An Unconventional Miss by DOROTHY ELBURY Page A

proper to refer to him as Lord Wyvern,’ he replied indifferently. ‘I met him when he was an officer with the 13th Light. Our units were quartered together when I was in Paris last year. He’s only just returned home.’ He paused momentarily then, turning back to Jessica, he said, ‘Funnily enough, he was at the Rose and Crown the other day, when we were there—he’d stopped to water his horse and have a bite to eat, so he told me.’
    â€˜At the Rose and Crown!’ cried Jessica, in astonishment. ‘I don’t remember seeing him! And you say you spoke to him? Where was this?’
    â€˜In the taproom,’ replied Stevenage, with a puzzled frown. ‘After you and Nicky took off—why so much interest in the fellow?’
    â€˜He’s only the chap who saved us from those two thugs!’ exploded Nicholas. Then, as a sudden thought occurred to him, he added, ‘I suppose it must have been you who told him who we were?’
    Stevenage flushed, remembering that after Jessica and her brother had driven off, instead of returning directly to his sister as he had planned, he had stomped off into the taproom and tossed back quite a large quantity of brandy, in order to try to quell his feelings of helpless frustration.
    â€˜Possibly,’ he replied warily. ‘I don’t actually recall the entire conversation.’
    He did, however, have the most uncomfortable feeling that his exasperation at Jessica’s having ignored his advice, coupled with the effects of imbibing a good deal more liquor than was his usual custom, might well have caused him to express his opinions about her cussedness rather more freely than propriety demanded.
    â€˜No sweat, Harry,’ said Nicholas absently, his attention still on the box opposite. ‘We just wondered how he came by the information—oh, look! They’re shaking hands and Matt is leaving!’
    In barely suppressed expectation, Jessica awaited the return of her brother, her mind awhirl with possibilities. Had he invited the stranger—no, Lord Wyvern, now, she reminded herself—to call on them? Or, perhaps, to join them for dinner? She looked over at the earl’s box and a little shiver of excitement ran through her as she saw that Wyvern, having returned to his seat, was now looking in their direction. He was even more handsome than she had remembered! Her eyes shone more brightly than ever and, cheeks dimpling, she beamed one of her most enchanting smiles across the auditorium.
    When Beresford returned to their box, however, the information that he carried with him was hardly promising. Wyvern had, of course, been everything that he should be. Glad to meet an old acquaintance of his late brother, more than happy to have been of service to the two young travellers, and so on. He had thanked Beresford for his invitations and had assured him that he would do his best to call on the family at some time in the near future but, because of pressing business commitments, he was unable to say when that might be.
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    On the other side of the theatre, Wyvern, in spite of himself, found his gaze drawn to the box opposite. For some inexplicable reason, he found himself more than interested to register Jessica’s reaction to her brother’s announcement. He did not have long to wait. No sooner had the gist of Matt’s words begun to sink in than the dazzling smile was dashed from her lips, only to be replaced by an expression of the most profound disappointment.
    Wyvern’s brow furrowed; after the girl’s rather haughty treatment of him the other day, he could not understand why his negative response to Beresford’s invitation should elicit such an extreme reaction from her. But then, he reasoned to himself, given what young Stevenage had, inadvertently, let fall about the lovely Miss Beresford, coupled with the not entirely favourable impression that he himself had formed, it was not