his young cousin’s natural shyness in his presence somewhat difficult to overcome.
Seized by a benevolent whim, Annis decided to come to his rescue by addressing a remark directly at Louise, thereby forcing the girl to make conversation. ‘I believe you mentioned your parents are at present enjoying an extensive tour of Italy, Louise. When are you expecting them to return?’
‘Late spring,’ was the only response forthcoming.
‘And I seem to recall you mentioned earlier today that you have a brother up at Oxford?’ Annis persisted, determined to see at least a return of a semblance of the girl whose company she had enjoyed earlier in the day.
‘Yes, Tom. In his last letter he said he would try to get down to see me quite soon.’ If anything, she looked more forlorn than before. ‘But I do not think it will be this weekend.’
‘Unlikely,’ his lordship agreed. ‘Only a fool would attempt travelling any distance before a significant thaw.’
‘And with luck that will not be too long in coming,’ Annis put in quickly before his lordship, unintentionally or otherwise, could dampen poor Louise’s spirits further. ‘Then at least you will not be confined to the house, and will no doubt enjoy a good gallop across the park.’
She could see at once by Louise’s crestfallen expression that she had blundered, even before the girl admitted, ‘I don’t ride. I—I don’t like horses.’
‘I’m afraid our cousin suffered a bad fall a year or so ago, and broke her collar bone,’ Sarah explained. ‘As a result she is somewhat nervous round horses now.’
‘Very understandable,’ Annis hurriedly sympathised, thereby successfully recapturing Louise’s attention before the girl could observe the look of impatience that momentarily flickered over his lordship’s features.
Annis strongly suspected he was one of those people who had little sympathy for anyone who made no attempt to overcome his or her fears, and to a certain extent she agreed with this viewpoint. Yet at the same time she could appreciate Louise’s wariness, and decided to voice her further support.
‘Horses, of course, even the most well behaved among them, can be notoriously unpredictable creatures—forever twitching and snorting when one least expects it. And if that isn’t bad enough, you then get the biters and those that do their level best to tread on the toes of the unwary. Worst of all are the kickers!’
Annis wasn’t at all surprised to have retained Louise’s full attention. Evidently the girl wasn’t accustomed to having someone speaking out on her behalf, and she continued to stare across the table in a mixture of gratitude and reverence. Sarah, perhaps finding it a pleasant change not having to seek out topics to keep the dinnertime conversation going, was lending more than a polite ear. His lordship’s gaze too was firmly fixed in Annis’s direction, though there was unmistakably more than just a hint of a suspicious gleam flickering in that razor-sharp stare of his—a suggestion, possibly, of staunch disapproval.
Undeterred by what she strongly suspected might be one listener’s disapprobation, Annis warmed to the subject. ‘My late grandfather once owned a notorious kicker, a beautiful grey hunter, fearless, but downright ruthless to any hapless soul who happened to approach him from the rear. Of course Grandpapa, being Grandpapa, didn’t waste an opportunity to make use of the creature’s failing. I recall quite clearly that morning, and I couldn’t have been more than ten years old at the time, when a close neighbour by the name of McGregor came to call. Being aware of his neighbour’s avaricious tendencies, Grandpapa easily tempted him by tossing a shiny golden guinea down in the line of fire, as it were. To this day I still don’t know how the poor man avoided ending head first in the water trough.’
‘Your grandsire would appear to have been something of a jester, Miss Milbank,’ his lordship remarked drily, after his sister’s ladylike attempts to stifle her chuckles and his cousin’s more open merriment had faded.
‘He could be an out-and-out rascal when it suited his purposes, sir,’ Annis revealed, with total honesty. ‘At the age of fourteen he took it upon himself to run away from school and spent months going about the country from fair to fair with a band of travelling entertainers, would you believe?’
‘Good heavens!’ Sarah exclaimed, appearing genuinely shocked. ‘What on earth possessed him to do such a thing? Anything might have befallen him.’
Annis shrugged. ‘I suspect much did. He always swore he learned more in those few months than at any other time in his life. And, of course, to a certain extent running away served his purpose.
‘His father was intent on him pursuing a career in the church,’ she went on to explain, when his lordship raised one black brow, a clear indication that he was curious to discover more himself now. ‘It was a nonsensical notion, for a more inappropriate person to take holy orders would have been difficult to find. When eventually he was tracked down, his father and mother were so overjoyed to have him safely back in the bosom of the family that they allowed him his way and agreed to his joining the navy, providing he finished his education first. Sadly for Grandpapa, his dream of a career at sea was destined never to be realised. Fate intervened. His elder brother died in a smallpox outbreak, and Grandfather was then groomed to step into his father’s shoes, and inherit the property. He became a considerable landowner who, to do him justice, took his responsibilities very seriously. All the same, he never forgot what he learned during those few months he spent with horse-traders, gypsies and entertainers.
‘In fact, after dinner,’ she added, addressing herself once again directly to Louise, ‘I shall endeavour to entertain you by revealing a little something he learned during that period of unholy adventure.’
Whether it was simply because Louise found dining in his lordship’s presence something of an ordeal, or she was genuinely eager to discover precisely what it was the late Josiah Milbank in his reprehensible youth had been taught by fairground folk that induced her not to delay in finishing her meal was difficult to judge. Nevertheless, it seemed to Annis that in no time at all she was returning to the small parlour with the ladies of the house. Surprisingly enough, the master himself was not far behind them, though whether this attentiveness on his part was prompted by a determination to prove himself the perfect host even to an uninvited guest, or a desire to keep a watchful eye on proceedings, was equally impossible to judge.
Once the tea things had been removed, Dunster, always on hand to cater for every need, was not slow to provide Annis with the items she requested; and although she might have wished that the three dainty porcelain vessels he placed down on the table in order for her to perform her trick might not have appeared quite so expensive or delicate, it wasn’t long before she was concentrating hard and inducing the ladies of the house to part with their money.
‘A perfect example of the quickness of the hand deceiving the eye,’ his lordship drawled, after watching the pile of coins at Annis’s elbow growing steadily taller. ‘Or is it simply a case of fools and their money, etcetera?’ he added, if not looking precisely amused by proceedings, at least not appearing wholly disapproving.
Annis raised the porcelain cup in her right hand to reveal the tiny pebble, which resulted in both Sarah and Louise having once again to dip into their purses for pennies to add to the pile on the corner of the table. ‘Don’t be too disheartened, ladies,’ she said cheerily. ‘It’s all in a good cause, remember? I am relying on you to place my winnings in the poor box. There may be no sign of a thaw yet, but I very much doubt I shall still be here to perform the deed myself after church on Sunday.’
Receiving no response, Annis raised her eyes in time to
