Mrs. Tonkin appeared presently, showing a flicker of hesitation when she spotted him waiting at the table. She looked as though she might turn around and run.
Her reaction was enough to bring realization upon Frederick. He had a bone to pick with her. “Will you not ask me how my visit to Trevenna went, Mrs. Tonkin?”
“Goodness, sir!” she said with a breathy laugh. “’Tis hardly my place to be askin’ ’ee such questions.”
Frederick smiled in amusement. “And yet, you had no hesitation helping me pick alace capand elderflower lozengesfor a woman who could well be your daughter.”
Her cheeks grew ruddier. “Well, sir. Never asked how old ’er ladyship was, did ’ee?”
“No, but you might have offered that information, mightn’t you?”
Her chin lifted in slight defiance. “’Ee came ’ere with the confidence of the king ’imself, as full of assumptions as a barrel o’ pilchards, so ’ee cannot blame a maid, can ’ee?”
Frederick sat back in his chair. “Perhaps not.”
She regarded him with a mixture of wariness and reluctant respect. “Thought ’ee’d be proper cross with me.”
He chuckled. “Should I be? I came in ignorance. You simply allowed me to continue in it. I can appreciate a well-played trick as well as the next person.”
She was silent for a moment, the wariness giving way to something more like esteem. “’Er ladyship didn’t like the gift ’ee brought, I take it?”
He rubbed his eyes. “Oh, she loved it, but only because of the fool it made me look.”
There was a pause as Mrs. Tonkin regarded him, one arm akimbo. “’Ee be needin’ a drink. I’ll get ’ee one dreckly.” She returned hastily with a tankard, which she set in front of him, then took the seat across the table. The chair betrayed its age by a loud creaking. “Go on, then. Tell old Mrs. Tonkin what ’appened.”
Frederick took a long gulp and shook his head. “I cannot bear to relive it. Suffice it to say, I shall be paying my reckoning in the morning and leaving Trelowen far behind me.”
“Go on with ’ee, sir. Surely, ’ee don’t mean it.”
He turned the tankard absently with a hand. “Oh, but I do. I could stay and fight, of course. And I should like to, if only to teach that man a lesson. But the battle is already lost.”
“And what battle be that, sir?”
Frederick’s eyes lifted to hers, and the corner of his mouth drew up in self-mocking amusement. “Did you know that I came here, utterly certain I would be the next Member for Trelowen?” He laughed. “Pure lunacy.”
There was a beat of silence. “Member for Trelowen, ’ee say?”
Frederick let out a long sigh. “Goes to show how blind our ambitions can make us, doesn’t it?” He took a large swig of ale.
Mrs. Tonkin leaned forward. “Sir, when ’ee said ’ee’d like to teachthat mana lesson, were ’ee talkin’ of Mr. Oswald?”
Frederick smiled wryly. “Mr. Oswald, the future Member for Trelowen. I wish him joy of it.”
Mrs. Tonkin’s expression wrinkled with disfavor. “AndIwish ’ee’d challenge ’im, sir.”
“Do you?” Frederick asked absently.
Mrs. Tonkin glanced around the room, which was empty but for a man snoring in the corner, his head leaned against the wall. She set her elbows on the table and leaned toward Frederick. “I beg ’ee not to give up so easy if ’ee truly meant to.”
Frederick watched her for a moment.
“All ’ee needs is to win over her ladyship, sir.”
Frederick let out a laugh. “You mean the beautiful young woman you sent me to with a lace cap and elderflower lozenges?”
Her lip twitched. “I beg ’ee’ll forgive me, sir. If I’d known what ’ee were like and what ’ee came ’ere for, I’d ’ave acted different, to be sure. But ’ee cannot go all to pieces now. All is not lost to a man with enough gumption.”
Frederick regarded her curiously. “What good does it do you for me to campaign here? Or is this yet another plan of yours to humiliate me?”
