Page 53 of Henrietta

Recollecting she ought to seem more crestfallen by the absence of her long-lost love – rather than quite pleased to have him already beside her – Hetty arranged her expression into a moue of disappointment.

‘Are you well?’

Hetty arranged her face out of the moue.

‘Have you spoken yet? Perhaps he has asked you to save him a dance.’

‘No,’ she admitted. ‘But it is yet early in the evening.’

That, however, was a crime to Arthur’s mind. Why, from the way the fellow had been speaking to Hetty this afternoon, one might well expect a proposal by the end of the week – and yet now, hours later, he did not even ask for a dance? It did not speak at all well to his character. Neither, Arthur thought darkly, did he care for the ostentation of the fellow’s waistcoat.

‘Are you so wholly set on the fellow, Hetty?’ he said, eyes lingering unfavourably upon the excessive folds of Nicolet’s cravat.

Hetty paused. ‘Why?’

‘I think it would be worth proceeding with caution,’ Arthur said. ‘When I first agreed to help you, I had no idea he would be so …’

‘You would have me give up already?’ Hetty wondered, rather crestfallen. Did he truly think her case so hopeless? ‘It has not been so long after all, and such things do take time.’

Arthur did not look in the least unconvinced by this laissez-faire approach. ‘One does not hasten them by waiting in such a way. You should at the least show him he has some competition. Come, pretend to flirt with me.’

Hetty stilled. ‘Would that not be thought odd?’

For some reason, Arthur found this strangely irritating. ‘I do not think so. Come—’

He drew her further away from the dance floor to a more secluded position by the wall – so that it might seem, as he explained, that they were enjoying an intimate tête-à-tête.

‘How should that – ah – look exactly?’

‘Oh, it is the simplest thing in the world,’ he assured her. ‘I would only …’

He took a step towards her and tilted his head further down towards hers, and it shouldn’t have made such a difference, only suddenly Hetty did not think she could breathe.

‘You see?’

Hetty saw.

‘Look at me as though you might be in love with me – can you manage that?’

Hetty wondered when, exactly, her life had begun to resemble one of the theatrical farces of which Trixie was so fond. ‘I think so.’

‘Perhaps you might blush again – yes, very good, Hetty!’ he praised her. ‘I did not know you had such aptitude for the dramatics. Now, perhaps you might laugh, as if I have said something very amusing.’

Hetty let out an odd chuckle through barely parted lips – as one might do if one had read an explanation of laughter from a book, but never seen the thing done in real life.

‘On reflection, perhaps do not laugh,’ Arthur decided. ‘Could you try to pretend I have said something absolutely fascinating?’

‘Could you try to say something absolutely fascinating?’ Hetty countered with some asperity. Then, more calmly, she asked: ‘How did you fare with Thimbleby?’

For a moment, Arthur considered resisting this turn of conversation, but decided against it. ‘We shall be able to pay all our most pressing creditors by the end of the week.’

A smile spread across Hetty’s face. ‘That is wonderful, Arthur! Reason to celebrate, surely?’

Arthur did not feel much like celebrating. ‘It is not enough,’ he explained simply. ‘I have rid myself of every easily disposable asset I have, and still, all it will do is stopper the tide.’

‘But … the mangel-wurzels,’ Hetty said, rather pathetically.

‘Investing in winter crops would be expedient, but an almighty expense, as indeed are all the repairs the estate requires. I need funds: which is why I have decided to sell the deer park.’