“What can possibly have done to merit this from you?” Surprise gave her courage to look at him. She faltered: “I knew from Gaywood that you had disappeared. Of course I did not credit the wicked slanders which he said were running round town! But—”
“Good God, were there any?” he interrupted. “What did the fools say?”
“Gaywood told me that people suspected Gideon of having murdered you, but—”
He went off into a peal of laughter. “Oh, no! No, Harriet, did they indeed think that? Then I expect he will murder me! It is a great deal too bad!”
She looked at him wonderingly. “You see, Gilly, you left no word, and someone saw you going to Gideon’s chambers the night you disappeared. And Gaywood said he would say nothing, only that he had no notion where you were. Of course, no one who knows Gideon would believe such a story!”
“He is the best of good fellows! He should have betrayed me instantly. But what has this to do with the rest, Harriet?”
Her head sank; she studied the fringe at the end of her scarf. “It was Lady Boscastle, Gilly, who—who told us the rest.”
His brows knit for a puzzled moment. “Lady Boscastle? Oh, yes, I know! One of the matchmaking mamas! But what can she have told you? I have not set eyes on her since the lord knows when!”
“She has just arrived in Bath,” said Harriet, beginning to plait the fringe. “She—she passed through Hitchin on her way. You did not see her, but—but she saw you, Gilly. She came to pay a morning visit here, and she—she told Grandmama and me.”
She ventured to peep up at him, and was startled to see his eyes dancing. “The devil she did!” he said. “Did she tell you I had Belinda on my arm?”