Читаем A Dangerous Fortune (1994) полностью

Solly came back with his jacket on and they went along to the nursery. Bertie was in his nightshirt, playing with a wooden model of a railway train. He loved to see Maisie in her gowns and would be very disappointed if for some reason she went out in the evening without showing him what she was wearing. He told her what had happened in the park that afternoon--he had befriended a large dog--and Solly got down on the floor and played trains for a while. Then it was Bertie's bedtime, and Maisie and Solly went downstairs and got into their carriage.

They were going to a dinner party, then on to a ball afterwards. Both would take place within half a mile of their house in Piccadilly, but Maisie could not walk the streets in such an elaborate gown: the hem and train, and her silk shoes, would be filthy by the time she arrived. All the same she smiled to think that the girl who had once walked for four days to get to Newcastle could not now go half a mile without her carriage.

She was able to begin her campaign for Nora that very night. When they reached their destination and entered the drawing room of the marquis of Hatchford, the first person she saw was Count de Tokoly. She knew him quite well and he always flirted with her, so she felt free to be direct. "I want you to forgive Nora Pilaster for slapping you," she said.

"Forgive?" he said. "I'm flattered! To think that at my age I can still make a young woman slap my face--it's a great compliment."

That wasn't how you felt at the time, Maisie thought. However, she was glad he had decided to make light of the whole incident.

He went on: "Now, if she had refused to take me seriously--that would have been an insult."

It was exactly what Nora ought to have done, Maisie reflected. "Tell me something," she said. "Did Augusta Pilaster encourage you to flirt with her niece?"

"Grisly suggestion!" he replied. "Mrs. Joseph Pilaster as a pander! She did nothing of the kind."

"Did anyone encourage you?"

He looked at Maisie through narrowed eyes. "You're clever, Mrs. Greenbourne; I've always respected you for that. Cleverer than Nora Pilaster. She'll never be what you are."

"But you haven't answered my question."

"I'll tell you the truth, as I admire you so much. The Cordovan Minister, Senor Miranda, told me that Nora was ... what shall we say ... susceptible."

So that was it. "And Micky Miranda was put up to it by Augusta, I'm sure of it. Those two are as thick as thieves."