"Heavens, no," said his mother. "He acts just as he ought, dividing his attention equally amongst them, though he has no more success than Jonathan with little Miss Davis, I fear. Did I not tell you that Louise would bring the shyest thing in nature?"

"You did, ma'am. So far, your predictions have all proved correct. I am looking forward to a demonstration of Lady Catherine's many talents."

Lord James and Mr. Swanson were bearing down on Sarah. Just as they reached her, Gossett announced that a luncheon buffet was laid out in the dining room. Mr. Swanson gallantly requested the pleasure of escorting Sarah. Lord James, foiled, turned purple, gasped something that might have been "honoured," and offered his hostess his arm. Accepting, she beamed at him and patted his hand kindly.

Sarah refused to allow the fact that she was three inches taller than Mr. Swanson to disconcert her. It was a situation she had met with before.

"Let me show you how to do this, Miss Meade," he said with a conspiratorial grin as they entered the dining room. "I shall seat you at the far end of the table. As we pa.s.s the sideboard, you must study it and point out your favourite dishes. Then I shall dash back and fill a plate for you while everyone else is still milling about."

"I see you have your strategy well prepared, sir. If you had been in charge of provisioning the army, I daresay we should have beaten Boney years since." Sarah looked at the array of cold meats, pies, salads, pastries and fruit and remembered the trout with green peas and the mutton pasties Mrs. Hicks had served to Adam. "Heavens, I don't know where to begin! A slice of ham, I think, and one of those rolls. But how can I choose between strawberries and raspberries?"

"I shall bring you some of each," Mr. Swanson promised, "with plenty of cream."

He rushed off, and Sarah looked about at the other guests. Jonathan had brought in Miss Davis and was bending over her solicitously. Miss Brennan was looking coyly up at Adam and protesting that she never ate luncheon, it was so bad for the figure, but she would take a few cherries and a morsel of salmon in aspic, just to please him.

"I saw the breakfast tray she had taken up to her room," murmured Lord James in Sarah's ear, then turned crimson and strode off. He returned with a plate piled high with roast beef, ham and pigeon pie, which he set before Lady Cheverell. She almost disappeared behind it but smiled bravely and thanked him.

Lady Catherine was looking decidedly disgruntled. Sarah realized that she had been forced, for want of an escort, to join Mary and her husband. She recovered her countenance on being seated beside Adam. Her lively repartee soon drew the viscount's attention from Miss Brennan, who seemed to have little conversation. However, his eyes frequently strayed back to that young lady.

"Adam needs two wives," said Mr. Swanson. "The one to look at and t'other to listen to. Pity we can't somehow combine the pair of 'em."

"I expect two wives would suit him very well," Sarah answered tartly, then recollecting to whom she was speaking, she hastily changed the subject. He was right, though. Adam was laughing at something Lady Catherine had said even as his gaze slipped back to the beauty on his other side. Poor little Miss Davis had no chance against her rivals. Sarah was glad to see that the child was blossoming a little under Jonathan's kind attention.

On his way to the sideboard, Adam pa.s.sed behind her chair. Stooping, he said mournfully, "No gooseberry fool," and grinned at her.

Sarah looked after him in indignation. She had missed Mrs. Hicks's gooseberry fool after accusing him of wanting to set up a harem. The wretch was roasting her.

After luncheon the party split up. Jane went to rest in her chamber, so Lord Bradfield disappeared to the billiard room with Mary's and Louise's husbands. The abandoned wives dragged their mother off to the small drawing room to tell her all about her grandchildren. Eliza and Lord Moffatt vanished to some private corner.

The rest repaired to the large drawing room. Sarah took a seat beside Miss Davis, Lady Catherine drifted to the pianoforte, and Miss Brennan adopted a languid pose on a loveseat. Lord James looked around with a hunted expression, mumbled "billiards," and turned to flee.

Adam caught him by the arm. "No you don't, Kerry," he ordered. "Go and look at Miss Brennan."

"Miss Meade?" pleaded Kerry. "Conversable female, Miss Meade."

"Miss Brennan. You don't have to talk to her, just look at her."

Sarah, who had overheard every word, caught Adam's eye. She had to concentrate very hard to keep from laughing.

Adam stayed talking to Jonathan, while Mr. Swanson did his duty by joining Lady Catherine. Sarah turned to Miss Davis.

"Do you live near Louise?" she enquired.

"Yes, ma'am. Lady Edward has been very good to me." The soft voice was dubious.

"Perhaps you feel a little strange so far from home with no relative to support you?"

"I am not much used to company, and I do not know very well how to go on."

"I thought you must have had your Season in London already."

"Oh no!" Miss Davis's brown eyes filled with horror at the thought. "I mean, though I am eighteen, Papa does not care for London society, and anyway, Mama is too busy with the children to take me."

"You have many brothers and sisters?"

Sarah was treated to an enthusiastic description of a horde of small half brothers and sisters, for "Mama," it seemed, was Miss Davis's stepmother. "Papa," Baron Davis of Clwyd, was more interested in his horses and hounds than in finding a husband for his eldest daughter. Both had been delighted by Lady Edward's invitation to Cheve House.

Lydia-Miss Davis begged Sarah to call her thus and shyly agreed to reciprocate-not only missed the children but feared that the younger ones might forget their letters during her absence. Sarah told her about the school she meant to start.

"What a splendid idea! How I should like to do something like that."

"Adam means to support it financially. He is the most generous of gentlemen."

"You have known Lord Cheverell forever, have you not? He is very handsome and dashing. I am sure he thinks me a complete ninnyhammer, for I have not the least notion what to say to him. Your brother is much easier to talk to."

"It is Jonathan's business to be easy to talk to. Do not he afraid of Adam, I beg of you. He is as kind as Jonathan in his way."

"I shall try not to be," said Lydia obediently.

Adam came up to them at that moment, it being Miss Davis's turn for her share of his attention. Sarah mentioned that the girl was teaching her siblings to read and he took the hint. As she went to listen to Lady Catherine's performance of a Scarlatti sonata, she had the satisfaction of leaving Lydia happily chatting about his lordship's orphanages.

It was a hollow satisfaction.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

Following a formal dinner, the evening was spent at cards and word games. Lady Catherine excelled at the latter, producing clever verses on any subject at a moment's notice, which was certainly why Mary had insisted on playing that particular game. Adam was amused, but Sarah doubted that a talent for rhyme was what he looked for in a wife.

When the tea tray was brought in, Jonathan asked for the gig to be brought round in half an hour. He and Sarah made their farewells, and Lady Cheverell a.s.sured them that she would bring most if not all of the party to church the next morning.

"Mary has planned a musical evening on Monday," she went on. "I do hope you will come, for if it is nothing but Couperin and Haydn I shall fall asleep."

Adam escorted them into the hall, where they found Wrigley hovering, apparently concealing something behind his back.

"My lord?" the valet said diffidently. "I believe your lordship has forgotten..."

"Oh yes, thank you, Wrigley." The viscount took the small package wrapped in brown paper tied with string. "Sarah, I brought you a little present from London. Don't open it till you get home, but be careful, it is breakable."

Fl.u.s.tered, Sarah accepted the gift and expressed somewhat confused grat.i.tude. He had never given her anything before, or at least, not since her tenth birthday. She still had the crooked wooden horse he had carved for her on that momentous occasion. Wondering what was in the package, hoping that the contents would enlighten her as to Adam's motive in giving it, she answered at random Jonathan's comments on their visit as he drove back to the vicarage.

Taking her candle from the hall table, she hurried up to her chamber. She sat down at her dressing table and set the package beside the candle, with a sudden curious unwillingness to discover what it contained. If it was fragile, it could not be jewellery. Of course Adam's sense of propriety, though flexible, would not permit a gift of jewellery to a lady to whom he was not related. Too wide and short for a fan. Surely not a porcelain figurine: he knew her lack of interest in frivolous ornaments which had to be dusted.

She took it up and weighed it in her hand. It was quite heavy for its size. Laughing at herself for dallying, she untied the string, and unwrapped a cut-gla.s.s bottle.

Lotion of the Ladies of Denmark. Sarah had heard of it, a fashionable preparation for preventing wrinkles and softening rough skin. Her lips trembling, she studied her face in the gla.s.s. It was browner than it ought to be, but there was no trace of a wrinkle that she could find. Why had Adam given it to her?

Then she recalled his final gesture before he left for London. He had kissed her hand. She had treasured the moment, aware of her own foolishness but never guessing that all he remembered of it was her work-roughened skin. A single tear ran down her cheek. She brushed it away angrily, eased the stopper from the bottle and poured a little of the lotion into the palm of her hand.

It had an agreeable fragrance. Slowly she ma.s.saged it into her skin. Adam was incapable of intentional cruelty; therefore he had meant the gift to give her pleasure. She would thank him for it, tease him a little about trying to make her over into a lady of fashion.

At least he had thought of her when he was in town.

By some miracle, Lady Cheverell brought her entire party to morning service the next day. The village and farm folk gaped as the elegant visitors strolled into the little church. The Cheverell pew was far too small to hold everyone, so Adam brought Miss Davis to join Sarah in the vicarage pew. He was followed by a determined Miss Brennan, dressed quite unsuitably for church in another sheer muslin with ribbons the colour of her eyes. Mr. Swanson accompanied her.

Lord James, looking uncomfortable as always, seated Lady Catherine beside Mary and her husband and then fled to join his friends. With dogged determination, he stumbled over everyone's feet until he reached Sarah. She moved to allow him s.p.a.ce to sit, which he sank into with a sigh of relief, wiping his forehead.

Sarah handed him a prayer book and a hymn book. His look of alarm warned her that it had been some time since he had been to church. So she took the books away and shared hers with him, nudging him at intervals throughout the service when it was time to kneel or stand.

Jonathan preached a sermon on the text, "The labourer is worthy of his hire," to which Lord James listened with flattering attention.

"Devilish good speech," he a.s.sured Sarah in a whisper at the end, with such evident intention to please that she did her best to hide her amus.e.m.e.nt. She smiled with what she hoped looked like grat.i.tude for his appreciation, while relishing in advance the moment when she could repeat his praise to her brother.

After the service, they emerged from the church to find that the sun had come out. It was Miss Brennan's turn for Adam's escort. Sarah thought she saw a gleam of gratification in the young beauty's violet eyes when she realized that most of the local people were waiting in the churchyard. To be seen on the viscount's arm in such a situation could only enhance her chances, and she smiled and nodded with the utmost graciousness when he paused to exchange a word here and there. Sarah caught a few shocked comments on Miss Brennan's gown, but they were far outweighed by approving wonder at her loveliness.

Lady Catherine looked furious and stonily ignored the populace.

"Shocking bad tactics," murmured Mr. Swanson.

Lydia, at his side, shot him a frightened glance.

"He is not castigating you, my dear," Sarah rea.s.sured her. "Why do you not go and point out to Lady Catherine the mistake she is making, sir? You will know how to be tactful about it. Lord James will take care of Miss Davis, will you not, my lord?"

Lord James managed a strangled a.s.sent and Mr. Swanson went off on his errand of mercy. Sarah saw Lady Catherine scowl at him, but she then took his arm and gracefully acknowledged the villagers' bows and smiles.

"I must be on my way," Sarah told her companions. "Jonathan has to preach in the next village this afternoon, and I must see that he eats before he leaves."

Lord James and Miss Davis regarded each other with mutual terror and turned pleading eyes to her. Fortunately, for Sarah really was in a hurry, Louise came up at that moment to take charge of her protegee, rushing her off after Adam. Lord James Kerridge might be the son of a marquis, but he was only a younger son, and a mooncalf at that.

The mooncalf turned a reproachful look on Sarah. "Gave me quite a turn there. I say, like to call this afternoon. With your permission. Don't mind sitting in the kitchen."

"Oh, I think we might allow you in the parlour," she said, smiling. "But Jonathan will not be there, so pray do not come alone."

"Bring a chaperone," he promised, returning her smile.

He was very good-looking when he smiled, the vacant look vanishing. Sarah suspected that in male company he was perfectly compos mentis. She wondered what had caused his timidity with the female s.e.x. It was flattering that he felt confident enough with her to actually seek her out.

He brought not one chaperone but three. Sarah was sitting on a shady bench in the garden, reading, when she heard the sound of hooves. Round the corner of the coach house came four horses. Adam waved to her from Caesar's back, dismounted, and lifted Lydia down from a pretty mare. The other two riders were Lord James and Mr. Swanson.

The exercise had brought a hint of rose to Lydia's cheeks and she looked charming in her brown velvet riding habit. Tying the horses, Adam gazed after her with approval as she tripped down the path towards Sarah.

"Miss Meade, I hope you will not think me forward for coming uninvited."

"On the contrary, I think you backward, for you promised to call me Sarah, remember? I am delighted to see you. Sit here beside me, and we shall make the gentlemen stand. It is a beautiful day for a ride."

"Do you ride, Miss Meade?" Mr. Swanson enquired, coming up in time to hear her comment.

"Rarely. Our pony, Dapple, is not quite the right shape for a lady's mount."

Adam shouted with laughter, then suddenly grew serious, almost angry. "You know perfectly well that you are welcome to take any hack you like from the Cheve stables," he said. "They eat their heads off waiting for my sisters' visits."

"Come down off your high ropes, Adam. I have never been accustomed to riding regularly and I am perfectly happy to walk or drive, I a.s.sure you. But what of Lady Catherine and Miss Brennan? How is it that they do not accompany you?"

Not completely pacified by Sarah's words, Adam turned his irritation in a new direction. "As it happens they were otherwise occupied and I for one do not regret it. Lady Catherine is so determined to demonstrate her superior horsemanship that she is bound to come to grief sooner or later. I've no desire to be present when it happens. And Miss Brennan only ventures on horseback so that we may admire her form in an equestrian pose. She will not go above a walk, which is devilish dull."

"Ladies present, old chap," Mr. Swanson reminded him.

"Oh, Sarah don't mind what I say." The viscount recollected himself. "Beg pardon, Miss Davis. I let my tongue run away with me, I fear. You, at least, ride simply because you enjoy riding."

Lydia blushed and studied her gloves with apparent fascination. Sarah was glad that the girl had at last scored a point against her rivals, though it was a great pity that she was still tongue-tied in Adam's presence. She was an engaging child, once one had broken through the barrier of her shyness.

Sarah invited her guests to go up to the house to take refreshments. She and Adam led the way.

"As a matter of fact," he said in a low voice, "what I told you was only half the truth. Lady Catherine and Miss Brennan seem to feel it beneath their dignity to call at the vicarage. No doubt Mary and Eliza will soon set them right, for my sisters must surely be aware that I have not the slightest intention of marrying any toplofty miss who will not acknowledge you as a friend."

Once again his intended kindness hurt her to the core. She fought past the lump in her throat to say with tolerable composure, "You must not let that condition stand in your way, for perhaps Jonathan will accept the post in Salisbury. If we remove from here, it will not matter what your wife thinks of us."

He frowned. "He mentioned the possibility to me, but I thought him inclined against the move. Living at Cheve year-round would be intolerable without you and Jonathan in the village."

"Then you had best choose a wife who will be as happy in town as in the country." It was a relief to reach the house. Sarah asked Mrs. Hicks to bring tea to the parlour and they all adjourned thither.

Conversation turned to the ball which Lady Cheverell had planned for the centrepiece of her house party. Sarah and Jane had written the invitations for her while Adam was in London and they had been sent out to all the neighbouring gentry.

"Louise has taken charge of the decorations," Adam said. "She is going to deck the walls with larch boughs, I understand. She described it as a 'sylvan bower.' Do you remember the masquerade ball she insisted on in her coming out year, Sarah? You were too young to attend, but I paraded before you in my Cavalier costume."

"I remember all too well," she responded dryly. "Jonathan dressed as a Roundhead and the two of you started a mock sword-fight in the middle of the ballroom. It was the talk of the county for months, and your mother has refused to hold a masquerade since."

"I'm sure I don't know why. Everyone would come in hope of a repeat performance."

"Everyone comes to Lady Cheverell's b.a.l.l.s anyway. She tells me she has had nothing but acceptances, even from Lord and Lady Lansdowne, though Bowood is quite twenty miles off."

"The Marquis of Lansdowne is a political a.s.sociate of mine," said Adam in a lofty voice.

Sarah, Mr. Swanson and Lord James all laughed heartily.

"It's true! Dash it, I even sneaked into the Lords with a black eye to listen to his antislavery speech."

Lydia looked shocked. Whether it was by his lordship's black eye or by his political affiliation with a reformist Whig, no one bothered to ask.

"And I thought your excuse to your mother was sheer prevarication," Sarah mocked. "She told me you claimed that speech as your reason for fleeing-I beg your pardon-hurrying to town."

Mr. Swanson appeared to be on the point of demanding an explanation for this interesting exchange, but Mrs. Hicks entered with the tea tray just in time to save Adam from interrogation. * * * *

The next afternoon bore out Adam's faith in his sisters. The vicarage received a visit from Louise and Mary, accompanied by Lydia, Lady Catherine and Miss Brennan.