Part 88 (1/2)
She was just about to drift back into sleep when there was a tiny click and the door of Polly's room opened a crack. Through a gap in the bed curtains she saw the faint light increase as the door was pushed wider.
Someone was standing in the aperture, listening. Polly froze. She leant out of bed and groped quickly and silently for something, anything to defend herself with. Her hand closed around the edge of the chamber pot. Without conscious thought, she ripped the bed curtains back and swung her arm in a wide arc. The pot made contact with something, there was a m.u.f.fled gasp from the intruder, and Polly began to scream.
There was light and people everywhere, all of them talking at once.
Polly could see Hetty's frightened face and Miss Dit ton hovering behind her, avid and curious. Then Lady Belling ham came bustling forward in a monstrous bed cap and the vivid dressing- gown, and candlelight fell on the p.r.o.ne body of Mr Dit ton, lying on the rug just inside Polly's doorway, clutching his head and groaning.
”Dit ton!”
”Tristan!”
Peter Sea grave's exclamation and Miss Dit ton's screech of horror coincided.
His jaw set, Peter plucked the luckless Mr Dit ton off the floor and started to shake him.
”What the h.e.l.l are you doing in my sister's bedroom, you loathsome cur?”
Miss Dit ton began to cry noisily. Hetty rushed forward anxiously to ask if Polly was hurt. Polly sat down rather heavily on the edge of the bed, supported by Lady Belling ham's arm.
”I am quite well, I thank you, just a little shaken...”
Hetty was now trying to persuade Peter to let Tristan Dit ton go, whilst Thalia was clinging to her brother's arm and pulling him in an opposite direction from Peter. Polly felt they might almost pull him apart between them.
”Oh, please let him go--' she started to say, only to find that control of the situation had been grasped firmly by Lord Henry March night.
”A simple misunderstanding, I feel sure, Sea grave. I am persuaded that you would not wish to inflict any further injuries to Dit ton's person! Why, his elegant night attire is quite ruined, I fancy!”
No one except Polly seemed to find it odd that Lord Henry's major concern should be for Mr Dit ton's clothing, for they were all quite used to his preoccupation with sartorial matters. Dit ton, released from Peter's cruel grip, drew himself up and exclaimed that the state of his silk dressing-gown was truly disgraceful, but not so shocking as the state of his nerves after an unwarranted attack.
Henry's ironic gaze then fell on Polly, still clasped within Lady Belling ham's protective arm.
”Not really unwarranted, Dit ton,” he drawled.
”Sea- grave did what any right-minded brother would do under the circ.u.mstances! Have you forgotten the agitation occasioned to Lady Polly at finding you in her room? An apology at least, dear fellow...”
Dit ton, recalled to the demands of good behaviour, gulped a little, his Adam's apple bobbing.
”Dear Lady Polly... of course... such a terrible mistake. I was looking for the closet and became quite lost in the dark ... oh, dear, I am most abjectly sorry...”
”No harm done, eh, Dit ton?” Henry observed, mercifully putting an end to this miserable monologue. ”Except perhaps, to your head!”
The tension began to dissolve. Miss Dit ton gulped noisily.
”Oh, Tristan, how could you be so foolish...?”
”Lady Polly... terrible mistake... abject apologies...” Mr Dit ton was still stuttering. He was still looking a little stunned from Peter's treatment, his thin, foxy face a sickly pale colour and his grey eyes darting fearfully.
He put a hand to his head.
”Excuse me... Must retire...”
He wandered off along the landing, silk dressing- gown napping, and Lady Belling ham started to shoo the others out of the room with a mixture of clucking and scolding.