Page 16 of A Much Maligned Miss

Lord Atherton obliged as Caroline regarded him with mingled emotion. She felt indignation that he should have hijacked her alias thus. Penthesilia indeed! Whoever had heard of something so outlandish! On the other hand, he was currently forking over a not inconsiderable amount of money to purchase her ticket. This ensured she could not really be too cross.

“Pomfrey?” he murmured as he handed her up into the coach.

“Penthesilia?” she shot back before she could stop herself.

Instead of climbing in after her, he turned back to exchange some words with their fellow traveler. Caroline wondered if he was indeed bribing the burly man to sit up top with the mail guards. What a strange thing to do, extravagant too when he purported to have no money!

Moments later he joined her, slamming the door shut after him.

“I take it you were successful with your bribe,” she said, watching out of the window as the other man gestured toward the roof.

“Naturally,” he answered coolly. “Was there any doubt over the matter?”

“The poor man might not have had a head for heights,” she suggested, rallying.

“Have you seen him? The fellow positively radiates robust practicality.” When she continued to frown, he settled back into his seat. “You should be flattered I am so keen to get you all to myself,” he said. “Why are you so put out? Confess, it’s because I changed your name, is it not?” A slow smile curved his lips.

Drat the man. He had no right to be so attractive when he was simultaneously so vexing! “Yes, why did you do that?” Caroline replied forthrightly. “It was—well—” Words failed as her manners returned with full force. What was she doing upbraiding him when she was so overwhelmingly in his debt?

“High-handed?” Gervaise proposed, tipping his head to one side. “Don’t turn all reticent on me now, Penthesilia. Not when you were so delightfully forthcoming last night.”

How in the world did he manage to infuse his words with so much…suggestion? Caroline wondered. “Yes, it was somewhat high-handed,” she agreed in a stifled voice. “What do you have against the name Penelope in any case?”

“It’s all wrong for you,” he answered dismissively. “I told you, you resembled nothing so much as a wild follower of Dionysus last night. You were absolutely nothing like a model of fidelity.” At her blank look, he added. “Odysseus’s faithful wife was named Penelope.”

“Oh. Was Penthesilia a maenad, then?”

“No,” he admitted. “She was an amazon.”

An amazon? Somewhat appeased, Caroline settled back into her seat. “You can picture me as a female warrior?” she asked hopefully.

“Not at all, but you hampered me by saying Penelope. It was the closest thing I could think of. Also, I could not remember any actual maenad names off the top of my head.”

“Well, I think Penelope Pomfrey rolls off the tongue a good deal easier than Penthesilia Pomfrey,” Caroline maintained with dignity. “Do you mean to tell me all your cousins have such peculiar names?”

“No,” he reflected. “I only have one cousin, whose name is Louisa. Our family tree has dwindled to an almost alarming degree. None bear our illustrious name these days apart from myself and my uncle.”

“Your cousin then…?”

“Her mother was my aunt Deborah. She married a very dull fellow named Yaxton but he did own half of Berkshire.”

“So, your cousin Louisa must be a considerable heiress?”

He nodded. “She married a Holcombe, a prestigious family, though Freddie is a younger brother.”

“I do not have any cousins,” Caroline admitted wistfully. “It is a good deal too bad, for I always thought I would like one.”

“Well, for the duration of this journey, I am your cousin,” he reminded her. “You may satisfy all your cousinly impulses with me.”

Caroline eyed him askance. “The cousin I imagined was always female,” she told him firmly. “We would have confided all our secrets in one another and written weekly letters back and forth.”

Lord Atherton smothered a yawn. “If you had been blessed with such a cousin doubtless, she too would have fallen prey to your mama’s propaganda, rather like that tiresome head girl of yours. What was her name? Belinda Jarrow?”

Caroline caught her breath. “Are you saying—” She stumbled over her words. “Sorry, are you saying you do not believe my reputation is earned?” she asked, quite shocked.

He gave a short laugh. “Of course not,” he answered bluntly. “Though if you had been undutiful I would not have blamed you in the slightest. If she was my mother, I would have pushed her down a well years ago.”

Caroline’s mouth dropped open. “B-but why do you not believe it?” she stammered. “No one else ever had the smallest doubt!”