Read Online Mademoiselle At Arms by Elizabeth Bailey - Free Book Online

the
vegetables and feed the pig. So it is that I do not do these things. But I
must, they say, and try to make me with the punishments.’
    ‘Poor little devil,’ said Gerald, genuinely sorry for her.
    A radiant smile astonished him. ‘As to that, I am a devil,
say the nuns. Because for the punishments je m’en moque .’
    ‘You didn’t care. Yes, I can readily believe it.’
    ‘In one little minute,’ she said, snapping her fingers, ‘it
is over and voilà tout .’
    ‘Forgive me, but if that is the case, I don’t quite see why
you should run away.’
    ‘Ah, that was an affair altogether different,’ she explained
and fluttered her long lashes at him. The by now familiar dramatic sigh came. ‘There
was a priest, the father confessor, you understand. He tried to make love to me.
Oh, it was very bad.’ She spread her hands. ‘What would you? The nuns they
would not believe me, and so it was not possible for me to stay. I was
compelled to run away.’
    ‘All the way to England?’
    She opened wide eyes. ‘But it is entirely natural that I
choose my own country.’
    Footsteps sounded just outside, and Captain Roding walked in.
The major hailed him with a show of relief.
    ‘Hilary, thank God! Have you a pistol about you? Or better
yet, your sword.’ He moved to his friend and grasped his hand in a gesture as
deliberately dramatic as the storytelling of mademoiselle. ‘If you care for me
at all, shoot me. Or run me through. I’d rather die than hear any more
fairytales.’
    ‘ Dieu du ciel ,’ came from the lady in a furious tone,
before the astonished Roding could respond. ‘This is insupportable. There is no
need of your friend to kill you, imbecile , because I shall do so this
minute.’
    Leaning down, she raised the hem of the petticoat of her
habit to reveal a neat little pair of boots on her feet. Gerald saw her extract
something and leapt aside, calling a warning to Hilary.
    There was just time for the girl to raise her arm to chest
height and draw it back before Roding seized her. The slim knife was wrested
from her grasp, and she was flung backwards, towards the bookcases. She threw
out a hand to stop herself from cannoning into them and, losing balance,
tripped over her own petticoats and fell to the carpeted floor, her hat falling
off as she did so.
    ‘Oh, Lord,’ muttered Gerald, going instantly to her aid.
    Furiously, she dashed his hands away. ‘ Bête . I will
arise myself.’
    Ignoring this, the major slipped his hands about her waist
and lifted her to her feet.
    ‘What the devil do you think you’re doing?’ protested Hilary
angrily. ‘You should rather be arresting the girl and throwing her into gaol
for attempted murder.’
    ‘For God’s sake, don’t accuse her of murder,’ begged Gerald,
retrieving the lady’s hat and handing it to her, ‘or she’ll be challenging me
to a duel again.’
    ‘You,’ announced the lady, throwing an explosive glare at the
captain, ‘are a person entirely without sense. Certainly I would not murder monsieur
le major , even that he has made a threat to beat me.’
    ‘I like that,’ Gerald protested. ‘After all the threats you’ve
made, that is hardly fair.’
    ‘I’m hanged if I can make out either of you,’ complained
Hilary. ‘Mad as hatters!’
    ‘It is you who is mad,’ mademoiselle told him crossly. ‘Gérard
is not mad, only of a disposition entirely interfering.’
    ‘And you are of a disposition entirely untruthful,’ retorted Gerald.
‘Have you any more pretty toys like that knife about you?’
    ‘The girl’s a regular arsenal,’ Hilary snapped, giving up
into his senior’s hand the nasty little weapon he had snatched.
    ‘It is necessary that one is at all times ready to protect
oneself,’ explained the young lady flatly. ‘So Leonardo has taught me.’
    ‘Leonardo?’ An abrupt sensation of severe irritation attacked
Gerald.
    ‘Who the devil is Leonardo?’ demanded Roding impatiently,
asking the question that