Free The Song of the Siren by Philippa Carr Page A

my lady. They said the whole floor. They was most insistent on that.
    I hadn’t thought of this little place, see.”
    “Well, I’m grateful to get it. I’ll see my grooms and send them off to the farmhouse.
    Then will you send me some hot water so that I can wash the grime of the road from my hands and face.”
    “I will have it sent, my lady.”
    I followed him down, saw the men and told them that they were to ride to the farmhouse.
    I would be up soon after dawn and pick them up as it was on our way.
    Then I went back to my room and had not been there a few minutes when a maid arrived with some hot water for me. She set the bowl on the table and I felt a little better when I had washed and taken off my hat and shaken out my hair.
    I would have something to eat in the dining room. The innkeeper had said there was sucking pig and I knew that it was a speciality of the inn and few people served it in a more tasty fashion than the innkeeper’s wife.
    It had been a bad moment when I thought I was not going to find shelter for the night, but I had my little cupboard and it was only for a few hours. I should not undress.
    There was no room. Besides, anything I should need would be in the saddlebags.
    A plague on the drunken groom. He would be roundly scolded by Harriet and Gregory when I arrived. It was a good thing we were not going back to Eversleigh. Priscilla would have been reduced to great anxiety-as for my grandfather, he would be capable of dismissing the groom on the spot.
    Well, here I was and tomorrow I should have forgotten the incident.
    I opened my door and stepped onto the landing. As I did so a man
    62
    opened one of the other doors and came out. He stared at me in amazement. I felt a sudden tremor of excitement which I could only suppose was because he reminded me of Beau. Not that he looked the least bit like him. It was just his height and the fact that he was dressed with that fashionable discreet elegance which few men of my acquaintance possessed. His coat was square cut and as it was unbuttoned his embroidered waistcoat was just visible beneath it. His long shapely legs were encased in blue stockings with silver clocks and there were silver buckles on the garters just below the knee. The lower part of his coat was stiffened with wire, I imagined, and beneath it I caught a glimpse of a sword. He wore square-toed shoes with rather high blue heels and the silver buckles on his shoes matched those on his garters.
    His peruke was long and formally curled and on it he wore a three-cornered hat trimmed with silver galloon. It seemed strange to notice what a complete stranger was wearing.
    Afterwards I said it was because he had clearly taken such pains with his appearance that it seemed impolite not to notice it. There was a faint perfume emanating from him and that perhaps more than anything reminded me of Beau. He was a dandy-like Beau-and they were habitually users of scent. Beau once said that there were so many evil smells about that they must protect themselves. This man looked like someone one would meet at Court rather than in a country hostelry.
    I did not have long to take in all this for he was clearly astonished to see me.
    I was about to shut the door of my cupboard room when he burst out: “Who are you and what are you doing up here?”
    I raised my eyebrows to express my surprise.
    He went on impatiently, “What are you doing on this landing? I have paid for the use of it, and have particularly asked that there should be no intruders.”
    “I,” I replied haughtily, “have paid for this room ... such as it is, and let me tell you, sir, I deeply resent your manner.”
    He said: “You ... have paid for a room here!”
    “If you can call it a room,” I said. “I have taken this ... this ... space for the night, understanding that you and your party have taken the rest of the rooms.”
    “How long have you been here?”
    “I fail to see that that is any concern of yours.”
    63He walked