Her eyes were alive with laughter. She said perfectly gravely, however: “For some reason or other I had suspected as much! Is there anyone whom you do like, Mr Carleton?”

“Yes, you!” he answered bluntly.

“M-me?” she gasped, wholly taken aback.

He nodded. “Yes—but much against my will!” he said.

That made her burst out laughing. Still gurgling, she said: “You are quite outrageous, you know! What in the world have I said or done to make you like me? Of all the farradiddles I ever heard that bears off the palm!”

“Oh, no! I never flummery people. I do like you, but I’m damned if I know why! It isn’t your beauty, though that is remarkable; and it certainly isn’t anything you have said or done. I think it must be your quality—that certain sort of something about you!”

“It’s my belief,” said Miss Wychwood, with conviction, “that you are all about in your head!”

He laughed. “On the contrary! But don’t delude yourself into thinking that my liking for you makes me think that you are a fit person to have charge of my niece.”

“How mortifying!” she retaliated. “What do you propose to do about that, sir?”

“Give her back into her aunt’s care, of course!”

“What, take her back to Chartley Place? What an addlebrained notion to take into your head! You had as well bestow your blessing on her marriage to Ninian without more ado!”

“No, not to Chartley Place! To Cheltenham, of course!”

She shook her head. “Oh, I don’t think you’ll be able to do that! The last intelligence we had of poor Mrs Amber was that she was prostrate, with Lady Iverley’s doctor in attendance on her, and since Lucilla tells me that it takes her weeks to recover from these—these hysterical seizures I should very much doubt if she will be able to return to her own home for some time to come. Now I come to think of it, she has announced that she never wants to set eyes on Lucilla again, and although I don’t set much store by that I do feel that it would be unreasonable to expect her to change her mind before she is perfectly restored to health.”

“I’ll soon restore her to health!” he said savagely.

“Nonsense! You’d be more likely to terrify her into strong convulsions. And even if you did succeed you could still have Lucilla to contend with.”

“There will be no difficulty about that, I promise you!”

“Oh, I don’t doubt you could bully her into going with you to Cheltenham!” she said, with maddening affability. “What I do doubt is your ability to prevail upon her to remain there.”

He regarded her with kindling eyes. “I should not bully her, ma’am!”

“Well, do you know, I think that’s very wise of you,” she said, in an approving tone. “She has a great deal of spirit, and any attempt on your part to coerce her would be bound to set up her bristles. She would run away again, and it really won’t do for her to spend the next four years running away! No harm has come from her first flight, but if she were to make a habit of it—”

“Oh, be quiet!” he interrupted, between exasperation and amusement. “What did you call me? Outrageous, wasn’t it? What’s sauce for the gander, ma’am, is also sauce for the goose!”

“That’s given me my own again, hasn’t it?” she said, with unabated cordiality.

A tell-tale muscle quivered at the corner of his mouth; he met her quizzing look, and quite suddenly laughed. “Miss Wychwood,” he said, “I lied when I said I liked you! I do not like you! I am very nearly sure that I dislike you excessively!”

“What can I say, dear sir, except that your sentiments are entirely reciprocated!” she responded.

He smiled appreciatively. “Has anyone ever got the better of you in a verbal encounter?” he asked.

“No, but it must be remembered that I have not until today had much opportunity to engage in verbal encounters. The gentlemen I have previously been acquainted with have all been distinguished by propriety of manners and conduct!”

“That must have made ’em sad bores!” he commented.

She could not help thinking that that was one accusation which could not be levelled against him, but she did not say so. Instead, she suggested, rather coldly, that they should waste no more time pulling caps, but should turn their attention to a matter of much graver importance.

“If you mean what’s to be done with Lucilla—” He broke off, frowning.

“Well, I do mean that. It would be useless to take her back to Mrs Amber—even if Mrs Amber were willing to receive her. It might be thought that you were the properest person to take charge of her—”

“Oh, my God, no!” he exclaimed.

“No,” she agreed. “It would be quite ineligible. You would be obliged to hire some genteel lady to chaperon her, and I should doubt very much if you could find anyone suitable for the post. On the one hand she must have enough strength of mind to enable her to exercise some degree of control over Lucilla; on the other she must be meek enough to bear with your overbearing temper, and to obey even the most idiotish of your commands without argument.” She smiled kindly at him, and added: “An unlikely combination, I fear, Mr Carleton!”

“I am relieved! If the unpleasant picture you have drawn is with the object of inducing me to leave my ward in your care—”

“Not at all! I shall be happy to keep her with me until some more suitable arrangement has been made, but at no time have I had the smallest intention of keeping her in my permanent charge. May I suggest to you that your immediate task must be to set about the business of launching her into Society? I am astonished that this very obvious duty should not have occurred to you.”

“Are you indeed, ma’am? Then let me tell you that I have made arrangements for my cousin, Lady Trevisian, to bring her out next year!”

“Oh, that will never do!” she said quickly. “After having had a taste of the very mild entertainments offered in Bath at this season, you cannot expect her to sink back into the schoolroom—which is what will happen to her if you succeed in bullocking Mrs Amber into resuming her guardianship.”

“In fact, ma’am,” he said, in biting accents, “you have made her dissatisfied—which proves how very unfit you are to have even temporary charge of any girl of her age!” He saw that his words had brought a flush into her face, and fancied that he detected a hurt expression in her eyes. It was a fleeting look only, but he said, in a milder tone: “I daresay you may have meant it for the best, but the result of your action has been to land us in a rare mess!”

“Pray don’t hide your teeth, sir! You do not think I meant it for the best! You’ve as good as accused me of trying to make mischief, and I very much resent it!”

“I haven’t done any such thing! And if I had it wouldn’t have been as insulting as your accusation, that I would bullock Mrs Amber!” She sniffed, which had the effect of bringing the smile back into his eyes. “What an unexpected creature you are!” he said. “At one moment a woman of the first consequence, at the next a hornet! No, don’t scowl at me! Really I’ve no wish to break squares!”

“Then don’t provoke me!” she said crossly. “Why don’t you ask your cousin to bring Lucilla out this year?”

“Because I’ve no fancy for finding myself at Point Non Plus! She wouldn’t do it: her eldest daughter is to be married in May, and she has her hands full already with all the ridic—with all the preparations for the wedding! I could no more persuade her to present Lucilla at such a moment than I could bullock her into doing it!”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake!” she exclaimed, looking daggers at him, “must you be so—so naggy?”

“Alas!” he returned mournfully. “The temptation to rouse you to fury is too great to be resisted! You can have no notion how much your beauty is enhanced by a blush of rage, and the fire in your eyes!” He watched her close her lips tightly, and his shoulders shook. “What, lurched, Miss Wychwood?” he mocked her.

“Oh, no, there is much I could say, but having been reared—unlike yourself!—to respect the common decencies of established etiquette I am unfortunately debarred from uttering even one of the things which spring to my mind!”

“Don’t give them a thought!” he begged. “Consider under what a disadvantage you must be if you respect the common decencies which I don’t!”

“If you had an ounce of—of proper feeling you would respect them!” she told him roundly. “You are a positive rake-shame—as my brother would say!” she added, rather hastily.

His face was alive with laughter, but he said reprovingly: “You shock me, ma’am! What an indelicate expression for a lady of quality to use!”

“Very likely! But as for its shocking you I shouldn’t think anything could!”

“How well you understand me!” he said, much gratified.

“Oh, how can you be so abominable?” she demanded, laughing in spite of herself. “Do, pray, stop trying to goad me into being as uncivil and as disagreeable as you are yourself, and let us consider what is to be done about Lucilla! I perfectly understand how awkward it would be for your cousin to be saddled with her at this moment, but have you no other relation who would be willing to bring her out?”

“No, none,” he replied. “Nor can I think her come-out of such urgency. She can only just have reached her seventeenth birthday, and the last time I went to Almack’s I found the place choke-full of callow schoolroom misses, and determined that my ward shouldn’t swell their ranks!”

“I know exactly what you mean!” she said. “Girls pitchforked into the ton without a notion of how to go on, and betrayed by their anxiety not to seem as innocent as they are into quite unbecoming simpering, titters, and—oh, you know as well as I do the sort of detestable archness which so many very young girls display! That is why I have made it my business to introduce Lucilla into Bath society! I think it of the first importance that a girl should learn how to conduct herself in company before being introduced into the ton. But you need have no fears that Lucilla would disgrace you! She is neither shy nor coming: indeed, her manners are very pretty, and do Mrs Amber the greatest credit! If you doubt me, come and see for yourself! I am holding a small rout-party here on Thursday, particularly in her honour, and shall be happy to welcome you to it. That is, if you are still in Bath then? But perhaps you don’t mean to make any very long stay here?”