Will You Love Me in September

"A statement of fact is not flattery, is it? One eulogizes because the spirit moves one to do so. One speaks as one finds, and if there is a flow of words ... well, that is useful, but it is not flattery. To you I speak the truth, and if it seems overfulsome, that is because modesty is yet another of your excellent virtues.”

"Have you ever been at a loss for words?”

"There have been times. At the gaming table, perhaps, when I have lost more than I could afford.”

"That must be alarming.”

"Well, it is part of the gamble. If one man won every time, there would be no excitement, would there? But I must not talk to you of gambling. Your family would heartily disapprove of that. Well, what say you to a visit to the fair?”

"I should love it.”

"Then break your fast early and we'll set off. I promise you an exciting morning.”

"I will be as quick as I can.”

I turned from the window, pulled the bell rope and asked for hot water. I washed and went down. While I was eating hot, crisp bacon on crusty bread and drinking a mug of ale the man in the frieze coat came in. He was dressed for departure. He talked to the landlord about his horse. He was obviously rather anxious to be on his way.

When I left the dining room Lance was waiting for me, and he told me we had a couple of hours before we need be back at the inn. As we walked into the village we heard sounds of merriment. The fair was set up in a field where there were brightly colored booths and such crowds that I guessed many people had come in from the neighboring countryside.

Lance took my arm. "Keep close to me," he said. "At fairs like this robbers abound.

Keep your hands on your purse, and if anyone attempts to snatch it, shout and I'll prevent the robbery. Above all, keep close and don't stray from your protector.”

"Who are you ... Sir Lancelot?”

"I have a confession to make to you. That is my real name. As soon as I became aware of its implications-that was when I was seven years old, for I was a very intelligent child, as you have gathered, and the quality stayed with me in afterlife-I changed it. Lancelot! Imagine.

Lance is so much more suitable. There is something rather aggressive about a lance.

A weapon of war.”

"Lancelot was aggressive at times, I believe. And then there was all that trouble over Guinevere.”

"All the same, I should hate to go through life with the label of knighthood attached to me.”

I laughed.

"You are amused?" he asked.

"We seem to get into discussions about matters which are of no real importance.”

"My name is of the utmost importance to me ... and I hope it will be to you. As for those Spanish leather shoes you were so anxious about, I think I learned something about you through your attitude to the Earl's lady-and that is what interests me, my dear Clarissa.”

"I fancy you might be a little like Sir Lancelot after all," I said. "What is that smell?”

"An ox ... roasting. A necessary feature of such occasions. They'll be selling it at so much a slice.”

"I don't think I should want any of it.”

"But you'll have a fairing, won't you? For I shall insist on that.”

"I have an idea that you will not have to be too insistent.”

I was fascinated by the fair. I had never seen anything like it. I felt I was stepping out into adventure. But perhaps this had something to do with the company of Lance Clavering. Perhaps it was because he did not treat me like a child.

The autumn sun was faintly warming and it gave a glow to goods displayed on the stalls.

There was one section for the cattle. Horses were for sale too, but it was the stalls that fascinated me. Together Lance and I inspected the saddles, the boots, other clothing, pots, brushes, ornaments, potatoes in their jackets roasting in a brazier; there were chestnuts too. Lance bought a bag of these and we munched contentedly.

This was a special fair, Lance told me. There were sideshows with waxworks, dwarfs and conjurers. There was one extremely fat woman and a very thin one, and these caused great amusement because they were not very respectful toward their new monarch.

We went into one tent and watched a puppet show; we applauded wildly with the rest of the company, and I noticed that Lance's clothes attracted some attention. But the people were used to gentry looking in at the fair, so his presence was not as unusual as it might have been.

He took me to the fairing stall and asked me to choose what I liked. There were sweetmeats tied up with ribbons making lover's knots-most of them heart-shaped or in the form of some animals. There was a dog that looked rather like Damon. I hesitated over that, and then I saw a sugar mouse; it had bright pink eyes and a long tail, and about its neck was a piece of blue ribbon. I was reminded immediately of the sugar mouse I had had all those years ago when Hessenfield had held up the coach and I had given him the tail of my mouse because, although I had not known he was my father, I had loved him.