“No, of course not,” Alex said rather too quickly. He’d never been good at concealing anything under that penetrating gaze. He improvised. “Just that Georgy’s hoping you won’t make little Apple uncomfortable.”
His sire’s brows shot up. “Little apple?”
“Appoline, sir. Appoline Greenaway.”
“She’s a dwarf?”
Alex gave a crack of laughter. “Nothing of the sort. Don’t mean little in a literal sense. Just that the chit is such an innocent.”
“You seem to have come to know her very well in a matter of a day or so.”
Cursing himself and his father’s perspicacity, Alex floundered a little as he sought for a plausible explanation. “Well, been a little more than that. Only the two girls and me at Merrivale House, so it was inevitable I’d get the chance to talk to the chit.”
For a moment, his father continued to regard him without comment. Alex met that look as best he could, deciding on silence as the simplest defence.
Lord Luthrie smiled at last and gave his plant one last pat. “Let me but get rid of this dirt, my boy, and I’ll take up the mantle of host. Though your mother will no doubt return in short order.”
Having arranged to bring the girls to the morning room, Alex left his father to follow in his own time and in a few moments was tapping on the door of his sister’s old bedchamber.
“Come in,” Georgy called, adding as he put his head round the door, “Oh, Alex, is that you? Did you see Papa?”
“He was tending some plant or other, but he’s coming in to meet Apple. Where is she?”
“Oh, Mrs Herbert would have had Charlotte’s old room made up for her, but I said it wouldn’t do.”
“Should think not.” His elder sister’s chamber was fully half a corridor away. “Don’t want her feeling isolated.”
“Exactly so, which is why I insisted she should be next door.”
Leaving Nelly to deal with the collection of clothes strewn across the bed, Georgy came to the door and pushed him into the corridor ahead of her.
“I left her to freshen up, but I dare say she’s unpacking by now.”
She went to the next chamber door and tapped, calling out as she opened it and entering upon the echo of her knock. “Are you ready, Apple? Here’s Alex wanting you to come and meet Papa.”
She left the door open, and Alex could see Apple sitting on the end of the big bed, looking a trifle forlorn and lost. Something gave in his chest, and he did not hesitate to walk into the room.
“No need to look like that, Apple. He won’t bite. Very gentle fellow, my father.”
“Oh, yes, you need have no apprehension, Apple, for Papa is not in the least little bit like Mama.”
Apple’s gaze went from Alex to Georgy and back again. “What did you tell him?”
“Exactly what we agreed.” He refrained from adding anything about his father’s evident, if unspoken, suspicion. No need to terrify the girl. “If you’re ready, best get it over with.”
Apple seemed incapable of moving. She looked peculiarly rigid, and Alex noticed her fingers were digging into the coverlet on the bed. He went up to her and held out a hand. “Come, Apple. Not like you to be a scaredy cat.”
Georgy added her mite. “Gracious, are you frightened, Apple? Don’t be! I’ll support you, never fear.”
Apple drew an audible breath and bit her lip. “I shouldn’t have come.”
“Yes, you should. Alex, for goodness’ sake, talk to her!”
Instead, he bent and seized both her hands, forcibly removing her clutching fingers from the coverlet, and pulled her to her feet. “That’s it. Now stop being a hen-wit and come on down to the morning room.” Putting an arm about her, he gave her a swift reassuring hug. “If anything goes wrong, you can blame me.”
“Don’t worry, I will,” she flashed, in an echo of her usual manner.
But Apple’s lively self vanished again as she was herded out of the chamber and along the corridor towards the stairs. Alex did his best to distract her by pointing out the various apartments in the immediate vicinity.
