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‘How can you be so absurd? Ten to one he will think nothing of it.’
‘You are too sanguine.We had better turn our heads away and trust to his not recognising us.’
‘A man not recognise his own horses!’ said Miss Taverner scornfully. ‘Oh, you are laughing at me! You are quite abominable!’
At the first sound of the curricle’s approach the Earl had raised his head and glanced casually up the lane. He was in the middle of making a civil inquiry into the health of his tenant’s family, but he broke off abruptly. The farmer followed the direction of his eyes, and said in no little surprise: ‘Why, here come your lordship’s greys, or I’m much mistaken!’
‘You are not mistaken,’ said the Earl grimly, and wheeled his mare across the lane.
Miss Taverner, observing this manoeuvre, said: ‘There! You see! We shall have to stop.’
‘I see no necessity. Drop your hands and drive over him.’
Miss Taverner threw him a look of withering contempt and checked her horses. In another minute the curricle had pulled up alongside the Earl, and Miss Taverner was meeting his gaze with an expression half of defiance, half of apology, in her blue eyes. ‘I am taking your brother for a drive, Lord Worth,’ she said.
‘So I see,’ replied the Earl. ‘It was very civil of you to pull up to greet me, but you must not let me be detaining you.’
Miss Taverner eyed him doubtfully. ‘You must wonder at it, but –’
‘Not at all,’ said the Earl. ‘The only thing I wonder at is that you are not driving my chestnuts.’
‘I should have liked to,’ said Miss Taverner wistfully, ‘but Captain Audley said he dared not, and of course I knew I must not without your leave. If you are displeased I beg your pardon. Captain Audley, how odious it is of you to sit laughing, and not to say a word in my defence!’
‘My brother would never listen to my excuses with half so much complaisance, I assure you,’ said the Captain, with a twinkle.
Miss Taverner turned her attention to the Earl again. ‘I hope you are not very angry, sir?’
‘My dear Miss Taverner, I am not in the least angry, except on one account. My horses are at your service, but what are you about to have no one with you but that one-armed rattle by your side? If any accident occurred, as it might well, he would be of no assistance to you.’
‘Oh, if that is all,’ returned Judith, ‘you must know that I have been used to drive alone. My father saw no objection.’
‘Your father,’ said the Earl, ‘never saw you with one of my teams in hand.’
‘Very true,’ said Judith. ‘But what is to be done? Will you lead the horses, or shall Captain Audley alight and lead yours?’ ‘Captain Audley begs leave to inform Miss Taverner that he will die rather!’
‘Drive on – Clorinda!’ said the Earl, a little smile twisting his lips.
She bowed; the team moved forward, and in another minute was trotting away down the lane. The Earl watched it out of sight, and turned back to his tenant. His business did not occupy him long; he rode home presently across country, and arrived at Worth just as Miss Taverner was ascending the stairs to change her habit for a muslin frock. She looked over her shoulder and said archly: ‘Am I forgiven, Lord Worth? Do I stand in your black books?’
He came up the stairs and began to walk slowly along the gallery by her side. ‘You would be disappointed if I said you had not succeeded in vexing me, Miss Taverner.’
‘No, indeed. You have a very odd notion of me, to be
sure! You think me shockingly unamiable.’
‘I think you –’ He stopped, and after a moment continued with a little constraint: ‘I think you take a great delight in crossing swords with me.’
‘Mine is a sad character, according to you. But I shall protest against this attack. Our quarrels have been all of your making.’
‘I cannot admit it to be true; I am not at all quarrelsome.’
She smiled, but allowed it to pass. They walked on until her bedchamber door was reached. Before she could open it the Earl spoke again. ‘Are you determined, Miss Taverner, to return to Brook Street on Monday?’
She looked at him in surprise. ‘Determined? I have the intention, certainly. Why do you ask me?’
‘I have no knowledge of the engagements you may have made, but if it is not distasteful to you I should like you and Peregrine to extend your visit.’ He saw a look of refusal in her face, and added with his sardonic smile: ‘You need not be afraid: I shall not be here. I have business which will take me into the Midlands for several weeks.’
‘But why do you wish us to stay here?’ asked Judith.
