Twixt Two Equal Armies Read Online Free Page A

for shooting by taking the stage!”
    “Really? How shocking.” Holly did her best to ignore him but found great relief in answering him in her iciest tone. However, Lord Baugham did not seem to notice her frosty reply but carried on.
    “Well, of course, he never heard the end of it! Imagine! Guns and such on the stage! I’m amazed the stage master didn’t throw him off. Although, perhaps he had no time to do so since, as I said, there was very little time to stop anywhere. But it just goes to show you.”
    Holly briefly closed her eyes and then gave him a disgusted look.
    “That the stage is really rather impossible. I suppose they just threw down your luggage outside and left you to fend for yourself, didn’t they?”
    Somehow it galled Holly to no end that he was absolutely right. She had barely climbed out of her cramped seat on the coach before it set off again and she found the luggage unceremoniously left in the middle of the courtyard with no ostlers or post boys or anyone in sight to help her. It seemed so humiliating to her that he should have guessed at her humiliation, too. It must be written on my face, she thought.
    She swallowed. “ Some people,” she said sharply, “have no choice whether to take the stage or no. Some people are happy not to have to sit on the roof or walk. And some people don’t mind very few and short stops because they could not afford any fare or drink at the exorbitant prices avaricious landlords charge at their postal inns anyway.”
    It was an outburst she had not planned and she had to admit she felt rather better for having succumbed to it, but the way the man opposite her hitched up his eyebrow and gave her a long look with what she noticed were exceptionally bright blue eyes in such a dimly lit quarter as this, was slightly uncomfortable.
    “Well,” Lord Baugham said slowly, “I suppose you have a point.”
    “I know I do,” Holly answered, not quite prepared to admit that she was done with him. “And that is perhaps one additional reason for this imposed self-sufficiency to which you seem to take such offence, my lord.”
    Baugham tried to give her a friendly smile, but she merely narrowed her eyes and turned away. Just then Tommy breezed in, stammering apologies and taking charge of her belongings, looking confused as the lady slipped him a coin for his services. Baugham just cleared his throat and shook his head, smiling. There was a moment where the young lady glared at Tommy for what she must have considered extremely peculiar behaviour and inattention and then caught his lordship whistling a little tune to himself. She gave him a stare, but as he seemed oblivious to her displeasure she silently articulated a few more very uncharitable thoughts about “gentlemen” and “nobility” and turned on her heel.
    Baugham stole an amused glance at her while he watched her walk out the door, then flipped through the mail, discovered nothing but business from his steward and secretary and, giving a small sigh of satisfaction, pulled on his gloves to leave again.
    J UST DOWN THE WAY, IN a snug little parlour crowded with newspapers and unfinished books piling up on the empty chairs and tables, Mrs Arabella Tournier sat upright, reading, her handsome face set in its habitual frown. She was by no means an unpleasant or disagreeable woman, but there was little enough cause for smiles and happiness in her life and so they were seldom seen unless she was in the presence of her daughter. Suddenly, however, a small chuckle escaped her, because the only other thing guaranteed to relieve the perpetually down-turned mouth and knitted brows was her correspondence with her family in the south. She was contemplating a missive just arrived from her sister-in-law all the way from Hertfordshire. The correspondent’s polite amazement at the speed of His Majesty’s Mail Services and, in the next line, her sincere assurances that Elizabeth was very welcome to stay up north as long as