said to Laurence over the second course; he was on her right. ‘Second sons in this house have always gone to the drum, and the third to the Corps, and I hope that may never change.’ This, Laurence thought might have been subtly directed at his dinner companion, but Lady Seymour gave no sign that she had heard her mother-in-law as she continued to speak with the gentleman on her right, the army captain, who was Ferris’s other brother, Richard. ‘I am very glad, Captain Laurence, to meet a gentleman whose family feels as I do on the matter.’
Laurence, who had only narrowly escaped being thrown from his house by his irate father due to his shift in profession, could not in honesty accept this compliment, and with some awkwardness said, ‘Ma’am, I beg your pardon, I must confess you do us credit and yet we have not earned it. Younger sons in my family are supposed to go to the Church, but I was mad for the sea, and would have no other.’ He was then forced to explain his accidental acquisition of Temeraire and subsequent transfer to the Aerial Corps.
‘I will not withdraw my remarks, sir. It is even more to their credit that you have principle enough to do your duty when it was presented to you,’ Lady Catherine said firmly. ‘It is shameful, the disdain that so many of our finest families profess for the Corps, and I will never hold with them in the least.’
The dishes were being changed once again as she made this ringing and overly-loud speech. Laurence noticed, baffled, that they were returning nearly untouched after all. The food had been excellent, therefore he could only conceive that Lady Catherine’s protestations were humbug, and that they had already dined earlier in the evening. He watched covertly as the next course was dished out, and indeed, the ladies in particular, picked unenthusiastically at the food, scarcely bothering to uphold the pretence of conveying morsels to their mouths. Of the gentlemen only Colonel Prayle seemed to make any serious progress. He caught Laurence looking and gave him just the slightest wink, then continued eating with the steady trencherman rhythm of a professional soldier, used to taking advantage of any food when it was before him.
If they had been a large party, coming late to an empty house, Laurence might have understood a gracious host holding back dinner for their convenience, or serving them a later second meal at the table, but the assumption that they might have been offended by a simple private supper, when the rest of the company had already dined, was absurd. He was obliged to sit through several more removes, uncomfortably aware that they were a pleasure for no one else. Ferris ate sparingly, with his head down; ordinarily he possessed as rapacious an appetite as any nineteen-year-old boy unpredictably fed of late.
When the ladies departed to the drawing room, Lord Seymour began to offer port and cigars, with a determined, if false, note of heartiness. Laurence refused all but the smallest glass for politeness’ sake. No one objected to rejoining the ladies quickly, most of them had already started to droop by the fire even though not half an hour had elapsed.
No one proposed cards or music; the conversation was low and leaden. ‘How dull you all are tonight!’ Lady Catherine rallied them, with a nervous energy. ‘You will give Captain Laurence a quite disgusting impression of our society.
‘You cannot often have been in Dorset, I suppose, Captain.’
‘No, I have not had the pleasure before, ma’am,’ Laurence said. ‘My uncle lives near Wimbourne, but I have not visited him in many years.’
‘Oh! The perhaps you are acquainted with Mrs. Brantham’s family?’
One of the ladies, who had been nodding off, roused long enough to say, with sleepy tactlessness, ‘I am sure he is not.’
‘It is not likely that I been introduced, ma’am; my uncle moves very rarely outside his political circles,’ Laurence said, after a pause. ‘Also, my service has kept me from enjoying wider society, particularly these last few years.’
‘But what compensations you must have had!’ Lady Catherine said. ‘I am sure it must be glorious to travel by dragon, without any worry that you could be sunk in a gale, and to arrive so much more quickly.’
‘Ha ha, unless your ship grows tired of the journey and eats you,’ Captain Ferris said, nudging his younger brother with his elbow.
‘Richard, what nonsense, as if there were any danger of such a thing! I must insist that you withdraw the remark,’ Lady Catherine said. ‘You offend our guest.’
‘Not at all, ma’am,’ Laurence said, discomfited; the vigour of her objection gave an undeserved weight to the joke. He could more easily have borne the jest than her compliments, which he could not help but feel were excessive and insincere.
‘You are kind to be so tolerant,’ she said. ‘Of course, Richard was only joking, but you would be simply appalled to know how many people in society say such things and believe them. I am sure it is very poor-spirited to be afraid of dragons.’
’ ‘I am afraid it is only the natural consequence,’ Laurence said, ‘of the unfortunate state of affairs that prevails in our country, which keeps dragons isolated in distant coverts and encourages horrific conjecture.’
‘But, what else is to be done with them?’ Lord Seymour said. ‘Are we to put them in the village square?’ He amused himself greatly with this suggestion; he was by now uncomfortably florid of face, having heroically performed his duty as host over a second dinner. Even now he did justice to another glass of port, over which he coughed as he laughed.
‘In China, they can be seen in the streets of every town and city,’ Laurence said. ‘They sleep in pavilions no more separated from residences than town-houses in London.’
‘Heavens;’ I would not sleep a wink,’ Mrs. Brantham said, with a shudder. ‘How dreadful these foreign customs are.’
‘It seems to me a most peculiar arrangement,’ Seymour said, his brows drawing together. ‘How do the horses stand it? My driver in town must go a mile out of his way when the wind is in the wrong quarter and blowing over the covert, because the beasts get so skittish.’
Laurence had to concede that even in China they did not cope well; horses were not often evident in the cities, except for trained cavalry beasts. ‘But I assure you their lack is not felt; they employ dragons as living carriages, and citizens of higher estate are conveyed individually by courier, at as you can imagine a much higher rate of speed. Indeed, Bonaparte himself has adopted the system, at least within his encampments.’
‘Oh, Bonaparte,’ Seymour said. ‘No; thank goodness we organize things more sensibly here. I have been meaning to congratulate you. Ordinarily, not a month goes by when my tenants do not complain about the patrols passing overhead, frightening their cattle to pieces and leaving their—’ he waved his hand expressively as a concession to the ladies ‘—everywhere, but this six-month there has been not a peep from them. I suppose you have implemented new routes, and none too soon. I had nearly made up my mind to raise the matter in Parliament.’
Though aware of the circumstance reducing the frequency of the patrols, Laurence could not answer this remark in a civil fashion; so he did not answer at all, and instead went to fill his glass again.
He took it away and went to stand by the window furthest from the fire, to keep his senses refreshed by the cool draught. Lady Seymour had taken a seat beside it for the same reason. She had put aside her wineglass and was slowly fanning herself. When he had stood there for a moment she made a visible effort to engage him. ‘So Captain, you were forced to shift from the Navy to the Aerial Corps? It must have been very hard. I suppose you must have gone to sea when you were fully mature?’
‘I first took
