Like No Other

Chapter 15: In Which Mr. Beaumont Displays Gallantry

        “A very comfortable way to sleep, I’m sure!” Mr Beaumont agreed, laughing at her awe-stricken utterances. They entered the Downs through the bordering Cypress trees, and rambled on the grassy expanse in companionable silence. Numberless trees were scattered around, and the moon cast its pale light all over the place, making it easy to discern their way. A few yards more and the illuminated life-size statue of John Milton, seated on the rock, came into view. Caroline, whose past lessons fairly encompassed the works of the poet, inadvertently murmured her favourite passage: The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven, and drew an appreciative remark from Mr Beaumont. “You surely remember your Paradise Lost, Miss Davis.”

        “Oh, not entirely! Only that passage, and a few memorable ones. Do you?”

      “Lord, no! Must have left it somewhere between Eton and Oxford,” replied Mr Beaumont, cheerfully unconcerned.

        A bubble of laughter escaped from Miss Davis. “Oh! That is to be expected, I daresay! But it’s utterly droll to hear you say so in front of Mr Milton’s shrine!”

        “What effrontery I possess! Well, I’m sorry about it, but I’ve never had a mind for poetry, you know!” he grinned, looking anything but sorry. “Do you have your fill already? Shall we move on?”

        “Can we repair here for a bit? I daresay my feet will give away if I should walk for another couple of yards!”

        “By all means.You look awfully worn out!”

        “Not awfully; rather, happily worn out,” she smiled back and settled on a lone wrought iron bench under a huge tulip tree. Mr Beaumont followed suit. “Well, I’m rather parched,” he complained after a bit. “Perhaps I’ll fetch us some refreshments? The Supper Rooms are just nearby, I think. Would you terribly mind if I leave you for a while here? It won’t be long; I shall return immediately.” Miss Davis didn’t mind at all, for her throat had gone dry as well, and a glass of punch would be very lovely indeed. With that Mr Beaumont went, leaving her a little time for her own reflections. 

        Caroline wiggled a pair of tired toes, thinking, with a surge of remorse, the trouble she was presently causing them because of her impulsive escapade earlier. She wondered where were they now, and that they must be fagged to death looking for her for nearly an hour, and a pretty infamous thing she’d done, indeed! — And after giving her word to Cousin Sophie never to stray away from the company, too! Sooner or later, she’d eventually invite disaster to their doors if she didn’t knew better than to curb her recklessness. She heaved a troubled sigh. Mr Beaumont had said that they might still run across them along the way, and that somehow had made her a little less upset.

        Belatedly, she also realized that sauntering around the Gardens with Mr Beaumont was hardly appropriate, and was dead sure Mrs Sutherton would later receive this knowledge anything but equably. Worse still, Aunt Emilia be in dire straits when she got wind of this! On the other hand, she allowed herself to speculate that nonetheless of how much Mrs Sutherton’s sense of propriety (and Aunt Emilia’s, for that matter) might be offended, the rest of Vauxhall would never care one fig about her— a young unmarried woman— unchaperoned in the company of Mr Beaumont, and the notion that her reputation would be in tatters by tomorrow was grossly far-fetched, not to mention utterly priggish.

      Thoroughly absorbed with these ruminations, Miss Davis was too abstracted to notice the movements in the shadow, which would eventually reveal a tall and slender figure of a man. It was only when he spoke that her attention was caught, and she looked up, and saw that she was being quizzed. “My, my. And what do we have here? A lone lamb among the trees —” he dropped the quizzing glass and shot a glance at the statue, “—and with this fellow Milton. Though to be sure I find him as dull as a lamp post, and not a fit company to a lady.”