106. Love's Dream in Peril (8 page)

But instead of Uncle Edgar’s bay carriage horses, which had brought her here from Oxford, she saw that two small white ponies were harnessed to the landau.

Jim, the groom, was standing at their heads with an anxious expression on his face.

“Oh, they are so sweet!” Adella cried.

There was really something enchanting about the two little creatures with their large eyes and long white manes and tails. They looked straight out of a Fairy tale.

“Do you like them, miss?” Jim asked her.

“I love them! What are they called?”

“This one is Sugar and this one Spice, miss.”

“Oh, how perfect.” Adella stroked their soft noses.

“I’m glad you think so, miss,” Jim looked relieved. “They’re a wee bit small and they’ll ’ave a job pullin’ your uncle’s heavy old landau. We won’t be able to go too fast.”

“I don’t mind a bit,” Adella said. “I adore them.”

Now that she looked more closely, the two little ponies did look rather odd in front of the high landau, which was intended to be pulled by tall strong horses.

But they looked so delicious with their short legs and their neat little hooves. Spice tossed his head and then gave a shrill neigh, pawing at the road impatiently.

“Look at him, he’s so keen to be off!” Adella cried. “I am sure we will make very good speed.”

Jim helped her into the Landau.

“I’m glad you think so, miss,” he said. “When your uncle chose these little fellers for you, I thought it must be a young child who was comin’ to live with ’im. I was very surprised to see you was a young lady.”

“My uncle had not seen me for a long time,”

Jim climbed up into the driver’s seat and took up the reins.

“Oh, dear me,” he declared, looking down with a comical expression of dismay on his face. “They are a very long way down. It’s like drivin’ two little mice. The other coachmen’ll never let me live this down.”

Adella bit her lip to keep from laughing. She was so much looking forward to her first drive in Hyde Park and she was certainly not going to let the opinion of some foolish coachmen spoil it for her.

“Let’s go,” she urged.

Jim clucked to Sugar and Spice and then they set off, their little hooves clopping along at a steady pace.

There were few people about in the Square and in the surrounding streets. But, as the landau arrived at Hyde Park and came to Rotten Row, the famous route for horses and carriages, it was another world altogether.

There were open carriages everywhere, pulled by tall horses with gleaming coats and polished hooves. They were overflowing with ladies in fine silks with feathers and flowers cascading from their large hats.

Now Adella understood why it was so important to sport an open carriage. It was so that the gentlemen on Rotten Row on their fine horses could see you.

The gentlemen cast admiring glances at Adella as they trotted past, but she noticed that the ladies raised their eyebrows at the sight of Sugar and Spice. Some of them laughed behind their hands.

The only ponies to be seen were trotting up and down with small children on their backs, while anxious Nannies hurried behind in their thick navy uniforms.

As the landau trundled along, Adella realised that she was travelling at a snail’s pace compared to the others.

She did not really mind until a black-haired woman in a tight-fitting habit cantered past on a tall grey horse and laughed out loud as she saw the ponies.

“Look, it’s as good as a circus!” Adella heard her call to her companion, a dashing Army Officer at her side.

A flood of anger and embarrassment rushed over Adella and she opened her parasol and held it so that, if anyone else made fun of her, she should not see them.

“Jim, please, I think we should turn for home,” she called out.

“Why, miss, we’ve ’ardly got to the far end of the Row! Now we’re ’ere, we might as well continue. I should think everyone’s ’ad a good look at us by now.”

As he spoke, there was a thud of galloping hooves, and a gentleman on a tall black horse sped past the landau and came to a sudden halt just in front of it.

“Whoa, there!” Jim called, steadying the ponies, who were eyeing the spirited horse with alarm.

Adella adjusted her parasol, so that the gentleman should not see her face.

“Please, Jim! Let’s go back at once.”

“Of course, miss.” Jim replied and pulled the reins to turn the ponies’ heads.

“Wait!” An imperious voice called out.

The rider of the black horse had turned back and was now by the side of the landau.

“Miss May, isn’t it?”

There was something strangely familiar about the man’s deep voice.

“Miss May?”

She could not continue to ignore him. Reluctantly, Adella raised her parasol so that she could see him.

“So it
is
you!” A young man with strong features and black hair was gazing intently at her with glowing dark eyes.

It was Digby’s friend from Oxford.

“Lord Ranulph Fowles, at your service,” he said. “Surely you remember me?”

“Yes, of course,” Adella replied, her voice feeling very tight in her throat. “How do you do?”

She longed more than anything to put her parasol up again and shut him out, for the way that he was looking at her made her feel most uncomfortable.

He gave a little laugh.

“I would hardly have recognised you, Miss May, if it had not been for those stray curls that are escaping from your hat. I should have known that glorious golden hair anywhere!”

Adella felt her cheeks grow warm as she recalled the moment when her hair had tumbled over her shoulders, as Lord Ranulph rode past in that leafy street in Oxford.

It did not seem quite gentlemanly of him to remind her of that right here in London, with the cream of Society passing back and forth along Rotten Row in their carriages.

“If you will excuse me, Lord Ranulph, I must return home at once.”

“May I ride with you?” he asked.

“No, please, if you will excuse me.”

He reached out and caught the side of the landau with his strong hand.

“Miss May, you don’t seem – is anything wrong?”

“Not at all. Please excuse me, I really must go.”

“Miss May, can I ask why you were hiding behind your parasol when I saw you? I thought for a moment that you did not wish to speak to me.”

“No, no, of course not.” Adella tried to smile and wished that he would go away.

Jim, at long last, was urging the ponies homeward, but Lord Ranulph was still beside her, holding back his proud thoroughbred to match their slow pace.

“Miss May, something is troubling you,” he tried again. “You are not at all yourself.”

As he spoke, the woman on the grey horse who had made the remark about the circus cantered past again.

“Oh, look! Our Cinderella of the circus has found a beau to ride beside her,” she called out to her companion, flicking her whip at the ponies. “Trot on, little mice!” she laughed, as she rode away.

Lord Ranulph raised his hat to her.

“Lady Ireton!” he said. “Good morning.” Then he turned to Adella, adding, “what a horsewoman!”

“It’s a shame her manners don’t match her skills on horseback,” Adella said, her cheeks burning from the jibe.

Lord Ranulph looked closely at her.

“Miss May. You are upset!”

To her horror Adella found that tears were welling up in her eyes.

“Lady Ireton is well known in Society for her wit! I am sure that she meant no harm by her remark,” Lord Ranulph tried to soothe her.

“It was not kind of her to make fun of Sugar and Spice,” Adella asserted, trying to sound calm.

“Is that their names? How charming. Well, they are perhaps a rather unusual sight on the Row. Maybe more suitable for the Fairy Queen’s walnut shell coach or Cinderella’s pumpkin! But very charming nonetheless.”

Adella said nothing and glanced at Lord Ranulph. His expression was perfectly serious and he did not seem to be laughing at her as he soothed his restless horse, which was tossing his head and fretting to gallop along the Row.

As the landau left Hyde Park and headed through the streets that led to Dorset Square, she turned to him.

“My Uncle Edgar has made a mistake, I think,” she said with a little sigh. “He sometimes forgets that I have grown up and become a young lady and thinks of me still as a child.”

“I am glad of that,” Lord Ranulph replied. “My eye was drawn to your delightful ponies and if that had not been the case, I should perhaps have missed your golden hair and let you pass by unnoticed.”

He cleared his throat.

“I wonder if I might call upon you, tomorrow, Miss May? I should very much like to see you again and also to meet your uncle.”

Adella was surprised at this request. What answer should she give him?

He was certainly a very handsome young man and she should be pleased that he was paying attention to her.

But he was Digby’s friend. What if he spoke about him? She did not know if she could bear it.

She felt so confused when she thought about Digby. One moment she could only feel bitterly hurt and angry that he had kissed her so boldly and then not troubled to write to her.

Then she forgot about the broken promise and the pain of the message that never came and she felt again the warmth of his lips against hers, and the golden glow that seemed to fill her whole being as they stood together in the Botanical Gardens.

If she sent Lord Ranulph away now, she might lose the chance of hearing news of Digby ever again.

He was looking at her earnestly, waiting for her reply.

“I am sure Uncle Edgar will not mind if you call at the house,” she replied.

She was rewarded with a beaming smile that lit up Lord Ranulph’s face in a way she had not seen before.

“Miss May, I shall live for tomorrow,” he said.

She gave him the address of Dorset Square and he turned his tall black horse and loosened the reins, letting it race off back to Hyde Park.

*

“I can promise you nothing but hard work,” Judge Dryden said, pulling his heavy white wig off his head and tossing it onto his huge leather-topped desk.

“I understand. Of course,” Digby murmured.

The Judge was a striking man, very tall and lean, with short white hair that had once been as fair as Digby’s.

“You will start at the bottom and run errands for all of us in Chambers. You will act as a clerk when where there is no one else to take notes in Court. For this I will pay you a modest wage and every spare moment you have you must devote to studying law.”

Digby felt a little shiver run though his bones at the thought of it. But then he pictured his mother and his four sisters waving to him as he drove away from Duncombe Hall to begin his journey to London.

He had to care for them now. He had to make sure they stayed at home and were happy and comfortable.

“Can you do it? Are you a good student?” the Judge asked, his piercing grey eyes searching Digby’s face.

There was nothing for it under that fierce gaze but to be completely honest.

“I have not always been so,” Digby said, “but from now on, I will let nothing keep me from my studies.”

“Good. If you do, then you will succeed and the rewards will be great, as I have proved in my own career. Where are you staying?”

“I – er – ”

Digby had made no plans beyond finding his way to the Judge’s Chambers at Lincoln’s Inn. He supposed that he must go to somewhere like Seven Dials with its narrow crowded streets and find cheap lodgings.

The Judge looked thoughtful for a moment.

“Why not join us for dinner tonight?” he said. “You are after all a cousin, albeit a distant one. If she likes the look of you, perhaps my wife may find a corner for you, somewhere among the servants’ garrets.”

Digby nodded eagerly. That way he would be able to send every penny of the money he earned to Duncombe.

“Come along then,” the Judge said, striding out of the room. “It’s a fair drive to Mayfair and the streets are thronged with carts and omnibuses at this time of day.”

Mayfair? A bell chimed in his mind as he heard the word. But he could not think why. His mind was full of the future the Judge had just outlined.

He must be on his best behaviour at dinner and for all the days that followed if he was going to progress and make his way as a lawyer.

*

The morning after Adella’s visit to Rotten Row, Uncle Edgar called for her to come to his study.

As always when she came into the study, she gazed in amazement at the vast model Fort that took up the entire surface of her uncle’s large mahogany desk.

Uncle Edgar was not working on it this morning, but standing in front of the fireplace.

“Well, niece, my outlay on your wardrobe has not been wasted,” he said. “You have taken one turn about the Park in your new dress and already one of the most eligible bachelors in London has come knocking at our door.”

Adella was confused. Who did he mean?

“Lord Ranulph Fowles. I could hardly believe my ears when the butler informed me. He is waiting for you in the drawing room.”

“Will you not come with me, Uncle Edgar?” Adella felt suddenly nervous. “He expressed a wish to meet you, when I spoke to him yesterday.”

Her uncle shook his head.

“It is you who is the attraction, my dear. And I am, as it happens, rather busy.” He went over to the desk and peered at the Red Fort.

As Adella entered the drawing room, Lord Ranulph sprang to his feet.

“Miss May, you are a vision of loveliness,” he said, staring at her before remembering to bow politely.

Adella was wearing another of her new gowns, a day dress in a pale gold shade that perfectly complemented her fair hair and made her brown eyes look soft and bright.

“Thank you, Lord Ranulph.”

Adella looked down at her shimmering skirts. She had never worn such a lovely delicate colour and she still was not quite used to wearing such fine clothes.

“Have you been offered some refreshment?”

“Your uncle’s butler has been most attentive, but I am not thirsty.”

‘Whatever shall I say to him now?’ Adella thought, as she sat down on the sofa.