Page 14 of Miss Dashing
Until now.
“My lord, you came in through theterrace door,” she said, beholding a slightly dusty version of the Tavistock heir. “This isnot done. The host and hostess or their supernumeraries are deployed to thefront door, where they hope to offer arriving guests acordial welcome. Instead, you… Are you laughing at me?”
His eyes were dancing in that subtle, I-know-something way that made Hecate want to smack him.
“The day is lovely,” he said. “Might you give me the benefit of your wisdom out of doors, Miss Brompton?”
The main foyer was deserted, but that didn’t mean privacy was assured. Far from it. “Very well. We’ll stroll the garden if you are so determined to enjoy the pleasant weather.”
He winged his left arm—the correct choice for keeping his saber hand free—and Hecate held her fire until they were perambulating between beds of mostly spent roses.
“I made good time down from Berkshire,” Lord Phillip said. “I considered that arriving early might be gauche. DeWitt chose to take his traveling coach, which is commodious but lumbering. I didn’t want to put anybody out, and I did want to reconnoiter the property.”
“You were stalling,” Hecate said, feeling an unwanted stab of sympathy. “Putting off the inevitable.”
“Girding my mental loins. I nearly turned back at least once a mile. What am I doing here, Miss Brompton?”
“Learning the opening steps of the quadrille, which do not include putting away your own horse or strolling up the drive.”
When they reached the end of the roses, his lordship kept walking straight down the steps into the park.
“Which is the worse offense? Seeing Herne rubbed down or walking up the drive?”
“Walking your horse might have been necessary if he’d picked up a stone bruise, but comporting yourself like a groom… Why do that? Surely even in Berkshire you rely on the occasional stable lad?”
“For the carriage and plow stock, yes, but for my personal riding horse… Don’t you have a mare to whom you confide all your troubles, upon whose back you gain a loftier perspective on the cares of mere pedestrians?”
“I do not.” Bellona had gone to her reward three years ago. “I grasp the concept, though. You sought to remain in friendly company, which suggests that Mr. DeWitt stands below your horse in your esteem.”
“Gavin DeWitt delights in reading plays,” Lord Phillip said. “Aloud, voicing all the characters. Fine entertainment for a winter’s evening, but for hours on end, trapped in a bouncing coach with mad kings and scheming witches… No, thank you. Herne, by contrast, is a horse of few words. Shall I introduce you?”
“Is Herne the gray gelding you rode in Town?”
“The very one.”
One could tell a lot about a man from how he kept his cattle. Lord Phillip apparently doted on his gelding.
“Because you have arrived early, and I’m not desperately needed in the house, and you likely have questions about how to go one from here, I will accompany you to the stable.”
“Let me guess. Visiting the stable is not done? The horses are not receiving until after three of the clock? Must I leave my card with the head lad?”
“Visiting the stable is done. I should be wearing a walking dress, though, or a riding habit. A carriage dress would also suffice.”
He looked over at her, then at her afternoon dress. Whatever judgment he was pronouncing on her wardrobe, he kept to himself.
“Herne won’t tattle,” Lord Phillip said. “One of his many fine qualities. Will both of these paths take us to the stable?”
They’d come to a little arched bridge over a stream that watered a park. “That way is more roundabout,” Hecate said, gesturing to the left, “but shadier.”
“Because I inveigled you into the out of doors without giving you time to fetch a bonnet, much less a parasol, we will take the shadier path.”
The shadier path was also more private. With a younger woman, a more eligible woman, his choice would be daring.
“Do you have questions?” Hecate asked as they crossed the bridge. “Now is the time to ask. Once the other guests start arriving, I will be pulled in six different directions by the hour.”
“Why?”
“I beg your pardon?”
