Page 12

LEARNING TO BE A LADY

The Wolfe household was a hive of activity when Eliza returned from her morning ride.

Zadoc Flynn was already in the breakfast room laughing with Alick about a report in The Sporting Magazine of a duel fought by two ‘Gentlemen from New York’ who continued to shoot at each other and miss until a Mr Bartout, known to Mr Flynn, was finally wounded in the calf and limped away.

Still chuckling at the idiocies of life, both looked up as Eliza entered.

They sprang to their feet. ‘Good morning, Miss Eliza,’ Alick said, pulling out a chair for her.

Zadoc looked at her quizzically. ‘I’d like to join you on a ride tomorrow. Would you be agreeable to showing me the Park?’

Eliza answered with a smile, ‘Of course. I meet Taz, Lord Purfoy’s groom, at seven in the morning, if it’s not too early for you?’

Alick said, ‘I think I can find you a sturdy hunter. Purfoy’s horses are high-bred beasts, perhaps too light for you.’

Eliza realised she had to change out of her riding habit before she could join them for breakfast, so bobbed a quick curtsey and dashed up the stairs to slip into a morning dress of spotted grey muslin.

She attempted to make her mass of fair hair look a little neater.

How much easier it was when she could just plait it as she did at the circus when not performing.

Confecting even a simple coiffure demanded three hands to deal with the quantity of unruly hair that wanted to spring out into waves and tendrils.

Returned to the breakfast room, she sat down with a cup of coffee just as Corinna entered with Emma on her hip.

‘Now don’t forget, Miss Eliza and Mr Flynn will be needed for dancing lessons later this morning when I’ve booked Mrs Wilson’s services.

’ Eliza cast a doubtful glance at Mr Flynn.

She had forgotten that Corinna was set on taking her and their new American visitor to the Bassett ball, and had determined that both her unexpected guests would be able to acquit themselves well in the best society.

Gibbons then announced the arrival of Lord Purfoy. Their neighbour strode into the room, as immaculately accoutred as ever. Alick hailed him with a chuckle. ‘Rav! This is far too early for you. Are you well, old friend?’

It was true that his lordship’s day rarely began before noon but the comfortable patterns of his life had been unexpectedly disturbed by the dramatic arrival of Eliza, then disconcerted further by this uncouth intruder from America who unaccountably irritated him.

He could not remain luxuriating in bed, taking a few hours over his toilette, catching up on the news from The Times and his domestic correspondence while he knew that next door, this hog-jowled American was holding court with his coloured-up tales of travel and derring-do.

Overhearing Corinna’s plan for the dancing classes made him bridle; this man was over-familiar and the idea of him dancing with Corinna, or Eliza, made an unwelcome curl of unease rise in his breast. Raven Purfoy did not care for this feeling and could not fathom the reason; neither of these women were his responsibility except that he’d almost killed one and once had his heart touched by the other.

‘I’m no company for anyone until I’ve had some coffee,’ he murmured, catching Corinna’s eye.

She laughed. ‘I was about to hand Emma to you while I poured you a cup but then I remembered that when it comes to infants, you’re more of a Herod than a St Nicholas.’

Purfoy gave her a sly smile as he subsided into a chair.

‘It’s a mercy I didn’t ask you to marry me, Cory.

You’ve proved far too keen on maternity for my taste.

’ Alick had taken his daughter from his wife and went in search of the child’s nurse, while Corinna poured out second cups of coffee for her guests.

Raven looked round the room and greeted everyone with an incline of his head.

‘All we need now is Ferdy to walk through that door and the old band of bucks will be together again. Those were the days, before Alick was domesticated.’

Corinna passed him an almond biscuit. ‘Hush, Rav. You and Ferdy one day will also marry and become better men because of it!’

Eliza had been listening to this banter and, try as she might, she could not prevent her own heart from beating a little faster.

From the moment she had first seen Lord Purfoy, as she lay bleeding on the roadside, she had thought him beautiful in the same way her horse Percy was beautiful, with his haughty, aristocratic head.

She loved their habit of command, their natural arrogance and nobility and grace, although Percy never narrowed his lustrous eyes in the sly way Lord Purfoy did.

But Eliza was not entirely certain Percy wouldn’t get cranky and give her a warning bite, and she sensed a similar unpredictability in this high-bred human.

She knew she would have to tell him the truth of her life as far as she knew it.

And she was certain he would then disdain her for her dishonour in deceiving him – in deceiving them all.

Just at that moment, Mr Shilton was announced by Gibbons and the room was immediately sunnier with his arrival in an expensively tailored sea-green coat and buttercup-yellow pantaloons, appearing as cheerful as a daffodil.

Zadoc Flynn looked up from The Sporting Magazine and rose to his feet to greet both the men who had joined the party.

‘I find I could easily become accustomed to this leisured way of life.’

Ferdy Shilton’s face was merry. ‘We know no other. No English gentleman worth his name would dream of being industrious. Against our code, don’t you know? Just consider Lord Byron; he refuses all pecuniary gain for those books of poetry sold in their thousands, much to his publisher’s delight.’

‘Well, I’m no English gentleman then.’

Raven Purfoy gave a slow smile. ‘You do things differently in the colonies.’

‘A colony no longer.’ Mr Flynn’s riposte was uncharacteristically sharp.

Alick interrupted the conversation by hailing the new arrival. ‘Ferdy! Where were you last night? You were missed at the club, you know.’

‘I went to Astley’s.’

‘Again?’ Alick raised an eyebrow.

‘Why not? I wished to see the horses. A particularly fine black one I have my eye on.’

‘With a particularly fine lady riding on his back, no doubt.’ All the men laughed.

Ferdinand Shilton was offended by their levity. ‘Actually no. The Winged Venus has flown away. She was no longer in the show.’

Lord Purfoy’s eyes were on Eliza’s face and she felt her colour rise. ‘I wonder why, and where to. It’s quite a conundrum… is it not?’ he drawled.

Zadoc Flynn responded in his friendly way, ‘But there was another fine equestrian there. A good-looking filly she was too.’

‘You were at Astley’s with Ferdy?’ Purfoy gave him a piercing look.

‘He knew I had some fine bloodstock at home and thought I’d like to see the circus horses. Pretty they are too. But I’m sorry to have missed the Winged Venus. Mr Shilton sang her praises to the skies.’

Eliza could bear the deceit no longer and knew that it was now that she would have to tell them the truth.

Corinna had just re-entered the room and her presence gave her courage.

She stood up, her cheeks pink, and said, ‘I have something shaming to admit to you all. I can only apologise from the bottom of my heart for not telling the truth at the time.’ The men’s eyes were rapt on her face and Eliza took a deep breath and clenched her fists to maintain her resolve.

‘When Lord Purfoy knocked me down in the street, I was running away from Prebbles Flying Circus.’

Ferdy Shilton looked thunderstruck. ‘No! You’re not Clorinda?’

Zadoc Flynn did not fully understand the social gulf between an itinerant circus performer’s life and the high society his relation and family and friends inhabited.

‘So, you’re this famous trick rider? I’m pleased to make your acquaintance.

We have such skilled horsemen in America but they’re men, the best being the Sioux Indians. ’

Lord Purfoy’s eyes narrowed as he responded, ‘Sioux Indians being rather thin on the ground in this country, such horsemen come mainly from Irish stock, and women are a rarity. For good reason.’ His voice was stern and uncompromising.

He turned his intense gaze on Eliza. ‘You seem rather out of place in such reckless company. How did you become a circus performer, may I ask?’

The room was silent and attentive as she answered, ‘When I was seven I became separated from my nurse while we were visiting Bath. Mrs Prebble found me and took me back to the circus. She trained me as a tumbler and dancer on horseback.’

This news upset Ferdinand Shilton greatly. He did not like his settled view of the world disturbed. Here was someone who had been deprived of her natural place in society, possibly even a member of the nobility, and it made him uneasy. ‘So who are your family? Where are they?’

‘I don’t know. I ran away from the circus in the hopes of finding them and to have a more settled life.’

Corinna interrupted, her voice filled with emotion.

‘I understand this well. I longed to find out where I fitted in the world, and you friends…’ She hesitated as her voice broke and she looked from Mr Shilton and Lord Purfoy to her husband, then continued, ‘You three helped me do just that. I’ve extended the hospitality you showed me to Miss Gray until she discovers what happened to her all those years ago. ’

‘Aha, no longer Miss Mysterious, but Miss Gray now. We must all be grateful your memory has returned,’ his lordship murmured while crossing his legs and leaning back in his chair.

Eliza sat down. It was done. The truth was out and no one yet had turned away. In fact, Mr Flynn said casually, ‘Where I come from, most people have lost touch with their families. There’s a freedom to it, you know.’