CHAPTER XVI #2
Arthur did not go directly home after this meeting.
Having left Mrs Ridley’s home with no clearer path forward than when he had entered it, instead – deep in thought – he made an about-turn towards Hyde Park, which he reached at the hour of four o’clock.
It was a piece of most unfortunate timing for Miss Trixie Allerton who happened, at that precise moment, to be enjoying a secret meeting with Captain Edgewood.
This was the fourth such encounter between the pair.
Captain Edgewood was far too experienced a hunter to pursue his quarry too closely, and once he had even sent an apology by way of a post boy, profuse enough that she could forgive his forgetfulness, which – alongside a precise prescription of flattery with belittlement – was intended to create in her a hunger for his company which he might soon be able to use to his advantage.
He was not displeased by the results of his efforts, and had judged Miss Trixie Allerton as being a fair way towards falling in love with him already.
This afternoon, however, he had been irked to find his work cut out for him: not only had he had to spend a perplexing amount of time assuring Miss Allerton that he did not have, and nor did he plan to acquire, gout, but still less pleasing had it been to discover that Miss Allerton’s enjoyment of their secret meetings was now wearing thin.
For what, as she demanded, was the point of being courted by someone if no one knew about it?
‘We have spoken of this. My reputation—’
‘Yes, yes,’ she said rather impatiently – for she was now less enamoured by discussions of his torrid reputation than she had been on their first encounter. ‘It is all very well, but could you not try to pay us a morning visit?’
Captain Edgewood was not at all interested in paying her a morning visit, for – knowing as he did how little the family were likely to approve of him – this would be rather unpleasant work, and he had a strong aversion to unpleasantness.
No, there were far easier means of being granted access to the Allerton funds.
For, though Captain Edgewood was by no means eager to enter prematurely into the marital state, he was even less eager to enter a state of poverty, which seemed – now his aunt had entirely removed her support – the only other option left to him.
‘Morning visits?’ he repeated, as if he found this charming. ‘My my, Miss Allerton, I had no idea you were so conventional.’
‘I am not conventional!’ she insisted. ‘It is all very well thinking one is above such things, but all we are doing is walking and walking – I do not see that tea and biscuits are so different to that!’ She twirled her parasol rather grumpily upon the ground.
She had thought that having an affair with an adventurer would involve more excitement.
‘I should like to dance with you one of these days.’
Observing that he was on the cusp of losing her, Captain Edgewood decided it was time for decisive action. ‘That can easily be arranged. I am joining a party at the Opera House this evening. Would you care to enjoy your second masquerade?’
Trixie bit her lip. She was, indeed, sorely tempted.
‘We intend to wear historical costume,’ he pressed her, causing Trixie to imagine all the admiration she would receive for her Anne Boleyn garb.
‘I have been wanting to go, but … they would never let me.’
‘Are you in the habit, very much, of doing what you are told?’
It was just as Trixie was deliberating upon this very provocative question that Arthur, rounding the corner, was assaulted by the unwelcome sight of his younger sister, chaperoned only by a maid a full fifteen paces behind her, in close quarters with a gentleman he would have no compunction describing as a rogue.
‘Good afternoon, Trixie!’
Trixie started at his sudden appearance. ‘Arthur!’ She flushed a little, and then raised her chin – torn between embarrassment and defiance.
‘Let us return home now, Trixie.’
Arthur made no attempt to give an elegant excuse, taking Trixie’s arm in his and pulling her a little away.
Captain Edgewood bowed, a smile curling the corners of his mouth into an expression so smug that Arthur would have struck it from his face had they not been in public.
Instead, he leant forward with a smile upon his face: ‘If I find you in my sister’s company, again, you miserable little snirp, you shall have cause to regret it. ’
Captain Edgewood had been called many terrible things, but never a snirp – and as little as he would ever show it, being insulted in such a way by a person wearing such a bright smile was more unsettling than being shouted at.
Not wishing to discover if the manic edge to Allerton’s expression spoke to incipient madness, he made no retort and no objection to Arthur taking his sister away at a fast clip.
Only the knowledge of what a scene there would be if she resisted had Trixie obeying. ‘How dare you drag me away in such a way!’ she hissed.
‘Keep smiling!’ Arthur instructed her. ‘We do not wish anyone to see that we’re having a disagreement, now, do we?’
‘I am not a child!’
‘Your behaviour has done nothing to prove that,’ he said pleasantly. ‘For clarity, Trixie: being forbidden from speaking with Captain Edgewood does, in fact, include intimate walks together in the park.’
Trixie raised her chin. ‘Unless you explain to me your objection to him, I do not see why I should listen to you!’
Arthur pinched his nose between thumb and forefinger. He did not think he had the fortitude to explain such a thing to his eighteen-year-old sister at that moment. ‘Not now, Trixie. Can you not simply take my word?’
‘No!’ she fired back at him.
They marched along in silence for ten whole minutes, both refusing to look at one another, until – slowly – the fire in Arthur’s veins began to die down
‘Let us not fall out,’ he appealed to the side of Trixie’s face. She still refused to look at him. He cast about for a suitable olive branch and, perceiving they were now close to Gunter’s Tea Shop, suggested: ‘Shall we have an ice?’
‘I do not find myself hungry,’ Trixie said coldly.
‘I am, however.’
The afternoon was warm, and they were not the only ones to have halted with just such an intention.
A waiter, dodging about the street to take orders from horses and carriages alike, soon had theirs taken.
Though it was possible to enjoy one’s sorbet within the establishment, it had become habitual practice of the ton to order their confections to enjoy outside, in their carriages or the square itself.
It had been Trixie’s intent to coldly refuse all sustenance, but the offer of a jasmine-flavoured ice proved too tempting, and really, why ought she punish herself when Arthur had been the wrongdoer?
As a compromise, when the dessert was delivered to her, she began to eat it with such hauteur that Arthur could not help but let out a snort of laughter.
It was the worst thing he could have done. Outraged to be treated with such disrespect, Trixie’s mind was immediately made up. Later that very afternoon she sent a note round to the Captain to confirm that she would indeed, accept his invitation to the masquerade.