They took Millie to some of the more absurd entertainments, such as Crowther’s Museum of the Strange where shrunken human heads (it was uncertain if they were real heads, but they certainly looked most unpleasant) were displayed in glass bottles along with what Mr. Crowther claimed was the most extensive collection of medieval instruments of torture to be found the world over. It was difficult to know if this was true, but there were certainly a lot of them, most of them very nasty looking. Naturally, Millie found all of the exhibits fascinating. Crowther’s Museum was not the only curious place they had gone for there had also been the Palace of Wonders (which had been far from wonderful), a visit to a circus and one to Bartholomew Fair where Millie liberated a dancing bear and caused a small riot. Luckily Marcus and Harry tidied up the resulting milieu and had paid off the excitable bear’s owner, much to Millie’s disgust. She had been very much on the side of the bear. There had also been trips to Vauxhall Gardens and some of the other charming pleasure gardens London had to offer, along with a great many more sedate museums and galleries.

It had not been until Millie had taken it into her head to go up in a hot air balloon – these awe inspiring creations being all the rage for a few weeks, floating up from Hyde Park to a crowd of fascinated onlookers – stowing away beneath some rugs at the bottom of the basket, or gondola, as it was apparently called by its enthusiastic owners, that Mama made a decision to quit London. The episode of the balloon could have ended a great deal more unpleasantly than it had. The gentlemen whose balloon it had been had proved to be remarkably understanding about the whole event, even commending Mama on producing such a spitfire.

‘Plenty of bottle in her, hmm Ma’am? Why, I had to hold onto her jacket for fear she’d tumble out,’ the young man had said, full of admiration. ‘She wanted to see everything. Got a marvelous head for heights, I must say.’

Mama had paled at this cheerful observation and Audrey had stepped in hastily, thanking the two grinning gentlemen while taking a firm grip on her sister’s arm. Millie, naturally, had been sorry that she had given her mother such a scare but had been thrilled by the entire experience and expressed her desire to repeat it whenever the opportunity came her way again.

The balloon episode proved to be the final straw for their exasperated mother. Lady Hathaway declared they’d had quite enough entertainment to last a millennium or so and more or less forbade Millie to leave the house again without close supervision. Indeed, all of the female Hathaways’ nerves had stood all the excitement they could bear and they packed up their things and made preparations to return to Little Paddocks. Isabella had been becoming fretful about returning home by then anyway, and their tentative plans to enjoy Christmas in London had been abandoned.

Travelling back to Little Paddocks so much later in the year should not have been a problem. Certainly none of them might have expected such a violent snowstorm in December but every once in awhile, these things happened, oversetting one’s plans and generally causing chaos.

For Isabella’s sake, Audrey hoped they might make it back to Little Paddocks, although she herself was not particularly fussed. Thinking back to Isabella’s increasingly fluctuating emotions, she glanced at her sister thoughtfully. Audrey could vaguely remember her own mother’s swelling form when she had been pregnant with Millie, but she had been far too young to pay much attention. Isabella was different, of course, and Audrey had observed her sister’s growing belly with interest. Her eldest sister was generally very even tempered but pregnancy had seen her display a variety of emotions that were quite unlike her. She could be as sunny as a June morning one minute, then weeping copious quantities the next. When Audrey had expressed her concern to Mama, she had comforted her with the knowledge that pregnancy could often throw even the most well balanced female into a welter of mixed emotions and that, after the birth, they generally returned to their previous disposition. Harry could usually jolly Isabella out of her vagaries, but it was clear that she did not like being trapped in a strange place when her home was probably no more than another few miles or so down the road. In fact, it was the knowledge that Little Paddocks was so near and yet so unreachable that was driving Isabella mad.

There came a knock at the door and it opened again to admit Fumble and his wife, carrying trays and smiling broadly.

‘Good afternoon to yer,’ Fumble said cheerfully. ‘We brought tea.’

Mrs. Fumble set an enormous tray on the table. It must have been very heavy, for it held a large teapot and a multitude of cups and sauces but Mrs. Fumble was a sturdy woman with arms like tree trunks and seemed to have no difficulty with her burden. She gave Millie a familiar grin.

‘I made seed biscuits, young miss,’ she said amiably. ‘Figured you’d be the sort who’d like ‘em.’

Millie gave the landlady an approving smile. She was approaching her sixteenth birthday and, as yet, had acquired none of the polish of a young lady who would be launched into Society in a year or so. She tended to befriend servants far more readily than she did her peers and they, in turn, were drawn to her free and easy ways and often went to great lengths to make her happy. Mrs. Fumble had certainly taken a shine to her.

‘They smell delicious, Mrs. F. You are an excellent cook.’

‘Give over then,’ the woman said, but she looked pleased nevertheless.

Audrey watched with some amusement as Millie immediately removed a biscuit off the plate and bit into it. Her mother might find her youngest child’s manners to be a source of endless frustration but there was something endearingly real about Millicent Hathaway, something that the entire family delighted in. She would never be likely to turn her nose up at food or nibble daintily at a sliver of watercress sandwich. Like everything else Millicent Hathaway thought worthwhile, she put her all into it with unstinting enthusiasm. It was difficult to enforce behaviors onto somebody who so obviously didn’t feel the need for them. Mama might sigh and wring her hands but Audrey suspected that she secretly enjoyed her youngest child’s unrepentant outlook on life just as much as the rest of them.

Millie is going to be virtually impossible to find a suitable husband for when the time comes. She will undoubtedly be even more difficult than I am. Poor Mama…

Although really, her mama did not seem to find the fact that Audrey was still not betrothed at the end of the Season to be an issue. She may have been a little surprised when her daughter had rejected Allingham’s offer, but she had not said a word of reproof or shown dismay at her daughter’s decision. Of course Isabella had been more outspoken and almost immediately after the downcast gentleman had left the house, she had tackled her sister on the subject.

‘But I thought you liked him a great deal? Did you not say, only a few days ago, that you found him to be unexceptional? I thought that you were open to entertaining an offer from him.’

‘I do find him unexceptional,’ Audrey admitted. ‘And admit that is what I was thinking... But I have thought the matter through a little more deeply and indeed, I feel that the two of us would not suit each other at all. We are too dissimilar in nature.’

‘In what way? Have you unearthed some peculiarities about the man? Does he secretly like to wear ladies’ dresses like Mr. Fontaine or to be spanked like poor old Horsley?’

Despite herself, Audrey had been shocked. The things her sister knew about people were extraordinary. ‘Good God, no! Nothing like that.’

‘Well, then…?’