He bowed to the lady who bowed her head. Edith couldn’t hear what they were saying, but he leant closer, scrubbing the back of his neck. The lady dropped her parasol and let out a squeal before lifting her skirts. She twirled around, kicking her legs and showing her bloomers to the whole wide world.Incoherent sounds came out of her, and jumbled movements took hold of her. There was no mistaking the fact she did show him her undergarments.
“Heavens.” Edith put a fluttering hand on her chest, waiting for the lady to slap him. But no, the lady seemed absurdly grateful.
Perry talked to her, and the lady covered herself before bowing her head again. How was that possible?
He strutted towards Edith with the swagger of a cricket player who had just won the World Cup.
“Well?” He took her arm again. “Who’s the charming one now? Am I not the prince of charm itself?”
“I can’t believe it. How did you do it?”
He wiggled his finger to sign ‘no.’ “You don’t want to know how sausages are made. It ruins the magic.”
“There’s no magic in a sausage.”
“I beg to differ.”
Oh, the patience she needed to deal with Lord Peregrine. “Seriously. How did you do it? What did you tell her?”
“No. One secret for another.” He turned around a corner between two tall hedgerows. “You tell me something about you first, and I’ll reveal my secret.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Tell me about your most embarrassing moment. Spare no detail. The more scandalous, the better.”
Hmm. She pondered her answer, not because she wasn’t spoilt for choice among embarrassing moments, but because she couldn’t think of anything scandalous. At the embroidery club, she’d won the award for the most commendable member three years in a row.
“Well? There must be something,” he said. “It’s taking you too long.”
“All right. My most embarrassing moment happened quite recently.” Goodness, just thinking about it warmed her cheeks. “It happened with my anatomy tutor.”
He brightened. “Interesting. An anatomy tutor. It sounds promising.”
“Oh, shush. So I was taking a test, and question number ten asked which cranial nerve is the longest one…” She put a hand on her cheek; the memory still haunted her. “I wrote ‘vague’nerve instead of ‘vagus’nerve.” She chuckled.
He remained deadpan, staring at her as if she’d told him she wanted to remove his appendix without anaesthesia. “Is that it? Nothing else happened?”
“My tutor laughed. A lot. So embarrassing.”
He gave her an assessing glance. “Goodness, girl. You must have the most boring life in London, for crying out loud.”
“It was a truly embarrassing moment, and I told you that I don’t lie.”
“Blimey.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I have no words.”
She wasn’t boring. Absolutely not. She had plenty of fun. “I told you about my embarrassing moment. It’s your turn now. What did you say to the lady?”
His lopsided smile caused a dimple to appear on his cheek. “I told her that I’d seen a snake slithering under her skirt.”
She skidded to a stop, crunching the gravel. “Lord Peregrine, you are not a gentleman.”
He looked affronted. “She thanked me for having saved her life. She said I was a hero.”
She shot her gaze skywards. Talking to him was an exercise in patience. Thank goodness, they arrived at the main entrance to the gardens.
“Do you see your family close by?” he asked, still holding her arm.
She gazed around, but dusk was creeping over the gardens, and even though many gas lamp posts were lit, she couldn’t see the path clearly.
