An Infamous Army a-3

by Джорджетт Хейер

  A glance at Colonel Audley's face was enough to inform her that this disgraceful circumstance was not likely to weigh with him as it should.

  His hand came up to grasp her elbow, not ungently, but with a certain urgency. "Miss Devenish, did you say?"

  "No, I did not!" replied Judith crossly. She recollected herself, and added with an attempt to conceal her annoyance: "You are looking at the wrong lady. That is Barbara Childe. I daresay you may have heard of her."

  "So that is Barbara Childe!" he said. "Are you acquainted with her? Will you present me?"

  "Well, really, Charles, my acquaintance with her is of the slightest. You know, she is not quite the thing. I will allow her to be excessively handsome, but I believe you could be disappointed if you knew her."

  "Impossible!" he replied.

  Judith looked wildly round in search of inspiration, and encountered only the mocking eyes of her lord. She met that quizzical glance with one of entreaty not unmixed with indignation. The Earl took snuff with a wonderful air of abstraction.

  Help came from an unexpected quarter. Those standing by the door fell back; the orchestra struck up William of Nassau; the King and Queen of the Netherlands had arrived.

  There could be no question of performing introductions at such a moment. As the ushers came in, the crowd parted, till an avenue was formed; their Majesties were announced; every lady sank in a deep curtsy; and in walked King William, a stout gentleman, with his stout Queen beside him, and behind him his two sons.

  Majesty was in an affable mood, smiling broadly, ready to have any number of presentations made, and to be extremely gracious to everyone; but the Princes attracted more attention. The younger, Frederick, was a fine young man, with not inconsiderable pretensions to good looks. He bore himself stiffly, and favoured his acquaintances with an inclination of the head, accompanied by a small, regal smile.

  His brother, the Prince of Orange, though arrayed in all the magnificence of a general's dress uniform, was a much less impressive figure. He was very thin and held himself badly, and his good-humoured countenance bore a slight resemblance to that of a startled faun. His smile, however, was disarming, and a marked tendency to wink at cronies whom he observed in the crowd could not but endear him to his more unceremonious friends. When he caught sight of Colonel Audley, an expression of delight leapt to his rather prominent eyes, and he waved to him; and when the Duke of Wellington, having bowed punctiliously over the King's hand, turned to pay his respects to him, he frustrated any attempt at formality by starting forward, and taking the Duke's hand with all the reverence of a junior officer honoured by a great man.

  "I hope I see your Royal Highness in good health?" said the Duke.

  "I am so glad to see you, sir," stammered his Royal Highness. "I would have reported at your house this morning, but I did not know - I was at Braine-le-Comte - you must forgive me!"

  The Duke's face relaxed. "I shall be happy to see your Highness tomorrow, if that should be convenient to you."

  "Yes, of course, sir!" his Highness assured him.

  Majesty, listening indulgently to this interchange, intervened to draw the Duke's attention to his younger son. The Prince of Orange seized the opportunity to efface himself, and would have slipped away in search of more congenial companionship had not the signal for the dancing to begin been given at that moment. He was obliged to lead the opening quadrille with the Duchesse de Beaufort, and to dance a couple of waltzes with Madame d'Ursel and Madame d'Assche. After that, he considered his duty conscientiously performed, and disappeared from the ballroom into one of the ajoining rooms where refreshment and kindred spirits were to be found.

  He entered between looped curtains to find a small and convivial party assembled there. Lord March, a fresh-faced young man with grave eyes and a quick smile, was leaning on a chair back, adjuring Colonel Audley, seated on the edge of the table, and Colonel Freemantle, lounging against the wall, to make a clean breast of their doings in Vienna. The fourth member of group was Sir Alexander Gordon, a young man with a winning personality, who was engaged in filling his glass from a decanter.

  "Charles!" cried the Prince, coming forward in his impetuous style. "My dear fellow, how are you?"

  Colonel Audley stood up. "Sir!" he said.

  The Prince wrung his hand. "Now, don't, I beg you! I am so pleased you are here! Do not let us have any ceremony! This is like Spain: we need only Canning, and Fitzroy to walk in asking, 'Where's Slender Billy?' and we are again the old family."

  "That's all very well, but you've become a great man since I saw you last," objected Colonel Audley. "I think - yes, I think a Royal Tiger."

  A general laugh greeted this old Headquarters' joke. The Prince said: "You can't call me a Tiger: I am not a visitor to the camp! But have you seen the real Tigers? Mon Dieu, do you remember we called the Duc d'Angouleme a Royal Tiger? But, my dear Charles - my dear Fremantle - the Duc de Berri! No, really, you would not believe! You must see him drilling his men to appreciate him. He flies into a passion and almost falls off his horse. But on my honour!"

  "No, sir!" protested March.

  "I swear it!" He accepted a glass of wine from Gordon, and perched himself on the arm of a chair. "Confusion to Boney!" he said, and drank. "And General Roder!" he resumed.

  "Confusion to him too, sir?" murmured Gordon.

  "No - yes! The worst of our Tigers! Have you met General Roder, Charles? He doesn't like the British, he doesn't like the Dutch, he doesn't like the Belgians, he doesn't like the French, he doesn't even like your humble servant. So here is confusion to General Roder!"

  While this toast was being drunk, a pleasant-faced officer in Dutch uniform had peeped round the curtain and then come into the room. He was considerably older than any of the young men drinking confusion to the unfortunate Prussian Commissioner, but was hailed by them with cheerful affection.

  "Hallo, Baron! Come in!" said Audley. "How are you?"

  "Glass of wine with you, Baron?" Fremantle held up the decanter invitingly.

  "Constant! We are drinking confusion to General von Roder. Join us immediately!" commanded his Royal master.

  The Baron Constant de Rebecque glanced swiftly over his shoulder. He accepted a glass of wine, but said in very good English: "I beg of you, sir - ! Consider where you are, and who you are, and - very well, very well, here is confusion to him, then! And now will you recollect, sir, that this is a fete for their Majesties, and it expected that you will conduct yourself en prince! Your absence will be noticed: his Majesty will be displeased."

  The Prince shrugged his shoulders. "It is absurd. I can not spend all the evening being civil to the Tigers, I will not conduct myself en prince if that means I can not not drink a glass of wine with my friends."

  "Sir , you are also the General in Command of the Army and not any more a junior aide-de-camp."

  The Prince patted his arm. "Constant, mon pauvre, you have not seen - you have not heard! You are dreaming, in fact. Go and look who is here tonight. My poor command is quite at an end."

  "Mon Prince, you are still in command, and you must mingle with your guests."

  "That's quite true, sir," said Fremantle. "The Duke hasn't taken over the command yet. Duty calls you, General!"

  At this moment, and while the Prince still looked recalcitrant, a very tall man with the buff collar and silver lace of the 52nd Regiment appeared between the curtains, and stood silently surveying the group. He was Saxon fair, with ice-blue eyes, a high-bridged nose, and a fighting chin, and was built on splendid lines that were marred only by the droop of his right shoulder, the joint of which had become anchylosed, from a wound incurred in the Peninsula. At sight of him, Lord March straightened himself instinctively, and Colonel Fremantle jumped up from his chair.

  The Prince turned his head, and pulled a grimace. "You need not tell me! You are looking for me. First my quarter-master-general, and now my military secretary. Your health, Sir John!"

  "Thank you, sir," said Co
lonel Colborne in his slow deep voice. A smile crept into his eyes. "I thought I should find you with the riffraff of the staff," he remarked. "If I were your Highness, I would return to the ballroom."

  "Because my father will be displeased," said the Prince. "I have that by heart."

  "No," replied Sir John. "Because his Majesty is more than likely to request the Duke to speak to you, sir."

  "Oh, mon Dieu!" exclaimed the Prince, preparing for instant flight. "You are entirely right! Charles, my hotel is in the Rue de Brabant! I charge you, don't forget! I will go and do my duty, and dance with all the ugly old women. Would you like to be presented to a fat Frau? No? Well, then, au revoir!"

  "Stay a moment!" said Colonel Audley suddenly. "Do that for me, sir, will you?"

  The Prince paused in the doorway, looking back with laugh in his eyes. "What, present you to a fat Frau?"

  "No, to the Lady Barbara Childe."

  The Prince's brow shot up; a low whistle broke from Lord March; Colonel Fremantle said solicitously: "My door fellow, you are not yourself. Take my advice and go quietly home to bed."

  Audley reddened, but only said: "I am perfectly serious. I have been trying for the past hour to get an introduction, but there's no coming near her for the crowd round her. You could present me, sir, if you would."

  "Steal into the supper-room and change the tickets on the tables," suggested March flippantly.

  "Don't do it, sir!" recommended Fremantle.

  The Prince laughed. "But Charles, this is the road to ruin! Really, you wish it?"

  "Most earnestly, sir."

  "Come, then, but mind, I am not to be blamed for consequences!"

  Colonel Audley had not exaggerated the difficulty of approaching Barbara Childe. When she left the dancing-floor on the arm of her partner she became engulfed in a crowd of impatient supplicants who would scarcely give place to any under the rank of a general. All had, however, to fall back before the Prince of Orange, who led Colonel Audley up to her ladyship, and said with his appealing smile: "Lady Barbara, I want to present to you a friend of mine who desires beyond anything this introduction. Colonel Audley - Lady Barbara Childe!"

  Colonel Audley bowed, and looked up to find the Lady Barbara's brilliant gaze upon him. There was candid speculation in it, a tolerant smile just parted the lady's lips. The Colonel returned the look, smiled, and said in his pleasant voice: "How do you do?"

  "How do you do?" responded Barbara slowly, still looking at him.

  Chapter Four

  The Colonel, finding a gloved hand held out to him, took it in his, and bent his head to kiss it. Barbara looked down at it with a little bewilderment, as though she wondered why she had extended it.

  "Do please grant the Colonel one waltz!" said the Prince, amusement quivering in his voice.

  He moved away. The Comte de Lavisse said in English: "But how should that be possible, one asks oneself?"

  "May I have the honour?" said the Colonel.

  "But no!" objected the Count. "This leads to an affair of the most sanguinary! I shall immediately send friends to call upon you!"

  "We shall all send our friends to call upon you!" Glared an officer of the 1st Guards. "Audley, this is piracy! Those wishing to dance with Lady Bab must present their credentials a full week beforehand!" Captain Chalmers, of the 52nd, said: "Send him about his business, Bab! These staff officers are not at all the thing. Stick to the Light Division!"

  "These Light Division men, Lady Barbara," said Colonel Audley, "fancy themselves more important than the rest of the Army put together. I tell you in confidence, but you know it is a fact that they brag shockingly."

  "An insult!" declared Chalmers. "An insult from a staff officer! Bab, I appeal to your sense of justice!"

  Barbara laughed, and, laying her hand on Colonel Audley's arm, said: "Oh, the wishes of Royalty are tantamount to commands, gentlemen." She kissed her hand to her court, and walked back on to the floor with Colonel Audley.

  He danced well, and she as though by instinct. Neither spoke for one or two turns, but presently Barbara raised her eyes to his face, and asked abruptly: "Why did you look at me so?"

  He smiled down at her. "I don't know how I looked. I have been wanting to dance with you all evening. Does every man say that to you?"

  "Yes," she replied nonchalantly.

  "I was afraid it must be so. I wish I might think of something to say to you which would interest you by its novelty."

  "Oh!… Can you not?"

  "No. If I said the only thing I can think of to say you would find it abominably commonplace."

  "Should I? What is it?"

  "I love you," replied the Colonel.

  Momentary surprise, which caused her wonderful eyes to fly upwards to his again, gave place immediately to frank amusement. Her enchanting gurgle of laughter escaped her; she said: "You are wrong. The unexpected cannot be commonplace."

  "Was it unexpected? I had not thought that possible."

  "Certainly. At the end of a week I might expect you to say just that, but you have said it within ten minutes of making my acquaintance, and so have taken my breath away. Go on: I like to be surprised."

  "That is all," said the Colonel.

  Again she cast him that considering glance. "You are very clever, or very simple. Which is it?"

  "I haven't a notion," replied the Colonel. "Ah! Is this strategy from a staff officer?"

  "No, it is the truth."

  "But, my friend, you are fantastic! You will next be making me an offer!"

  He nodded. She saw the twinkle in his eye and responded to it. "Let us sit down. I don't care to dance any more. Who are you?"

  He compelled her to continue dancing the length of the room, and then led her off the floor to the entrance doors, and through them into the first antechamber.

  "My name is Charles Audley; my army rank Lieutenant-colonel; my regimental rank, major. What else shall I tell you?"

  She interrupted him. "Audley… Oh, I have it! You are Worth's brother. Why did the Prince present you to me?"

  "Because I asked him to. That was my only strategy."She sat down upon a couch against the wall, and with a movement of her hand invited him to take his place beside her. He did so, and after a moment she said with her odd, boyish curtness: "I think I never saw you before tonight, did I?"

  "Never. I have been employed in the Peninsula, and later in Paris and Vienna. But I have a little the advantage of you. You, I daresay, had never heard of me before, but I had heard of you."

  "That's horrid!" she said quickly.

  "Why?"

  "Oh! People never say nice things about me. What have you been told?"

  "That you were beautiful."

  "And?"

  "And disastrous."

  "I don't mind that, but should not you take care?"

  "You are forgetting that I am a soldier, and therefore inured to risks."

  She laughed. "You've a confoundedly ready tongue! Come, take me back into the ballroom: my reputation won't stand all this sitting about in antechambers, I can tell you."

  He rose at once, but said: "I wonder why you chose to tell me that?"

  She too was on her feet; she had to look up to meet his eyes, but only a little. "You don't like it, do you?"

  "No. I don't."

  "Nevertheless, it is the truth. I play fair, you see."

  He looked at her for a moment, half smiling, then raised his head, and held up a finger. "Listen! Do you know that waltz they are playing? It has been the rage in Vienna. Will you dance with me again?"

  A shade of admiration came into her eyes; she said appreciatively: "The deuce take it! I believe yes, I believe that was a snub! But you must not snub me!"

  He turned towards her, and took both hands in a strong clasp. "Don't speak ill of yourself, and I won't. There!" He raised her hands one after another to his lips, and lightly kissed them. "My dance, I think, Lady Barbara?"

  They went back into the ballroom; the Colonel's arm enci
rcled that supple waist; a gloved hand lay light as a feather on his shoulder; Barbara murmured: "You waltz charmingly, Colonel."

  "So do you, Lady Barbara."

  She stole a mischievous glance up at his face. "That was to be expected. It is still thought a trifle fast in England, you know."

  From a little distance, Georgiana Lennox, circling round very dashingly with Lord Hay, caught sight of them, and promptly exclaimed: "Oh, how infamous!"

  "Where? Who?" demanded Hay.

  "Over there, stupid! Don't you see? Bab Childe has seized on one of the nicest men in Brussels! Of all the wretched pieces of work! I do think she might be content with her odious Lavisse, and not steal Charles Audley as well!"

  "Lucky devil!" said Hay.

  "Sir!" Georgiana in outraged accents. "Take me back to Mama this instant, if you please!"

  "Oh lord!" gasped Hay ruefully. "I didn't mean it, Georgy, really I didn't!"

  She allowed herself to be mollified, but remarked sagely: "You may think him lucky, but I expect Lady Worth won't."

  She was quite right. From the harbour of Sir Henry Clinton's gallant arm, Judith too had perceived her brother-in-law and his partner. That the couple could waltz better than any other in the room, and were attracting some attention, afforded her not the slightest gratification. She had observed the look on Colonel Audley's face, and although she had never before seen him wear that particular expression she had not the least doubt of its significance.

  Sir Henry, noticing the direction of her troubled gaze, manoeuvred that he too might see what had caught her eye. He said: "Your brother-in-law, is it not, Lady Worth?"