“He was not a weakling, that brute,” she said as Joseph took his place beside her and gathered the ribbons in his hands. “I will probably bear the welt of that stick across my palm for a good day or two. I would have screamed if I had been willing to give him the satisfaction.”
“The devil!” Joseph exclaimed. “Didhe hurt you? I ought to have blackened both his eyes.”
“Oh, no, no,” she said. “Violence is no answer to violence. It just breeds more.”
“Miss Martin,” he said, turning his head to grin at her yet again, “you are remarkable.”
And really quite good-looking, he thought, with her cheeks flushed, her hat off-center, and her eyes glowing.
She laughed again.
“And sometimes,” she said, “an impulsive fool. Though, goodness, I have not been that for years and years. Doggie, what is your name? I suppose I will have to give you a new one.”
Joseph continued to grin at his horses’ heads.
He was really quite charmed by her. There was certainly a great deal more to her than just the prim, stern schoolteacher.
9
Claudia had scarcely a moment for reflection from the minuteof her return from the visit to Lizzie Pickford until the time came to go on a picnic the following afternoon.
She was busy for an hour or two bathing and grooming and feeding the collie, which was little more than a pup, reassuring him when he seemed frightened, and taking him out into the garden a few times to relieve himself. She left him with Edna and Flora while she and Susanna and Peter went to dine and spend the evening at Marshall House with Frances and Lucius, but he slept the night in her room—actually on her bed much of the time—and got her up early to go outside again. At least, she had discovered with some relief, he was house-trained. Susanna and Peter had been remarkably tolerant about the sudden invasion of their home by a scruffy dog, but they might have been less so of puddles on their carpets.
And this was the very morning Edna and Flora were to leave the house on Grosvenor Square to take up their new appointments. Bidding them farewell and waving them on their way in Peter’s carriage, Edna tearful, Flora unusually quiet, was as emotionally wrenching as such occasions always were. This was Claudia’s least favorite part of her job.
Then, just as she and Susanna were consoling themselves with a cup of tea, there was an unexpected visit from Frances, who came to tell them that she and Lucius had decided to leave for Barclay Court, their home in Somersetshire, the following morning so that she could get the rest she needed for the remainder of her confinement.
“But youmustcome to visit us afterward,” she said. “Both of you must come for Easter—and Peter too, of course. We will entertain the three of you together.”
“Why only three?” Susanna asked, her eyes dancing with mischief. “Why not four? Claudia is going out for a drive with Joseph, Marquess of Attingsborough, this afternoon, Frances,for the second day in a row.And they are both to be at Vauxhall Gardens this evening with Lauren and Kit’s party. And did you know that the reason we could not find her at the garden party the day before yesterday was that she was out on the river with him?”
“Oh, famous!” Frances said, clapping her hands. “I have always thought the marquess a handsome and charming gentleman. I must confess I find it hard to understand his interest in Miss Hunt—a personal bias, I daresay. But Claudia, you simplymustsupplant her in his affections.”
“But she cannot, Frances,” Susanna said, her eyes wide. “It is out of the question. He will be adukeone day, and you know how Claudia feels about dukes.”
Both of them laughed merrily while Claudia raised her eyebrows and stroked her hand over the back of the dog, who was curled up beside her, his head in her lap.
“I see you are having a great deal of enjoyment at my expense,” she said, desperately hoping she could keep herself from blushing. “I hate to ruin your pleasure, but there is absolutely no romantic motive whatsoever behind Lord Attingsborough’s taking me driving and boating. He is simply interested in the school and in education…for girls.”
The explanation sounded ridiculously lame, but how could she tell the truth even to her closest friends? She would thereby divulge a secret that was not hers to tell.
They looked at her with identical sober expressions before looking at each other.
“In theschool,Susanna,” Frances said.
“Ineducation,Frances,” Susanna said.
“Forgirls.”
“It makes all the sense in the world. Why did we not guess for ourselves?”
They went off into peals of merry laughter.
“But let us not forget about the Duke of McLeith,” Susanna said. “Anotherduke. He insists that he and Claudia were like brother and sister when they were growing up, but they are adults now. He is very personable, did you not think, Frances?”
“Anda widower,” Frances added. “And he wasveryeager to see Claudia again when Lucius and I were still at the garden party.”
“If I were the two of you,” Claudia said, “I would not buy new gowns for my wedding just yet.”
