Rake's Progress by MC Beaton Read Free Book Online Page B

me.’
    â€˜What! A couple of small children! You must do better than that.’
    â€˜He’s a spy!’ cried Peter. ‘He’s watching the troops and writing in his book.’
    â€˜He does not need to count the troops when anyone can read all the details in the newspapers,’ said Lord Guy. ‘But let me see this book, Manuel.’
    Manuel produced a small black book. Lord Guy flicked open the pages. ‘It is my diary,’ said Manuel.
    â€˜â€œWent with my lord this day to Box Hill”,’ read Lord Guy.
    â€˜It’s not the same book,’ whispered Peter to Amy.
    â€˜That seems to be all right,’ said Lord Guy, handing it back. ‘I shall deal with you later, Manuel. Now, my children, your names.’
    â€˜Peter Jones,’ said Peter, ‘and this is my sister, Amy. Don’t cry, Amy. It is all right now, you know.’
    â€˜And where do you live?’
    â€˜In Berkeley Square.’
    â€˜And where is your nursemaid?’
    Peter shuffled his feet. ‘She don’t know we’re out,’ he said.
    â€˜Then I shall return you to your parents.’
    â€˜We haven’t got any parents,’ said Peter. ‘Our big sister looks after us and she’s going to be mad.’ All thoughts of pointing out that Manuel had produced a different book fled from Peter’s mind now that he was firmly back in a real world of disapproving grown-ups.
    â€˜Better to put up with a little anger from your sister than to go out wandering again on your own,’ said Lord Guy. ‘Manuel, return to Clarges Street and await me. First go over there and tell Mr Roger I am taking these children home. Come along, children.’
    The glory of a drive home in a spanking racing curricle was enough to take Peter’s mind off his worries.
    As he reined in outside the house in Berkeley Square, Lord Guy looked up at it curiously. He felthe had noticed it before, that something monumental had happened to him there.
    Then the door opened and Esther hurtled out, eyes only for her brother and sister. When the twins were reported missing, she had risen from her sickbed. She was wearing a loose gown and her red hair was pinned loosely on top of her head.
    Lord Guy looked at her in a dazed way.
    â€˜You,’ he said. ‘You were not a dream. You exist.’
    â€˜I am grateful to you for bringing the children home,’ said Esther, not really hearing what he said but looking at him for the first time. Her face stiffened.
    â€˜Oh, yes,’ she said coldly. ‘We have met.’
    â€˜Where?’ asked Lord Guy.
    â€˜You were very drunk. You entered my house one morning and tried to assault me. You have turned Number Sixty-seven Clarges Street into a brothel. I should not even be speaking to you, but I must ask you where you found the children.’
    â€˜In Hyde Park, ma’am,’ he said. ‘They mistook my servant for a spy. He frightened them.’
    Esther lifted the children down from the carriage, passed them over to the nursery maid, and then turned her attention back to Lord Guy.
    â€˜Thank you for returning the children,’ she said.
    She turned away.
    â€˜May I see you again?’ he said.
    She turned back and looked at him blankly.
    â€˜Don’t be silly,’ said Miss Esther Jones. And, picking up her skirts, she followed the children into the house and slammed the door.

FOUR

    â€˜O Radcliffe! thou once were the charmer
Of girls who sat reading all night;
Thy heroes were striplings in armour,
Thy heroines damsels in white.
    Haut Ton finds her privacy broken,
We trace all her ins and her outs;
The very small talk that is spoken
By very great people at routs.
At Tenby Miss Jinks asks the loan of
The book from the innkeeper’s wife,
And reads till she dreams she is one of
The leaders of elegant life.
    THOMAS HAYNES BAYLY

    â€˜So that’s that,’ said Lord Guy, pacing up and down.