An Infamous Army by Georgette Heyer

brows.
    She reined in again to walk. "No. You have had the luck to encounter me in a charming mood, which is not a thing that happens every day of the week. I warn you, I have the most damnable temper, and it is generally at its worst before breakfast."
    "Oh, that is capital!" declared the Colonel. "You show me how I can be of real service to you. I will engage to be here to quarrel with you any morning you may wish for a sparring partner."
    "I think," she said quite seriously, "that you would not make a good sparring partner. You would spare me too much."
    "Not I!"
    She did not answer. A solitary horseman, cantering down the avenue towards them, had caught her attention. As he drew nearer, she turned to the Colonel with one of her wicked looks, and said: "You are about to meet the Captain Count de Lavisse. Shall you like that? He is quite charming!"
    "Then obviously I shall," he answered. "But I thought you said he was stationed at Nivelles?"
    "Oh, he has leave, I suppose!" she said carelessly.
    The Captain Count, very smart in a blue uniform with a scarlet-and-white collar, and a broad-topped shako, set at an angle on his handsome head, drew rein before them, and saluted with a flourish. "Well met, Bab! Your servant, mon Colonel!"
    The Colonel just touched his hat in acknowledgment of this magnificent salute, but the lady blew a kiss from the tips of her fingers. "Let me make you known to each other," she offered.
    The Count flung up a hand. "Unnecessary! We have met already, and there is between us an unpaid score. I accuse you of volerie, Colonel, and demand instant separation!"
    "Your waltzes, were they?" said the Colonel. "My sympathy is unbounded, believe me, but what can I do? The Duke is devilish down on duelling, or I should be happy to oblige. You will have to accept my profound apologies."
    "This is dissimulation of the most base! I am assured that you would serve me again the same tour - if you could!" said the Count gaily. His eyes rested for an instant on Barbara's ungloved right hand. He made no comment, but there was a gleam of understanding in the glance he flashed at the Colonel. He wheeled his horse, and fell in beside Barbara. Across her, he addressed Colonel Audley: "Your first visit to Brussels?"
    "No, I was here last year for a short space. A delightful town, Count."
    The Count bowed. "A compliment indeed - from one who has known Vienna! Our endeavours must be united to preserve it from the Corsican maraudeur."
    "Your endeavours may be," remarked Barbara, "but I have met some who wish quite otherwise."
    He stiffened. "Persons of no consequence, I assure you!"
    "By no means!"
    "Madame, when the time comes you shall see how the suspected Belgians shall comport themselves!" He threw a somewhat darkling look at Colonel Audley, and added: "Rest assured, we are aware what malveillants reports have been spread of us in England, and by whom! Is it not so, mon Colonel? Have you not been warned that our sympathies are with Bonaparte, that we are, in effect, indignes de confiance?"
    The Colonel responded with easy tact, but lost no time in turning the conversation into less dangerous channels. A civil interchange was maintained throughout the remainder of the ride, but the Lady Barbara, suddenly capricious, was silent. Only when they arrived at Vidal's house in the Rue Ducale did she seem to recover from her mood of abstraction. She gave the Colonel her hand then, and the shadow of a tantalising smile. "Do you really care to quarrel with me, Colonel?"
    "Above all things!"
    "You have not met my brother and his wife, I think? They are holding a soiree here tomorrow evening. It will be confoundedly boring, but come!"
    "Thank you: I shall not fail."
    A few minutes later, Barbara dropped into a chair at her brother's breakfast table, and tossed her forage cap on to another. Vidal said peevishly: "I suppose you have been making yourself remarkable. If you choose to ride out before breakfast, you may for all I care, but