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‘I believe it may be of benefit to Peregrine’s health.’
‘He seems to me to be better,’ she said. ‘He does not cough so much, I think.’
‘Undoubtedly, but I do not consider an immediate return to town advisable. The air ofWorth will do him more good than the air ofWatier’s.’
She agreed to it, but still hesitated. He said abruptly: ‘Oblige me in this, Miss Taverner!’
She raised her brows. ‘Is it a command?’
‘I have carefully avoided giving it the least appearance of one.’
‘What is your real reason, Lord Worth?’
‘When I am unable to be in London to prevent you, Miss Taverner, from announcing your engagement to a Royal Duke, and Peregrine from committing some act of folly to the risk of his life or his fortune, I prefer to leave you safely provided for under my own roof.’
She said quickly: ‘You do think that something threatens Perry, then!’
He shrugged. ‘I think he is a rash young man who will get into trouble if he can.’
She was silent for a moment, and then said: ‘Very well. If you wish it we will remain here a little longer.’
‘Thank you; I do wish it. My brother will do what lies in his power to make your stay agreeable, I trust. If you can keep him from overtaxing his strength I shall be your debtor.’
She could not prevent a suspicion from crossing her mind; she said with a certain reserve: ‘I cannot charge myself with such an office. I have neither interest nor influence with Captain Audley.’
There was a good deal of comprehension in his eyes, which were regarding her with something of the cynical gleam she so much disliked. ‘You are mistaken, Miss Taverner.’
‘I do not understand you.’
‘I shall not permit you to marry my brother. You would not suit.’
Miss Taverner whisked herself into her bedroom and shut the door with unnecessary force.
When she met the Earl again at the dinner-table he seemed to be unaware of having said anything to vex her. Her manner was cold; he gave no sign of noticing it; and after a while she came to the conclusion that her most dignified course would be to assume a similar unconcern.
Lady Fairford, applied to in a letter sent express, readily gave her consent to her daughter’s remaining at Worth under Mrs Scattergood’s chaperonage; Miss Fairford’s presence easily reconciled Peregrine to the change of plan; and the Earl left his house on Monday, confident that his guests would be all very happily engaged with each other until his return.
His confidence was not misplaced. With riding-horses at their disposal, Assemblies at Longhampton, and their own company, the younger people were well satisfied. Captain Audley made a charming host, and it was not long before Peregrine liked him as well as his sister did, and thought him the very model of what he would secretly like to be himself. Three weeks slipped by without anyone’s noticing them, and by the time the party did at last break up every member of it was on excellent terms with the rest. Miss Taverner, while allowing the Captain to come as near to flirting with her as her sense of propriety would sanction, did not fall in love with him; and upon being asked by Peregrine whether she could fancy being married to him returned a decided answer.
‘Dear me, no, Perry! What should put such a notion into your head?’
‘I thought you seemed to like him very well.’
‘Why, so I do! I am sure everyone must.’
‘Well, I will tell you what, Ju: I should not mind it if you did marry him. He is a capital fellow.’
She smiled. ‘Certainly; but he is not at all the sort of man I could fancy myself in love with. There is a volatility, a habit of being too generally pleasing which must preclude my taking him in any very serious spirit.’
‘I am sure he is in love with you.’
‘And I am sure he is as much in love with any other passable-looking female,’ replied Miss Taverner.
The matter was allowed to drop. Towards the end of January the Taverners were in London again, only to set forth a week later for Osterley Park. Even Peregrine, who had plunged once more into the pleasures of the town, thought an invitation from Lady Jersey too flattering to be declined. He raised no objection, and, indeed, after settling-day at Tattersall’s was inclined to think that a further stay in the country would be a very good thing.
‘Yes,’ agreed his cousin dryly. ‘A very good thing if at the end of one week in town you can tell me you are floored.’
‘Oh, well!’ replied Peregrine. ‘It is not as bad as that, I daresay. I have had shocking bad luck, to be sure. Fitz gave me the office to back Kiss-in-a-Corner. I turned the brute up in Baily’s Calendar – a capital steeplechaser! Yet what should win that particular race but Turn-About-Tommy, whom I’ll swear no one had ever heard of ! Never was there such ill-luck! I am not so well up in the stirrups as I should like, but I daresay my luck will have turned by the time I am back from Osterley.’
