Miss Thane found that she had underestimated her opponent. Not a muscle quivered in Shield’s face. He said immediately: ‘This news should have been broken to you at a more suitable time, Thane. Spare your sister’s blushes, I beg of you!’
Miss Thane, for once put out of countenance, intervened in a hurry. ‘We cannot discuss such matters now! Do pray, send those creatures away! I will believe they meant me no harm, but I vow and declare the very sight of them gives me a Spasm!’
This request was so much in accordance with the Runners’ own wishes that they both looked hopefully at Sir Hugh, and gave him to understand that if he cared to order them back to London, they would be glad to obey him. The day’s disasters had succeeded in convincing them that their errand was futile; and their main concern now was not to arrest a fugitive from the Law but to induce Sir Hugh to refrain from complaining of them to his friend, Sampson Wright. They were not drunk, and their motives had been of the purest, but against the testimony of Sir Hugh, and his sister, and Sir Tristram, and the landlord, they did not feel that they had any hope of being attended to in Bow Street.
Somewhat to their surprise, Miss Thane came to their support, saying magnanimously that for her part she was ready to let the matter rest.
‘Wright ought to know of it,’ said Sir Hugh, shaking his head.
‘Very true, but you forget that they have been punished already for their stupidity. Sir Tristram was very rough with them, you know.’
Sir Hugh was slightly mollified by this reflection. After telling the Runners that he hoped it would be a lesson to them, and warning them that if he ever caught sight of their faces again within the portals of the Red Lion it would be the worse for them, he waved them away. They assured him they would go back to London by the night mail, and with renewed apologies to Miss Thane, bowed themselves out of the inn as fast as they could.
‘Well, now that they’ve taken themselves off,’ said Nye, ‘I’ll go and let Mr Ludovic out of the cellar.’
Sir Hugh was not at the moment interested in Ludovic’s release. He was regarding Shield in a puzzled way, and as soon as the landlord had left the room, accompanied by Eustacie, said: ‘I dare say Sally knows what she’s about, but I don’t think you should appoint her to meet you like that. It’s not at all the thing. Besides, there’s no sense in it. If you want to see her, you can do it here, can’t you? I’ve no objection.’
‘I fear you can have no romantic leanings,’ said Shield, before Miss Thane could speak. ‘A star-lit sky, the balmy night breezes–’
‘But this is February! The breeze isn’t balmy at all – in fact, there’s been a demmed north wind blowing all day,’ pointed out Sir Hugh.
‘To persons deep in love,’ said Sir Tristram soulfully, ‘any breeze is balmy.’
‘Hateful wretch!’ said Miss Thane, with deep feeling, ‘Pay no heed to him, Hugh! Of course, I did not go to meet him!’
Sir Tristram appeared to be overcome. ‘You play fast and loose with me,’ he said reproachfully. ‘You have dashed my hopes to the ground, shattered my self-esteem –’
‘If you say another word, I’ll box your ears!’ threatened Miss Thane.
Sir Hugh shook his head at her in mild disapproval. ‘I see what it is: you’ve been flirting again,’ he said.
‘Don’t be so vulgar!’ implored Miss Thane. ‘There’s not a word of truth in it! I went out merely to trick the Runners. Sir Tristram’s arrival was quite by chance.’
‘But you told me –’
‘The truth is that you stumbled upon a secret romance, Thane,’ said Sir Tristram, with a great air of candour.
Thane looked from Sir Tristram’s imperturbable countenance to his sister’s indignant one, and gave it up. ‘I suppose it’s all a hum,’ he remarked. ‘Are you coming into the parlour? There’s a devilish draught here.’
‘Presently,’ replied Sir Tristram, detaining Miss Thane by the simple expedient of stretching out his hand and grasping her wrist.
She submitted to this, and when her brother had gone back to the parlour, said: ‘I suppose I deserved that.’
‘Certainly you did,’ agreed Sir Tristram, releasing her. ‘You would have been well served had I really thrown cold water over you. Are you at all hurt?’
‘Oh no, merely a bruise or two! Your intervention was most timely.’
‘And if I had not happened to have been there?’
‘I should have allowed them to drag me back here, of course, and fainted in Hugh’s arms instead of yours.’
He smiled a little, but only said: ‘You shouldn’t have done it.’
‘Oh, perhaps it was not, as Eustacie would say, quite convenable,’ she replied, ‘but you will admit that it has rid us of grave danger.’
‘You might have been badly hurt,’ he answered.
‘Well, I was not badly hurt, so we shall not consider that.’