Page 15 of A Much Maligned Miss

“Come now, Miss Halperston, it is too late to play coy with me. You told me all about it. How badly you wanted to dance with me at Vance Park despite the fact you thought me an utter swine.”

She gave a low moan and covered her face with her hands. “Please…no more. I can’t bear it!”

He laughed. “I asked if you had taken a tonic or a tincture yesterday,” he reminded her. “You said not, but perhaps today you recall differently.”

She shook her head, lowering her hands. “No, I… That is I am sure I did not. I am very rarely ill.”

“But your mother takes Dalby’s Carminative?”

She looked surprised by this knowledge. “Did I tell you that? Yes, she has a whole cupboard full of pills and medicines. She does not share them with the rest of the household, however.”

He found he rather wondered about that. “And what about your brother?” he asked, his thoughts turning toward the worthy Edgar.

“Edgar? No, he is in excellent health. He used to have earaches as a small child but once he reached school age, he outgrew them right enough.”

He nodded. “And did Edgar attend boarding school too?”

She started in her seat. “Did I tell you about my time at Hamberleigh Hall?” she asked with almost palpable dismay. “You must have been so bored!”

He had not been bored but he did not feel the need to tell her that. “Indeed, you did, you told me all about your thrilling friendship with the head girl and what a prize-winning paragon she was.”

Caroline Halperston groaned, pressing her palms to her hot cheeks. “Oh heavens, I am sorry,” she said, wincing. “I wonder that you could even bear the prospect of my company after I had poured out my exceedingly dull life like that!”

“Your artless confidences were the highlight of my evening,” he assured her blandly as the coach came to a stop. “Ah,” he said. “We have reached St. Ives.”

He threw open the door and stepped down, turning to offer his hand to her. She took it and descended onto the street, carpet bag in hand as Juggins unstrapped Gervaise’s trunk. “I can’t see any other travelers,” he commented, casting a look around. “Which is probably just as well as I have only booked one seat.”

“What about this gentleman?” Miss Halperston asked nervously as a burly individual ambled up the street toward them, a battered trunk balanced on his shoulder.

Gervaise considered him. “He might be persuaded to take a seat up top,” he decided. “If I offer him sufficient renumeration.”

“But why should you wish to persuade him?” she asked with surprise. “Surely there is room enough inside for the three of us to be comfortably seated.”

“Why should our conversation be constrained to accommodate him?” Gervaise asked, arching a brow. “We can hardly freely converse in front of a stranger, now, can we?”

Miss Halperston gave him a faintly disapproving look. “Well, no, but you can hardly expect to rearrange the comfort of others purely for your own benefit.”

“Why can I not? I do it all the time.”

“Well, but—”

Whatever she had been about to utter froze on her lips, for at that moment the mail coach swept into sight.

6

“And in addition, I require another seat for this lady, who will also be traveling to London under my escort,” Lord Atherton said.

“Ho yes, sir?” the postal officer said, licking his pencil lead. “And what might this lady’s name be, if I might take her particulars.”

Lord Atherton paused, turning toward Caroline and lifting his eyebrows quizzically.

“Uh, Miss Pomfrey,” she supplied under pressure. “Miss, er, Penelope Pomfrey.”

Lord Atherton frowned, clearly disapproving of her choice. “Now, you must give your real name to an official of Her Majesty’s postal service, Pen,” he chided her gently before turning back to the man in scarlet and black livery.

“My cousin’s real name is Penthesilia and I am afraid she is not at all fond of it. The family shortens it to Penny but a Penelope she is not. Let the record state Miss Penthesilia Pomfrey, if you please.”

The officer looked pained. “If you might be so kind as to spell that one out for me, good sir. Only I don’t rightly know how to go about the writing of that there name.”