Percy declined to answer Wiles’ heroics by way of feeling sorry. “What was Rustmont doing, I’d like to know. Where was the brave Corinthian when he was needed?”
“Oh, he called Hardwick an idiot and skipped right out. I believe he may have knocked Lady Mayberry out of the way.”
“I knew it,” Percy said.
“Don’t be so down in the dumps over it, Stratton,” Magnon said. “You’re alive and get to strut around like a big hero. I understand they’re calling you Tiger-Slayer.”
“I didn’t kill the tiger.”
“So what?” Magnon said. “Would you rather be called Tiger-locker-up?”
“Yes, so what?” Wiles said. “And as a further reason to be cheerful, guess who has not showed his face here since? Rustmont.”
“Good. It’s about time people saw him for what he really is. He’s all show.”
A waiter brought Percy a coffee and, oddly, a note on a salver.
He picked it up as Magnon said, “See, you’re famous now, getting notes sent to you at your club.”
“It’s probably from my father. He would have gone to Lady Albright’s to collect me and found me already left. I supposed he guessed where it was I went.”
Percy unfolded the note, but to his surprise it was not from the viscount. He read it twice to be certain of understanding its contents.
Stratton—
Jolly good of you to come to dine this evening, considering… tigers, eh? As agreed, we will see you at eight.
Pelham
“Dinner? When did I agree to go to dinner?”
Magnon took the note and Wiles read it over his shoulder.
“The duke invites you to his house?” Wiles said. “I thought that old rascal could not even remember your name.”
“But he saved the duke’s daughter from a tiger,” Magnon said. “That has to soften anybody’s feelings. Clever he sent the note here, as your father would have torn it to shreds.”
“I really do not remember having any conversation about a dinner,” Percy said.
“Maybe you were delirious from your injuries,” Magnon suggested.
“No,” Percy said thoughtfully, “it was the laudanum. It really mixes a person up. Sometimes I would wake and wonder if it were dawn or sunset. Sometimes a footman would bring in a tray and I thought I’d already eaten. Or vice versa. I’d inquire if Lady Albright planned to starve me to death and then the footman would explain I’d eaten eggs, a pile of bacon, and three rolls just an hour before.”
“Well, you agreed to this dinner, nothing to be done about it now,” Wiles said.
“In any case, it will keep your old soldier on the back foot,” Magnon said. “It will convince him more than ever that you are set on Lady Felicity.”
“Yes, it would,” Percy said. Though, that might not be all it would do.
It might encourage the duke, if he had any ideas of pushing him forward for his daughter.
Percy set his cup down with a clatter. What if Lady Felicity was having the same kind of ideas? It would follow that a lady who had just been saved from imminent death might develop feelings for her rescuer. What if that was where the duke was getting his ideas to begin?
“Oh no,” he said, “I believe Lady Felicity may be falling in love with me.”
Wiles looked rather slack-jawed. Magnon erupted in laughter. “Hoisted by your own petard, Stratton,” he said.
Percy glared at him. He did not have time to compose a retort, though. Before he could say a word, his father’s booming voice made him nearly jump from his chair.
