"I can try!" Polly said obstinately, her mouth set in a tight line.

Lord Henry looked as though he would have liked to have slapped her if he had had a hand free.

"Pray do not martyr yourself Fortunately, the drawing-room door opened at that moment and the Dowager Countess and Nicholas Sea grave came out into the hall, stopping dead at the sight in front of them.

"Polly!" the Dowager Countess said faintly.

"What on earth " Lady Polly has sprained her ankle," Lord Henry said again, with commendable patience.

"If someone could show me to her room?"

"Of course." Nicholas Sea grave had recovered himself and now appeared to be trying to suppress some amus.e.m.e.nt as he considered his sister's flushed face and her unwilling rescuer.

"Bring her this way, March night! Has Medlyn sent for the doctor? Oh, good... Here..."

Polly's pillows were soft beneath her head. She could feel her mother fussing around her as Sea grave steered Lord Henry out of the room.

"Wait..." It came out as a croak. She opened her eyes. Despite her mortification, there really was something she had to say.

"Thank you, sir," Polly said, reluctantly looking at Lord Henry, and for a moment she saw the expression in those dazzling grey eyes soften as he smiled at her. It made her feel quite weak, and not from sickness.

"At your service. Lady Polly. I hope that you will be feeling better shortly..."

"We're indebted to you for your help yet again, March night," Sea grave was saying pleasantly, shaking his hand.

"A gla.s.s of something before you go, perhaps? If you come down to my book room..." The door closed behind them.

There was a moment of silence, then, "Polly," the Dowager Countess said imperiously, "I demand that you tell me what is going on!"

Polly's lashes flickered. For a moment she hesitated, but it really was easier to pretend that she had fainted. She gave a little sigh, turned her head on the pillow, and lay still. She heard the Dowager Countess sigh with exasperation.

"Polly Sea grave! I vow and declare that you are the most trying child sometimes!"

Polly vouchsafed no reply.

"So," Lucille said, patting the bed beside her to encourage her sister-in-law to sit down, 'you may now tell me precisely what happened between yourself and Harry March night! " It was a week since Polly's accident and she had proved a poor patient.

She had kept to her room for the first day or two, resting her ankle as the doctor had instructed, but the enforced inactivity had begun to bore her and she had begged Sea grave to carry her down to the drawing-room, where she could at least have some company. And on this particular morning, she had hopped into Lucille's bedroom as her sister- in-law was taking her morning chocolate.

Lucille was much better. The morning sickness that had brought her low whilst travelling had now receded and she looked radiant. She fixed Polly with a wicked look over the rim of her chocolate cup.

"Do not seek to cozen me! Oh, I know the story you have told your mama!

But it stretches my credulity too far to believe that you happened to be strolling by the river and tripped, and Henry March- night was just pa.s.sing and was able to rescue you when you fell! So? " Polly hesitated. She could not deny that it was heaven to have Lucille back to confide in. The Dowager Countess was very kind under her starchy exterior, but it would have been impossible to tell her mother the story of what had really happened. And since Lucille had been shrewd enough to guess at the fabrication. "Well," she said cautiously, 'it was true that I was walking by the river.

Mr Far rant has a fishing-house down there--just beyond the edge of our land--and for some reason I felt compelled to go and explore it.

I don't know why. " The memory of Lord Henry's magnificent physique came back to Polly, as it had done countless times in the past week.

"I.

wish--oh, how I wish I had not gone in there! " Lucille's lips twitched.

"Come, now, it cannot be so tragic! Was Lord Henry in the fishing-house?"

"Yes!" Polly raised stricken brown eyes to Lucille's blue ones.

"But he was not fishing! That would have been quite innocuous! Oh, Lucille--' Lucille raised her eyebrows.

"I see! I have not been in the house, but Nicholas mentioned it had a plunge pool below the balcony. They used to swim in the river in the hot summers, he said, but..." Her eyes widened.

"Oh, glory, Polly, do you mean to say that Lord Henry was in the pool?"

Polly nodded.

"Yes, but--' " But? " "He was getting out of the pool--' Lucille clapped her hand to her mouth, her eyes enormous.

"Oh, Polly! Was he-- Did he-- Was he undress edT " Completely! "

Polly admitted. She saw Lucille's appalled gaze and added miserably, "I know! And what did I do but stare in the most shameless manner imaginable! I do not know what came over me precisely! But, Lucille, I could not tear my gaze away!"

Lucille, with her superior experience and understanding of such matters, rather thought that she could understand how Polly had become so transfixed.

Despite her years, Polly was rather an innocent, as no doubt she ought to be.

It seemed to Lucille that the Earl and Countess of Sea grave had gone to great lengths to protect their only daughter, with the result that Polly seemed like Sleeping Beauty, quite lacking the innate, age-old understanding of the games played between the s.e.xes.

Polly seldom flirted or practised her charms on any of her admirers.

She seemed quite unawakened, and yet there was something about Lord Henry March night which obviously stirred her, and it clearly both intrigued and frightened her.

Lucille's sense of humour began to get the better of her, despite Polly's tragic expression.

"I imagine Lord Henry must have been well worth looking at!" Lucille said, trying not to laugh.

"Lucille!"

"Well?" Lucille's blue gaze was amused.

"There is no harm in admitting it, Polly! Leastways, not to me, though I dare say your mama would not approve! Come, it is not a tragedy!

Lord Henry is a very attractive man, and you have a tend re for him...

It would be more worrying if the sight of him had left you unmoved! But whatever happened next?"

"I ran away," Polly said baldly.

"Which was how I came to trip and fall, and Lord Henry came after me--'

" Fully dressed by now, I hope! " "Yes, indeed! But when he offered to help me I was all missish, for I was so embarra.s.sed to have stared so, and so confused... I have never felt that way before, at least not with anyone else..." Polly's voice trailed off hopelessly. There was a moment's silence, then Lucille patted her hand.

"Listen, Polly, there is nothing to be ashamed of in your behaviour.

Such matters are not discussed, I know, but your reaction to Lord Henry was entirely natural!" She looked at Polly's woebegone face and smiled encouragingly.