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“If she means to sue,” Lizzie said with dignity, for she did not think it became her to run away like a frightened child. “Then it was very foolish of her to destroy that letter which would have formed the bulk of evidence for her case.”

“Lord, she ain’t really going to sue, Lizzie,” Niamh told her, hooking her arm through hers. “Connie’s all talk. Anyway, we got the day off, girls. What we going to do wiv it?”

“Alas,” said Zaya turning tragically toward them. “Today is the last day of the fair and the day that Connie was meant to pay us all! What will we do now with empty pockets?”

“Do?” echoed Niamh. “Why, you can thank your lucky stars that you’ve got a prime article like old Niamh for your friend and work colleague, that’s what.” She reached into her bodice and extracted a bunch of envelopes. “I picked up our wages soon as I walked into the tent this morning and seen what way the wind was blowing, didn’t I?”

Ema and Zaya screeched and threw themselves about Niamh’s neck. “You have saved us!” they crowed, bringing their envelopes to their lips and kissing them. Niamh passed Lizzie’s to her with a wink. “Yes, I know,” she gloated. “And this way we don’t have to help Connie pack up the tent tonight neither! By the time she’s simmered down, we’ll be long gone, and she can bloody well hire some muscle to do it for her!”

Lizzie interrupted the twins’ high glee to ask if Connie would not be rather angry the next time they saw her. “She will have dismounted her high horse by then,” Zaya said with a dismissive wave of her arm.

“And besides,” her sister chimed in. “She can have no one to blame for that, save herself. She chased us off like a ferocious old dragon, did she not? And now we will have a half day holiday!”

Rather more than a half day, Lizzie thought, but did not voice it. “Where will we go?” she asked doubtfully. Mercifully, Niamh and the twins had not had chance to change into their costumes that morning, so they were not wearing outlandish or revealing garb.

Still, Lizzie thought looking at the laughing slender twins with their long, dark braids, they drew the eye. Even now, heads were turning to stare at them as they gamboled about with Sebastian. Luckily, the fact they had such a large and fierce escort would put off any would-be admirers, Lizzie hoped. As for Niamh, she carried herself with a sort of brash assurance that meant only the boldest of men would approach her.

“Where won’t we go?” Ema answered gaily.

“First we must have both sausage and egg,” Zaya asserted. “And the bread and butter.”

“And a nice pot of tea,” Niamh added. “There’s a tea tent in the next field.”

“None of you are wearing bonnets,” Lizzie remarked with misgiving.

Niamh reached up and patted her flame red hair. “Oops,” she remarked. “Must of left it behind in the rush. Well thank gawd you ain’t got that awful fright of an ’at on this morning!” Niamh laughed. “Or we’d have had to cut our ties wiv you.”

Zaya slipped her slim hand into Lizzie’s. “She is only joking, Lizzie,” she murmured squeezing her fingers. “We would not leave you behind even if your bonnet was ever so ugly.”

“Course not!” Niamh agreed. “She’s one of us, ain’t she, girls?”

“Oh yes,” Ema agreed breathlessly from in front. She had her hand on Sebastian’s collar and was being run hither and thither by him in some sort of frantic game.

“Careful,” Lizzie called in warning. “He’ll have you over!”

They managed to make it into the tea tent in one piece and settled around a table, though Lizzie felt they were the object of a few stares. As she took her first sip of tea, it suddenly occurred to her that Annie and her swain might be lurking somewhere inside the tent. She took a quick furtive glance about but could see no sign of them.

They ate a large breakfast, though a good deal of it seemed to disappear under the tablecloth to Sebastian. After that, the twins insisted they go to the waxwork tent so Lizzie could be terrified by the ghoulish Bluebeard tableau. The man on the door recognized Niamh and waved them through without paying admission. “Only make sure one of the pretty ones faints on the way out,” he whispered to Lizzie.

The twins cackled over the grisly display, but Lizzie felt herself taken quite queasy at the display of dismembered limbs. She blamed it on the late, heavy breakfast and possibly the aftereffects of last night’s punch. When she had woken that morning, she had felt quite seedy, and that was before Annie’s upsetting appearance. She took several deep breaths and managed to navigate the tent without embarrassing herself.

Zaya and Ema quarreled about who should be overcome, so Niamh ended up bundling Ema out and Lizzie half dragging Zaya.

“Oh!” Niamh cried. “Whatever shall we do? These poor young ladies have been scared insensible!”

This had the unfortunate effect of causing several young gentlemen to bound over to lend their manly aid. Zaya and Ema fluttered their eyelashes and sighed so prettily that the male admiration was increased tenfold and they then seemed unable to shake them off.

By the time they reached the theatrical tent, they still had the most persistent three in attendance. Lizzie and Sebastian eyed these newcomers with disfavor, but Niamh just laughed and said the twins were having a high time. “Besides,” Niamh whispered nudging Lizzie in the ribs. “We’ll just let them pay for everything from here on out.”

Lizzie stiffened and opened her mouth to object strenuously to this but found her herself whisked through the entrance and a bag of peanuts thrust into her hands. Zaya dragged her down onto a bench.

“It is already started!” Ema whispered excitedly. “Come, Sebastian!”

Inside the tent was pandemonium. Clowns with painted faces moped over beauties in elaborate wigs. There was a plotting villain who the audience booed and pelted with orange peel and nutshells and a ghost in a winding sheet who kept popping up from behind fake trees. Lizzie watched in gathering bewilderment as she felt the beginnings of a headache form behind her temples.

It didn’t help that around her the young people kept getting up and down and tripping over each other’s feet. It seemed to Lizzie just as chaotic on their bench as it was on the stage. The young men seemed determined to make the most of their opportunity to sit in a darkened tent with their arms about the twins’ slender waists, and as there were three of them, this meant frequent swapping of seats and much indignant whispering about ‘it being my turn now, old man’.

Lizzie placed a hand on Sebastian’s neck as he growled with irritation, but really, she felt just as impatient with it all as he. A brief intermission while the scenery was changed gave Lizzie a chance to give her excuses. At first the twins were inclined to argue, but when she used Sebastian as her excuse, they allowed that poor dear Sebastian might not like the noisy surroundings. One of the young men politely offered to escort her, but Lizzie declined with haste.