Page 8 of My Own True Duchess
A large, muddy paw was raised. Jonathan shook gingerly—the dog would be confused otherwise—and rose.
“Like that.”
“Oh, you clever, clever boy. Good boy, Comus. Shake.”
Diana, leave. Jonathan had wanted a quiet ramble to sort out his thoughts, and instead, he was beset with a prodigal child whose governess would chide her for getting her hands dirty, and likely chide him as well, while cooing at the dog.
“You can’t confuse him with a lot of chatter,” Jonathan said. “You say his name, give him the command with your voice, and show him the desired action with your hand. Name, command, cue. Try it.”
The infernal girl spun on her heel. “I shall be a famous trainer of dogs! I’ll teach them to do magic, and they will be the best dogs in all the world. Comus, shake.”
Comus was peering up the path again.
“You must focus on him, so he will focus on you,” Jonathan said, hunkering before the dog again. “Watch me.”
Thus did Mrs. Theodosia Haviland come upon Jonathan shaking hands with a drooling hound, while a nattering little female extolled the virtues of dressing up a mastiff as a unicorn.
“There you are,” Mrs. Haviland said, marching forward. “What have I told you about this behavior?”
About …? Jonathan was saved from making a fool of himself by Comus’s tail whacking against his boots.
“Sorry, Mama,” Diana said. “I had high spirits, and look, I made a new friend.”
“Sir,” Mrs. Haviland said, gaze swiveling to Jonathan. “I must humbly apologize for my daughter’s—Mr. Tresham?”
“Mrs. Haviland.” Jonathan bowed. Comus woofed softly. “A pleasure to see you again. I gather Diana is your daughter.”
Diana was a little minx, peeping up bashfully from under the brim of her bonnet, her hand softly stroking Comus’s head.
“My daughter and my despair. Diana, you know better.”
“But I had high spirits, Mama, and the park is so lovely, and Comus is ever so grand.” She graduated to scratching his ears, for which Comus obligingly lowered his head.
As a child, Jonathan would have had his ears boxed for such a retort. Comus, not having had the upbringing of a ducal heir, was shameless when it came to having his ears scratched. Any minute, he’d—
In the next instant, the dog was on his back, begging for a belly scratch. His tongue lolled, his tail brushed the grass, and in as much as nearly two hundred pounds of dog could wiggle, he wiggled.
“Comus, up,” Jonathan said, lifting his leash hand. “ Up, now.”
“Oh, but he can’t scratch his own tummy.” Diana dropped to her knees beside the dog. “What an aggravation that must be when such a nice, big, healthy fellow has an itch he’s unable to scratch.”
Jonathan did not dare glance at Mrs. Haviland.
“Diana Melisande, you will assist Williams with the dusting for the rest of this week,” she said, “and you will not return to the park for the next seven days.”
“I don’t care.” Diana scratched away as Comus’s back leg twitched madly. “I’ve made a new friend, and Comus likes having his belly rubbed. When I grow up, I’ll be a dog trainer, and I’ll name all my best dogs Comus.”
The dog was learning a bad habit, the child was being rebellious, and Jonathan did not want to be in London at all, but if he had to be in London, he’d take a clearing in Hyde Park shared with Mrs. Haviland over any other option, save solitude with his ledgers.
“Don’t laugh,” Mrs. Haviland muttered. “If you laugh, any hope of re-establishing order is lost.”
Jonathan wanted to laugh—the dog was being ridiculous, the child was a scheming little baggage, and Mrs. Haviland was not the composed, self-possessed lady Jonathan had met the previous evening. He liked that aspect of the situation quite well.
He touched her arm and winked, then raised his leash hand again. “Comus, get up this instant, or you’ll be pulling the knacker’s wagon before sundown.” Jonathan used the same voice he applied to unruly patrons at his clubs, the same voice that had faced down drunken lordlings, Paris criminals, and bumptious boards of directors.
The dog was on his feet so fast Diana leaped back and took her mother’s hand.
“Good boy,” Jonathan said, “though you forgot yourself for a moment. See that it doesn’t happen again.”
