‘I wonder, will Miss Merriot be there?’ Prudence said when they sat together in the coach.
‘Don’t doubt it, child. A masked ball… Well, we shall see.’
There was that in the tone which made Prudence look up sharply. ‘What devilry’s afoot?’
Robin’s eyes mocked from beneath long lashes. ‘You would give much to know, would you not?’ he taunted.
Prudence declined to encourage this spirit in her brother. ‘What’s the upshot là-bas ?’ she inquired. The jerk of her head might be supposed to indicate the direction of the Grayson abode.
‘Letty’s to appear in Society. My doing.’
‘And the Markham?’
‘I’m somewhat at a loss. I might gather a word here and there, you understand: not many. I take it there’s a deadlock. All Sir Humphrey’s concern is to keep the affair dark. Wherein I am to suppose Fanshawe with him.’
‘There’s to be no meeting?’
> ‘What, are you in a flutter?’ Robin gibed.
‘As you see,’ was the placid rejoinder.
‘Ay, you’re a cold-blooded creature, a’n’t you? There’s to be no meeting. I had thought it might easily be arranged, but it seems the Markham is an ambitionless creature, and lacks the desire to meet your mountain. There was some little talk of Fanshawe’s swordsmanship.’ He pursed his lips. ‘As to that, I crave leave to cherish doubts.’
‘They say he’s a swordsman?’
‘So I was given to understand. It’s my belief the English don’t understand the art. There’s some mobility required. Do you see the mountain on the skip?’ He laughed gently. ‘With pistols I will believe him an expert. It’s a barbarous sport.’
Prudence frowned. ‘You would say there can be no meeting for fear of the Markham making a disclosure?’
‘I apprehend the matter runs something after that fashion.’
‘Faugh! It’s a very cur.’
‘Certainly, child, but curs may snap. I need not tell you to step warily, I suppose.’
‘I stand in some danger of being called out, you think? I shall be all conciliation. It’s possible the dear soul may himself step warily. That blow in the coffee-room – a child’s trick, egad! – would make pretty telling.’
‘Just, my dear, but run no risks. There are pitfalls on all sides.’
‘You do perceive them, then? I’ve trod no trickier maze. And we plunge deeper and deeper.’
‘There is flight open to us if need arise. I console myself with that thought.’
Prudence crossed one leg over the other. ‘And the old gentleman?’
‘Oh, the devil take him! This is in part a maze of his making. Have you considered it?’
‘Of course. There should be word from him soon. I suppose we are to be swept back to France to await the next mad freak.’
‘You don’t want that?’ Robin looked sideways.
‘I’m in love with respectability,’ said Prudence lightly.
There was a teasing word ready, but Robin forbore to utter it. This change in his sister promised to complicate things still further. Not a doubt of it, the mountain had caught her fancy, but there could be little hope of a happy ending. Gentlemen of Sir Anthony’s stamp did not marry daughters of – egad, the daughter of what was she? There was no saying, but ‘rogue’ might serve as a general term. Cast off the old gentleman, and all his wiles. A shabby trick, that: she would never hear of it. Nor would they be in much better case. A girl must have some parentage, after all.
They came back to Arlington Street to find Sir Anthony himself paying his duty to my lady. It appeared he had come to fetch Mr Merriot to White’s, hard by in St James’s. He bore Prudence away with him; she felt herself powerless to resist.
There was quite a sprinkling of people gathered at White’s, and amongst them was Mr Markham in conversation with a sandy-haired gentleman of some forty years. Prudence caught the sound of a name, and looked again with some interest. So the sandy gentleman was the new Lord Barham, of whom Lady Lowestoft had warned them? Certainly there was no great good to be observed in the heavy jowled face. She remembered some snatches of Belfort’s talk that morning. There was a suspicion, so the Honourable Charles hinted, that Barham’s methods of play were not quite impeccable.