It had been over a week since Madeleine had been out riding, and her mount was a little fresh. She was a competent horsewoman, but her sire nevertheless did not engage her in conversation until she had stopped the animal sidling and brought it down off its toes, and he watched her, fully prepared to grab the bridle above the bit if required. When Copper was at last docile, they left the park and trotted along the Gotherington lane, stopping briefly to exchange civilities with the local doctor, who was looking somewhat weary after attending a difficult birth, and waiting for a flock of sheep to be transferred to pasture upon the other side of the lane.25
‘I fear we shall not go as far as I would have wished, my dear, if we are to be home in time for luncheon.’ Lord Roxton did not sound too put out. ‘But now the fields are stubbled, we could cut back cross-country, if you are happy to do so.’
Madeleine agreed to this, as long as they used the gates rather than put their horses at them and jumped. They were on the point of turning about when a horseman came around the corner towards them, and pulled up when he recognised Lord Roxton, though his eyes did not linger upon the peer, but rather upon Miss Banham.
Sir Harry Penwood did not sigh; he stared.
‘Good Lord,’ he breathed, reverently. Lord Roxton’s lips twitched.
‘That, Sir Harry, is not exactly complimentary.’ Miss Banham looked coyly at him from under her lashes, and if he had been stunned, for her part she was a little impressed. When she had last seen him, three years past, she had only been on the cusp of finding gentlemen interesting, and Harry Penwood had the disadvantage of being known well since he had been at the playing pranks stage. He had looked nice in his regimentals, she remembered, but was rather dismissive of a young lady still in the schoolroom, and as yet to bloom into womanhood. There was nothing of the youth in the broad-shouldered man before her, except his ill-concealed amazement.
She had certainly bloomed, he thought, as his brain26regained the ability to function.
‘My … my apologies, Madeleine, or rather, Miss Banham.’ He touched the brim of his hat and nodded also at Lord Roxton. ‘Good to see you again, sir.’ He gulped.
His lordship was quite used to seeing men’s Adam’s apples bob up and down when they first beheld his daughter, and smiled, though it faded with his words.
‘Glad to have you back among us, though I regret the circumstances, of course. Very unexpected. Shock to us all.’ Lord Roxton was not a man of crafted phrases.
‘Yes, sir. I hope Lady Roxton is well. I can see that M … iss Banham is in perfect health.’ Harry glanced at her. He dare not do more because his eyes felt as if they would be on stalks.
‘My wife is very well, thank you. I realise that Lady Penwood will not be socialising, of course, but we would be more than pleased if you come over to the Hall to see us some afternoon, would we not, Madeleine?’
‘Oh yes. But you will not tell us about gory battles, will you? Mr Bromley did so, and Mama and I disliked it excessively.’
‘You can be sure that I will not do so.’ Harry could think of nothing less suitable for a lady’s ears, and was himself more than content to leave the least happy aspects of soldiering in a box of memories to be opened rarely, and in private. There were, of course, the lighter moments, the funny stories, which, in expurgated form, might be brought out in mixed company, but they were27not about war and death but living in the field, and among friends.
‘It is good to have another younger fellow in the vicinity. Brightens things up. Far prefer having balls to evenings of whist with the aged and decrepit, and you cannot have dancing without gentlemen fit to caper about.’ Lord Roxton liked dancing.
‘I confess, sir, I have not had much occasion for “capering about” these last few years, but I am sure I remember the steps.’ Sir Harry was thinking how good it would be to dance with Miss Banham.
‘I thought Lord Wellington encouraged dancing, when the army is out of the fighting season.’
‘Oh, he does, but that is mostly among the staff, and those quartered close enough. Never found myself in the right place at the right time.’
Miss Banham’s horse began to fidget. Papa had a tendency to take over a conversation and lead into subjects she found very boring, like politics, and the war. Whilst he did not notice her becoming bored, he did notice the horse.
‘Well, we must be on our way. Have to be back by luncheon or her ladyship will give me a rare dressing down, and we have already been held back by a flock of sheep.’ Lord Roxton winked, to remove any idea he was in fact under his wife’s thumb. ‘Do ride over and see us soon, Penwood.’
‘You can be sure that I will, sir.’ Sir Harry touched his hat with his whip, and rode on, in somewhat of28a daze. When he encountered Mary two days later in Cheltenham, where she had gone with Lady Damerham to purchase gloves, he laughingly chastised her for not giving him a true warning of Madeleine Banham’s transformation.
‘I nearly fell off my horse,’ he admitted. ‘She is so much changed.’
‘Not changed, just grown. Be fair, Harry, she was still stitching samplers when you last saw her.’
‘Very true, but …’ He gave a deep sigh of appreciation.
‘Oh Harry, you said you were not one to sigh over females.’ Mary shook her head at him.
‘Never have until now, but then I have never seen a girl as beautiful as Madeleine Banham.’
Mary laughed, but was conscious of a feeling that was not, could not be, jealousy, for she did not think of Harry Penwood other than as a dear friend, but was yet a form of annoyance at the way Madeleine Banham could put men under her spell with little or no effort, and not just silly young men either.
‘I had thought better of you. Before you swoon at the sight of her, try and discover if you like what lies beneath the beauty.’
‘You sound like my mama.’ Harry grinned.
‘Thank you so much. I now feel positively aged, not just on the shelf.’ There was the slightest hint that the remark had touched her on the raw, and Harry Penwood had known her long enough to note it.29
