Horror filled Melusine and she jumped up. ‘Lucy, do not say that you have told everyone all that I have done?’
‘Well, yes, but—’
Consternation filled Melusine’s breast. ‘But you are idiot. This is not the conduct of a jeune demoiselle. This I know, for the Valades have taught me so, and the nuns also. How will I get an Englishman to wed me if they know that I behave not at all comme il faut?’
‘Perhaps the Englishman in question will not care,’ suggested Prudence, with a twinkle in her eye for which Melusine was quite unable to account.
‘Not care? For this he must be an Englishman tout à fait sympathique, and—and I know only...’
Melusine’s voice petered out. Fearful that she had given herself away, she sank back down onto her stool. Despair engulfed her at the horrid remembrance that the one particular Englishman she knew to be sympathique did not at all wish to marry her.
Lucy’s bright tones pursued her. ‘Never fear, my love. I’ve made no mention of guns and daggers or, indeed, any of the more exciting aspects of the business.’
Melusine turned her head. ‘But you have told them that I have been disguised, no? That I have broken into Remenham House, and—’
‘No, no, child, don’t be alarmed,’ said her great-aunt, her tone soothing. ‘Why, you have heard yourself all that is being said. Have we not received Lady Bicknacre just this morning? Not to mention the Comtesse de St Erme.’
‘And was not she put out?’ demanded Miss Froxfield with a tinkling laugh. ‘How she pouted, and tried to make out that she had been imposed upon. As if it were she, and not Melusine, who had been hurt by the imposters.’
‘In a way she had been,’ said Prudence. ‘She has constituted herself leader of the émigrés here, and feels justifiably slighted by having taken the pretend Valades under her wing.’
‘Lady Bicknacre too,’ said Lucilla, a delight in her voice that grated on Melusine. ‘Both of them so wise after the event. The comtesse always felt Madame Valade to be not of her class, of course. While Lady Bicknacre had never trusted Valade. What a treat to see all the old tabbies taken at fault for once!’
‘You are a dreadful child,’ scolded Mrs Sindlesham, with which Melusine could not but agree, despite the dimple rioting in her great-aunt’s cheek. ‘You see, Melusine, that none of our visitors were as informed as they would wish to be. They know only that the Valades have practised an imposture which affects all society, and some will think your adventures excessively romantic.’
‘Pah! How can it be romantic? That is silly.’
‘People are silly. They cannot imagine the discomforts involved, and they see only mystery in your fight to recover your lost heritage. But the factor of overriding interest is that they have all met and approved the said imposters. I dare say it will be chattered about for weeks.’
The idiocy of it all irritated Melusine. ‘I begin to ask myself why it is that I wish to become of these people.’
‘We are not all of us so empty-headed, Melusine,’ pleaded Miss Froxfield.
A rare moment of amusement lightened Melusine’s mood for a moment. ‘You are extremely empty-headed, Lucy. So says your capitaine.’
Lucy giggled. ‘Hilary is a darling.’
‘This is what you say of him? Me, I find he is growling all the time like a dog.’
As if to bear her out, the door opened at this precise moment to admit Saling, who barely announced Captain Roding before the man himself strode into the room.
His eyes swept the company, and fell upon Melusine with a glare.
‘Ha! Just the person I want. Where the devil have you hidden all those weapons? Don’t tell me you’ve got ’em with you.’
Annoyance sent Melusine leaping to her feet. ‘Certainly I have them with me. But what affair is this of yours?’
But Captain Roding was not attending. Instead, he was bowing to her great-aunt. ‘Beg your pardon, ma’am, but she’s enough to try the patience of a saint.’
‘Eh bien, you are not a saint,’ Melusine snapped.
To her chagrin, he ignored her, and turned a venomous eye on his betrothed. ‘And what the devil do you mean by demanding that I wait on you here? D’you think I haven’t enough to do handling that caper-witted female’s affairs, without dancing attendance on you?’
‘Don’t be cross,’ begged Lucilla, much to Melusine’s disgust.
She watched her friend rise and go towards her affianced husband, a look of mischief in her face.
‘Do you think I could bear to be without you for a moment longer? I am quite jealous of Melusine taking up all your attention.’
It was immediately evident that Lucilla Froxfield was not as silly as Melusine had thought, for the face of her captain immediately changed and he took her hands, a look on his face that caused Melusine an instant pang. Would that a certain major might cast upon her such a look.
‘Didn’t mean it, love. Know that, don’t you?’
‘Of course I know it,’ Lucy told him, and Melusine read the whisper in her mouth of those precious words, ‘I love you.’
Melusine watched with a tightness in her chest as Captain Roding kept hold of Lucy’s hand, even as he turned back to Prudence.
‘Truth is, it’s Gerald who’s put me in the devil’s own temper, ma’am. Gone off, cool as you please, and left me to manage everything.’
‘Gone off?’ repeated Melusine, her wrongs rising up to tear into her chest. ‘To where has he gone off?’
‘No use asking me,’ shrugged the captain. ‘That fellow of yours is a deal better, by the by. Should be home soon.’
The shift threw Melusine’s attention off the errant major for the moment. ‘Jacques? Oh, that is news of the very finest. You saw him? You have been to Remenham House?’
‘Remenham House? I wish I’d been only to Remenham House. Feels as if I’ve been dashing back and forth about the whole country, if you want to know.’
‘But tell,’ demanded Melusine impatiently.
