After half an hour they were both flushed from the midday heat and fed up with standing about in it. The park—if it could be called that, for it was little more than a stretch of common land in the midst of a tract of dilapidated factories—was teeming with people. Some led horse-drawn carts loaded with goods, others pulled small children along by the hand. The odd few clung wearily to the leading rope of a grazing goat or sheep. It was assuredly not Hyde Park: nobody was there to take the air, which was acrid with smoke and the ever-present tang of sewage from the nearby river; everybody but them was passing through, seemingly with as much haste as they could.
“We might as well have met at Rotten Row. We could have walked to Hyde Park and back in the time we have been waiting here.”
Annie nodded glumly and shivered.
“You cannot possibly be cold,” Kitty said irritably.
“I’m not, miss. ’Tis the thought of all those bodies.”
“What bodies?”
The maid pointed at the ground. “They used to bury people here.”
Kitty was more unnerved by this than she wished to be but having already observed that nobody seemed keen to hang about, she felt suddenly anxious that they might know something she did not. She shrugged defiantly. “They bury people in a lot of places.”
Annie may have had a response to this, but it was lost to a yelp of fright when a sudden commotion broke out nearby. A dog barked, a child wailed, several people shouted, and a sheep, frightened out of its owner’s grip and bleating manically, came charging through the long grass towards them. Annie turned tail and ran. Kitty would have done likewise, but the sheep bashed against her as it barrelled past, knocking her to the ground.
As she lay on her back, staring at the sky, thinking unkind thoughts about her sister for dragging her to the stupid gallery and embroiling her in this whole fiasco in the first place, a face appeared above her.
“May I assist you, madam?”
It was a man, and when he held out his arm, Kitty saw that it was sleeved in scarlet red. That drew her attention to the decorations adorning his breast, and she smiled to herself. Sergeant Mulhall had been well and truly outranked. “Thank you, sir. You are very kind.”
Strong arms pulled her up and set her on her feet. “Are you hurt?”
“I do not think so.” She began to brush herself off. “Only embarrassed.”
“It is not you who ought to be embarrassed, but that oaf, for letting his livestock run amok.” The officer pointed to where an elderly gentleman was unsuccessfully attempting to recapture his highly intractable sheep. Not far from him, taking a wide berth around the animal, Annie was making her way back towards them. “That is your companion?” the man enquired.
Kitty confirmed that it was.
“Well and good. If you had been on your own, I would have offered to escort you home, but as it is, I have other business, so your having a friend to accompany you is most advantageous.”
“I suppose I might as well go home. I was supposed to be meeting somebody, but he evidently decided he had better things to do, for he has not come.” She stopped speaking, for Annie had arrived back and begun fussing at her gown, tutting and shaking her head at the streaks of dust and mud.
“A thousand apologies, Miss Bennet! I ought never to have abandoned you like that.”
“It is well, Annie, stop fretting.” To the officer, Kitty said, “He was a soldier, too—perhaps you know him?”
The officer was looking at her most peculiarly. “Perhaps I do. Pray, what is his name?”
“Sergeant Mulhall.”
It was immediately apparent that the two menwereacquainted, for a look of comprehension came over the officer’s countenance, and he grimaced as though realising a mistake. “Ah…in that case, I believe I owe you an apology, madam. Sergeant Mulhall is, in fact, my batman. And I am happy to report that he has not deliberately disappointed you. I had an urgent errand that needed running, and I am afraid I gave him no choice but to see to it this very morning. The fault for his desertion is mine entirely.”
“Oh, I see,” Kitty replied, still disheartened, for the officer’s gallant acknowledgement of blame in no way relieved her disappointment. “What a strange coincidence that I have met you in the same place.”
“Ah…no. No, not really. Not at all, in fact, for the errand was in a place not far from here. Indeed, I was just on my way to join him.”
“I see. Good day then, sir. Come, Annie. It seems there is no point in us waiting here any longer.” Kitty curtseyed and turned to leave, but the officer forestalled her.
“I, ah…I do recall him mentioning, though, that he had met a very lovely young lady at the gallery yesterday.”
She blushed with pleasure, despite her dissatisfaction. “That was me.”
“Well then, he spoke true—you are, indeed,quitelovely. I see now why he was so angry to be commissioned elsewhere this morning. I am sorry for it. Allow me to make amends. What say I tell him to meet you again tomorrow? At the exhibition, at noon.”
Kitty let out a little huff of laughter before she could help herself. “Another chance to see him would be most welcome, butif it is all the same, I should prefer a different meeting place. The whole world and his dog are at the exhibition. My sister is there as we speak—for the third day in a row!”
