Lady Polly Part 18

Polly opened her eyes to find that he was real and holding her very close.

Those brilliant grey eyes were blazing into hers. The nausea receded a little. He gave her a slight shake.

"I need you to be strong now, Polly. Don't disappoint me."

Polly's chin came up. Though utterly unprepared for the horrors that had happened to her, she responded instinctively to the authority in his tone.

Besides, there was her mother to consider. The Dowager Countess was stumbling to her feet, her clothes in tatters, filthy and stained. The mob was falling back, hesitant and sullen, slipping away in ones and twos down the dark alleys and lanes, melting into the darkness as they had come.

Lord Henry was bending to help the Dowager Countess to her feet and as he did so, his black cloak swung back and Polly saw the pistols at his belt.

"The militia are coming..." The whisper caught and ran round the remains of the rabble. The madness was dying.

"Let's go..."

"Can you walk, ma'am?" Lord Henry was solicitous, his voice betraying neither fear nor panic.

"If not, I will carry you home. It is not far, but I think we should be moving."

The Dowager, like her daughter, had a strong streak of courage in her.

She straightened up and pushed her tumbled hair away from her face.

"I can walk, sir, if you give me your arm. But the other lady and gentleman...? I thought, I was sure... Lord and Lady Ballantyne?"

"They have gone," Lord Henry was saying, already shepherding them away from the smouldering hulk of the carriage, 'and we can only hope that they man aged to escape the mob. We must concentrate on getting you home safely, ma'am. " The dark streets were empty, littered with broken gla.s.s and smouldering wreckage. It seemed to Polly, summoning the last of her strength to get herself safely back to Brook Street, that the journey could have taken two minutes or two hours. The Dowager Countess limped along, huddled within the tattered remains of her cloak, leaning heavily on Lord Henry's arm. His other arm remained, most improperly, about Polly's waist. But she did not care for propriety or convention. Polly needed the rea.s.surance and strength Lord Henry's presence conveyed, and would have clung to him if all the mobs from h.e.l.l had erupted about them.

Lights flared from the house in Brook Street and the front door stood open.

Lord Henry helped the Dowager Countess up the steps and into the hall.

The whole place was in uproar. Nicholas Sea grave, his face tense and white, was supporting a man Polly recognised with relief as John, the coachman. There was a huge, livid bruise on his temple and dried blood caked to his face.

His eyes were wild as he clutched at the Earl's arm.

The butler, looking almost as shaken as Sea grave himself, was firing orders at a host of servants who appeared to be running aimlessly in all directions.

As they came in at the door, there was a moment of complete silence.

Then the Dowager tottered over to the staircase, clutched at the bannisters and sat down rather heavily on the bottom step. And Lord Henry March night, with the casual aplomb that would not have been out of place at the most exclusive of social gatherings, said, "Your servant, Sea grave. I am happy to be able to restore the Dowager Countess and Lady Polly to you."

Much later, the Dowager Countess had been cosseted and exhorted into bed by her daughter-in-law, and Polly was propped up against her pillows, sipping a cup of hot, sweet tea. She felt light-headed with exhaustion, but the shock had prevented her from sleeping. Nicholas and Lucille, horrified and distressed, had heard the whole story, and were now sitting at the end of the bed.

Lord Henry March night had slipped away before anyone had had the chance to thank him properly.

'and the strangest thing," Polly was saying, stifling a yawn, 'was that Lord Henry appeared to come from nowhere. And when he did, the rabble turned tail and fled. It was most extraordinary. He is a most mysterious man..."

Her eyelids were closing. Lucille gently took the cup from her grasp and set it down on the washstand. She tucked up Polly's covers.

Polly could feel herself slipping into sleep at last. She tried to rouse herself.

"Lady Laura March night told me that Henry was not as everyone imagined..."

she said drowsily.

"And now I see it is true. A man who takes a brace of pistols to a ball is quite unusual..."

Lucille's eyes met those of her husband. Nick raised an eyebrow but did not speak. Polly slid further down into the bed. It was warm and safe, and suddenly she was not afraid any more. But there was something else she had to tell them. It was worrying at the edges of her mind and would not let her rest.

With an enormous effort, she managed to get the words out.

"I love him so much, you see," Polly said, quite as though it explained everything.

"I always have." And then she slept.

It was early the following morning that Nick Sea- grave called in at St James's. The discreet and deferential manservant who answered the door could not confirm that Lord Henry March night was yet out of bed, a statement which elicited a look of amused disbelief from Sea grave, if nothing more. He was not surprised when Lord Henry joined him within five minutes, fully dressed and showing no signs that he had recently arisen.

"I am here to offer my thanks on behalf of all of us for your timely actions last night, March night," Sea grave said, accepting a chair and the offer of a cup of coffee.

"My mother could barely be restrained from coming around here to thank you herself! Indeed, she will be singing your praises to all and sundry from now on!"

A smile twitched Lord Henry's lips.

"How very uncomfortable! I will have to think of a way of dissuading her!"

"No doubt you'll come up with something," Sea- grave said, also smiling. He allowed his gaze to travel around the room, appreciating its elegant style and tasteful furnishing. There were a number of books on the shelves which he recognised but had not touched for years and some very fine pictures. Sea grave was not surprised.

"How fortunate for my mother and Polly that you happened to be pa.s.sing at the moment the mob turned on them," Sea grave continued blandly.

"Much in the same way that you were pa.s.sing on Hamp stead Heath the other night!"

Lord Henry picked up the coffee pot, avoiding his guest's penetrating gaze.

"It was fortunate, indeed."

"No doubt," Sea grave pursued, 'you had taken a pair of pistols to Mrs Ellery's ball just to be prepared. One cannot be too careful these days! " Lord Henry, pouring the coffee into large china cups, checked slightly.

His grey eyes met Sea grave's inscrutable dark ones.

"Ah, the pistols. I a.s.sume... Lady Polly?"

"She's an observant girl," Sea grave agreed, 'but I expect you have already realised that. " "Your sister sees a little too much," Lord Henry agreed, with grim feeling.

He pa.s.sed the cup across and Sea grave sat back in the chair, savouring the strong aroma of the coffee.

"I hope," Lord Henry said, 'that neither the Dowager Countess nor Lady Polly will have taken any lasting hurt. That was a h.e.l.lish scene last night. Sea grave. They were both unconscionably brave. " Sea grave's mouth tightened into uncompromising lines.

"Chapman, was it?"

he said grimly.