Page 48 of Unforeseen Affairs
“Assist me?” Mr. Bass spat.
The attendees were all staring at the medium, wide-eyed.
But Colin never saw the rest of the fallout, nor heard what excuse Mr. Bass was about to concoct for having the puppet on his foot, for just then a door opened and a pair of servants rushed in. Almost immediately, both he and Miss Sedley were flanked by two apologetic footmen.
“If you’ll come with me, sir,” the one on his arm said, gesturing toward the door.
Before either of them could protest, they were efficiently and unceremoniously taken away.
“They threw us out.”
It was a pleasant spring evening. The air was mild, the sun had only just set, and the large street lamps hissed, their flames dancing behind glass.
“Of course they did,” Colin said gently. “We caused a…” He shut his mouth as the reality of the situation hit him like a crashing wave.
“A ruckus,” Miss Sedley said wistfully.
They were standing on the pavement a short distance down the street from Mrs. Kitson’s home, whose doors had just been emphatically shut against them.
“You took Bass’s puppet,” Colin said, almost to himself.
He shut his eyes. What tale would Mrs. Kitson tell of the matter? But even before that, what lie would Mr. Bass spin for her? Colin could not begin to imagine an explanation that could plausibly absolve Mr. Bass of blame for the puppet on his foot, but judging from the credulousness of the audience back inside, Colin had little hope that any one of them would hold Mr. Bass’s feet to the fire. Instead, it seemed that Mr. Trenwith, culpable though he undoubtedly also was, would somehow be the one to take all the blame.
And Mr. Trenwith, though he was Mr. Bass’s assistant, was not the man who had made false claims about Beaky. If Mr. Bass were to be successful in blaming the deception entirely on him, then Colin and Miss Sedley had failed. And they would certainly never be invited back for another chance.
Colin wanted to yell out in frustration.
“No,” Miss Sedley said, brushing a speck of lint from her pale blue sleeve, “Miss Punch took Mr. Bass’s puppet.”
And to think, mere hours ago that shade of blue had seemed so cheerful and optimistic on her. Now it only looked dreary and sorrowful.
“Undine,” he said, indulging the failed charade. “Undine seized the spirit.”
“Well,” Miss Sedley said, with one last glance over her shoulder at the house they’d been ejected from, “she would not have needed to if only you had done your part.”
Then she turned away, and began walking south toward Hyde Park.
“Hang that, ifIhad donemypart?” Colin said defensively as he ran to catch up with her. “What, pray tell, isthatmeant to imply?”
Miss Sedley sighed heavily. “I knew we ought to have practiced.”
Colin stole a glance as he kept pace alongside her. She appeared equanimous, as always. It rankled him. His chest tightened, and he looked forward again. He wasn’t used to being so suddenly and urgently seized by emotion. But now, it seemed, every time they were together he found himself thrust fore and aft, his body battling with his mind, fighting against its ironclad restraints.
Restraints against what?
She turned down a narrow alley that ran behind a large home with rich-looking brickwork on one side and the plain walls of a mews on the other. In the dusk the alley felt cramped and gloomy, devoid of pedestrians and the lamplight that illuminated the main thoroughfare. Colin could hear horses whickering beyond the high, unadorned walls of the stable yard as they walked alongside it.
“When dissecting a failed operation, it is hardly informative to fling blame haphazardly about,” he said sternly from a few steps behind Miss Sedley.
Ahead of him, Miss Sedley shrugged her shoulders elegantly. But she did not turn to speak.
“I assume your allegation is that I was meant to seize the doll?”
Still she did not respond. Colin frowned.
“Miss Sedley,” he said, exasperated. He sped up to overtake her, halting her mid-stride as he, in one smooth motion, whirled around her and planted his hand flush against the wall, blocking her path.
Their sudden proximity sent a slight rush through him.
