What have you been up to while I have been away?’ Lady Parry asked archly, her eyebrows rising at Tallie’s answering blush.
‘Oh, it is a long story, ma’am! I will tell you all about it later. But how is it that you are back so soon? How did you find Lady Palgrave?’
Lady Parry made an ambiguous noise, waved her hands vaguely and subsided into a chair, gesturing Tallie to sit down opposite her. ‘Really, in some ways it was better than I could have hoped, which is why I am back so soon. She was already out of sympathy with the monkeys, which had quite wrecked the Blue Bedroom, were attempting to eat the wallpaper in the Chinese suite, of which she is very fond, and had bitten her favourite footman. So she had got rid of them.’
Something in Kate’s voice suggested that this was not quite such good news. ‘How, ma’am?’
‘By the simple expedient of opening the windows and letting them go. Two have already been shot by the gamekeepers on neighbouring estates and a delegation of villagers and the vicar arrived as we did, to complain about the remaining two, which had taken up residence in the church. The vicar was talking darkly about reconsecration—I let poor William deal with that.’
‘How?’ Tallie asked fascinated, forgetting her own troubles.
‘He commandeered a basket of peaches from my sister’s succession houses, drove up to the village, had the church doors opened and placed a trail of fruit from the porch to the lych gate. The curate proved to be a crack shot, apparently.’
‘Poor things,’ Tallie observed compassionately. ‘It was not their fault; I am sure they were only acting according to their natures.’
‘I quite agree,’ Lady Parry said. ‘I remonstrated with Georgiana and put it to her that she should not interfere with God’s dumb creation. At least pretty poets can be expected to look after themselves. She did appear chastened and somewhat sobered, so I deemed it safe to come home. William was becoming somewhat restive.’ She stood up. ‘I must go and change. Are you ready to get up, Tallie? We can have a late luncheon. William has gone to find Nicholas, doubtless for some sympathy.’
Tallie agreed with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. Her stomach seemed to contain a cold ball of lead, but she knew she must tell Lady Parry all about her connection with Mr Harland as soon as possible.
As she walked downstairs, schooling her face into an appearance of calm, the front door opened to admit both William and his cousin. Thankfully they did not see her for Tallie stopped dead three steps down and had to stay there for a full minute while she regained her composure. Nick here already! He was obviously not going to waste a moment in telling his aunt what a cuckoo she had been harbouring in the nest.
When she finally made her entry into the dining room, William greeted her with enthusiasm and proceeded to regale his audience with tales of the horrendous experiences he had had to endure. This kept everyone harmlessly occupied for the duration of the meal.
When the footmen came in to draw the covers Nick remarked, ‘I have some matters I need to discuss with you, Aunt Kate. William, could you do me a favour? You know that new bay gelding I bought at Tatt’s last week? I am not sure it is fully sound. You have a good feel for that kind of thing—could you take him out for me this afternoon, give me your opinion?’
He could not have offered a more tantalising bait. Glowing with pleasure at the compliment to his judgement, William made his excuses to his mother and hurried off to change.
Lady Parry was less easy to gull. She led the way into her writing room and sat down, regarding the two of them with a quizzical eye. ‘Well?’
‘I have a confession—’
‘Aunt, there is something I have to explain—’
They broke off, then Nick said, ‘If you start, Tallie, I will join in as we get to my part in events.’ She stared at him, suddenly overcome with nerves and he smiled reassuringly. ‘We had best get it over with, do you not think?’
Tallie nodded dumbly and took a moment to order her thoughts. ‘You recall, ma’am, that I came to you and said there was something I felt I should tell you about? A reason why I should not have accepted your offer to sponsor me?’
Lady Parry nodded. ‘Yes. You were concerned that you had sat for Mr Harland.’
‘Indeed, I had sat for him, ma’am. But not just to assist with portraits he was undertaking. When you said you knew all about it, I thought you really knew what I had been doing.’
‘Which was?’
Tallie took a deep breath. ‘Posing naked, or only lightly draped, for classical scenes.’
Lady Parry gasped, her eyes widened and she stared back at Tallie, apparently bereft of words for once.
‘Extremely tasteful compositions,’ Nick interjected as neither woman appeared capable of speech. ‘And Mr Harland, as I am sure you will realise, has always behaved with the utmost respect and propriety towards Tallie.’
‘Propriety?’ Lady Parry moaned faintly. Then her gaze sharpened. ‘And how do you know about this, Nicholas?’
‘I visited the studio with Jack Hemsley. He wanted to make arrangements to have his aunt’s portrait painted. William was with us and some other young cub.’
‘I was posing for a scene as Diana the Huntress,’ Tallie added. ‘When he realised that Mr Harland was painting from a model, Mr Hemsley forced his way in. Ni … Lord Arndale tried to stop him—’
‘But failed,’ Nick finished grimly. ‘It turned into a hunt.’
‘Not William, surely?’ Lady Parry asked, obviously appalled.
‘It was not real for the two youngsters,’ Nick explained gently. ‘They had no understanding that they were searching for someone real, someone who would be frightened. If William had found Tallie, he would have protected her, I am sure of it.’
‘I hid in a cupboard,’ Tallie pushed on, her voice wavering, desperate to get the tale told. ‘I lost my drape running away, the key fell out of the door—all I could do was turn my back on it, hide my face and wait.’
‘I saw the drape and managed to divert the others. Luckily I saw the key and was able to give it to Tallie so she could lock herself in.’
‘You were wonderful!’ Tallie said vehemently, suddenly finding her voice again. ‘You saved me and you acted with such … such consideration, such tact. If that awful man had found me I do not know what I should have done. And I have never thanked you for it, even this morning …’
Her voice tailed off as she saw Lady Parry’s expression. ‘I am afraid there is more, ma’am.’
‘I presume you did not recognise Talitha?’ Lady Parry asked Nick.
‘No, Aunt. I did not know her then, of course, and her hair was down. I never saw her face.’
His aunt closed her eyes fleetingly, apparently considering just what he had seen. ‘Go on,’ she said grimly.
‘I bumped, quite literally, into Lord Arndale when I was delivering your hats the next day. I recognised his voice, but I do not think he knew
