, and

to talk as though my singing were in any way superior is a great piece of folly!’

‘It gave me pleasure,’ he answered mildly. ‘Would you prefer me to tell you that you have very little voice, and no particular skill?’

She smiled. ‘It would be the truth, and more what I am growing used to hear from you. But I did not mean to be rude.’

‘You are absolved,’ he said gravely. ‘Tell me, do you like to be here? Are you enjoying your visit?’

‘Yes, very much. Everyone has been so kind! I might have been acquainted with them all my life. I wish Perry could have been here. He is staying with the Fairfords, you know.’ She gave a little laugh. ‘His regard for Miss Fairford shows no sign of abating. I did not more than half like it when he offered for her, but I begin to think that she may do very well for him. She is the oddest little creature! so young and shy, and yet with a great deal of common sense. She makes Perry mind her already, which I could never succeed in doing.’

‘How long does Peregrine mean to stay in Hertfordshire?’ inquired the Earl.

‘I am not perfectly sure. Certainly for a week, and I should suppose for longer.’

He nodded. ‘Well, unless he contrives to break his neck on the hunting-field, he should not come to much harm there.’

‘He won’t do that; he rides very well, better than he drives.’ She looked at him undecidedly, and opened and shut her fan once or twice. ‘I spoke to you once about Perry, Lord Worth.’

‘You did.’

‘I am no less anxious now. He needs to be steadied. If you cannot do that will you not give another the right?’

‘Whom, for instance?’ asked his lordship.

‘Miss Fairford,’ she replied seriously.

‘I was under the impression that I had given it to her.’

‘If you would give your consent to an earlier marriage!’ she coaxed. ‘I do believe Perry’s affection to be deep-rooted. He will not change.’

He shook his head. ‘No, Miss Taverner. That I will not do. I cannot imagine what possessed me to countenance the betrothal at all.’

She was a little startled, and turned in her chair to look at him more fully. ‘Why should you not? What is this change of face?’

He returned her gaze in a considering way, but after a slight pause, he merely said: ‘He is too young.’

She felt that he had not told her the real reason; she was annoyed, but tried not to show it. ‘Perhaps he is too young; I do not deny that I thought so at first. But now I feel that marriage would be the very thing for him. Miss Fairford does not like London, and I believe she would wish to reside the most of the year in Yorkshire. And it would be best for Perry, after all. He gets into dangerous scrapes in town. Only the other day –’ She stopped, looked a little confused, and said after a moment: ‘Well, that is nothing. It is over now, and I should not have spoken. But I have been in some alarm about him.’

‘You refer, I collect, to the duel which did not take place,’ said the Earl.

She raised her eyes quickly. ‘You knew of that?’

‘My dear Miss Taverner, when challenges are offered at the Cock-Pit it is not wonderful that there should be no secrecy attached to the subsequent meeting.’

‘The Cock-Pit! That I had not heard! If you knew how much I detest cocking, and all that it leads to! I have had to see as many as a hundred cocks walking on my father’s estate, and to know that both he and Perry – but this is beside the point. I begin to understand now how it all came about. If it had not been for the intervention of one who has proved himself very much our friend, Perry might not be alive to-day.’