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"I his chair back froave me as he left? Damn his eyes And fleshpots Ha, London fleshpots I don’t like that man, poppet, viscount or no viscount"

"I know that, Papa" Lucy closed her eyes and wearily laid her head in her hands She felt the beginnings of a raine

"The entire house knows that," Mrs Brodie proclai back into the room

CAPTAIN CRADDOCK-HAYES HAD IT RIGHT, the old bo Any le-eyed father--would do well to guard an angel as fine as Miss Lucinda Craddock-Hayes against the devils in the world

Such as hiainst thefraht outside She was in the dark garden, apparently strolling in the cold after that delicious but socially disastrous supper He followed her movements by the pale oval of her face, the rest of her lost to the shadows It was hard to tell why she fascinated him so, this rural ht, the devil wanting to despoil the angel, but he thought not There was soent and harrowing to his soul She tempted him with the perfume of heaven, with the hope of redemption, iel entoood works andwith a steady hand her father’s house No doubt she had a suitable gentleman who called upon her; he’d seen the trap and horse pull away the other day Someone ould respect her position and not test the iron that he sensed lay underneath her facade A gentlehed and pushed away from theframe He’d never dealt very ith the shoulds and shouldn’ts of his life He left his te with ridiculous care Best not to alert the protective papa An angle on the dark landing caught hiht ar to exercise it, but the da still felt like the very devil The housekeeper and h He sh the back door when he heard Mrs Brodie’s voice "Sir--"

He gently shut the door

Miss Craddock-Hayes must have heard it Gravel crunched beneath her feet as she turned "It’s cold out here" She was only a pale shape in the dark, but her words floated toward hiarden was perhaps a quarter acre What he’d seen of it in daylight froarden, a sarden Gravel walks connected the different parts, all of them properly put to bed for the winter, no doubt the work of her hands as well

By the light of the dis He’d lost her again in the dark, and it bothered him inordinately "Do you think it cold? I hadn’t noticed, really Merely brisk" He shoved his hands in his coat pockets It was bloody freezing in the garden

"You shouldn’t be out so soon after being ill"

He ignored that "What are you doing here on a chilly winter night?"

"Looking at the stars" Her voice trailed back to hiht as they are in winter"

"Yes?" They all looked the same to him, whatever the season

"Mht" Her voice dropped "But you should go in, it’s too cold"

"I can do with the exercise--as I’ood for a decrepit fellow like ht he er sure Shouldn’t have mentioned the father

"I’m sorry about Papa at supper"

Ah, farther to the right "Why? I thought his story quite clever A trifle long, of course, but really--"

"He’s not usually so stern"

She was so close he could smell her scent, starch and roses, curiously ho at the same time What an ass he was The crack to his head must have addled his wits

"Ah, that Yes, I did notice the old boy was a bit testy, but I put it down to the fact that I’ his very fine food without a proper invitation"

He saw her face turn, ghostly in theabout you" He could alh you could have been nicer, too"

He chuckled It was that or weep "I don’t think so" He shook his head, though she couldn’t see it "No, I’m certain I definitely can’t be any nicer It’s simply not inwhen I shouldn’t Although in my case, it’s more that I quip when I shouldn’t"

The treetops ht sky

"Is that how you ended up nearly dead in the ditch outside Maiden Hill?" She’d crept closer Lured by his studied frankness? "Did you insult soht his breath "Nohy do you think the attack was any fault of mine?"

"I don’t know Was it?"

He settled his ruarden wall, where it proe, fair lady I shall set my case before you, and you may pronounce sentence"

"I’e anyone"

Did she frown? "Oh, yes, you are, sweet angel"

"I don’t--"

"Hush Listen I got up thatat a horribly unfashionable hour, dressed, after a sument with my valet over the advisability of red-heeled pumps, which he won--Henry absolutely terrorizes me--"

"Somehow I very much doubt that"

Sih the movement asted in the dark "I do assure you Then I descendedblue velvet coat, curled and powdered wig, and the aforementioned red-heeled pumps--"

She snorted

"Strolled down the street less than a quarter mile and was there set upon by three ruffians"

She caught her breath "Three?"

Gratifying