Page 22

LOVE AND LOSS AT THE BASSETT BALL

Corinna woke early, her mind full of vague anxiety. Alick’s hand lay on her stomach and in stirring she woke him too. He pulled her into his arms and buried his face in her hair. ‘I hope you slept well.’

‘I did until just now when worries assailed me.’ She yawned and shaded her eyes against the shaft of early sun that streamed across the bed.

Alick propped himself on an elbow so he could see her face better. ‘Why? What concerns you, my love?’

‘Our guests. The reins are slipping from my fingers.’ She laughed. ‘You know how I don’t care to be out of control of events. We have so much to think of: your work on the estate, my painting, time with Emma and now our coming baby.’

Alick had flopped down on the pillow again, his right arm slipping around her shoulders. ‘Tell me what Miss Gray and Mr Flynn are up to that concerns you.’

‘Eliza really needs to find her family and I’m not sure where we can begin in that quest. We have no clues, as I had with my father’s gifts. But she has such a distinctive look, I can only hope someone recognises her.’

‘That seems unlikely but it’s all beyond our control anyway.’

It calmed Corinna’s mind to feel her husband’s physical warmth and strength of character.

She looked up into his face. ‘I know. But without meaning to be, Eliza’s quite a disruptive presence.

I’ve never known Raven so out of sorts; he’s even breaking his lifelong insistence on sleeping until noon.

These last days, he’s been up early to exercise Horatio himself! ’

Alick laughed. ‘Don’t you worry. Purfoy’s proof against the most irresistible siren. He’s made sure his heart has turned to stone. I’m not sure it’s Miss Gray’s fault he’s out of his cot before noon.’

Corinna stirred, disconsolate. ‘Then there’s your wild relation from across the seas. He goes missing late at night. Ferdy says he leaves the club to go off to some show or pursue some lady love. Is he over here to find a wife or just to kick over the traces?’

Alick’s left hand had begun to trace the blue veins beneath his wife’s luminous skin. He murmured in her ear, ‘I know he intends to buy a fine horse, which is probably a cheaper option.’

Corinna sat up abruptly, her eyes flashing and her hair in disarray. ‘Alick, take this seriously!’

He chuckled. ‘I’m finding it very hard to do so when you’re so close to me and in such dishabille.’ He pulled her to him again and enfolded her in his arms. ‘I love your body swelling with our child. You are impossible to resist, darling Corinna!’

Corinna’s face was under his chin and she remonstrated weakly as his lips moved slowly down her neck. ‘I’m trying to talk to you about our troublesome guests and need your advice.’

‘Well, wait until you’ve put on something to wear.

I can’t think of anything but you when you’re in my arms, smelling so sweet and warm, rosy as the dawn.

’ His voice was muffled against her skin.

In a deft movement Corinna extricated herself and skipped to the chair where his silk banyan had been tossed the previous night.

Tying it firmly high above her swelling belly she returned to sit beside him on the bed.

He looked at her, his hair unruly and his brown eyes full of amusement and desire.

Corinna was thoughtful. ‘I feel a strange protectiveness towards Eliza. Is it just because she has not known a mother’s love and care?’

Alick stretched his arms behind his head and with his eyes on his wife’s face said, ‘It may be you recognise your own plight in her. Your lack of family and need to belong somewhere. But you cannot be responsible for the whole world, my darling.’

‘I fear the irresponsible are easier to love,’ she said with a rueful smile.

He grasped her hand. ‘Your care for me, for our children, for everyone in your orbit just makes you more desirable. I love you more than life, Corinna. My idea of paradise is to have you in my arms, pregnant with new life, with baby Emma beside us.’

She threw back her head and purred with pleasure. ‘Well, I love you, darling Alick.’ Then she added with a laugh, ‘But I have no intention of being permanently with child, I assure you.’

She was still laughing as he pulled her back into bed. He buried his hands in her hair while gazing at her lovely face. ‘That may well be so, Mrs Wolfe, but we both know you positively enjoy the hurly-burly of the marriage bed.’

‘Oh Alick, shame on you!’ She gave him a playful push and made as if to get up.

Undeterred, he put out his hand. ‘Come, we have a few more moments left to us to be irresponsible.’ Her protestations petered out as their lips met in their familiar embrace.

Maybe Corinna would have been less carefree had she known that Eliza Gray had early that morning tiptoed out of the house wearing breeches and Ferdy Shilton’s schoolboy jacket and Eton hat.

* * *

Eliza had woken as dawn was breaking. Her pulse immediately quickened as she remembered the adventure that lay ahead.

There would be so many fine horses to see and perhaps even to ride.

She dressed hurriedly in the borrowed breeches and shirt.

She could only really judge a horse’s movement if she rode astride but was aware she had to maintain her boyish masquerade as there was always room for scandal if a young woman was detected in such a disguise.

She was slightly built and the clothes fitted well enough, but her long hair was a problem.

She quickly wove two thick plaits and coiled and pinned them on her head before clamping them under Ferdy’s old top hat.

Eliza glanced at herself in the glass and thought she looked quite passable as a young man.

She felt liberated to be free of the encumbrance of skirts and ran round to the mews feeling as light as a gazelle.

She found Taz had saddled up his own hunter and was just about to put the side saddle on Clio.

When he saw Eliza, his knowing eyes widened and he chuckled.

He had last seen these clothes on Corinna when she was a slip of a girl and could carry off the disguise.

He ducked back into the saddlery to bring out a regular saddle which he secured on Clio’s back.

They heard the clop of hooves on the cobbles and Zadoc Flynn appeared from the neighbouring Wolfe mews, sitting high on his big hunter.

His expression registered surprise at the sight of Eliza in masculine clothes and his blue eyes gleamed.

She said brusquely, ‘If you want me to give my opinion, I have to ride the beast astride.’ She then sprang up into the saddle as lightly as Taz himself.

Taz led the way. ‘We’d best go across the Park.

Head for the turnpike.’ It was so early that only tradesmen’s carts were on the streets, the boys scampering up and down the basement steps of the big houses, delivering meat, vegetables and flowers brought in daily from the market gardens surrounding the city.

Once they entered the Park they rode through the trees where mist still lay in drifts like sea-foam across the wet grass. Mr Flynn could not contain the excitement in his voice. ‘Tattersalls must have quite an area to stable the horses and provide an exercising ring.’

Taz grunted in reply, ‘Mr Tattersall has as much space as the Horse Guard Barracks just down the road.’

Eliza rode Clio up to Zadoc who seemed disconcerted by the sudden sight of her slender thigh beside his, clearly outlined in breeches. She asked in a low voice, ‘Does Lord Purfoy know you’ve borrowed Taz for the morning?’

‘He does, but didn’t appear too enthusiastic about it. I don’t think he approves of me.’

Eliza said in an amused voice, ‘He doesn’t approve of anyone apart from Taz. Oh, and he has a sneaking regard for Mrs Wolfe.’

Mr Flynn gave her a sidelong look. ‘I don’t think the noble gentleman is aware I’ve asked you to give your opinion too. No doubt I’ve flouted some central rule of English etiquette.’

‘Well, Mr Flynn, I know you care little for that! But really, I’m as much an outsider as you. Just as uncouth.’

‘That’s not true at all. It’s clear you’re an English lady, despite everything.’

Taz heard this last exchange and never one to stand on ceremony, or show due deference, added his pithy opinion. ‘Yon Miss Gray’s more than a lady, sir. None I know can ride like ’er or dismount a steed with an acrobat’s tumble.’

‘Thank you, Taz, for revealing my shame.’ She was laughing and then caught sight of Mr Flynn’s surprised expression.

‘You see how uncouth I truly am!’ They had just turned down Grosvenor Place and there facing them was Tattersalls Horse Repository, painted in large black letters over the entrance.

Inside was a spacious half-covered yard with a stone rotunda and the stables all facing inwards, some with the heads of their curious occupants surveying the activities around them.

Stable boys were busy cleaning out the straw and preparing the mounts to ride out for exercise.

A smartly dressed man in a dark coat and tall top hat greeted them, introducing himself as Mr Tattersall.

Mr Flynn dismounted and shook his hand. He passed over a letter of credit from Drummonds Bank and the man visibly paled at the sight of the guarantee of such a significant sum of money.

He gazed on the party of Mr Flynn, Eliza and Taz with renewed respect.

Their mounts were taken to be stabled while Mr Tattersall summoned his best horses to be made ready for the parade.

Eliza was filled with excited wonder at the sight of so many stables and as many fine horses under one roof. Her heart ached for Percy. She did not expect him to miss her as acutely as she missed him, but could not believe she would never see him again.