Frederica

‘Well, what an excellent young man!’ said Frederica.

Seven

He is, isn’t he?’ agreed Alverstoke.

She looked up at him. ‘Yes, and you too! You were truly splendid, and I am very much obliged to you! Oh, and I do beg your pardon for having embroiled you! The thing was, you see, that they threatened to impound Luff, and only think what the consequences might have been! That was why I said he belonged to you.’ A gurgle of laughter rose in her throat. ‘L-like P-puss in Boots!’

‘Like what?’ he demanded.

‘M-my cousin the M-Marquis of Alverstoke!’ she explained. ‘You know!’

‘No doubt I am extremely dull-witted, but I –’ He broke off, as enlightenment dawned on him, and the frown left his brow. ‘Oh! – the Marquis of Carabas!’

‘Of course! And it answered! Except with that horrid creature you gave such a set-down to! I never in my life heard anything so ruthlessly uncivil, but I must own that I enjoyed it!’ She began to laugh again. ‘Oh, but you nearly overset me when you said Luff was a Baluchistan hound! And so you shall be, you bad dog!’

Gratified, Lufra reared himself on his hind legs, and licked her face. She pushed his forepaws off her knees, and got up. ‘You are a shameless commoner!’ she informed him. She raised her eyes to Alverstoke’s and held out her hand. ‘Thank you!’ she said, smiling at him. ‘I must go now. You will tell me, won’t you, how much Mr Trevor was obliged to pay those men?’

‘Just a moment!’ he said. ‘You haven’t explained to me how it comes about that you were walking alone, cousin.’

‘No,’ she agreed. ‘But then, you haven’t explained to me how it comes about that that is your concern, have you?’

‘I am perfectly ready to do so, however. Whatever may be the accepted mode in Herefordshire, in London it won’t do. Girls of your age and breeding don’t go about town unaccompanied.’

‘Well, in general I don’t do so, and, naturally, I would never permit Charis to. But I’m not a girl. I daresay you might think me one, being yourself so much older, but I promise you I ceased to be a young miss years ago! And, in any event, I am not answerable to you for my actions, Cousin Alverstoke!’

‘Oh, yes, you are!’ he retorted. ‘If you expect me to launch you into society, Frederica, you will conform to society’s rules! You’ll either do as I bid you, or I shall wash my hands of you. If you are determined to set the world in a bustle, find another sponsor!’

She flushed, and her lips parted. But whatever stinging reply she had been about to utter she suppressed, closing her lips firmly. After a pause, she managed to smile, and to say: ‘I dare say you would be very happy to wash your hands of us, after today’s adventure.’

‘Oh, no!’ he said coolly. ‘You may put that out of your mind!’

‘That is precisely what I can’t do, though I wish very much that I could, because it almost slays me to be compelled to keep my tongue between my teeth!’ she told him. ‘I should dearly love to come to cuffs with you, my lord, but I’m not sunk quite below reproach – though I must say I think you are!’ she added frankly.

‘But why?’ he asked, beginning to be amused.

‘Because you knew very well when you pinched at me in that odious way that I was too much obliged to you to give you a set-off!’

He laughed. ‘Do you think you could?’

‘Yes, to be sure I could! I can say very cutting things when I’m put into a passion.’

‘I’ll endure them!’

She shook her head, a dimple peeping in her cheek. ‘No, I’ve come down from the boughs now. To own the truth, I think I flew into them because my aunt says exactly what you did: nothing makes one so cross as knowing one is in the wrong, does it?’

‘I don’t know. I’ve never thought about it.’

She looked surprised, but decided not to pursue the matter. ‘Well, I’ll try not to put you to the blush. The case is that Charis has one of her colds, and Jessamy, you know, works at his books every morning: that’s why Charis and I take Luff out walking. He needs a great deal of exercise – more than he can get in London, poor fellow!’

‘Then why not Felix, or your maid?’

‘I haven’t a maid – not an abigail, I mean. Only the housemaids, and they are all town-bred, and it is the greatest bore to go out walking with any of them, because they will dawdle, or say their shoes hurt them. I would have taken Felix, only that he was set on visiting a Mechanical Museum, and he would have been glumpish all the way if I had insisted on his bearing me company. Oh, pray don’t frown! I won’t do it again!’

‘You need a footman,’ he said, still frowning.

‘What, to protect me? Luff does that, I promise you!’

‘To wait on you – carry your parcels – deliver your letters.’