‘I doubt he will overturn a vehicle with you in it, so in that sense you are safe. However, beyond the veriest basics he is likely to teach you bad driving habits. He does not feel his horses’ mouths well, for a start. You would be wise to consider what he tells you very carefully.’
‘And we are still talking about driving, Sir Lucius?’ She recalled the last time she had asked the same question.
‘No, Miss Ashling’ – his gaze held firm – ‘we are not.You may still think that an impertinence, but …’
‘No, Sir Lucius, I accept it for what it is, this time: your honest opinion.’
When first Lord Easby had become known to her, his disinterested manner had seemed so genuine that tittle-tattle was ignored. However, over the weeks it had become clear that it was not all tittle-tattle, and there was a dark past to his lordship. Helen Godmanchester disliked him intensely. Having agreed to let him teach her to drive, Elizabeth was reluctant to admit her mistake, and continued out of bravado, and with the knowledge that she would not be taken in. Had she not thought dropping him now would give rise to more gossip as to the reason, she would have quietly given up driving with him. She was frowning.
‘Miss Ashling, I did not seek to distress or frighten you.209Being aware of the danger, if you will accept the term, you are far less at risk.’
‘And bad driving habits, Sir Lucius?’ She fought to control the rising blush. ‘If I learn any, perhaps you would permit me to drive you one day, and you could show me my failings.’
For a moment he could not answer. It was more than just an olive branch.
‘You would accept correction, from a friend?’
‘Yes, Sir Lucius, from a friend I would.’ Instinctively, she held out her kid-gloved hand and he took it in his larger grasp, quite solemnly, as if a pact were being made.
They rode back to Brook Street with little said, each contemplating the crossing of an invisible barrier that had lain between them. He escorted her to her uncle’s door, bent over her hand, and walked away with a spring in his step that several friends who encountered him put down to good news from his head groom at Paley.
Elizabeth hurried upstairs, not wanting to speak with anyone. She had committed herself so much more than she had ever thought possible. It would be wrong to say she regretted it, but it made her feel quite odd inside, like contemplating riding a new horse, excited but also just a little nervous. She rang for Ditcham, and removed the grey hat with its jaunty cockade.
Ditcham found her mistress quiet, but there was a smile playing about the corners of her mouth, and the fretfulness of the previous night was gone. Whatever the cause, the maid gave silent thanks for it.
210Sir Lucius gave the footman who opened his door a cheery thanks, and also went to change his raiment. She had offered him her friendship, offered it, not had it wrung from her, and the look she had given him, the shy trust, made him hope as never before. From friendship and trust he could show her affection, have her accept the love he felt for her. The impossible now seemed the attainable, as long as he did not rush headlong. He was conscious of a feeling of exultation, one that even the knowledge that she was to go driving with Easby on the morrow could not diminish. The thought that he might ride a little later himself, and thereby, perhaps, encounter teacher and pupil, made him smile. That smile would have died had he access to Lord Easby’s intentions.211
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Mindful of Sir Lucius’s warning, it was a slightly frosty Miss Ashling who was handed up into Lord Easby’s equipage next morning. She sat very upright, and though her answers were perfectly civil, her body language was uncompromising. Lord Easby took note. So Radstock had warned her, had he? Well, he was sure that he could thaw the icy Miss Ashling in the course of an hour tooling the pair about the park, and if the best Radstock could offer her were frowns and admonitions, he would find her most unlikely to accept any offer he should make her. That Radstock would propose, Lord Easby now had no doubt. It forced his hand somewhat, and meant that he had to abandon his previous disinterest rather suddenly. Hedecided to face one issue, at least, squarely.
‘You are stiff this morning, Miss Ashling, and it shows in your hands. I must assume either that something has occurred to make you displeased with the day, or that the watchful Sir Lucius has indeed persuaded you that I am a212dangerous fellow. Well, I told you on our first outing that I was accounted a Bad Man, so I see no good reason why the growling mastiff should have made such a difference.’
Like it or not, the description of Sir Lucius as a growling dog was rather amusing. A muscle twitched at the side of her mouth, though she kept her eyes gazing firmly between her leader’s ears. Lord Easby relaxed. One only had to apply warmth and ice melted.
‘Sir Lucius is a worthy man,’ he declared, making ‘worthy’ sound a damning fault, ‘but he can be tempted to interfere where he has neither the right to do so, nor the information to make a sound judgement, and he is terribly judgemental.’ He drew a bow at a venture, and continued. ‘I have no doubt he has told you I am cow-handed as a whip, and that you risk ending up turfed into the greensward.’
‘Not quite, my lord. He actually said that the latter was most unlikely.’
‘How surprisingly generous of him,’ sneered Lord Easby.
‘Do you find worthiness and generosity so dull, sir?’
‘My dear, what a question. Would you prefer a polite lie,or the wicked truth?’
If he hoped to shock her, she had already decided he would find it difficult.
‘I am not afraid of truth, my lord, be it never so wicked.’
He smiled, in a lupine way. Not meek and mousy was the Unassailable. Perhaps he had approached her the wrong way in the past, and she might actually respond positivelyto a more daring attitude.
‘Then I make so bold as to tell you, ma’am, that vice is so very much more entertaining than virtue.’
213‘But more harmful.’
‘To one’s self, oh, perhaps, but worth it for the excitement.’
‘I was thinking it more harmful to others.’
