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‘that is, until I find a position somewhere for him.’ She thought of Sir George. Surely he would have enough connections to find work for one footman.
    ‘May I point out,’ said Lord Augustus meekly, ‘that our coachman is waiting and I am anxious to be shot of this place.’
    Hannah made up her mind. She would purchase a seat for Benjamin on the stage. She thought ruefully of her dwindling finances. It would need to be an inside seat, for it had begun to rain and Benjamin was dressed only in a thin, torn shirt and breeches.
    ‘Perhaps,’ said Hannah, ‘someone might be so good as to go to the Manor to collect Benjamin’s clothes?’ She looked at Lord Augustus.
    ‘Not I, ma’am,’ he said, raising his hands in mock horror. ‘I never want to see that place again.’
    ‘Are you all coming aboard or ain’t you?’ growled the coachman.
    Hannah wrote in the notebook, ‘I shall purchase you a seat inside on the stage. You may stay with me for only a little. I shall find you employ when we return to London.’
    She stood up. Benjamin leaped to his feet and deftly picked up Hannah’s shawl and reticule and stood to attention behind her.
    She went off to the booking-office in the inn and bought the ticket. Miss Trenton let out a squawk of sheer fury when she realized that Benjamin was to sit with the insiders. ‘How dare you, Miss Pym,’ she raged. ‘A carriage lady such as myself is not going to travel in the company of that. ’
    ‘Stow it, you old crow,’ said Mr Cato in a sudden passion. ‘I have to reach my ship before she sails. If I hear one more word of that carriage of yours, I’ll scream. You ain’t got no carriage and we all know it.’
    ‘ Well .’ Miss Trenton bridled. But she climbed on board the coach, although her face, or what could be seen of it inside her bonnet, was quite pink with outrage.
    Hannah sat in her corner seat with Benjamin beside her. Penelope sat opposite with Lord Augustus next to her, and Miss Trenton and Mr Cato faced each other over on the other side of the coach. Miss Trenton’s disapproval filled the carriage.
    But after less than a mile, Benjamin, Hannah, Penelope, and Lord Augustus fell asleep. They did noteven awake three miles and four furlongs down the road when the coach made a brief stop at Cobham. Only Mr Cato and Miss Trenton were awake to accept the offered glasses of rum and hot milk.
    Three miles, seven furlongs farther on, and they were at Ripley, famous for its cricketers, and its old inn, the Talbot, full of gables and long corridors. The coachman jerked open the door, but by now all the passengers were asleep, so he fortified himself with brandy and drove on. Seven miles on, and the coach rolled to a stop in the sleepy town of Guildford. The passengers struggled awake and silently and sleepily filed into the Crown.
    Although Benjamin was standing at attention behind Hannah’s chair, the landlord took one look at his dirty and unshaven face and tried to turn him out. Lord Augustus took the landlord aside and said something, and after that there was no complaint. But Lord Augustus murmured to Hannah, ‘We stop here for but a short while. Perhaps there might be somewhere in the town where you can purchase a livery for your new servant.’
    Hannah got to her feet, signalling to Benjamin to stay where he was. ‘Make sure the coach does not leave without me,’ she said, and hurried out.
    ‘Now that is a resourceful lady,’ said Lord Augustus. ‘More ham, Miss Wilkins?’
    Penelope murmured, ‘No,’ and would not meet his eyes.
    Penelope had a lot to think about. She was a dutiful daughter and admired her father very much anddreaded his disappointment when he learned she had been expelled from the seminary. When she had first seen Lord Augustus, although she had not fallen in love with him, she had thought of marriage. How pleased her father would be if she married a lord! Lord Augustus seemed a dilettante, but an easygoing and comfortable one.