Page 24 of Leap of Faith
“But there are four vehicles, sir. Are some of us to ride alone?” Joy asked, of course noticing such a thing.
“That or make Freddy drive himself.”
“I will ride with him!” Joy announced kindly. “What a bang-up pair you have, sir!”
Faith tried to smother her groan. Joy had spent more time in the stables than was good for her vocabulary.
Freddy apparently did not notice, and if he was disappointed not to be driving one of the elder sisters, he did not show it as if his young charge knew the way to his heart was admiration of his horses. “Much obliged! I would be delighted to drive you.”
“May I handle the ribbons?” Faith heard Joy ask as soon as she was handed up.
Lord Westwood chuckled. “Freddy will have his hands full.”
Indeed, Faith thought as Joy was already discussing the merits of matched teams, broad chests, and well-set hocks.
Faith watched as Hope sat with Grace in Lord Rotham’s vehicle, while Patience went with Lord Montford. Which left her alone with Lord Westwood.
He handed Faith into his curricle. She had never touched a man thus before, and she was suddenly very conscious of his large body against hers from shoulder to thigh. He smelled very different from her sisters, with a mixture of starch, leather, and cologne of which she could not identify the foreign scents.
He took the reins from his tiger and masterfully set the spirited bays in motion.
“It will be a parade of the virtues!” Rotham teased as they passed by.
“Good God!” Lord Westwood said, apparently appalled at the very thought.
They drove through the streets and Faith was so amused by listening to Lord Westwood’s description of Town—pointing out a particulartulipthat resembled apeacockaccompanied by his poodle, hence earning the nickname Poodle Byng. She scarcely noticed all the people who stopped and turned their heads to stare at them.
When they reached the Strand, they alighted, and left the vehicles to the offices of the tigers.
“Is it not funny that your groom is called a tiger when we are going to a menagerie?” Joy asked Freddy.
“I do not think there are tigers here,” Freddy remarked, missing the irony entirely. Faith and Lord Westwood barely smothered their laughter.
“Oh, but there is a Bengal tiger!” Joy informed him.
“Capital!” Freddy replied.
“I say, shouldn't we have a chaperone or two on this outing?” she asked.
“It is perfectly acceptable for a lady to ride in an open carriage with a gentleman. But Westwood is your guardian, so you need not worry.”
They made their way up to the exhibit, smelling it before they reached it, which was more pungent than the stables. Joy was walking exuberantly as they all trailed indecorously behind.
The group walked past a rather impressive collection of beasts: a hyena, a lion, a jaguar, a sloth, a camel, monkeys, an ostrich and some other exotic birds, elks, kangaroos, and antelopes.
They stopped before a very ugly creature labelled a rhinoceros.
“What is that, Joy?” Faith asked.
Joy had commentary on each species, on the authority of Ackermann’s Repository, and quoted of the rhinoceros:
Where it inhabitsit is a dread to the human race, as well as to all beasts of the forest, being in strength inferior to none, and so protected, by nature, with his coat of mail, as to be capable of resisting the attacks of any other animal, and even the force of a musket-ball.
“That is both astonishing and frightening,”Lord Westwood remarked.
Faith gave an apologetic glance. “We have had little other way to learn about the world other than through reading. Thankfully, Lady Halbury did not deny us periodicals.”
“Most young ladies quote the Bible or poetry.”
