The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer Page B

as they were well-disposed; and, after enduring three consecutive days of almost continuous civilities, the sight of a carriage drawing up under his window was enough to send him stealthily down one of the secondary staircases to a vestibule whence it was possible for him to escape from the Castle, into the Fountain Court. From here it was an easy matter for him to reach the stables without being intercepted by an over-zealous servant; and while the Dowager entertained the morning-guests with one of her powerful monologues, her undutiful stepson was enjoying a gallop on the back of his gray horse, Cloud, having speedily put several miles between himself and the Castle.
    He had already, once or twice, ridden out with his cousin, and the bailiff, but his way led him on this occasion in a direction hitherto unvisited by him. It was a fine day towards the close of March, the ground rather heavy from recent rains, but fast drying under a strong wind, blowing from the east. The hedgerows were bursting into new leaf, and the banks were starred with primroses. The Earl, having, as he would have said, galloped the fidgets out of Cloud, was hacking gently down a narrow lane when he came, round a bend, upon an unexpected sight. A lady was seated on the bank, engaged in gathering primroses from a clump within her reach. This in itself, however imprudent in such damp and blustery weather, would not have attracted more than the Earl’s fleeting attention had he not perceived that the lady was attired in a riding-habit. Here, plainly, was an equestrienne in distress. He brought Cloud trotting up and caused him to halt alongside her.
    The lady had lifted her head at the first sound of Cloud’s hooves, and Gervase, raising his beaver, found himself looking down into a charming, wilful countenance, framed by the sweep of a hat-brim, and a cascade of pale, wind-tossed ringlets. A pair of large blue eyes, lighter and merrier than his own, met his with a rueful twinkle; a roguish dimple hovered at the corner of a kissable mouth striving unavailingly to preserve its gravity.
    ‘I beg pardon!’ Gervase said, his gaze riveted on the fair face upturned to his. ‘Can I be of assistance, ma’am? Some accident, I apprehend! Your horse – ?’
    He dismounted, as he spoke, and pulled the bridle over Cloud’s head. The fair Diana broke into a ripple of laughter. ‘Depend upon it, the horrid creature is by now standing snugly in her stall! Was ever anything so vexatious? Papa will so roast me for parting company at such a paltry fence! Only the mare pecked, you know, and over her head I went, and perhaps I was foolish, or perhaps I was stunned – shall I declare that I was stunned? – and I released the bridle. You would have thought, after all the carrots and the sugar I have bestowed on her, that Fairy would have come to me when I coaxed her! But no! Off she set, thinking of nothing but her comfortable stable, I daresay!’
    ‘Ungrateful indeed!’ Gervase said, laughing. ‘But you must not sit upon that bank, ma’am, perhaps catching your death of cold! Is your home far distant?’
    ‘No, oh, no! But to be walking through the village in my muddied habit, advertising my folly to the countryside – ! You will allow it to be unthinkable, my lord!’
    ‘You know me, then, ma’am? But we have not previously met, I think – I am sure! I could not have forgotten!’
    ‘Oh, no! But a stranger in this desert: one dressed, moreover, in the first style of elegance! I could be in no doubt. You are – you must be – Lord St Erth!’
    ‘I am St Erth. And you, ma’am? How comes it about that this is our first encounter?’
    She replied, with the most enchanting primming of her face, wholly belied by the mischievous look in her eyes: ‘Why, you must understand that one would not wish to appear pushing , by too early a visit, nor uncivil , by too late a one! Mama has formed the intention that Papa shall pay a morning-call at Stanyon next