Free The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer Page B

the blue cloth, the high polish on his top-boots, the very style of his cravat, and the superfluity of capes on his drab over-coat all proclaimed so unmistakably the gentleman of fashion that the landlord was obviously taken aback, and looked from him to Pen with considerable suspicion.
    'I shall require a bedroom for myself, and another for my nephew,' said Sir Richard. 'Also some supper.'
    'Yes, sir. Did your honour say you was travelling on the Bristol-stage?' asked the landlord incredulously.
    'Yes,' said Sir Richard raising his brows. 'I did say so. Have you any objection?'
    'Oh no, sir! no, I'm sure!' replied the landlord hastily. 'Your honour said supper! I'm afraid we—we aren't in the habit of entertaining the Quality, but if your honour would condescend to a dish of ham and eggs, or maybe a slice of cold pork, I'll see to it on the instant!'
    Sir Richard having graciously approved the ham and eggs, the landlord bowed him into the stuffy little parlour, and promised to have the only two guest-chambers the inn possessed immediately prepared. Pen, directing a conspiratorial look at Sir Richard, elected to follow the portmanteau and the cloak-bag upstairs. When she reappeared a slatternly maid-servant had spread supper on the table in the parlour, and Sir Richard had succeeded in forcing open two of its tiny windows. He turned, as Pen came in, and asked: 'What in heaven's name have you been doing all this time? I began to think you had deserted me.'
    'Desert you! Of course I wouldn't do anything so silly! The thing was, I could see the landlord had noticed your clothes, so I thought of a famous tale to tell him. That's why I went off with him. I knew he would try to discover from me why you were travelling on the stage-coach.'
    'And did he?'
    'Yes, and I told him that you had had reverses on 'Change and had fallen on evil times,' said Pen, drawing up her chair to the table.
    'Oh!' said Sir Richard. 'Was he satisfied with that?'
    'Perfectly. He said he was very sorry. And then he asked where we were bound for. I said, for Bristol, because all the family had lost its money, and so I had had to be taken away from school.'
    'You have the most fertile imagination of anyone of my acquaintance,' said Sir Richard. 'May I ask what school you have been gracing?'
    'Harrow. Afterwards I wished I had said Eton, because my cousin Geoffrey is at Harrow, and 1 don't like him. I wouldn't go to his school.'
    'I suppose it is too late to change the school now,' Sir Richard said, in a regretful tone.
    She looked up quickly, her fascinating smile crinkling the corners of her eyes. 'You are laughing at me,'
    'Yes,' admitted Sir Richard. 'Do you mind?'
    'Oh no, not a bit! No one laughs in my aunt's house. I like it.'
    'I wish,' said Sir Richard, 'you would tell me more about this aunt of yours. Is she your guardian?'
    'No, but I have had to live with her ever since my father died. I have no real guardian, but I have two trustees. On account of my fortune, you understand.'
    'Of course, yes: I was forgetting your fortune. Who are your trustees?'

'Well, one is my uncle Griffin—Aunt Almeria's husband, you know—but he doesn't signify, because he does just what Aunt tells him. The other is my father's lawyer, and he doesn't signify either.'
    'For the same reason?'
    'I don't know, but I shouldn't wonder at it in the least. Everyone is afraid of Aunt Almeria. Even I am, a little. That's why I ran away.'
    'Is she unkind to you?'
    'N-no. At least, she doesn't ill-treat me, but she is the kind of woman who always gets her own way. Do you know?'
    'I know,' Sir Richard said.
    'She talks,' explained Pen. 'And when she is displeased with one, I must say that it is very uncomfortable. But one should always be just, and I do not blame her for being so set on my marrying Fred. They are not very rich, you see, and of course Aunt would like Fred to have all my fortune. In fact, I am very sorry to be so disobliging, particularly as I have lived with the