Part 69 (1/2)

Lucinda smiled back; inwardly, she frowned. After a moment, she asked,

”Do you frequently drive ladies in the Park?”

Harry clicked his reins; the curricle shot through a gap between a swan-necked phateon and another curricle, leaving both the other owners gasping.

”Not recently.” Lucinda narrowed her eyes.

”How recently?”

Harry merely shrugged, his gaze fixed on his horses' ears.

Lucinda regarded him closely. When he offered not a Word, she ventured,

”Not since Lady Coleby?”

He looked at her then, his green glance filled with dire warning, his lips a severe line. Then he looked back at his horses. After a moment, he said, his tone exceedingly grudging, ”She was Millicent Pane then.”

Harry's memory flitted back through the years; ”Millicent Lester' was what he'd been thinking then. His lips twisted wrily; he should have noticed that didn't sound right.

He glanced down at the woman beside him, in blue, as usual, her dark hair framing her pale face in soft curls, the whole enchanting picture framed by the rim of her modish bonnet.

”Lucinda Lester' had a certain balance, a certain ring.

His lips curved but, her gaze abstracted, she didn't see. She was, he noted, looking decidedly pensive.

The drive ahead cleared as they left the area favoured by the ton.

Harry reined in and joined the line of carriages waiting to turn back.

”Once more through the gauntlet, then I'll take you home.”

Lucinda shot him a puzzled glance but said nothing, straightening and summoning a smile as they headed back into the fray.

This time, heading in the opposite direction, they saw different faces--many, Lucinda noted, looked surprised.

But they were constantly moving; she got no chance to a.n.a.lyse the reactions the sight of them seemed to be provoking. Lady Jersey's reaction, however, needed no a.n.a.lysis.

Her ladys.h.i.+p was in her barouche, languidly draped over the cus.h.i.+ons, when her gimlet gaze fell on Harry's curricle, approaching at a sedate walk. She promptly sat bolt upright.

”Merciful heavens!” she declared, her strident tones dramatic.

”I.

never thought to see the day! ”

Harry shot her a malevolent glance but deigned to incline his head.

”I believe you are acquainted with Mrs Babbaeombe?”

”Indeed!” Lady Jersey waved a hand at Lucinda.