Charles strode up to them. “Louisa, I thought I said-'
“Oh, there you are, Charles! Isn't this delightful? And so much better than just sitting with nothing to busy my hands!” She ignored his stare. “Of course, if we had not had our accident, I should be at home doing precisely this sort of thing right now.'
Charles knew her comments were designed to forestall any criticism he might have about Louisa's working at any task inside a public inn. But there was nothing he could say in front of Jim Spadger, who was looking sheepishly at him now, that would discourage her from amusing herself in whatever way she wanted.
Charles decided he would have to send Jim from the room before he remonstrated with her.
Louisa bent toward Charles and pointed with one finger. “Would you be so obliging as to hand me that branch of holly, just past you there?'
Her smile dazzled Charles. He turned and searched the boards at his feet for the desired branch. Finding a likely candidate, he turned again, thinking, as he extended it to her, how beautifully her colouring went with this Christmas greenery.
The berries on the holly were a truer red than her hair, but not nearly so vibrant as the gold-and-copper highlights of her curls. The sprigs on her gown closely matched the forest shades of the boughs. Charles found himself stepping back to admire the picture Louisa made as she stood on tiptoe to attach the piece he had given her above the door. A glimpse of trim ankles, showing above her slippers, caused him to cast an uneasy glance Jim Spadger's way.
Louisa's voice cut into his thoughts. “Mrs. Spadger said she has several of these branches and that I might use them in any way we choose. What do you think of this arrangement?'
Charles, who had meant to be disapproving, could only mumble that the cluster above the entry should be enough.
“Nonsense,” Louisa said, smiling. “I mean to deck the whole room before the day is over. You may help if you like.'
“No, thank you,” Charles said firmly. He bent to pet Eliza, who had bounded out from the kitchen to find him. She leapt in circles at his feet as if this reunion were more touching than she could quite bear, and she whimpered as if she had despaired of ever seeing him again.
“That will do. Down, girl! Down!'
“Isn't it wonderful, Charles, how much she loves you!” Louisa said. Then her tone turned wistful. “I'm afraid Geoffrey proved not to be fond of dogs.'
Charles swallowed an oath and made a furious gesture behind Jim's back, begging her to show a little more discretion. Louisa just winked at him, amused and unconcerned.
She stepped down from the stool and, with Jim's assistance, moved to decorate another corner of the room.
“Jim-” Charles heard the ominous note in his own voice “-I find myself in need of a pint of your father's best. Would you fetch it for me?'
“Aye, yor lordship.'
Charles waited until Jim was gone before crossing to Louisa's side.
“How could you think of mentioning Geoffrey in front of that boy?” he demanded.
She looked up, startled. “But, Charles, Jim knows nothing about my elopement. How could he? He must presume we were just talking about a friend.'
“But what if he… What if you said something even less discreet? He might tumble to it somehow!'
Louisa tilted her head incredulously. “Now, Charles, you're being unreasonable.” She extended her hand to him, and he supported it without thinking while she climbed upon the stool. “Why don't you hand me another bough while we're conversing?'
“Louisa-” Charles fumed at her back for a moment before bending to pick up a branch. “It's not so much what you said just now,” he allowed as she took it from him. “It's the fact that you will mention that man at all! I should think you would be eager to forget the whole incident!'
“Of course I am, Charles. But all the same…” She sighed. “I find it hard to put the episode entirely behind me. When I think of how marriage would have changed my life-indeed, how it would change any girl's life! I can only regret that it all came to nothing.'
Charles found himself colouring again. At this proximity, and with Louisa's waist at his eye level, there was only one fact about marriage he could recall at present. The thin muslin of Miss Conisbrough's dress hugged Louisa's trim waist and revealed the way her hips sloped outward in an inviting line. He might so easily stretch out his hands and pull her towards him.
His urge was almost overwhelming, and all of a sudden, he suspected Ned's hand in this. Who else but Ned could have chosen such bewitching gowns? It must be the clothes, Charles decided, the clothes and Ned's lewd suggestions.
But it did not help when Louisa provoked him with statements about Geoffrey and her own shocking reflections upon marriage.
“Louisa,” he said in a strangled voice, “I must beg you not to talk in that way. If we are to go on… that is, if I am to behave in a proper manner toward you, you must not speak in such a remarkable fashion!'
Louisa's eyes grew round. Charles could see he had managed to shock her and regretted his frank words, even before she said, “Whatever do you mean?'
But then, just as suddenly, her expression relaxed. “Now, Charles, I know you are only trying to startle me. Of course you would always behave properly towards me.'
Perversely, Charles found he did not care for this assumption. “What makes you so certain?” he asked, surprising himself.
“I am certain you would never force your attentions on an unwilling female, would you?'
Charles struggled with the answer and then told the truth, “No. Not if she were unwilling.'
“And it is the unwillingness that makes certain behaviours improper. Do you not agree?'
He nodded, confused as to where this reasoning was taking them.
But Louisa only smiled and said, “There, you see.'
She held out her hand for another branch.
Charles reached for one to avoid meeting her gaze. He found himself wondering if Louisa was willing or not. She had not said.
But then, it was just this sort of thinking he was trying to avoid. He retreated to the safety of their original topic.
“All the same, Louisa, I would prefer you not to mention Geoffrey in front of Jim again.'
“As you wish, Charles.'
Louisa continued with her decorating, humming a little tune as she did. After a moment, she added, “I only mentioned Geoffrey because I thought I should tell you about an idea I had and about which he was so disobliging.'
“What idea?” Charles asked warily.
Louisa ignored his cautious tone and went on, “As soon as I saw how fond you are of dogs, I was certain you would wish to hear about it. On our way north, I saw a number of dogs without masters-miserably thin-one could see they were starving. And I would have stopped to pick them up, only Geoffrey forbade it. Considering the haste he wished to make, I could almost forgive him for it, but it was his reaction to my idea that first awoke me to his true character.'
Charles smiled at the picture her words conjured up: an eloping couple, their carriage weighed down by a pack of starving curs; a harried bridegroom, struggling to make time; and Louisa, turning red and sneezing into the bargain.
He could almost sympathize with Geoffrey. Charles knew he should stop Louisa's confidences before she suggested another bill he should put before the Lords; but a sudden curiosity about Geoffrey and his faults prevented him.
She continued, “I had the notion of a private society which could succour homeless animals. What do you think about that, Charles?'
Charles's jaw dropped open. He stammered, “And you say this Geoffrey fellow disapproved of your notion?'
