3rd October, 1814: Visiting Torrington

Vickery accepted a seat, with a rueful look. "We are in Town for the Little Season at my mother's insistence, as I have managed to miss the last six Seasons due to... a prior engagement." At the last few words his expression changed to one of innocence.

Emma returned Bella's smile with one of her own. "Please, call me Emma. And indeed I have - it was very good, although I think the heroine was somewhat dull. There was one scene where I thought the scenery might come down however - she was not looking where she was going and walked into one of the flats. It took quite five minutes before the more attentive members of the audience could stop laughing, poor girl."

"I have come at the insistence of my grandfather." Willoughby spoke, once Vickery finished and he was also seated again. He briefly gazed at the ladies then turned to the company of men again.

" There are a few things that are in need of my attention.." He gave a light shrug. "...and..my grandfather has politely insisted that I attend." He inclined his head towards Vickery, aknowledging to have been here for a similar reason as the other man. There was a third reason. " I was also invited to attend a wedding. A fellow officer of the 15th Hussars is to marry a Portugese woman. Surely you have heard of it?"

Vickery found a seat of his own, and laid his sword across his lap lest it catch in the legs of the chair when he stood up again.

"I had not - I have been too much concerned with the internal affairs of my own regiment. The 60th are severely under strength after Spain - my own Company was down to about sixty men only by the time we crossed the Pyrenees, as although we had recruited some Spaniards into the ranks, we had to send them back home before we crossed into France. I don't know if you remember the orders Lord Wellington sent out to that effect, but he was most insistent." Vickery shrugged apologetically; he had not intended to talk shop on this visit.

Emma continued her story, smiling all the while. "And of course the inattentive members of the audience had completely missed seeing it, and could not fathom what the laughter was about - I believe that they only found out the reason for it afterwards, in conversation with those who had seen it."

"Ah yes, but I thought of the most recent event that is to take place now. No, never mind. " He smiled politely. "It will soon be the talk of town, if the news had not yet spread." He looked rather amused. "At least he is fortunate and he will not need to learn much of the language. I've been quite impressed how many you have spoken. It must have not been easy to lead a regiment where not all men spoke English well, if at all, no?"

Vickery chuckled. "No different, really, to leading a company where every man speaks English, although it did have its own challenges. I was already fluent in German before I exchanged into the Sixtieth, or I should likely have exchanged into the Ninety-Fifth instead. I think that once one has an ear for a language other than one's own, it is easier to pick up other languages, and I already spoke French and German in addition to English."

"Oh, I so wished I had seen that!", Bella exclaimed. "The last thing I have seen was a production of Don Giovanni that was so excellent that it was almost dull! The singers even refrained from coming to the ramp for their arias and sticking their chests out, one foot in front and one arm raised."

She looked so commically downcast at that fact for a moment, but then recalled that she didn't know Miss Vickery personally for very long and tried to regain some decorum.

-----------

"Not the worst combination when you are invading France with a German regiment!", Torrington remarked drily. "Though I found that what I had learned as French and quite successfully applied in Paris bore little resemblance to what the people around Toulouse actually spoke."

"It was certainly very diverting," Emma said, her eyes sparkling. "I wonder that you did not read about it - I think the Tatler, at least, had a piece on it this morning. I daresay that the actress will be more mindful tonight, and so all those hoping for something equally entertaining will be disappointed."

"I think my own diction marked me out as an aristo," Vickery remarked. "I do not think that my parents would have approved if I had learned a rougher sort of dialect. I muddled along somehow - although I think my French was easier for them to comprehend than theirs was for me."

Willoughby leaned forward slightly and listened to the two men. German, French or any other of the languages that they have encountered have brought forth some entertaining scenes among the common soldiers. He still vividly remembered the attempts at bringing across the wish for drink and some chicken and cow, food in general, in the Spanish countryside.

He smiled at the thought and glanced briefly sideways at the ladies before inclining his head.

"Oh, I must have missed that!" Bella looked suitably sorry. "But then Mama is rather strict  - I'm not allowed to read it before her!"

----

"I doubt that there are any teachers for that dialect anyway ... although it is certainly educating." Edward had quite willingly picked up a lot of expressions his own teachers would shutter if they heard them from his conversations. Though he certainly did not intend to use them in a drawing room! But the next time he got his hand caught between a rock and a hard place, he certainly had a nice repertoir now ... and it sounded much more dignified in French!

"Gwydyr, where have you been at the end? I lost sight of you shortly after we crossed the border."

"At the end?" Willoughby turned from his subtle observations of the two ladies and straightened in his seat. He adjusted his coat slightly and the way he was sitting, so that it was more comfortable again. "Pardon me, Of which end do you inquire?" He asked, while there was a light flush to his cheeks. "..And which border..For we have disappeared plenty of times." He chuckled lightly. "To the front at least."

"Ah, then I shall only say that the report contained therein was quite accurate, if somewhat... overstated in its language," Emma said, raising her chin a little; she had noticed Gwydyr's covert observations (which her brother had not, seemingly) - she was not, however, green enough to pay them any heed.

Edward very politely snorted and explained with the same clear, calm voice one uses to teach children: "The border from Spain to France, when we were going there to stop Napoleon. Pretty precicesly one year ago?"

Vickery couldn't hide a grin at Torrington's words; he had been tempted to say something of the sort himself. "You did have rather a... penchant for getting lost, on occasion," he said instead. "I had no idea that it was so easy to mislay an entire national border, however. Particularly one marked by such high mountains as the Pyrenees."

At this point Torrington's stately butler reappeared, coughing slightly, and announced stiffly:

"Mr. Sebastian Bromwell is here to see you, Mylord, and to inquire after Lady Isabelle's health after 'the unfortunate incident' this morning."

Torrington actually rolled his eyes.

Willoughby seemed more flustered as the two men chose to be rather unfair in teasing him so. He straightened a little, to hide his embarrassment and was about to give them a proper and long answer of his whereabouts exactly, and of his heroic deeds, including but not limited to the men he had lead under his command and other escapades that took place in those final days.

Before he could however portray the days in gory or perhaps glory-insinuating details the butler appeared with his news. He cleared his throat however and waited more patiently, mulling over the words only to raise an eyebrow at the mention of the man's name and his purpose.

Edward sighed.

"I think you remember him? Shall we give ourselves the temperate pleasure of recieving him, or am I in deep and important conversation and cannot be disturbed?"

In a low voice, he added:

"Forgive me for even suggesting it, but I'd rather he'd not bother my mother."

===

Bella, who liked personable young men to inquire about her, but found actually talking to them about this topic, especially if they were less personable and more stuffy not quite as entertaining, looked somewhat helplessly towards Miss Vickery and the men. She felt that she should honour a family aquintance's care for her well-being with all politeness, but she had a niggling feeling that she had to be very careful not to give any encouragement at all to this particular aquintance - otherwise, both families would have no pleasure with the outcome.

"Oh dear," Emma said. "It is, of course, your prerogative to further the acquaintance, or not, Lady Isabella, but a true gentleman should merely leave his card after making enquiries after your health. You could plead the headache, I suppose - it would be a natural conclusion to the events of the morning."

If a little cruel to do so, of course - but really. He had behaved in a most ungentlemanlike manner earlier, and being sent away in such a manner would do him no harm.

Willoughby seemed slightly disappointed that they should entertain the guest he would have preferred not to see visit at all, but out of politeness he nodded. "It is, of course, as you would prefer. " He touched his brow. "Pardon me asking.. but has he served at all?" He had not been in the loop of gossip, nor had he recalled the name as one of the officer's he entertained or served with. The latter meant very little of course, as there were many officers as there were just as many regiments that fought in the wars.

"But ... shouldn't I be at home then, not with my brother?"

Bella frowned.

"Or do you think he does not know I'm here? We could go to the library or the music room then - Edward doesn't mind surely. He says it was as much my grandmother's house as his. Oh, I hope he didn't call on Mama! She wasn't in when I came back, so she doesn't know! She would have send him here then - she is a friend of his mother!"

Emma did not know much about gentlemen calling on each other and whether 'not at home' would work in such cases, as it would for a lady.

"I suppose that the ladies could retire to another room and we soldiers could baffle the poor fellow with tales of our Peninsular exploits," her brother put in. "If such a fellow is likely to be baffled at all, that is. He struck me as rather a dim-witted sort of man who spends far too much time thinking on others' opinions of him, and is easily bored when he is not the centre of attention." He shrugged. "Of course, propriety would mean we should leave if you were to receive another caller - but our sisters seem to have begun a mutual friendship. We can hardly interrupt their conversation now, can we?"

Edward, quite relieved, smiled.

"Of course not - and I am only a good host if I present him with the opportunity to thank you for recuing his horse. After all, I must assume he came here to inquire after your directions so that he can do just that, and not to try to steal another conversation with Bella, mustn't I?"

He smiled in the direction of the two ladies.

"Bella, my dear, I believe the music sheets of those Italian songs you wanted arrived - I put them on the piano."

Bella let out a quickly restrained squeal of delight, both at the arrival of the music and the prospect of escaping.

"Oh, Emma, shall we? Wilson can bring us tea there, and we look at them together! You like music, don't you?"

Animated and with sparkling eyes, she stood and looked indeed very lovely - it was easy to see why Mr. Bromwell sought her out. Her brother laughed softly, opening the second door of the room, since it would be rather unfortunate if the ladies were to escape through the corridor which could be seen from the main hall.

"Your brother mentioned that you had an interest in music, Madam - please feel free to explore my poor collection or use the instrument if you want - any instrument, that is. If you find any use for that harp, you are even welcome to keep it."

"Music? Oh, I dearly love to play," Emma said, her own eyes glowing at the prospect. "Do you sing, Lady Isabella? Or do you prefer to play? I confess that I should far prefer to play for you than to sing."

A harp, though. "I have longed to play the harp, although Papa has not found a suitable tutor to engage, and so he has not laid out the expense of purchasing an instrument."

Vickery could not hide a grin. "You have made my sister into a lifelong friend, Torrington," he said warmly. "I only fear that we shall likely be unable to listen and shall have to entertain Mr Bromwell instead."

Willoughby smiled, pleased in a sense, that the ladies would retire to another room and thus the man would not receive what he had come for in his deceitful manner. He had stood as they had, and waited that both would have gone to the other room, before taking his seat again.

"I dearly hope the horse has not gone through another dangerous ordeal with him, nor any other animal for that matter." The cavalryman spoke, gazing at his two male companions.

"Had he done something of the sort back in the ranks, he would most certainly have been made to get of his high horse to clean the stables for weeks to come, and not only that!"