Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer Read Free Book Online Page B

bowed over her hand again, and held it a moment. “I am more than sorry. I should have liked excessively—But it must not be. I am promised. May I—you will be open with me, cousin—may I give myself the pleasure of calling on you in town?”
    She smiled and gave permission.
    “You have a guardian who will advise you,” he said. “I am not acquainted with Lord Worth, but I believe him to be generally very well-liked. He will put you in the way of everything. But if there is at any time anything I can do for you—if you should feel yourselves in want of a friend—I hope you will remember that the wicked cousin would be only too happy to be of service.” It was said with an arch look, and the hint of a smile. He gave Peregrine his card.
    Peregrine held it between his fingers. “Thank you. We shall hope to see more of you, cousin. We mean to put up at Grillon’s for the present, but my sister has a notion of setting up house. I don’t know how it will end. But Grillon’s will find us.”
    Mr. Taverner noted it down in his pocket-book, bowed again, and took his leave of them. They watched him walk away down the street.
    “I’ll tell you what, Ju,” said Peregrine suddenly, “I wish he may tell me the name of his tailor. Did you notice his coat?”
    She had not; she had been aware only of a certain elegance. There was nothing of the fop about him.
    They strolled on towards the George wondering about their cousin. A glance at his card informed them that his name was Bernard, and that he was to be found at an address in Harley Street, which Miss Taverner knew, from having heard her father speak of an acquaintance living there, to be a respectable neighbourhood.
    The rest of the day passed quietly; they went to bed in good time to be in readiness for an early start in the morning.
    Consultation of the Traveller’s Guide convinced Miss Taverner at least that the rest of the journey could not be accomplished with comfort in one day. It was in vain that Peregrine argued that by setting forward at eight in the morning they could not fail to reach London by nine in the evening at the latest. Miss Taverner placed no dependence on his reckoning. The post-horses might, as he swore they would, cover nine miles an hour, but he made no allowance for changing them, or for the halts at the turnpikes, or for any other of the checks they would be sure to encounter. She had no wish to be traveling for as much as twelve hours at a stretch, and no wish to arrive in London after nightfall. Peregrine was forced to give way, though with an ill-grace.
    However, by the time they had reached Stevenage, shortly after three o’clock on the following afternoon, he was heartily tired of sitting in the chaise, and very glad to get down at the Swan Inn, and stretch his limbs, and bespeak dinner and beds for the night.
    They were off again directly they had breakfasted next morning. They had only thirty-one miles to cover now, and with London drawing nearer every moment they were both impatient to arrive, and alert to catch sight of every milestone.
    Barnet was their last stage, and here they seemed to be at last within hail of London. The town was busy, for the traffic of the Holyhead road, as well as that of the Great North road, passed through it. There were any number of inns, and two great houses which were solely devoted to posting business. The smaller of these, the Red Lion, took most of the north-going vehicles, while the larger, the Green Man, which was situated in the middle of the town and kept no less than twenty-six pairs of horses and eleven post-boys, seized on the chaises travelling south.
    The rivalry between the two was fierce in the extreme; it was said that on more than one occasion private chaises had been intercepted and the horses forcibly changed at one or other of the inns.
    Some sign of this was evident in the way the ostlers of the Green Man came running out at the approach of the Taverners’ chaise, and led it into