Netherby Halls

“I am so very sorry to inconvenience you, ma’am, but I have missed the school chapel service and was hopeful of accompanying you to the parish church, which I am told you attend every Sunday.”

The headmistress’s eyes narrowed, but she managed an insincere smile. “Ah, I see. Well, I suppose I have no choice, do I? However, I should like to caution you that this is not something I shall look on with compliance in the future.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” said Sassy dryly. “It is something I shall try to avoid, I do assure you.”

The angle to which Miss Sallstone put up her chin told Sassy that her meaning was not lost on the headmistress. “Come along then, Miss Winthrop … don’t dawdle.”

Sassy neither dawdled or hurried but walked at a decorous pace some ten feet behind the headmistress until they reached the front courtyard, where a small and well-sprung, if somewhat dated, carriage awaited them.

An elderly groom held the door of the carriage open wide, and Sassy followed the headmistress into the carriage and sat opposite her.

Facing Miss Sallstone was not something Sassy relished, but the knowledge that the headmistress was just as uncomfortable made her sense of humor tickle her sense of the ridiculous.

They rode in silence until Miss Sallstone picked an imaginary speck off her skirt and said, “Dr. Bankes advises me that you have already made some very notable acquaintances in the vicinity.”

“Oh?” Sassy returned, careful to maintain a non-committed tone and expression.

“Now, what sort of reply is ‘oh’, Miss Winthrop?”

“Simply the sort of reply your statement required, ma’am,” Sassy said quietly.

“It wasn’t a statement, it was a question,” Miss Sallstone returned, frowning.

“I mistook it for a statement.”

“For the love of—you are the most exasperating young woman, Miss Winthrop. Are you deliberately avoiding the question?”

“Of course not, ma’am. I hadn’t realized you were questioning Dr. Bankes’s word.”

“I was not!” the headmistress returned, a scratch away from a shout. “I was merely …” She took a deep breath and calmed herself with obvious restraint. “I was merely trying to make idle conversation with you, as you must admit having made a conquest of the Marquis of Dartmour is a topic of conversation.”

“Conquest?” Sassy shrugged her shoulders with a short laugh. “Fustian! Oh, do excuse me, ma’am, but really! The marquis is not the sort one makes a conquest of. He is far too hardened a flirt.”

“The doctor seemed to think the marquis looked as though he were interested in you.”

“Did he? Things are rarely what they appear,?

?? said Sassy.

They sat in busy-minded silence, and Sassy felt as though the air they shared were peppered and difficult to swallow. At long last, their driver pulled up to the church.

Sassy alighted after Miss Sallstone was helped out of the coach by the driver, and no sooner had her dark boots touched the sandy earth than a musical voice brought both their heads around to Miss Delleson’s pink and white prettiness.

“Miss Winthrop—how delightful. Oh, Percy, do look who is here,” Sophia Delleson said, taking up Sassy’s gloved hands in her own and squeezing them as though they had been friends forever.

Mr. Lutterel tipped his hat, and although Sassy smiled a welcome, she found her gaze shifting past him in search of a certain marquis.

What sounded like a very unladylike, albeit very quiet, oath brought Sassy’s attention back to the woman at her side. Miss Sallstone’s face was a storm of emotions, and Sassy would have at that point introduced her to Miss Delleson had she not turned on her heels and stomped off towards the church’s open doors.

“Miss Winthrop, allow me to introduce you to Lord Grey,” Sophia continued, drawing forward a young man whom Sassy judged to be no more than twenty years of age though he looked fifteen.

Lord Grey swept Sassy an exaggerated bow, both practiced and overdone, but as he came up from this, he looked towards Sophia and saw that not only had she placed her gloved hand on Percy’s arm, but that her twinkling eyes were looking up at Percy’s face. He sought to repair that situation and thrust himself with some force between the couple.

This struck Sassy as so comical it was all she could do to stifle the giggles that rose to her throat. It was at that moment her eyes found the marquis’s blue and laughing orbs. They exchanged a ‘look’ and silently laughed together.

“Miss Winthrop.” Sophia escaped both suitors, took Sassy’s arm, and sighed. “What is your given name, for it is nonsense for us to continue to be formal when I know we shall be great friends.”

“Shall we?” Sassy teased.