Venetia by Georgette Heyer Page B

though we looked in  all the likeliest places.”
    “So you repeated it to Damerel!”
    “Of course I did! I knew he wouldn‟t care a rush for what Nurse said ofhim.”
    “I expect he enjoyed it,” Venetia said, smiling. “When did he set out for Thirsk?”
    “Oh, quite early! Now you put me in mind of it he gave me a message for you: something  about being obliged to go to Thirsk, and hoping you‟d pardon him. I forget! It was of no  consequence: just doing the civil! I told him there was not the least need. He said he thought he  should be back again by noon—oh, yes! and that he trusted you wouldn‟t have gone away by  then. Venetia, pray look on that table, and see if Tytler is there! Nurse must have moved it when  she bandaged my ankle, for I had been reading it, and only laid it down when you came in. She  can‟t come near me without meddling!   Essay on the Principles of Translation —yes ,   that‟s it:  thank you!”
    “I think, if you should not object   very   much to my leaving you, that I‟ll take a turn in the  garden,” said Venetia, handing him the book, and watching him in some amusement as he found  his place in it.
    “Yes, do!” said Aubrey absently. “They will be plaguing me to eat a nuncheon soon, and  I want to finish this.”
    She laughed, and was about to leave him when a gentle tap on the door was followed by  the entrance of Imber, announcing Mr. Yardley.
    “   What ?” ejaculated Aubrey, in anything but a gratified tone.
    Edward came in, treading cautiously, and wearing his most disapproving face. “Well,  Aubrey!” he said heavily. “I am glad to see you looking stouter than I had expected.” He added,  in a lower voice, as he clasped Venetia‟s hand: “This is unfortunate indeed! I knew nothing of  what had happened until Ribble told me of it half-an-hour ago! I was never more shocked in my  life!”
    “Shocked because I took a toss?” said Aubrey. “Lord, Edward, don‟t be such a slow- top!”
    Edward‟s countenance did not relax; rather it seemed to grow more rigid. He had not  exaggerated his state of mind; he was profoundly shocked. He had ridden to Undershaw in happy  ignorance, to be met with the alarming tidings that Aubrey had had a bad accident, which had  made him instantly fear the worst; and hardly had Ribble reassured him on this head than he was  stunned by the further news that Aubrey was lying under Damerel‟s roof, with not only Nurse in  attendance on him but his sister also. The impropriety of such an arrangement really appalled  him; and even when  he was made to understand that Venetia was not sleeping at the Priory he  could not forbear the thought that any disaster (short of Aubrey‟s death, perhaps) would have  been less harmful than the chance that had pitchforked her into the company of a libertine whose  way of life had for years scandalized the North Riding. The evils of her situation were, in  Edward‟s view, incalculable; and foremost amongst them was the probability that such a man as  Damerel would mistake the inexperience which led her to behave so rashly for the boldness of a  born Cytherean, and offer her an intolerable insult.
    A level-headed man, Edward did not suppose that Damerel was either so foolhardy or so  steeped in villainy as to attempt the seduction of a girl of virtue and quality; but he was very  much afraid that Venetia‟s open, confiding manners, which he had always deplored, might  encourage him to believe that she would welcome his advances; while the peculiar circumstances

    under which she lived would certainly lead him to think that she had no other protector than a  crippled schoolboy.
    Edward saw his duty clear; he saw too that the performance of it was more than likely to  involve him in consequences repugnant to a man of taste and sensibility; but he did not shrink  from it: he set his jaw, and rode off to the Priory, not in such a spirit of knight-errantry