Just Deserts (10 page)

‘
If that is his notion of gallantry,’ Persephone sneered,
‘he will not go far with Pen, I promise you.’

Fitz laughed but made no comment on this. ‘Your sister was
in the right of it, you know. You have the best seat I have ever
seen. You will take the shine out of all our
equestriennes.’

Persephone’s fine eyes met his in a straight look. ‘I am no
target for gallantry, sir, so pray do not trouble yourself to
invent pretty speeches for my benefit.’

‘
I spoke nothing but the truth,’ Fitz protested. ‘As for
gallantry, I am afraid you will have to accustom yourself to that.’
He read a retort in her eye and added, ‘But let us not talk of such
trivialities. Tell me instead how you come to be so excellent a
horsewoman.’

Persephone thawed a little. ‘I had an excellent
teacher.’

‘
Your father?’

‘
No, indeed. Papa has little interest in horses. He began as
my father’s head groom, I believe. But latterly he had overall
charge of the stables.’ Her eyes softened. ‘And me, of
course.’

‘
Good God, was he a native, then?’

‘
Certainly. Do you imagine the Indians to be savages,
untutored in such arts?’

‘
Not at all,’ Fitz said. ‘I was surprised just for the
moment.’

‘
I can assure you, my lord, that a great many of our friends
were of the Indian races. Besides, there was in Bombay an ease of
social intercourse which I dare say you would
deprecate.’

‘
Not in the least. I imagine it was inevitable in such a
small community. Upon my soul, Miss Persephone, we are not so high
in the instep. You will find the racing fraternity, for example,
hobnobbing with all sorts and conditions of men.’

‘
Racing! How much I should like to see your famed courses. I
have heard much of Epsom and Newmarket. We had some racing,
naturally. Paltry affairs, mostly, but nevertheless
exciting.’

Her eyes warmed and Fitz was reminded irresistibly of
Penelope as the classic features lit with a glowing
animation.

‘
We used to get up the meetings among ourselves. On the
Esplanade behind the Fort, stretching to Back Bay. There was a race
course of sorts out by the Dongri on the flats. But our own
meetings were better, for I was permitted to take part.’ Her deep
gurgle of laughter came. ‘Until they complained that I could not
lose and no one would be fool enough to bet against me. Ufur,
needless to say, would not allow it to be so. And he was
right.’

‘
Ufur?’ Fitz was fascinated by the change in her as she
spoke of what she patently loved.

‘
Yes, my tutor. He was himself a notable horseman. They
hated him to ride at the Dongri, too. For no one could touch him,
even at the last. And he was near seventy years old by
then.’

‘
He sounds a very paragon,’ Fitz commented,
smiling.

‘
Oh, past price!’

Her eyes clouded and the distress in her face smote Fitz to
the heart.

‘
You miss him very much.’

She nodded, her trembling
underlip gripped between her teeth.

‘
Well, if we cannot offer you such a paragon, I’ll wager
Chid would come a close second. He does not ride his own
racehorses, naturally, but even his peers acknowledge him an
undisputed virtuoso in the saddle.’

This observation had the effect of wiping the woe from her
countenance. She stiffened alarmingly.

‘
Indeed?’

Perhaps fortunately, they were at this point interrupted by
Count Leopold and Lord Buckfastleigh, who were in attendance upon
his lady wife, sitting sedately in an open carriage with a
companion.

‘
Ah, the lovely Miss Winsford,’ shouted his lordship, and
pointed an accusing finger at Fitzwarren. ‘Might have known we’d
find you monopolising her, Fitz, you dog.’ He bowed, tipping his
hat to the lady. ‘And which one of them are you, if I might be
pardoned the liberty?’

Persephone accorded this sally the barest modicum of a
smile.

‘
This is Miss Persephone, Buck. Pray allow me to present
Buckfastleigh to you, Miss Winsford. And this—’

‘
No, no, already I have had the pleasure,’ Leopold said in a
tone of reverence. ‘Though I dare not hope a place to hold in the
memory of such incomparable beauty.’

This time Persephone did not even smile, casting him
instead a glance of scarcely veiled contempt.

‘
I should warn you, Leopold,’ put in Fitz, with an
irresistibly quivering lip, ‘that Miss Persephone has no taste for
gallantry. If you wish to win her esteem, you must talk of
horses.’

‘
Horses?
But
the horses I care nothing about.’

‘
I'll talk to her of horses,’ said Buckfastleigh. ‘Give
place there, Fitz, and don’t be a dog in the manger.’

‘
For shame, Buck! And you a happily married man,’ teased
Fitz. But he allowed himself to be ousted from Persephone’s side
and trotted ahead to see what had become of Penelope and the
baron.

Buckfastleigh and Leopold, receiving only monosyllabic
replies to their inane attempts to excite Persephone’s interest,
exchanged glances of mutual understanding and cast about among the
fashionables present for urgent relief.

‘
Ah!’ cried Leopold, spying Lord Goole. ‘There
someone is who will be happy to converse on horseflesh.
Frederick,
mein
freund!
’

Goole turned his hawk-like countenance, and, seeing the
count’s wave, rode over. Adroitly, Buckfastleigh and Leopold
performed rapid introductions, extricated themselves with aplomb
and cantered after Penelope, now some way ahead, leaving their
victims equally hostile at this high-handed
manipulation.

Then Goole’s eye fell upon Persephone’s horse.

‘
Thunder and turf, you are riding one of Rossendale’s ugly
customers!’ He cast a knowing eye over her competent hands. ‘You
can hold him, too. Egad, ma’am, you are a capital horsewoman,
then.’

His blunt surprise appealed to Persephone far more than
flattery would have done. She relaxed, smiling.

‘
Thank you. You know something of cattle, I take
it.’

‘
I know enough to beg you to abandon Rossendale’s brutes,’
he said with a bark of laughter. ‘Oh, you can clearly handle them.
But they are unworthy of you, ma’am. You deserve
better.’

Persephone laughed. ‘I don’t know that. My cousin, I will
admit, is a poor judge of a horse. Though he has one superb team.
Bays. Light-mouthed, easy goers, all of them, and so
fast!’

Goole gave a short laugh. ‘You need not applaud your cousin
on their account, Miss Winsford. They are out of Chid’s
stables.’

Her reaction astonished him.

‘
They were Lord
Chiddingly’s
horses?
They would be. Devil take the man!’

‘
You don’t like him,’ Goole said. His brow lowered, and the
impression of some bird of prey became pronounced. ‘No more do I.
But there is no denying that he has an eye for a horse unequalled
in these times. Except for Tattersall, of course.’

Persephone forgot about the baron. Here was a mine of
information. She had naturally heard of Richard Tattersall, the
chief and most respected of the horse dealers, whose yard was not
only a fashionable haunt, but who had provided the Jockey Club with
its present premises where the gentlemen members could place their
bets and settle their debts in comfort.

She pelted Goole with questions, learning where and when
the principal race meetings were held, and having a number of turf
notables pointed out to her. She wondered why none of these
gentlemen approached to converse with Goole, such an habitué of the
turf as he appeared to be, never dreaming that Sir Charles Bunbury,
having noted her incomparable seat, was regretting that Goole’s
unwelcome presence precluded his effecting an
introduction.

Further along the Rotten Row, another pair of eyes glanced
back and observed with austere disapproval the apparent easy
intimacy of Miss Persephone Winsford with Lord Goole.

‘
Upon my soul, Chid,’ exclaimed Fitz, noting this
surreptitious examination and the subsequent drawing down of the
corners of Lord Chiddingly’s mouth. ‘What the devil ails you? At
least the fellow has something in common with the poor
girl.’

‘
He cannot add to her consequence.’

‘
Gammon. You only say so because he has offended on the
turf. No one else cares a straw.’

‘
Well, if she wants to be accepted by the horsemen who
matter, she would do well to be more careful of her
company.’

‘
Why do you not tell her so?’

Chiddingly shrugged. ‘It has nothing to do with
me.’

‘
As you were at pains to demonstrate,’ Fitz commented,
adding on a note of satisfaction, ‘Not that it did you much good.
Could you not hold your own against Leopold and Buck, my poor
Chid?’

‘
I wish you will have done,’ snapped his friend.

Fitz grinned. ‘Do you? Now why are you so ready to be at
outs with me? I believe it is Miss Persephone’s fault, after all.
She put you out of temper at the outset, and no amount of Pen’s
charm has succeeded in mending it.’

‘
Oh, be quiet!
You
were well enough
entertained, I dare say.’

‘
Surprisingly well, as it happens,’ Fitz said, a crease
forming between his brows. ‘She is an odd sort of a girl, it is
true. But there is far more to her than you would at first suppose.
And a vulnerability that is positively touching.’

There was a short
silence.

Chiddingly broke it, his voice harsh. ‘Do you mean to prose
on forever about the Winsford twins, or is it too much to ask you
to give your attention to a different matter
altogether?’

Fitz’s unusually serious expression was dispelled by one of
his twinkling looks. ‘I am all attention, my oh, so amiable
friend.’

‘
I am trying out the paces of my new stallion the day after
tomorrow,’ Chiddingly told him, choosing to ignore this gambit. ‘Do
you care to come and watch?’

‘
What, the wonder horse? You perceive me positively agog,
dear boy.’ He paused as a thought struck him. ‘Unless you mean to
hoist me from my bed at some damnably unseasonable
hour?’

‘
You must expect to rise early for a try-out. I mean to use
Epsom, and I dare not attempt the issue later than six. You know
what these devilish touts are. One word and I may kiss goodbye to
all my expectations.’

There was every need for caution in such a case, Fitz was
aware. If Chid hoped to make a killing on the horse’s first
appearance—given that he proved to be of championship calibre—no
hint of his prowess must leak out. Knowing that the matter was of
great moment to his friend, Fitz kindly forbore to tease him
further.

‘
Very well. Epsom, you say? Well, then, I shall meet you at
the Cock at half-past five of the clock. None of our friends is
likely to be found at such an unfashionable inn at that
hour.’

Chiddingly agreed to it,
falling in with this arrangement.

He then moved to hail an acquaintance, unaware that Lord
Goole and Persephone Winsford had closed up so much of the distance
between them as to be in a position to overhear.

***

‘
I am determined to go, if only I can find someone to show
me the way,’ Persephone said with resolution.

Penelope stood frowning before the pier-glass, trying out
the effect of a ravishing new hat of white beaver with an enormous
brim that had just been delivered by an exclusive
milliner.

‘
I am not so certain this white is truly becoming.’ She
glanced briefly at her sister, restlessly pacing the floor as
usual. ‘Why do you not simply ask Chiddingly if you may
go?’

Persephone halted. ‘I would not ask
anything
of that hateful man.’

‘
It is his horse, after all.’

‘
Yes, and everyone is talking of it, convinced that it is
something special. At least, so Goole informs me.’

Her twin, apparently preoccupied with her search for the
right provocative tilt to her hat, spoke absently. ‘Well, if you
don’t care to ask Chiddingly, you may try Fitz.’

Persephone bit a pensive lip. ‘It is an idea. He is an
excessively good-natured man; far more the gentleman than his
odious friend.’

Her sister agreed to
this, her tone a trifle distant.

‘
Though I dare say he would refuse if he thought Chiddingly
might not like it,’ Penelope added. ‘He seems overly fond of
promoting the man’s aims and objects.’

Catching the acid note in her twin’s voice, Persephone
looked at her closely.

‘
What’s this, Pen? Are you jealous because Fitz took pains
to entertain me? I assure you I have no designs upon
him.’