Page 46 of Lady Dramatic
Chapter Twelve
Serenity had hopedto see Lord Thorpe at the gate of the square, but even through the fog she could perceive it was not him. Then she came close enough to discover it was Lord Charles.
He bowed and said, “Lady Serenity, I hope you do not mind me pushing into the dog walking. I was pressed by Lord Furtherington to walk his dog while he is out of Town. Apparently, the dog will not allow a servant to do it. It occurred to me that my home neighborhood would be a more pleasant location than the environs of The Albany.”
“Oh. Goodness,” Serenity said, really for lack of anything better to say.
“Lady Serenity,” a deep voice said, emerging from the fog. It was him. Lord Thorpe. He had come.
“Charles. What do you here?” Lord Thorpe said, the scowl in his voice rather apparent.
“I’m walking Lord Furtherington’s dog as a favor to him. I decided on this neighborhood as being the most amiable, which happens to be my own family’s neighborhood, I would remind you.”
“Silence!” Valor shouted.
Serenity sighed. Valor was meant to apologize. That was not a very promising start.
Valor stepped forward. “Lord Thorpe, I am very sorry about anything I may have written and then may have had deliveredto your house. It was a fit of pique due to my youth and I am forbidden to have dessert for a week. Though, I have not checked about having dessert in other people’s houses, so that might still be all right.”
She curtsied.
Lord Thorpe bowed. “Thank you, Lady Valor, but I have not seen such a letter. I imagine my butler removed it from my mail tray, suspecting it to be a pique of youth.”
“That was lucky!” Valor said, entirely believing that bit of nonsense. Though, Lord Thorpe was very gracious to pretend he’d not read it.
“As that is the case, I am certain that dessert at my house must be all right.”
“I would think so!” Valor said.
Just then, Nelson edged toward Lord Charles’ dog, which was a liver and white colored spaniel. The two dogs growled at each other. Then Havoc growled and the spaniel backed away and hid behind Lord Charles’ legs. Nelson wagged his tail as if he’d won the point.
“Perhaps separate those two dogs,” Mrs. Right said. “It seems they do not care for one another’s company.”
“Very good idea, Mrs. Right,” Lord Thorpe said. “Lady Serenity and I can walk ahead.”
“I have to go back in the house,” Valor said. “Winsome is to take me in, as my papa says I’ve already done enough this season, whatever that means.”
“She knows perfectly well what that means,” Winsome said, grasping Valor by the hand and pulling her away.
“I’m to stay, as I am the oldest but for Serenity, Patience, Grace, and Felicity,” Verity said. “Lord Charles, I will walk with you, as I understand quite a lot about spaniels and would wish to compare notes. What is his name?”
“Oh, uh, well, Lord Furtherington never said.”
“Ah, a usual thing for a lord to forget his dog’s name,” Verity said. “In particular with spaniels, I have heard said.”
Serenity smiled. Lord Charles was about to have a time of it. Whenever Verity claimed to know quite a lot about a subject it was bound to be peppered with nonsense and hopeful imaginings.
They proceeded through the gate and Nelson playfully jumped around Havoc who put up with it in all good humor. The fog that Serenity had at first found so inconvenient was now thought lovely. It blanketed the square in a soft hush. But really, it could be raining rocks and she would have found her circumstances lovely at this moment.
He had come. He had played off Valor’s ridiculous letter as if he’d not even read it. Lady Marchfield had been wrong.
They walked ahead in silence as Verity chattered on about all sorts of spaniel nonsense. Was Lord Charles really expected to believe that the word spaniel came from the original Latin for sprightly?
Apparently not, as Lord Charles had just pointed out that the wordalacerwas Latin for sprightly.
“You misunderstand, Lord Charles,” Verity said, “I am referring to the older Latin.”
Was there an older Latin? Serenity peeked up under her lashes and saw Lord Thorpe tightly pressing his lips together lest he laugh. It was a very good sign. Lady Marchfield thought her father’s household was drowning in eccentricity, but if it was, Lord Thorpe did not seem to mind it.
