The Regency (4 page)

Héloïse glanced reproachfully at her husband. 'I wish you
would not tease poor Mathilde,' she said. 'She minds it, you
know.'

‘
Nonsense!' James said. 'Every girl of eighteen likes to be
asked about her beaux — unless she hasn't got any, of course.
How long has Tom Keating been dangling after her?'

‘
He does not dangle,' Héloïse said. 'She is intimate with
Patience Keating, that's all, and Patience and her brother are
very close.'

‘
Mathilde will never catch Tom Keating,' Fanny could not
resist commenting, 'not whatever she does.’

Héloïse frowned disapprovingly, but James looked amused.
'Why, what do you know about it, Fan?' he asked.

‘
Tom Keating would never marry a girl with
freckles,'
Fanny said contemptuously. 'He's a trump card! He has a
capital grey hunter, and he said I have the best hands in the
county.'

‘
Ah, now we come to the nub of it,' James grinned. 'Let me
guess: you met him out exercising his grey when you were
flying about the countryside on Tempest, and he paid you
some outrageous compliment.'

‘
It wasn't ‘rageous!' Fanny said indignantly. 'We jumped a
stream to give him a lead, because he couldn't get his grey
over. Tempest
flew
over, and then the grey followed, and he
was grateful, and he said I was a splendid rider.'

‘
Well, so you are, chicken,' James said, 'but you'll do your
reputation no good if you go about admiring young Keating's
horsemanship. He ruined that chestnut his father bought
from me two years ago, and he'll ruin the grey before the
summer if he goes on the way he is. He's managed to get the
brute so peppered up that either he'll break its neck, or it'll
break his.'

‘
My love, I don't think this is suitable talk for children,' Héloïse said gently, and to Fanny, 'You must not speak so
freely, Fanny, about people older than yourself. It isn't
seemly, and you are old enough now to begin to behave like a
lady. I think, James, that when I am out today I had better place an advertisement in the
York Mercury
on that matter
we agreed this morning.’

Fanny looked at her with narrowed eyes. Something was
being plotted against her, she thought.

‘
Yes, if you like,' James said, and feeling Fanny's rigidity,
tried to placate her. 'It's time we were thinking of a new
mount for Fanny: Tempest is a grand sort, but he isn't a
lady's mount — what do you think, Fan?' Fanny drew breath to concur rapturously, but before she could speak he spoiled
everything by adding, 'And while I'm at it, I must see about a
pony for Sophie, too, as I promised. I think I know where I
can lay my hands on just the right animal for her.’

Sophie flashed her father a dazzling smile of gratitude and pleasure; and Fanny was still reeling as James put her off his
lap and stood up, saying, 'I must be going. I want to take
those bays out to the Knavesmire and give them a good
opener, to get the fidgets out of their feet. All this rain has
played the deuce with their training.’

Jenny was holding out her hand to Fanny, but she ignored
it, fixing pleading eyes on her father. 'Oh Papa, can I come
too?' she asked urgently.

‘
No, Puss,' James said firmly. 'They're an untrained team
— it would be too dangerous. Run along now with Jenny. It's
time you were all in the schoolroom, anyway.’

Fanny's face contracted sharply with disappointment, and
she watched her father kiss his wife and depart with such
hungry eyes that for once Héloïse felt oddly sorry for her.

‘
I shall be going out later in my phaeton,' she said, as
Fanny trailed after the little children, across the room to
where Jenny was waiting. 'Would you all like to come with me
for a drive?' Sophie and Thomas accepted eagerly, but Fanny
said nothing. 'Fanny?' Héloïse prompted kindly. 'You can
take the reins for a little, if you like.’

Fanny turned and regarded her thoughtfully. 'No thank
you, Madame,' she said with a frosty dignity which looked odd on her usually animated face. 'I think I had better stay
here and study my school books.' And she turned and stalked
out, evidently feeling she had dealt an unbeatable card.
Héloïse smiled —
school books indeed! —
and then caught
Jenny's eye, and gave her a cautionary look which said,
make
sure
she doesn't get up to mischief.

*

It was the first time the bays had been out alone together,
without trained horses harnessed up to quiet them, and they
gave James a lively time. His man, Durban, had the greatest
difficulty in backing them between the shafts of the training-
phaeton, even with the help of four other grooms; and when
they were in position, and stood quivering like coiled springs,
their eyes white and their quarters bunched for action, he was
extremely reluctant to let go their heads and climb into the
cart.

‘
I think we ought to weight the rig with some sacks, sir,' he
suggested tentatively. The wild brown eye of the offside bay
was staring down at him from a few inches away, and its ears
were flicking back and forth like metronomes.

‘
No, no, I can hold 'em,' James said blithely. 'Jump in,
man, and let's be off. It's only fretting 'em, making 'em stand
like this. Once they've warmed the leather on their backs,
they'll settle down all right.’

With an inward prayer, Durban let go and stepped aside all
in one movement, and even though he was expecting it, their
forward rush was so precipitate that he almost missed his
jump as the rig shot past him, and the bays plunged off up the
track, backs up and nostrils wide.

‘
Hoa, hoa, my boys!' James called to them, unperturbed,
as the phaeton bucked like a mad thing over the ruts, and
Durban fought to keep himself on the seat and his hat on his
head.

‘
When were you going to deliver them to Mrs Mickle
thwaite, sir?' Durban asked obliquely as the bays lurched
forward and the rig hit a large stone and shot two feet into
the air. The nearside horse tried to run out sideways, and
managed to get his head under his partner's rein.

‘
End of the month,' James said cheerfully. 'We'll do it,
you'll see. There's not an ounce of vice in 'em, you know.
They're just green. Ah, here's the road coming up. Once
we've made the turn, I'll spring 'em, and let 'em find their
own rhythm.’

James eased the bays round the turn, held them for a
moment, and then let them out into a fast trot. The road was
in good repair — Edward in his capacity of Justice of the
Peace, which included the office of Surveyor of Roads, saw to
that — and the phaeton now bowled along smoothly, and
ceased to alarm and fret the horses with its rattling and
bouncing. The offside bay had a tendency at first to break
into a canter every few steps, but James soon mastered him,
and the pair settled down to find each other's rhythm.

A gleam of sunlight broke through the mild grey sky, and
James suddenly felt a surge of pleasure and optimism. It was
good that life had at last become something to look forward to
with pleasure, rather than something to be endured. He whis
tled a few bars of
Lilibullero.

‘
You know what, Durban,' he cried enthusiastically, 'I
think they're going to make a good pair! Look how they're
pacing each other now! Exactly in step!’

It was good to be driving these handsome horses along a
smooth road on a mild spring day; to feel the speed and power
running like lightning through the reins, to see the delicate
ears pricked before him, and the harness jouncing on the
glossy backs as they lifted their slender forelegs high. It was
good to know that Héloïse would be presiding over the dinner
table later, that he would hold her in his arms tonight and
wake beside her in the morning. He was even looking forward
to the small ball they were giving next week for Mathilde's
eighteenth birthday. It would be pleasant to meet the new
generation of young people — the grown-up children of his
old friends and contemporaries — and watch their innocent
enjoyment.

One day they would give a grand coming-out ball for
Fanny, he thought. That would be an occasion! Miss Morland
of Morland Place would be a considerable heiress and the
catch of the Season. He thought with relish of the fortune-hunters who would inevitably dangle after her, and of the
short shrift he would give them. With her beauty and her
fortune, she might marry anyone — they might look as high
as they pleased for a match for her!
Héloïse was right, of course — she must have a governess.
He had always wanted her to be free to romp and play as a
child, but it was time now that she began to acquire some
polish, and learnt how to behave in company. At the back of
the thought there was a hint of relief, too. He could never
consciously admit to himself that his darling was anything but
perfect, if a little high-spirited; but his capacity for self-
delusion had been severly strained by the incident over
Héloïse's gowns. The thought of someone's taking her in hand
and preventing anything like that from happening again was
deeply, if secretly, attractive.

Durban interrupted his thoughts. We're being followed,
sir,' he said quietly. 'Miss Fanny on Tempest, coming along
the other side of the beck. She's keeping to the trees, hoping
not to be seen.’

James groaned and glanced round. Yes, there she was,
coming out of the trees now, hopping Tempest over the beck
and cantering towards them, grinning triumphantly. Even
then he couldn't help a surge of pride at how well she rode. She had obviously taken Tempest from the paddock without
asking anyone, and without bothering to saddle or bridle him,
but even bareback and with nothing but a hemp halter round
his nose, she had complete control.

‘
Papa! It's me! she called, and then several things happened
at once. They had just passed Tyburn, the site of the old
gallows, and a place where horses often became jittery. The
bays' heads were up, and they were fidgeting a little, peeking
about them. Then there was a rustling in the bushes to the
right, and Fanny's dog, Puppy, came bursting out onto the
road right beside them, and cavorted excitedly around the
horses.