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She bit her lip. ‘You lose no opportunity to put me in the wrong, Lord Worth,’ she said in a mortified voice.
He smiled, and as their hands joined in the dance pressed hers slightly. ‘Don’t look so downcast. I did mean just what you thought. Are you satisfied?’
‘No, not at all,’ said Judith crossly. ‘This is a foolish conversation; I do not like it. I was glad to see you here to-night, for I wanted particularly to speak to you, but you are in one of your disagreeable moods, I see.’
‘On the contrary, my temper is more than usually complaisant. But you are behindhand. I have heard the news, and must wish you joy.’
‘Wish me joy?’ repeated Judith, looking at him in a startled way. ‘What can you mean?’
‘I understand you are to become a Duchess in the near future. You must allow me to offer you my sincere felicitations.’
They were separated at this moment by the movement of the dance. Judith’s brain, as she went down the set, was whirling; she could scarcely perform her part in the dance, nor contain her impatience till she and Worth came together again. No sooner were they confronting each other once more than she demanded: ‘How can you talk so? What do you mean?’
‘I beg pardon. Is it to be kept a secret?’
‘A secret!’
‘You must forgive me. I had thought that only my consent was wanting before the engagement was to be made public.’
She turned quite pale. ‘Good God! You have seen him, then!’
‘Certainly. Did you not send him to me?’
‘Yes – no! Do not trifle with me! This is dreadful!’
‘Dreadful?’ said his lordship, maddeningly calm. ‘You could hardly make a more brilliant match, surely! You will have all the comfort and consequence of a most superior establishment, a position of the first consideration, and a husband who must be past the age of youthful folly.You are to be congratulated; I could not have wished to see you more creditably provided for. In addition you will be assured of suitable female companionship in the person of your eldest daughter-in-law, Miss Fitzclarence, whom I believe to be near your own age.’
‘You are laughing at me!’ Judith said uncertainly. ‘I am sure you are laughing at me! Do pray tell me you did not give your consent!’
He smiled, but would not answer. They were again separated, and when they met once more he began to talk in his languid way of something quite different. She answered very much at random, trying to read his face, and when the dance came to an end, suffered him to lead her into the tea-room, away from her own party.
He procured a glass of lemonade for her, and took up a position beside her chair. ‘Well, my ward,’ he said, ‘did you, or did you not, send Clarence to me?’
‘Yes, I did – that is to say, he said he should go to you, and I agreed, because I could not make him realise that I don’t wish to marry him. I thought I might depend on you!’
‘Oh!’ said Worth. ‘That is not precisely as I understood the matter. The Duke seemed to be in no doubt of the issue once my consent was obtained.’
‘If you thought that I would ever marry a man old enough to be my father you did me a shocking injustice!’ said Miss Taverner hotly. ‘And if you had the amazing impertinence to suppose that his rank must make him acceptable to me you insult me beyond all bearing!’
‘Softly, my child: I thought neither of these things,’ said his lordship, slightly amused. ‘My experience of you led me instead to suppose that you had sent your suitor to me in a spirit of pure mischief. Was that an injustice too?’
Miss Taverner was a little mollified, but said stiffly: ‘Yes, it was, sir. The Duke of Clarence would not believe I meant what I said, and the best I could think of was for you to help me. I made sure you would refuse your consent!’
‘I did,’ said the Earl, taking snuff.
‘Then why,’ demanded Miss Taverner, relieved, ‘did you say you wished me joy?’
‘Merely to alarm you, Clorinda, and to teach you not to play tricks on me.’
‘It was no trick, and you are abominable!’
‘I humbly beg your forgiveness.’
She flashed an indignant look at him, and set her empty glass down on the table with a snap. The Earl offered her his snuff-box. ‘Will you try this mixture? I find it tolerably soothing to the nerves.’
Miss Taverner relented. ‘I am very sensible of what an honour that is,’ she said, helping herself to an infinitesimal pinch. ‘I suppose you could do no more.’
‘Not while I continue to occupy the post of guardian,’ he agreed.
