Free A Loyal Companion by Bárbara Metzger Page A

hired. He stopped trying to catch up.
    He followed happy squeals and excited barking to the park entry, where Blackie was whining at a pieman outside the gates. Lud, the major thought, the mutt eats everything in sight. Why does he have to act like we've been starving him? The vendor was handing out meat pasties to the girls and Blackie when Conover got there, just in time to pay, he thought, reaching for his purse.
    "Oh no, sir, it's that happy I am to see Fitz again." The man did accept a coin for the pie Major Conover munched on as he followed his noisy pack. Fitz?
    Hampered by his still-splinted leg, Blackie was galumphing through the gates of the square. The children skipped behind him, playing this new kind of tag. Then Blackie started dancing clumsy circles around a flower girl on one of the paths. "Aw, Fitz, y' near
t' broke our 'earts, y' did, disappearin' like that," she said, tying a bunch of violets to the dog's collar. " 'Urry on 'ome now, Fitz. Poor missy's been lookin' 'igh 'n' low."
    Uncertain now, the two older girls ran after the limping dog, leaving the baby in their wake.
    Darius looked around for the blasted nursemaid, who was paying them no mind at all, chatting up the pieman outside the gates. He awkwardly lifted Bettina, hoping the child wouldn't start screaming. "Come on, Tina, let's go find Blackie. Or Fitz."
    "Me. Me. Mimi!"
    "I don't think so, sweetheart."
    Blackie-Fitz made one last stop at the opposite end of the small park. He halted in front of a silver-haired figure on a bench, barked once, and wagged his tail. He waited for the old man to put down a sack of nuts, accepted a scratch behind the ears, then took off again. When Darius and Bettina reached the bench, the elderly gentleman got slowly to his feet.
    "Found our Fitz, did you, Major? Good job, soldier." And he snapped a still smart salute.
    The major transferred his cane and the leash to the hand holding the baby, to return the courtesy.
    This time, when the big dog reached the edge of the park, he turned on Benice and Genessa, barking in their faces, showing his teeth. They were not to cross the road behind him. He dashed between a hackney and a brougham.
    Benice silently put her hand into her uncle's as they waited for a break in the traffic. Gen held the trailing end of the leash. No one said anything, listening to the dog's near frantic yelps as he made his clumsy way up a wide colonnade of steps outside a mansion even bigger than Ware House.
     
     
    Sonia was trailing down the stairs to join her grandmother's company for tea. She didn't want to. She had no interest in the old ladies' gossip or the younger gentlemen's flattery. She only wanted to put on her old cape and sturdy half boots and continue searching for her dog. Maybe there was a paper she hadn't sent an advertisement, or a street urchin she hadn't told about the reward. Someone had to find Fitz. They just had to.
    But she'd promised her grandmother to make an effort, with the ball just a
few days away now. Maisie had taken a few hasty tucks in her gown, and Bigelow had come in to use the hare's foot to bring some color to Miss Randolph's wan cheeks. She was presentable, even if she didn't shine. Sonia didn't care.
    She heard the barking, but she heard Fitz barking in her dreams these days. Or someone was bringing her another emaciated, scrofulous stray for the reward. She gave them each a coin for their trouble, hoping they would feed the animal, at least, before sending it back on the unfriendly streets. She hoped someone was feeding Fitz.
    The barking was getting nearer. Sonia wouldn't get her hopes up; she'd been disappointed so many times. No, she'd just open the door an inch and peek out. Marston would look down his nose at her, but the butler must be in the parlor serving tea, for only Ian stood in the hallway. Just an inch, Sonia told herself, just to be sure.
     
     
    By the time the major's small, grim-faced party climbed the covered stairs to the open door,