Page 47

As the Petterils climbed into the hackney, Gussie slid her arm through Haggs’s as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Perhaps it was.

The horses moved forward and the carriage rumbled quickly into the traffic and out of sight. Haggs and Gussie began to walk in the same direction, their silence companionable as each thought, no doubt of Withy’s triumphant return, and wondered at whatever adventures had preceded it. All would be revealed tomorrow, no doubt.

In the meantime, Piccadilly was a busy thoroughfare at any hour, and the chances of their being seen together by some gossip were high. Haggs turned off as soon as possible up the quieter Half Moon Street. His hand hurt and he didn’t care. Withy was back, and this girl of all others walked on his arm in perfect trust. His way was suddenly clear.

“This isn’t very proper,” he remarked.

“Bah,” said Gussie.

“The question is, do we smuggle you back into your home and hope you are not caught, or do we enter boldly through the front door and ask for an interview with your mama?”

Gussie glanced up at him, uncomprehending. Did she really not know?

“Are you angry with me?” she asked hesitantly.

“I have never been angry with you. Confused, taken aback, utterly delighted, yes, but never angry.”

“D-delighted?” Gussie repeated.

He smiled at her. “Don’t you know? Everyone else does.”

They were passing beneath a streetlight, so it might have been the glow of the lamp that deepened her colour. “Kn-know what?”

“That I am at your feet and always have been.”

She turned her head, blinking. “You’re laughing at me. Again.”

His breath caught, for once again, a tear glistened on her lashes.

“Gussie, don’t,” he begged, covering her hand with his where it lay on his arm. “I tried to keep teasing you as if you were still that amusing child, largely because I was terrified of feeling anything else. Then, when you were ill and I was so afraid of the world losing you altogether, I recognized that I was a hopeless case. And when you began to recover...you were disgusted with me.”

Her hand gripped his arm. She held it tighter against her body. “I was not,” she whispered. “Not ever. How could I be disgusted? I just did not want you to see me sick and ugly in case you...you took me in disgust.”

“Dear God, my darling girl, I couldn’t if I tried!”

“April told me I was foolish, that you were not so shallow or unworthy, and I knew that, only I could not...” She trailed off, turning her face back up to his in wonder. “Wh-what did you say?”

“I said I couldn’t if—”

“Before that!”

Oh yes, the way was clear—either for happiness or the final break. “My darling girl?” he said ruefully. “I’m afraid you are and always will be. I can’t help that, but I can still be dismissed.”

“Don’t be,” she pleaded. “However awful I am, I promise I will never ever be that horrible again.”

“Then there is hope for me?”

She tugged him quite suddenly into the opening of a deeply shadowed lane, reached up, and kissed him full on the mouth.

“Idiot,” she whispered. “I have always loved you, before I was even out, though perhaps I did not always know it.”

There was a moment, a deeply promising, joyous moment, when she let him kiss her properly and thoroughly, and then he dragged her back into the lit street and walked so quickly that she was almost trotting to keep up.

“Time to face that interview with the dowager Lady Petteril.”

“Actually, it’s not her consent you need,” Gussy said smugly. “Though she will appreciate the courtesy. Piers is my guardian, and he understands.”

***