Those Measureless Fields by Caroline Scott

Author:Caroline Scott
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bisac Code 1: FIC000000; FICTION / General
ISBN: 9781473837614
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2014-04-30T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-Six

Effie woke up in the geometric bed. As the ceiling mouldings slid into focus, she registered that her head felt unusual. Her hand reached out for Reginald and found him warmly present at her side. Recalling hazily that he briefly hadn’t been there, a rush of panic rose and then subsided as her fingers curled through his hair. In her experimental exhibitionism Effie had neglected him. She gave him a contrite tickle behind the ears. He grinned at her with ghastly breath.

‘I should feel ashamed of myself, shouldn’t I?’

‘I wouldn’t go that far,’ replied Henry’s entirely unexpected voice. He reared up from the chaise longue.

‘Good God!’ Effie pulled the bedspread around her shoulders.

‘After all, it was only a bad oyster, wasn’t it?’ He laughed. ‘Oh, don’t worry. I won’t bite. Though, it has to be said that you were hardly bashful last night.’

Effie rubbed at her eyes and groaned. Had she really let go? ‘Was I horrendous?’

‘Horrific.’ He smoothed his disarrayed hair. ‘You were smashed.’

Though she had taken to exploring alcohol, Effie had never been smashed before. She wasn’t sure that she meant to go there again.

‘I feel a bit sick.’

‘I’m not surprised.’

‘You didn’t medicate me?’

‘You medicated yourself.’

Effie was relieved to find that she was still in her sensible skirt. She wasn’t keen on the idea that Henry might have undressed her in her drunkenness – or that, in her hardly bashful state, she might herself have seen fit to exit her sensible attire.

‘I smoked a cigar.’

‘I’m sure you did.’

She could still taste it. She could taste a curious cocktail of mistakes. Reginald panted. He too looked a little worse for wear.

‘Where was he?’

‘Being vivacious with a poodle.’

‘Heavens,’ said Effie. She wasn’t quite certain that was what Laurie had intended for Reginald’s Parisian holiday. ‘I was meant to buy him an ice-cream.’

‘I think that he prefers canoodling with poodles.’

‘He does look rather pleased with himself.’

‘Poodle pleasuring,’ said Henry and shook his head with feigned affront. ‘Can I not leave you two alone for five minutes? What on earth have the pair of you been up to? How did it get to oysters and poodles and being blotto in a Parisian gutter?’

‘Could the poodle be a cry for help?’ Effie asked, although there was something rather rakish about Reginald’s face today. If he needed help, he was keeping those sensibilities well suppressed this morning. ‘Poor Reginald has been through so much.’

‘Come on.’ Henry got up and began to fold the blanket he’d used. He stood at the end of her bed, the blanket to his chest, and gave her a sympathetic look. ‘I’ll run you a bath and then we shall find some lunch and you will tell me all about what you’ve been through.’

All of this flapping about with blankets was presently slightly trying, but she was glad to have someone other than Reginald to share it with.

‘Oh Henry, I have had a time of it.’

‘It’s all right,’ he said. ‘I’m here now and I shall make it all right.

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