Crossed Quills (13 page)

 As they strolled on, arguing the relative merits of various light carriages, Wynn wondered whether Chubby could possibly be right. Was he wilder—as wild—almost as wild to see Miss Lisle as his friend was to see Miss Kitty?

 Impossible!

Chapter 9

 “The Miss Pendrells?” exclaimed Lord Selworth and Mr Chubb with identical looks of horror. Pippa was hard put to it not to laugh aloud.

 “We made their acquaintance at Lady Castlereagh’s,” Millicent rattled on, “and they asked us to walk with them in St James’s Park this afternoon and we—”

 “Who are the Miss Pendrells?” Lord Selworth demanded with an ominous frown.

 “They are some sort of relatives of Lady Castlereagh, Wynn, so we could not say no without offending her and she is one of the patronesses of Almack’s, and besides, they are nice girls, are they not, Kitty? How were we to know you wished to go to Hyde Park with us? You need not come to St James’s Park if you do not—”

 “I didn’t bargain for swarms of unknown females. I’m happy to escort Miss Lisle and Miss Kitty, and I don’t mind squiring you, Millie, but I draw the line at wholesale husband-hunting misses, however nice.”

 “I’ll come,” Mr Chubb put in with a stoic air, then blushed and said pleadingly to Kitty, “if you don’t mind.”

 “Of course not, but you must not feel obliged, sir. Lieutenant Pendrell promised to accompany his sisters, so we shall not be without male protection.”

 “I’ll come,” Mr Chubb repeated, this time with determination.

 Lord Selworth sighed. “I daresay I had best go too, in case you need protection against this lieutenant chap. Females tend to fall for a dashing scarlet coat without considering what sort of scoundrel is wearing it.”

 “Lieutenant Pendrell wears Rifle green,” Pippa informed him, “and he seems an inoffensive gentleman, not especially dashing.”

 “Ha! the better to humbug you,” Lord Selworth said with a grin. “Do you go, Mrs Lisle, Bina?”

 “Not if you will be there to guard the lambs against the wolf in rifleman’s clothing,” said Bina. “Mrs Lisle and I have plans to make.”

 The Pendrells arrived shortly, the young ladies in a smart barouche, their brother riding. On horseback, though his uniform was green, not scarlet, the lieutenant had a dashing air absent in the drawing room.

 His sisters were delighted to find two more gentlemen were to join their party, especially when they heard one was a lord. They fluttered their eyelashes at Lord Selworth, but accepted his utter lack of interest philosophically.

 As Millicent said, the Misses Pendrell were nice girls. There was not a great deal more to say about them, Pippa reflected, greeting them as Lord Selworth handed her into the carriage to join them. At least on first acquaintance, she corrected herself charitably.

 Respectively eighteen and seventeen years of age, Miss Pendrell and Miss Vanessa both had light brown hair, with rather vapid but not unattractive faces. Their clothes were smart, though with a tendency towards overadornment. They had an inexhaustible fund of chatter on clothes, the weather, entertainments, and the latest on-dit, without in any way rivalling Millicent. Millie, in her good-natured way, had already assured them that they might interrupt her without offence. Of this permission they availed themselves unstintingly.

 As the barouche rolled towards St James’s Park, Pippa, feeling ancient, was free to marvel at the dullness of the conversation without needing to join in. Miss Pendrell, seated beside her facing forward, occasionally turned to her politely as if to solicit her opinion. Luckily she was satisfied with an “Indeed,” or a “Good gracious.”

 Kitty appeared to be enjoying herself. When she glanced across at Pippa, it was with a sort of conspiratorial amusement. She could chatter away with the best of them, her eyes said, but was it not absurd?

 At first the narrow streets, and then the busy traffic of Piccadilly prevented the gentlemen’s riding alongside. When the barouche turned down Constitution Hill, between Green Park and the tree-hidden gardens of Buckingham House, Lord Selworth and the lieutenant at once moved forward on either side.

 “I hope the talk of walking was not a fudge,” Pippa said to the viscount in a low voice, though there was little fear of being overheard over Millicent’s prattle. “I am sorely in need of exercise after sitting in carriages and drawing rooms all day.”

 “Do you ride?” he asked, ignoring Miss Vanessa Pendrell’s attempts to catch his attention. “What a great deal I don’t know about you!”

 “How should you? No, I have never had a chance to learn to ride. I should have liked to learn, but I suppose I am too old now.”

 “Old! Don’t let Bina hear you saying such a thing. I’d be glad to teach you—but London is no place to learn,” he added hastily. “I’m thinking of buying a tilbury. I shall be able to take you driving, then. Chubb’s set on a stanhope gig, says it’s more practical.”

 “Why?”

 “It has a larger boot. Some tilburys don’t have a boot at all.”

 “The stanhope does sound more useful,” Pippa said, looking around for Mr Chubb.

 “But a tilbury is more sporting,” Lord Selworth argued.

 “If you want to be sporting, why not get a curricle? If you ever wish to use it for longer journeys, two horses are more practical than one. Oh, poor Mr Chubb!”

 On the other side of the barouche, Lieutenant Pendrell had positioned his mount so as to monopolize Kitty. Mr Chubb lurked beyond, scarcely able to see her, far less to exchange a word. He looked downcast but resigned, as if the situation was just what he had expected.

 Kitty was laughing merrily at something the officer had said to her. Pippa hoped her sister was too sensible to be swept off her feet by the glamour of a uniform.

 “Chubby’s no dashing blade, just a thoroughly good sort,” said Lord Selworth.

 “I do think you ought not to call him Chubby,” Pippa suggested tentatively. “I realize it comes from his name, but it cannot be comfortable having such a nickname. Whether it would be worse if he were actually chubby rather than thin as a rake, I cannot guess.”

 He stared down at her, eyebrows raised, a thoughtful look in his eyes. “You have a point there, Miss Lisle. It dates from our schooldays, of course. Boys are not the most sensitive of creatures, I fear, and the habit stuck without ever being consciously considered.”

 “It is really none of my business,” Pippa said in some confusion. “I beg your pardon.”

 “No, no, I’m glad you mentioned it. You have not only a kind heart but a perceptive mind.”

 Though pleased he should think her kind, Pippa did not at all wish him to see her as perceptive. To her relief, they came to the beginning of the Mall and Miss Pendrell called to the coachman to stop. They all got down to walk, the gentlemen leaving their horses with the coachman.

 Lieutenant Pendrell at once offered Kitty his arm and they strolled off towards the lake. Mr Chubb turned towards Pippa, but Lord Selworth had already determinedly appropriated her, positively seizing her hand and laying it on his arm.

 “I’m sorry to throw Chubb to the wolves,” he whispered, “but I’ll be dashed if I’ll sacrifice myself for him.”

 “You are far better able to hold your own,” she reproved him, though she could not but be flattered by his preference for her company.

 With an apprehensive glance at the three remaining young ladies, Mr Chubb decided to choose the devil he knew. “M-miss Warren,” he stammered with an uncertain gesture of his right hand.

 Without a pause in the flow of words, Millicent smiled at him and took his arm. The Misses Pendrell cast hopeful looks at Lord Selworth, but he promptly adopted a Napoleonic pose with his free hand thrust between his coat buttons, and bent his head to speak to Pippa.

 “Tell me when it’s safe to look up,” he hissed.

 “You are a coxcomb, sir,” she responded, trying hard not to laugh.

 Miss Pendrell hastened to take possession of Mr Chubb’s left arm, leaving Miss Vanessa to walk beside her. Bringing up the rear, Pippa saw Miss Pendrell address several questions to Mr Chubb. After a series of incoherent monosyllables in answer, she gave up and followed Millicent’s lead in talking past him as if he were not there.

 “As long as he’s not expected to speak, he’ll live through it,” said the callous viscount. “Speaking of speech, I don’t suppose you have had a chance to finish reading mine. Bina said you were all sewing away last night to finish your new gowns. Which are very becoming!” he added quickly, with a sidelong inspection which swept Pippa from yellow-ribboned bonnet past shawl of Norwich silk to the frill round the hem of her buttercup muslin gown.

 “I am persuaded, sir, that in spite of your sister’s mention of the sewing, you have not until this very moment spared the product so much as a glance.”

 “Untrue, ma’am! At least,” he said with a rueful grin, “even if I failed to pin down the cause, I was—am—aware of your being in particularly good looks today.”

 “Fine feathers make fine birds,” Pippa said tartly, but she was pleased with the compliment—only because the more he believed her concerned with her looks, the less he would suspect her secret. “Bina kindly did not mention that I was dismissed as a seamstress for bleeding onto my work.”

 “Bleeding! You were hurt?”

 “I did not mean to alarm you. I merely pricked my finger. Repeatedly. When it comes to needles I am all thumbs, I fear. However, my incompetence did allow me to finish reading your speech. Prometheus will soon be studying it.”

 “You have sent it off to him already? Thank you. Can you tell me how much I owe him for postage? I don’t wish to leave him out of pocket for longer than need be.”

 His request put Pippa in something of a quandary. She could not charge him for what had not been spent.

 “I was not sure whether Prometheus would have sufficient funds at hand to pay postage for so many sheets,” she said. “Sending a packet by the stage, paying half in advance, is much cheaper, and you did say there was no real need for haste. It will be easier to reckon up the total at the end, when the work is all finished.” And she would have time to think up a reason not to accept any money.

 He nodded. “As you wish. But you must promise to let me know at once if the delay in payment causes any difficulties. Tell me, when you said you are in need of exercise, is this what you had in mind?”

 “Heavens no. I would not call this a walk, scarcely even a saunter.”

 “A mere dawdle,” Lord Selworth agreed. “Let us see which way the others turn to circle the lake, and we shall go the opposite way.”

 “I ought to chaperon the girls,” Pippa said reluctantly.

 “Chaperon? My dear Miss Lisle, if Albinia, married with two children, is too young to assume that weighty mantle without aid, you are unquestionably ineligible. Besides, I believe Millicent, Chubb, and two sisters are watchdogs enough for the lieutenant. You don’t mean to hint that Chubb is a threat to Millie and the Misses Pendrell, I take it?”

 Laughing, Pippa shook her head. Reaching the lake, Kitty and Lieutenant Pendrell turned south, so Pippa and the viscount took the path along the north bank, walking at a brisk pace. Not until then did it dawn on her to ask herself whether it was quite proper for her to be alone with Lord Selworth.

 He seemed to see nothing amiss, and his conduct was not remotely lover-like—not that she had for a moment expected it. Their relationship was not of that sort. Chiding herself for missishness, she nonetheless removed her hand from his arm to point to the flock of white pelicans on the lake, and failed to replace it.

 Lord Selworth was interested in the pelicans and the other waterbirds swimming or resting on the grass under the willows and plane trees. Pippa knew no more than he about the rarer varieties, but they both vowed to look for an illustrated book and try to identify them. The spring flowers were easier: crocuses, daffodils, narcissus, cheeky-faced pansies and bright-hued polyanthus.

 Though Pippa had spent only a few months in London, Lord Selworth had spent less. She was able to point out to him, through gaps in the trees, the backs of St James’s Palace and Carlton House.

 Unfortunately, the sight of Carlton House brought to the viscount’s mind the Prince Regent’s debts and the rest of his iniquities. Pippa forced herself to murmur agreement to his strictures without adding her own ideas on the subject. Before temptation grew too great to be resisted, they came to the end of the lake.

 Before them the wide open space of the Parade Ground spread to the impressive buildings of the Horse Guards and the Admiralty. A crowd was gathering as a military band in scarlet, white and gold uttered a few preliminary toots on their gleaming brass instruments.

 “Oh, may we stay and listen?” Pippa cried.

 “Why not?” Lord Selworth turned to gaze back along the lake. “For a while, at least. The others will not catch up with us for a good five or ten minutes, and then we shall have as long again to catch up with them on the way back if they don’t wish to listen.”

 “Yes, much better than to dawdle back or to have to wait at the barouche for them. This sounds familiar,” Pippa said as the band struck up a rousing tune.

 “A march.”

 “By Handel, I fancy. Kitty plays it upon the spinet, and I have been known to attempt it. How splendid it sounds with trumpets and horns and drums!”

 “Perhaps you would have more success with a trumpet than a spinet,” Lord Selworth proposed when the march ended.

 “What a sensation that would create,” Pippa exclaimed, smiling up at him, “a female playing the trumpet! However, I think I should prefer the clarinet. I once heard a concerto for clarinet by Mozart. Is there not something wonderfully mellow about the clarinet?”

 Lord Selworth, it turned out, was unfamiliar with the clarinet, had, indeed, never attended a concert of the Philharmonic Society. Pippa, who had delighted in her one experience of orchestral music, advised him to purchase a ticket for the next performance.

 “I am sure you will find it agreeable,” she said.

 “If you will go with me and explain which parts I must particularly admire. We shall make up a party, of course,” he added hastily. “Your sister is musical, she will like to go too.”