"You'd sic them on 'em," Hugh groused.
"They're beastly… pests and nuisances," Sewallis snapped back. "Would not, but… they're ratty… ugly!"
"They're not; they're not!" Hugh shouted, in full cry by then. "They're pretty! So red and fluffy… or so sleek. An otter could be a playmate, slide into the creek with me…"
"Oh, wager yer mother'd love you slidin' down mud. into creeks," Lewrie scoffed, ruffling Hugh's hair.
"He does already, and Mummy doesn't like it. He knows, but…"
"Boys," Lewrie cautioned. Away so long, he hadn't known they could be at each other's throats. And within a quarter-hour of his return too! And where'd prim little Sewallis, within a quim-hair of being dour as a parson, find bottom enough to boss Hugh about? Or try to anyway. Though Hugh was only eight, he was more than ready for a scrap to the knife-hilt! "Lookee here, lads… let's not you quarrel… my first day home, at any rate. Christ, you two go at each other like this all the time?"
"I'm sorry, Father," Sewallis muttered, much abashed.
"Well, he started it…"
"Ahem?" Lewrie barked, glaring.
"I know where there's an earth, where there's a mother fox, Daddy," Hugh wheedled. "And I've seen otters in the creek, up on Grandfather's new land. By the old tower? We could ride up… oh, once I show you them, you'd let me have a…"
There came a clatter of hooves from the farm lane which straggled off between the new brick barn and the old wattle-and-daub one they had turned into a coach-house. Coming into the stableyard, past their white-railed paddock where the children's pony trotted in excitement…
"Grandfather said I could have one, so…" Hugh prattled on.
Lewrie sighed. Rather heavily, it must be noted.
For here came two riders, back from a morning canter over their modest acreage, drawing the pony to extend his head over the railings and whicker at them, drawing a pack of spotted setters from the older barn, jog-trotting and yipping, with their tails lashing most gaily.
In the lead was a female… his ward since Toulon fell in '93, the Vicomtesse Sophie de Maubeuge, last of her noble line. No longer a frail, tremulous waif, he noted. She rode with an easy confidence, beaming a smile at him… at the world in general… and over her back to the second rider. No longer a delicate little fifteen-year-old, new-come from a convent, Sophie had turned into a spritely eighteen-year-old beauty, with rich red-auburn hair glowing in the spring sunshine, her green eyes alight with an impatient, girlish delight.
Astern, though… in the full fig of his regimentals from the old 19th Native Infantry of the East India Company army, was his own father,… Sir Hugo Saint George Willoughby. Brigadier Sir Hugo!
"Haw, the house! Haw, the new-come!" his father cried, waving his egret-feathered, heavily gold-laced cocked hat in the air. "Alan, my boy! Home at last! Give ye joy!"
"Mademeoiselle Sophie… enchantй! Lewrie called out as she rode up to him.
"Commander Lewrie, enchantй, aussi." She laughed, as he offered to take her reins and a hand to steady her. She swung off of her side-saddle, slipped her stirrup-foot, to jump-slide to the ground as graceful as a landing dove, almost squealing with glee. "You are home at last, m'sieur. La, the house has been on the pins and needles for the first sign of your coming. Welcome home, good sir! Welcome home!"
He embraced her, accepted a chaste peck on his cheek.
Three years has done her wonders, he thought. When he'd left, there'd been a girl bereft of fortune, title, family, her intended, and his own family, so sunk in grief that she could barely raise her voice above a mournful whisper, and possessed of the most fractured English. Now, though… but for a lilt, a turn of phrase, there was a girl who had the confidence, the poise and grace, and the easy, unaffected joy of any country-raised young English lady of the squirearchy who never had known any other style of living, or country.
The groomsman, a new face to Lewrie after the old one, Bodkins, was taking the reins from him, reaching out for the reins of the other horse. Then down sprang his father.
Shorter than he'd remembered from the Far East. How odd, Lewrie thought. White-haired now, thinner on top. Liver-spotted, by a dissolute youth. Damme, a dissolute bloody life! Yet still erect as a gun's ramrod, with the Damme-Boy twinkle of old in his eyes.
"My boy! My dearest boy!" Sir Hugo crowded, offering his arms for a paternal hug. "Ten damn' years it's been! Come ye here!"
And a very merry hello t'you too, Lewrie thought, with a weary sigh; you wicked old fart! He plastered a glad grin on his countenance and suffered to be embraced. Embraced his father in return, wondering all the while if Sir Hugo's elation to see him was a ruse… that he secretly was poor as a church-mouse, and this was the last port of refuge for a scoundrel.
Damme, never knew him t'be gladsome…'cept when he was needy o' something! Lewrie thought, as he was pounded on the back most heartily.
"Good to see you too, Father. Damn' glad," he lied, rather well, he thought. But he'd had a lifetime of practice by then.
CHAPTER FIVE
The next few days were heaven, Lewrie thought. For starters, he got introduced to the dogs so they would not think of him as an entree whenever he wished to walk outside about his own lands. He re-met the pony (without getting nipped), remade acquaintance with his favourite horse, Anson, which whickered in glee to see him once again. They ate in the new, large dining room that night, in the light of those dolphin-and-trident, silvery-brass candelabras he'd bought in Venice before the hurried evacuation of the Adriatic, then spent a lively evening in the salon, opening the latest gifts for the children, for Caroline and Sophie, from Lisbon. Sipping on a fruity, nutty sherry he'd found in-cask from Oporto too. They'd played some tunes, Caroline to her flute, Sophie to the harpsichord, and he on his "tin-whistle" flageolet, and finally getting a compliment or two on how much he'd improved-though anything better than bird-squawks could be considered an improvement after all those years of practice.
After a tad too much wine, they'd at last retired, were lit up to bed, to a real, soft, and welcoming-unswaying-bedstead crisp and sweet-smelling of scrupulously clean linens, still redolent of a faint floral sachet and the soap in which they'd been boiled. Toulon had found a refuge at last, in their bedchamber, and had crept out of hiding for a frantic quarter-hour of reassuring "wubbies," much to Caroline's amusement.
"So much like the early days, my love," she whispered fondly, slid into bed with him and lying close at last, after brushing out her hair. Toulon was fair-taken with her too. "You… me, so completely alone and private." She chuckled, scrubbing Toulon under his chin and chops. "And old William Pitt to pat and purr us to our rest. Or…" she added in a huskier voice, "sull up on the fireplace bench whilst…"
"Sull up, Toulon, there's a good puss," Lewrie growled.
And once the last bed-side candle had been snuffed dark, it was much like their first, nervous "honeymoon" night at the coaching inn on the way to Portsmouth, as Caroline could finally welcome him home, in her own, inimitable fashion, which fashion left him damned near purring-drained and dreamless.
The next day, they'd coached to St. George's Church for Easter Sunday services, turned out almost regal in their springtime best; and most dignified, Lewrie had thought. Caroline had worn her new gown and bonnet, which had been most fetching; Sophie de Maubeuge too, looking ethereally lovely and being ogled by the young men of the parish; the children adorable, clean and unruffled (for a rare hour or three), and Lewrie and his father tricked out in their best uniforms-Lewrie with that gold St. Vincent medal clapping on his waistcoat buttons and a spanking-new gold-bullion epaulet on his left shoulder, his dark-blue coat stiff with gold lace which hadn't gone verdigris-green from salt air, yet. The whole family, primly a-row in the same rented pew box.