‘Oh, yes, only consider Cecy! She will be just like dear Aunt Lizzie when she is older.’ She saw that the truth of this statement was having its effect upon him, and thought that she had given him enough to ponder for one day. She moved towards the door, saying: ‘I must go and change my dress.’
He got up abruptly. ‘No, wait!’
She looked over her shoulder. ‘Yes?’
He did not seem to know what he wished to say. ‘Nothing! It’s no matter! Next time you insist on buying horses, you had better tell me what you want! To be employing strangers in the business is most undesirable!’
‘But you assured me you would have no hand in it!’ Sophy pointed out.
‘Yes!’ he said savagely. ‘Nothing pleases you more than to put me in the wrong, does it?’
She laughed, and went away without answering him. Upstairs, she was pounced on by Cecilia, anxious to know what her fate was to be.
‘If he speaks to you at all, it will be to warn you against Alfred Wraxton!’ said Sophy, with a gurgle of amusement. ‘I told him exactly how that toad conducts himself, and warned him to take care of you!’
‘You did not!’
‘I did! I have done an excellent day’s work, in the most unprincipled way! Oh, tell Addy Charles does not blame her in the least! He won’t say a word to my aunt about what happened, and I doubt whether he will say a word to you either. The only person hemaysay a word to is his precious Eugenia. I hope she will induce him to lose his temper.’
SEVEN
CECILIA WAS QUITEunable to believe that she was not to receive one of her brother’s scolds, and, when she later came unexpectedly face to face with him on a bend in the stair she gave a gasp, and tried to stiffen her unruly knees. ‘Hallo!’ he said, running an eye over her exquisite ball-dress of gauze over satin. ‘You are very smart! Where are you off to?’
‘Lady Sefton is calling after dinner to take Sophy and me to Almack’s,’ she replied thankfully. ‘Mama does not find herself equal to it this evening.’
‘Taking the shine out of them all!’ he said. ‘You look very fine!’
‘Why do you not accompany us?’ she asked, plucking up courage.
‘You would not spend the entire evening in Fawnhope’s pocket if I did,’ he observed dryly.
She lifted her chin. ‘I should not under any circumstances spend the entire evening in any gentleman’s pocket!’
‘No, I believe you would not,’ he agreed mildly. ‘Not in my line, Cilly? Besides, I am engaged with a party of my own.’
His employment of her almost forgotten nursery-name made her retort with much less constraint: ‘Daffy Club!’
He grinned: ‘No: Cribb’s Parlour!’
‘How horrid you are! I suppose you are going to discuss the merits of a Bloomsbury Pet, or a Black Diamond, or – or –’
‘A Mayfair Marvel,’ he supplied. ‘Nothing so interesting: I amgoing to blow a cloud with a few friends. And what doyouknow of Bloomsbury Pets, miss?’
She threw him a saucy look as she passed him on the way down the staircase. ‘Only what I have learnt from my brothers, Charles!’
He laughed, and let her go, but before she had reached the bottom of the flight, leaned over the banisters, and said imperatively: ‘Cecilia!’ she looked up enquiringly. ‘Does that fellow Wraxton annoy you?’
She was nearly betrayed into losing her gravity. She replied: ‘Oh, well –! I daresay I could snub him easily enough, if – well, if I chose to do so!’
‘You need not be deterred by any consideration that I know of. I need scarcely say that if Eugenia knew of it she would be the first to condemn his behaviour!’
‘Of course,’ she said.
Whether he spoke words of censure to Miss Wraxton no one was in a position to know. If he did, they must, Sophy thought, have been mild ones, for she did not appear to be in any way chastened. However, Sophy was granted one satisfaction. When next Miss Wraxton brought up the vexed question of Jacko, confiding to Lady Ombersley that she lived in dread of hearing that the monkey had bitten one of the children, Charles overheard her, and said impatiently: ‘Nonsense!’
‘I believe a monkey’s bite is poisonous.’
‘In that case I hope he may bite Theodore.’
