Part 59 (1/2)

”Well, Lady Polly? What is this urgent matter that demands our attention?

Will you not sit down so that I may at least do the same?”

Polly discovered that her thought processes were suddenly beautifully clear.

”I meant,” she said deliberately, 'that I needed to speak to you in private.

Not here. There are too many people about! ” This time. Lord Henry did not scruple to hide his surprise.

”A somewhat equivocal remark, my lady!” he said, with an ironic inflection.

”Are you sure that is what you mean? It seems most singular.”

Polly frowned at him. She had no time for argument. All she was aware of was the single-minded need to fulfill her purpose.

”The terrace should suffice, my lord,” she said briskly, turning towards the door and praying that he would follow. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the Dowager Countess getting heavily to her feet.

It was a long way around the dance floor and the room was crowded, but it would take a determined Mama seconds only to rescue her charge.

Polly saw one of the Dowager Countess's acquaintance accost her and heaved a sigh of relief.

Old Lady Odgers was notoriously chatty and would not be easy to shake off.

She prayed that this would give her enough time.

The terrace was deeply shadowed and Polly purposefully made for the furthest corner, only turning back to Lord Henry when she had gained its seclusion.

The cool evening air had helped to sober her a little, but she still felt remarkably buoyant and determined. Yet as soon as she opened her mouth the words seemed to desert her.

”I hoped...! wished...! wanted to say...” Suddenly it seemed incredibly difficult to frame the appropriate phrases. She had wanted to be so gracious, easily putting an end to five years' embarra.s.sment.

At this rate she would cause five years' more! And Lord Henry was not helping her, lounging against the parapet and watching her with the same thoughtful consideration he had already shown.

”Yes, ma'am? You have already implied that you had something of importance to impart to me. I should not be here else.”

Polly's cheeks, already flushed with unaccustomed high colour from the punch, became even rosier.

”Oh, you are the most odious man! I only wished to say that I wanted us to be friends!” Memory came to her aid.

”I want us to be friends in future and I want us to be comfortable together!”

she brought out, triumphantly. It had a rea.s.suring sound, although comfortable was about the last thing Lord Henry made her feel.

”And if you wish it too, then there is no bar--' ” Ah, but perhaps I do not.

” Lord Henry was smiling a little now, for he knew that certain suspicions he had harboured about Lady Polly's lack of sobriety had been confirmed. She was not drunk, precisely, he thought, but she was not perfectly sober. And she was evidently too innocent to have realised her state. Or her danger.

”Oh!” Polly had antic.i.p.ated his compliance and there was no doubt that this refusal to conform had thrown her plans. Lord Henry watched in amus.e.m.e.nt as she tried to puzzle it out. With her tumbled curls, pink cheeks and bright eyes, she looked wholly enchanting. He felt a certain impulse stir in him and tried half-heartedly to stifle it. He straightened up and took a step closer to her. Polly did not appear to notice.

”Well, if you do not care to be comfortable with me--' ” No, ma'am. ”

Lord Henry was still immaculately polite, even as he calculated, quite coldly, what he was about to do.

”Comfortable is not a word I could ever apply to our situation.”