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apologize to
yerself
for subjecting yerself to such shame. If you’d ’ad Miss Penicuick with you, it would have been obvious that y’re a young woman of substance. And if you’d ’ad sufficient funds in yer possession, ye could’ve thrown a guinea into that clerk’s face an’ left the premises with yer ’ead ’eld ’igh.”
    “No, Papa, I could not. Throwing out a second guinea would not have proved I’d given him the first.”
    “It would’ve at least proved that y’re plump enough in the pocket to pay for the fabric easily enough and that therefore ye’d be unlikely to try to steal it.”
    “But, as it turned out, sir,” Miss Penicuick offered, “the overage in the cash box was a much more definitive proof than an extra guinea in her reticule would have been.”
    “That may be,” Oliver Chivers granted, “but if Cassie ’ad not been championed by that very kind stranger, I dread to think what might’ve become of ’er. How could she’ve faced the people in the store? How would she’ve made ’er way ’ome? The very thought of what she might’ve ’ad to endure makes me shudder.”
    “Yes, you’re quite right there,” Miss Penicuick agreed. “Thank the lord for Captain Rossiter’s presence. I shall remember him tonight in my prayers.”
    “Rossiter?” Mr. Chivers’ eyes, behind their spectacles, blinked in astonishment. “Are you speakin’ of Robert Rossiter, the Viscount Kittridge? Was ’e the officer who championed ye?”
    “Why, Papa?” Cassie asked, her face coloring. “Are you acquainted with him?”
    “No, not personally. But Delbert Jennings, who ’andled the financial affairs for the old viscount, is a good friend of mine. ’E’s often spoken of the young man. Says ’e’s a very good sort.”
    “He was certainly a ‘good sort’ to me today,” Cassie murmured.
    “Yes. It’s too bad such a fine fellow ’ad a father as profligate as the old viscount. Now poor Rossiter’ll find ’isself puntin’ on tick. ’Asn’t been left a feather to fly with, Jennings says.”
    Cassie stiffened in sudden attention. “What do you mean, Papa? Are you saying that the captain is in a bad way financially?”
    “As bad as can be. ’Is father’s gamblin’ debts left ’im badly dipped. All the estates are mortgaged to the ’ilt. An’ the poor fellow ain’t yet been told. Far away, fightin’ in the war with Nappy all these years, ’e don’t know anythin’ of the financial maneuverings that took place be’ind ’is back. Jennings says that when ’e learns the full extent of ’is indebtedness ’e’ll be knocked off ’is pins.”
    Cassie stared at her father for a moment, a little cry escaping from her throat. The sound caught his attention. He peered at his daughter curiously through the thick lenses of his spectacles. “Ye seem unduly affected, Cassie. I thought financial affairs didn’t ’old no interest for ye.”
    A blush suffused her face again. “I only … it’s just that he was so very kind to me,” she said. “I’m sorry to learn that so kind a gentleman will be so badly hurt.”
    Oliver Chivers didn’t miss the flush on his daughter’s cheeks. “
Liked
the fellow, eh, Cass?” he asked bluntly.
    Cassie dropped her eyes, unable to reply. Miss Penicuick took it upon herself to answer for the girl. “How could she help but like him after his gallantry today?”
    Cassie lifted her head. “Isn’t there anything you can do for him, Papa?”
    “Do for ’im? What can I do? I ’ave nothing to do with the Rossiters’ finances.”
    “But couldn’t you speak to—what was the name of the viscount’s man of business? Jennings?—to Mr. Jennings? Make some suggestions, perhaps?”
    “Really, Cassie, ye can sometimes be a complete green’ead. Don’t ye know anythin’ of the proprieties of business? I couldn’t make suggestions to Jennings about the finances of one of ’is clients. That would imply that I believed myself to be more competent to