Free The Exploits & Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy by Elizabeth Aston Page A

taken up such a life.
    The boy-girl muttered a few words of thanks and then, before Titus could put out a restraining hand, had twisted away and was off.
    The girl can run, Titus thought. I wonder where she learned to speak English like that. And then, I hope she comes to no further harm.
    Which brought to his mind the shapely form of one Mathilde Rosarie, niece of the Comte de Montesquieu, whom he had met at Eliza’s soirée. She had intimated that a late evening caller might be made welcome. “We play cards until dawn upon occasion,” she had informed him. He was not in a gaming mood, but he had a sudden craving for company, a wish to be away from these dark streets, and besides, who knew how a card game might end if the stakes were high? Mathilde had a head of glorious dark red hair, Titian red, the colour that went with a creamy skin and luminous hazel eyes. He imagined the hair spread in abandon across a satin pillow, and quickened his step.

Chapter Eight
    Alethea judged it impossible to find Figgins out in the streets; she would return to the Poisson d’Or and await her there. She was worried; would Figgins, with barely a word of French, be able to find her way back to the inn?
    Her fears were groundless. Figgins was ahead of her, waiting in her chamber, her thin face alive with concern. “Well, there you are, Miss, I mean Mr. Hawkins, sir, and here’s me been sitting here this half hour on tenterhooks with no idea of where you might be or even if you was alive.”
    â€œWhy should I not be alive?”
    â€œOne minute you was standing there, beside me, in among all those jostling Frenchies, and I took my eyes off you for one moment, just to take note of a velvet gown cut in the new way, very smart, worn with a stomacher, and you disappeared like you were never there. What was I to think? So when I had done my best to find you, I thought there was nothing for it but to come back here and frighten myself into fits thinking what might have happened to you.”
    She gave Alethea a shrewish look. Alethea, her colour as high as her spirits now that she had found Figgins safely back at the inn, lay back on the bed, her feet still on the floor, and gave way to laughter.
    â€œWhy, I have had an adventure,” she said when she had stopped laughing. “And been rescued by a handsome English gentleman, who looked at me in such a way, and then with so much anger and puzzlement in his face that I had to run away!”
    â€œRescued!”
    â€œIt was when I was standing beside you. I was not wasting time on any velvet dress, but I was watching the fire-eater; I do long to know how he does the trick. Then I felt someone pressing against me, in a manner too familiar to be accidental. A lady of the night, I thought, but no such thing; when I turned round, it was a man. A kind of a man, that is to say, with so much rouge and such a soft mouth. He was tall and very elegantly dressed, not some thief with his hand reaching for my pocket as I for a moment imagined.”
    Figgins’s eyes were huge and furious. “A gentleman, making up to you? I never heard of such a thing. How dared he.”
    â€œOf course you heard of such a thing, for did we not find when we were out and about in our breeches in London that as many men as women gave us both the glad eye?”
    â€œAs to that, there are too many nasty men who like a lean boy instead of a woman, but here in Paris, on the street! Where anyone might see what he is about.”
    â€œI didn’t give him the chance to be about anything. I moved away from him, swiftly, as you may imagine, and that was when I lost sight of you. However, I had not shaken off this persistent gentleman, who was edging his way towards me again, so I dived into the crowd and took to my heels as soon as I could.”
    â€œIt’s a wonder you didn’t get lost.”
    â€œOh, but I did. I found myself in a maze of narrow, foul-smelling streets; I