‘Yes, but when we meet him, we can fight him,’ Temeraire said, ‘and be sure of keeping our friends safe.’

‘I am very grateful for your concern,’ Lady Allendale said gently, ‘but we will not go, I think; it would be quite unforgivable to leave our servants and the tenants alone to manage in such circumstances: that is our duty.’

This quite changed the conversation. She then inquired of Jane, whether her own family was somewhere safe. ‘I haven't any one to worry for, but my Emily, and of course I am lucky enough to have her in eyeshot at present,’ Jane said, nodding at where her daughter was helping to put up the camp.

Emily had then come over to be introduced, and having made her bow added earnestly, ‘And thank you very much, my Lady, for the present; I am much obliged to you.’

Laurence knew his mother well enough to see, as most strangers would not have, that she was puzzled before sudden understanding dawned. ‘You like the garnets, then?’ she said, and leaned forward to search Emily's face with a very different sort of interest; and Laurence felt his heart sink.

In London, the past year, his father had drawn entirely the wrong conclusion from Emily's inclusion in Temeraire's crew and about Laurence's evident responsibilities towards her; and he had passed his conclusion along to his wife in terms not sufficiently guarded as to prevent her becoming very interested in Emily's welfare.

‘Oh yes,’ Emily said, ‘and I have been able to wear them twice, to the theatre in Dover.’

‘Are you—Are you in service, then?’ Lady Allendale asked, willing to play inquisitor where she felt she had a right.

Emily nodded, unaware of any undercurrent, and said, proudly, ‘I am lately made ensign, my Lady.’

‘There, enough puffery; Dorset is looking for you,’ Jane said, more discreet, and Emily bobbed once more and dashed away.

Lady Allendale watched her run back to her duties. The surgeon was working over the dragons. Temeraire was not the only one of the unharnessed beasts who had been carrying a musket-ball for too long. Fortunately, Dorset laboured downwind at present, and worked on Ballista's far side, so the gruesome operation was not in open view. Emily vanished around her flank, and Lady Allendale turned back and ventured, ‘She is very young,’ to Jane, with not a little anxiety.

‘Oh, she has been in harness since before she could walk,’ Jane said. ‘We start them young, ma'am, so they don't have much to be trained out of; and she must be up to snuff to take Excidium when I get too long in the tooth to be scrambling about aloft.’