“He only misses his supper,” a voice protested in reply. “And he knows, right enough, that’s he’s done wrong, sir. That he does. Just like any dog. Why, I hardly ever have to take a whip—”
“You whip this bear?” the marquess said, his voice rising to a roar.
People in line at the mermaid’s tent turned their heads, and a few others drifted closer. Roberta’s hand crept into Damon’s, but somehow her usual feelings of mortification and shame at the fact her father was about to make a spectacle weren’t creeping over her.
A second later, her father spilled out of the tent, followed by a lean, hungry-looking fellow, presumably Mr. Clay.
“I can’t bear the stench another moment,” her father said. “Not another moment. And just think what that poor bear makes of it, sir, since in the normal way of things he’d be living at the top of a tall tree, smelling nothing but the blue sky!”
They all reflexively looked up. “I does my best,” Mr. Clay bleated.
“Your best isn’t good enough!” the marquess said. “I’ll have that bear, or I’ll know the reason why.”
Cutting off Mr. Clay’s ineffectual bluster, the marquess produced a handful of guineas, and ownership of Harry Hunks passed hands.
“I’ll fetch him tomorrow,” the marquess said. “And you’d better be at your residence with the bear, Mr. Clay, or I shall have the High Constable on you!”
Mr. Clay was looking blissfully at the guineas in his hand. “I can go back home with these,” he said. “I’ll be there, your lordship, and so will Harry.”
“I’ll have more of those for you if you can find a cart to take Harry to my country house.”
Damon leaned over and said in Roberta’s ear, “How many bears do you have at home?”
“None,” she said.
“Oh.”
“But we do have a couple of deer that were supposed to be elk, but turned out to have horns glued on, a terrible weight for their poor heads, I assure you. And we have some Greenland ducks—”
“Greenland ducks?” Damon said with a crack of laughter.
“Hush! Papa will hear you. They are rather peculiar, and we think they’re a strain of exotic chicken because they can’t swim. At first papa dropped them into the lake and it was only very quick work on the part of a groom that saved their life.”
Meanwhile, they had made their way back to the mermaid’s boat. The marquess dropped a few coins into the guard’s hands.
“He’s a pirate!” Teddy said, awed.
Damon ducked his head as they went through the low door of the boat. Seated in the corner was a mermaid.
She was quite pretty, with long golden hair and a sweet face. She had a glossy green tail wrapped with a net and a few artistically placed shells. Unlike any picture he’d ever seen of a siren of the deep, she wore a starched white bodice that overlapped the beginning of her tail. In fact, she looked a bit like a vicar’s daughter. Except for the satin tail, of course.
Teddy marched up before her, and said, “May I ask you questions?”
The mermaid nodded at Teddy and smiled.
“I will answer whatever I can,
As a daughter of the sea to a child of man.”
The marquess started rocking back and forth on his heels, a sure sign of enjoyment.
“Are you friends with fish?” Teddy asked.
“Fish were my favorite boon companions,
My very best friend was a shark,
We would whip about and have great fun,
Until I was caught by His Majesty’s barque.”
“Sharks!” Teddy said, eyes round. “I thought they were the monsters of the deep, and ate everything in their path.”