The elder lady took a fortifying sip of her tea and set down the cup and saucer on a convenient side table. “My dear Miss Greenaway, or Appoline if you prefer it, perhaps I should tell you I am not wholly ignorant of your circumstances. Mrs Reddicliffe told me a little before you came to stay with her, which is why she was kind enough to suggest I might be of service to you.”
Apple eyed her with a good deal of suspicion. “Why did you not say so before?”
“I would not for the world embarrass you, my dear. Besides, it was not for me to interfere. But when I see you such a bundle of nerves as you are at this moment, I cannot reconcile it with my conscience not to speak.”
“How much do you know?”
“Only that my lord Dymond came upon you on the road and rescued you from these guardians. Mrs Reddicliffe heard something of your story, I believe, while she was at Merrivale House.”
“Georgy! I might have guessed she could not refrain from chattering.”
Feeling a little less fraught, Apple drank more tea and gave Mrs Tinkler a somewhat expurgated account of what had transpired to induce her to seek refuge with Georgy’s old nurse.
“Only I did not then know that Lady Luthrie had recalled an old scandal which she supposed might involve me.”
“And does it?”
Her chaperon’s sympathetic mien served to loosen Apple’s tongue. “That is just what I suspect by her coming to town in this precipitate fashion. And if she has confirmation of the circumstances of my birth, there will be nothing for it but to go abroad as quickly as I can manage it.”
“Go abroad?”
“Yes, if the trust allows.”
Mrs Tinkler was looking quite baffled. “But, my dear Appoline, where would you go?”
“Anywhere. Travelling. I’ve always wished to see the world, you must know. There are places I’ve dreamed of visiting. Different cultures. So much art.”
She spoke without a vestige of the excitement she’d felt whenever she’d thought of it in the past. Before her life had been turned upside down by the entrance into it of a certain gentleman. And she was determined not to ruin his life as well as her own.
A look of deep foreboding overlay Mrs Tinkler’s usually comfortable expression. “Am I to understand you would wish me to accompany you on this … this extraordinary expedition?”
“Well, yes. Of course I can’t go unchaperoned, and Mrs Reddicliffe suggested you.”
“Then Mrs Reddicliffe was off her head! Good gracious, Miss Greenaway, what can you be thinking of? Two lone females to be wandering about the continent unescorted?”
Apple was conscious of a twinge of irritation. “Why not?”
“Why not? My dear Appoline, I can think of a dozen reasons why not. It is not to be thought of! Good gracious me! And we have been so lately at war over there. It is not safe, my dear child. Why, Mrs Reddicliffe informed me that Lady Georgiana’s husband has been recalled, for the papers are full of it, you know. There is every possibility that this fragile peace will not last.”
Apple grew impatient. “Then we will go somewhere where there is no war. There can be no difficulty.”
“There I am unable to agree with you, Miss Greenaway. The whole enterprise seems to me so fraught with difficulty that I could not entertain it for an instant.”
“Alex does not think so. At least,” Apple amended, recalling certain pronouncements he’d made on the subject, “he did say it was hare-brained, but —”
“Hare-brained? He might well say so! Gracious, Appoline, I do most earnestly beg of you to think again. As for myself, I must tell you here and now that Mrs Reddicliffe was perfectly mistaken. I can think of nothing I should dislike more than to be junketing about the continent in such a manner. Dear me, the very thought of it is enough to prostrate one with exhaustion.”
Apple gazed at her, dismayed. “You mean you won’t come?”
“Emphatically, no!” The elder lady puffed out an overwrought breath. “I am sorry to disoblige you, my dear Miss Greenaway, but really I could not. London is one thing. But the continent, and with no notion of when to return? Gracious me, no indeed!”
Seeing her quite overcome, Apple had the greatest difficulty preventing herself from bursting into laughter. Not that it was in the least little bit amusing. She would have to remake all her plans. Or at least, discover another lady who might go with her. Which likely meant she must advertise after all. Which again meant there was no possibility of setting off in a bang as she wanted to do, once the horrid truth was out.
This reflection threw her back into agitation, and she said no more of her proposed trip. Mrs Tinkler, however, said a great deal. Apparently horrified by the scheme, she applied herself assiduously to the task of discouraging Apple from continuing in it, and kept up her discourse all through the luncheon served to the ladies in the parlour.
Apple answered suitably, and was even grateful for the lecture her chaperon read her since it helped to keep her mind off Alex’s continued absence.
He did not reappear until midway through the afternoon, by which time Apple was so wound up she greeted him with a furious demand to know why he had kept her waiting for such an age.
