Peregrine stared at her. “Nonsense! What difference can it make to him?”
She did not answer, but sat tapping her foot for a moment, glowering at him. After a pause she said curtly: “You agreed to it, then? You told him you would not drive me to Brighton?”
“Yes, in effect I did, I suppose. I daresay he may be right; he says you are not to be making yourself the talk of the town.”
“I am obliged to him. I have no more to say.”
He grinned at her. “That’s not like you. What have you got in your head now?”
“If I told you, you would run to Worth with the news,” she said.
“Be damned to you. Ju, I would not! If you want to put Worth in his place I wish you luck.”
She looked at him, a glint in her eye. “I will lay you a level hundred, Perry, that I reach Brighton before you on May 12th, driving a curricle-and-four.”
His jaw dropped; then he burst out laughing, and said: “Done! You madcap, do you mean it?”
“Certainly I mean it.”