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BUT THEY REACHED Weymouth covert only a little short of dusk, inexpressed the intention, five or six ti off mid-air to fly the rest of the way herself Then she had accidentally scratched Temeraire twice, and thrown a couple of the top, their lives saved only by their carabiner-locked straps On landing, they were both handed down bruised and ill fro-about they had taken, and helped away by their fellows to be dosed liberally, with brandy, at the sular fuss to having the bullets extracted, sidling away her hindquarters when Dorset approached knife in hand, insisting she was quite well, but Temeraire was sufficiently exasperated by now to have no patience with her evasions; his low ru upon the dry, hard-packed earth,picked over with a lantern suspended overhead "That will do," Dorset said, having pried out the third and final of the balls "Now soht&039;s quiet rest This ground is too hard," he added, with disapproval, as he cli bloodily in his little basin
"I do not care if it is the hardest ground in Britain; only pray let me have a cow and I will sleep," Te his head so Laurence could stroke his muzzle while his own shallow cuts were poulticed He ate the cow in three tre his head backwards to let the last bite of the hindquarters go down his throat The far some of his beasts to the covert stood paralyzed in a , and his two sons likeith their eyes starting frouineas into thehand and hurried theood to have fresh and lurid tales of draconic savagery spreading
The ferals disposed of the her fro thee, the s upon Temeraire&039;s back directly he had fallen asleep
It was too cold to sleep out, and they had not brought tents with theh in all conscience without dividing off a captain&039;s partition, to his ht be had; in any case he would have been glad of a chance to send word back to Dover by the stage, that their absence would not occasion distress He did not trust any of the ferals to go alone yet, with their few officers so unfamiliar
Ferris approached as Laurence made inquiry of the few tenants of the covert "Sir, if you please, my family are here in Weymouth; I am sure ht," he said, adding, with a quick, anxious glance that belied the easy way in which he issued this invitation, "I should only like to send word ahead"
"That is handsorateful, if I should not be putting her out," Laurence said He did not miss the anxiety In courtesy, Ferris likely felt compelled to make the invitation, if his family had so much as an attic corner and a crust of bread to spare Most of his younger gentlemen, indeed most of the Corps, were drawn froenteel, and Laurence knew they were inclined to think hirand state, certainly, but Laurence had not spent threeto sea, without much sorrow on either side, except perhaps hisberth than a manor
Out of sympathy he would have spared Ferris, but for the likely difficulty of finding any other lodgings, and his oeary desire to be settled, even if it were only in an attic corner, with a crust of bread The noise of the day behind the it difficult not to yield to a certain lowness of spirit The ferals had behaved quite as badly as expected, and he could not help but see how iuard the Channel with such a coreater, to the fine and ordered ranks of British formations, those ranks now decimated; and he felt their absence all the ly sent, and a carriage suates by the tis, and walked to on-clearings
A twenty-ht therew steadily , and so ht him taken ill with the h thunderstorm aloft and typhoon at sea, and not likely to be distressed by the e turned, then, drawing into a heavily wooded lane, and Laurence realized his mistake as the forest parted, and they drew abreast the house: a vast and sprawling gothic sort of edifice, the blackened stone barely to be seen behind centuries of ivy, the s all illuht out onto a sh the open lawn before the house
"A very fine prospect, Mr Ferris," Laurence said as they rattled over the bridge "You must be sorry not to be ho?"
"Oh, a dog&039;s age," Ferris said blankly, lifting his head "There was some Crusader or other first built the place, I think, I don&039;t know"
Laurence hesitated and a little reluctantly offered, "My own father and I have disagreed on certain of our occasions, I am sorry to say, so I am not often at home"
"Mine is dead," Ferris said After a moment, he seemed to realize this was a rather abrupt period to the conversation, and added with an effort, "My brother Albert is a good sort, I suppose; he has ten years on ot to know one another"
"Ah," Laurence said, left no more the wiser as to the cause of Ferris&039;s dis in their welcolect: perhaps they would be shown directly to their rooht of the rest of the cohted But nothing of the sort: a dozen foot the drive, another taiting with the step to hand the outside to greet them despite the cold and what e, a wholly unnecessary ostentation
Ferris blurted desperately, just as the horses were drawn up, "Sir - I hope you will not take it to heart, if my mother - she means well - " The footmen opened the door, and discretion stopped Ferris&039;sroom, to find all the coe, but decidedly elegant: the wo of unfaht of fashion to a man as often froentleht dandyism Laurence noted it mechanically; he was himself in trousers and Hessians, and those stained with dust; but he could not be brought to care, very reater formality of knee-breeches There were a couple oftheir nu, seaue faether on one ship or another, and a tall army captain in his red coat, lantern-jawed and blue-eyed
"Henry, reet them with both her hands outstretched: too like Ferris to h forehead and reddish-brown hair, and the saht, which er "How happy we are you have come!"
"Mother," Ferris said woodenly, and bent to kiss her presented cheek "May I present Captain Laurence? Sir, this is Lady Catherine Seymour, my mother"
"Captain Laurence, I a hi her a for you will forgive our co in all our dirt"
"Any officer of His Majesty&039;s Aerial Corps is welcome in this house, Captain," she declared, "at any ht, I assure you, and should he come with no introduction at all still he should be welcome"
Laurence did not knohat to say to this; he hie house without introduction than he would have robbed it The hour was late, but not uncivilized, and he came with her own son, so in any case these reassurances were not much to the point; he could not have supposed it otherwise, having been invited and welcoue, "Very kind"
The company was not similarly effusive Ferris&039;s eldest brother Albert, the present Lord Seyh in the instep, and made a point early on, when Laurence had ence that the house was Heythan of Charles II; the head of the faht to baronet to baron in steady cliratulate you," Laurence said, and did not take the opening to puff off his own consequence; he was an aviator, and well knew that one evil outweighed any other considerations in the eyes of the world He could not help but wonder that they should have sent a son to the Corps; there was no sign of the pressure of an encuht have ht be kept up on credit, so extravagant a nued
Shortly dinner was announced, to Laurence&039;s surprise; he had hoped for nothing ht the of it, we are grown modern, and often keep town hours even e are in the country," Lady Catherine cried "We have so much company from London that it would be tireso their dinner-hour early, and sending away dishes half-eaten, to be wished-for later Noill certainly not stand on for to hear all you have been doing, my dear, and Captain Laurence, you shall take in Lady Seymour, of course"
Laurence could only bow politely and offer his arht to have preceded him, even if Lady Catherine chose to hter-in-law looked for a ht, but then she laid her hand on his arm without any further hesitation, and he chose not to notice
"Henry is est, you know," Lady Catherine said to Laurence over the second course; he was on her right "Second sons in this house have always gone to the drue" This, Laurence thought, ht have been subtly directed at his dinner coave no sign she had heard; she was correctly speaking with the gentleht, the army captain, as Ferris&039;s brother Richard "I aentleman whose family feels as I do on the matter"
Laurence, who had only narrowly escaped being thrown from the house by his irate father on his shift in profession, could not in honesty accept this co your pardon, I er sons in o to the Church, but I was mad for the sea, and would have no other profession" He had then to explain his wholly accidental acquisition of Temeraire and subsequent transfer to the Aerial Corps
"I will not withdraw iven good principles enough to do your duty, when it was presented to you," Lady Catherine said firmly "It is shameful, the disdain that so many of our finest families will profess for the Corps, and I certainly will never hold with it in the least"
The dishes were being changed again as sheand over-loud speech, and Laurence noticed that they were going back nearly untouched after all The food had been excellent, and he could only conceive, after a moment, that all Lady Catherine&039;s protestations were a hu: they had already dined earlier He watched covertly as the next course was dished out, and indeed the ladies in particular picked unenthusiastically at their food, scarcely le entle any serious inroads He caught Laurence looking and gave hi with the steady trencherman rhythm of a professional soldier used to take his food when it was before hi late to an eracious host holding back dinner for their convenience, or serving a second h they should have been offended with a simple supper, served to the dined He was obliged to sit through several more removes, conscious they were a pleasure to no one else of the cohtly, though in the ordinary course of events he was as rapacious as any nineteen-year-old boy unpredictably fed of late When the ladies departed to the drawing rooars, with a determined if false note of heartiness, but Laurence refused all but the slass he could take for politeness&039; sake, and no one objected to rejoining the ladies quickly, they h not half-an-hour had elapsed
No-one proposed cards or music; the conversation was low and leaden "How dull you all are to-night!" Lady Catherine rallied theive Captain Laurence quite a disgust of our society You cannot often have been in Dorsetshire, Captain, I suppose"
"I have not had that pleasure, ma&039;am," Laurence said "My uncle lives near Wimbourne, but I have not visited him in many years"
"Oh! Perhaps you are acquainted with Mrs Brantha off, roused enough to say with sleepy tactlessness, "I am sure not"
"It is not very likely, ma&039;am; my uncle moves very little outside his political circles," Laurence said, after a pause "In any event, my service has kept me from the enjoyment of much wider society, particularly these last years"
"But what compensations you lorious to travel by dragon, without any worry that you shall be sunk in a gale, and so rows tired of the journey and eats you," Captain Ferris said, nudging his younger brother with an elbow
"Richard, what nonsense, as if there were any danger of such a thing! Ithe reuest"
"Not at all, or of her objection gave an undeserved weight to the joke, which in any case he could more easily have borne than her compliments; he could not help but feel them excessive and insincere
"You are kind to be so tolerant," she said "Of course, Richard was only joking, but you would be quite appalled how s and believe theons"
"I am afraid it is only the natural consequence," Laurence said, "of the unfortunate situation prevailing in our country, which keeps dragons so isolated in their distant coverts as to make them a point of horror"
"Why, what else is to be done with thee square?" He aestion; he was unco performed heroically his host&039;s duties at the second dinner He even noas doing justice to another glass of port, over which he coughed his laugh
"In China, they may be seen in the streets of every town and city," Laurence said "They sleep in pavilions no more separated from residences than one town-house from another, in London"
"Heavens; I should not sleep a wink," Mrs Branthan custoeether "Look here, how do the horses stand it? My driver in townquarter and blowing over the covert, because the beasts get skittish"