“It is entirely for you to decide, ma’am.”
“But really, sir — ”
“Whatever you choose will be agreeable to me,” said Mr. Comyn.
Miss Challoner, feeling that the argument might be interminable if embarked on, gave her vote for Dijon. She had no desire to return to England until comment had died down. Mr. Comyn then found several points in favour of her choice, and promised that they should set forward before noon. Miss Challoner informed him that she would need to buy herself some few necessities, as she had nothing but the clothes she stood in. Mr. Comyn was quite shocked, and asked her very delicately whether she had sufficient money for her needs. She assured him that she had, and while he went to order a post-chaise, she sallied forth to the nearest shops. Pride had forbidden her to bring any of the clothes of the Marquis’s providing. She had, perforce, worn them at the Hôtel de Charbonne, but they were all carefully packed away now; gowns of tiffany with blonde scallops, gowns of taffetas, of dimity, of brocaded satin, cloaks richly trimmed with black lace, négligées so soft and fine they slid through the fingers, lawn shifts, point-lace tuckers, Turkey handkerchiefs — all the fineries of a lady of fashion, or — she thought, with a wry smile — of a light-of-love. She would not keep so much as one comb or haresfoot.
Shortly before noon they set forth on their journey. Both were rather silent, and until the chaise drew out of Paris they sat looking absently out of the windows, each one thinking sadly of the might-have-been.
Mr. Comyn roused himself at last from his abstraction to say: “I think it only right to tell you, ma’am, that I left a billet to be delivered to my Lord Vidal.”
Miss Challoner sat bolt upright. “What, sir?”
“I could not but consider that I owed it to him to inform him of your safety and my intentions.”
“Oh, you should never have done that!” Miss Challoner said, horrified. “Good God, what a fatal mistake!”
“I regret that you should disapprove, but I remembered that his lordship had made himself responsible for your well-being, and I could not reconcile it with my conscience to make this journey without apprising him of our contract.”