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chaperone.”
    Amy was annoyed at his implication
she might do otherwise. She nudged Pansy into a gallop in the direction of
home.

 
    Chapter 5
 
    When they reached her home, Ben escorted her into the
house where her mother almost collided with them when she emerged suddenly from
the drawing room looking quite distracted.
    “Oh dear, oh dear,” Lady Sibbridge
muttered quite flustered.
    “Mother, Sir Benjamin is here.”
    Looking around in several
directions at once, something only she could do, Lady Sibbridge said with only
a glance, “Good morning, Sir Benjamin. Oh dear.”
    “What’s the matter, Mother,”
inquired Amy.
    “Oh dear. I’m trying to arrange a
picnic, and I can’t find my invitation cards. And I’ve lost Mrs. Parkhurst.”
    “We’re going to have a picnic?
Could we invite Sir Benjamin if he is willing to come?”
    Amy knew if her mother was sending
out invitations the picnic was for more than just the family.
    “Would you like to come to our
picnic, Sir Benjamin?” Amy invited.
    “I would be honored,” he replied.
“If I am not down in London. When is the picnic?”
    Her mother had already wandered off
muttering to herself.
    “I know my mother and I am sure
that as of this time she has no idea when she intends the picnic to take
place.”
    “Your mother was saying that she
lost Mrs. Parkhurst?”
    “Mrs. Charlotte Parkhurst is my
sister Emma’s tutor. And I have no idea what Mother is talking about, although
if anyone can lose someone it is my mother. Anyway, when Mother gets the
invitations sent out, then we’ll know when the picnic will take place. I don’t
know what else to say.”
    “I will look forward to receiving
an invitation.”
    He smiled, giving Amy a quick bow
and walking to the front door. As he reached it the door swung open and Emma
entered carrying a hedgehog. Ben grimaced and looked at Amy.
    “Emma! Take that poor hedgehog back
where you found it. Its mother will be looking for it.”
    Ben decided it was time to get away
from the Sibbridge’s residence.
    “I bid you ladies adieu,” he said
slipping out the front door.
    Amy looked over at the door to say
goodbye but Ben was already gone.
    “It’s fully grown. It’s mother will
not be looking for it,” asserted Emma with a tone that suggested there was
something deficient in Amy’s ability to judge the age of hedgehogs, and that
Emma was disappointed in such a failure in her sister. However, in deference to
her sister, Emma opened the front door in order to restore the hedgehog to its
former abode.
    “Wait a minute,” commanded Amy.
    Emma paused in the doorway and
looked at her sister apprehensively.
    “Emma, why cannot mother find Mrs.
Parkhurst?”
    “How would I know that,” said Emma
and Amy felt she detected a sheepish note in Emma’s response.
    Then a thought occurred to Amy.
    “Aren’t you supposed to be doing
your lessons?”
    “I... I suppose, but as you heard
mother, we cannot find Mrs. Parkhurst.”
    “Emma, where is Mrs. Parkhurst?”
    Emma shrugged and said she didn’t
know. But to Amy she looked guilty.
    “Are you sure,” asked a highly
suspicious Amy.
    “How would I know,” asked Emma
looking ever so innocent. “Am I her keeper?”
    “The last person to say that was
Cain and he’d just killed his brother. You didn’t just kill Mrs. Parkhurst, did
you?”
    “Not yet,” Emma mumbled darkly
under her breath.”
    Amy didn’t catch what her sister
said.
    “What did you just say?”
    “Nothing,” said Emma and then ran
outside slamming the front door behind her.
    Amy considered a hot pursuit then
decided she had better go and see how her mother was doing.
     
    When Amy came downstairs after
changing out of her riding habit, the family was sitting down to lunch. Before
everyone was even seated, Mattie was already gushing about the gangly youth,
and comparing Ben negatively to her skinny and almost certainly temporary
object of affection.
    Which reminded her mother of Ben.
    “Sir