Amanda Scott - [Dangerous 04] (31 page)

“I rarely excuse anyone who is on duty, as you know, Letitia.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Letty lowered her lashes, hoping to hide her frustration.

As if she were thinking aloud, Lady Tavistock went on to say, “Her Majesty has been setting quite a pace these past few days, because she does not like to give up her simple pleasures even when larger issues like this unfortunate Jamaican crisis take up so much of her time.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Letty said.

“Perhaps you are merely tired, my dear. Not everyone can keep up with Her Majesty at such times as this.”

Gritting her teeth, Letty said submissively, “I daresay some cannot, ma’am.”

“I dare not excuse you from the theater party or from dinner here at the palace afterward, I’m afraid, unless you truly are sick. Her Majesty likes to make a display of her attendants on such occasions, as you know, and I have already told Lady Witherspoon that she need not attend. Her husband is entertaining a number of the ministers at dinner tonight. Naturally she must act as his hostess.”

“Yes, ma’am. I see that I shall simply have to bear up,” Letty said.

Lady Tavistock smiled. “We do not want you growing ill, my dear. I suggest that you spend the next few hours resting in your chamber. I doubt that Her Majesty will require your presence before she departs for Drury Lane at a half past six.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

Letty departed at once, before Lady Tavistock could change her mind, or command her to stay in her apartment. Her first impulse was to send a footman immediately for her carriage, but fearing that word of such an order might somehow reach the chief lady of the bedchamber, she went instead to find Jenifry.

“Find Jonathan and tell him to bring the carriage round,” she said when she entered her chamber. “I want to call in Upper Brook Street, and I have little more than two hours before I must return. I’ve just learned that Raventhorpe has gone out of town, and I want to reassure myself that all is well at my house.”

“I’ve already sent for Jonathan, Miss Letty,” Jenifry said. “You see, you told me that you would wear the pale green silk to Drury Lane, since it was here.”

“Yes, that’s fine. I shall return in plenty of time to dress,” Letty said.

“Well, it isn’t fine, miss. That’s why I’ve just sent for Jonathan.”

Letty blinked. “What has Jonathan to do with my dress?”

“If you will recall, Miss Letty, you got a bit of mustard on the bodice of that gown the last time you wore it.”

“Yes, but surely someone has cleaned it by now.”

“Someone ought to have done,” Jenifry said sourly. “However, although the maid who took it away to clean it brought it back fifteen minutes ago, it won’t do. She promised to do no more than sponge the stain with boiled fig-leaf water, which is what I’d use myself, and which generally makes such stains instantly disappear. However, the cure in this instance proved worse than the ill. Look at it.” She held up the dress to reveal a large spot in the middle of the bodice front.

“Mercy, is this more mischief then?”

“As to that, I cannot say, miss. My guess is that she was just careless, but I did tell her to throw out what’s left of the fig-leaf water.”

“Have I nothing else here that I can wear?”

“Only the aqua terry gown, Miss Letty, and you wore that one last night. We’ve been going at such a pace that, thinking you’d be on duty at least another hour or so, I decided I’d go to Jervaulx House and collect a few more gowns.”

“It was a good notion,” Letty said, “but I’m glad you hadn’t gone yet.”

“I could still take a hackney, miss. Then you could take your carriage.”

“Yes, but what if Papa and Mama have arrived? They would be so disappointed to hear that I’d taken time to go to Upper Brook Street without seeking first to learn if they were at home. I’ll have to go with you, that’s all.”

The carriage was waiting at the side door when they emerged from the palace, and the trip to Jervaulx House took no longer than twenty minutes. Letty greeted the news that her parents had not yet arrived with mixed feelings. Much as she looked forward to seeing them, she wanted to be able to report with a clear conscience that her affairs were in good order.

While Jenifry collected what was necessary, Letty looked in on Miss Dibble, finding that good lady in bed, with a maidservant in close attendance. “I shall be as right as a trivet in no time, my dear,” she said when Letty inquired, “I have everything I need, but I must say, I wish you could take that dratted monkey back to the palace with you. He has escaped from your bedchamber three times today, and led the servants a merry chase each time. He misses you, I fear.”

“Well, I cannot take him to the palace,” Letty said, laughing. “However, I see no reason that I cannot take him with me to Upper Brook Street. I’ll take his chain and collar along, and Jonathan and Lucas can bring him back here after they deliver us to Buckingham Palace.”

“Oh, if only you could do that. I declare, I don’t get a wink of sleep worrying about him getting out of the house and running free through the city.”

“Miss Abby and Liza will be delighted to see him,” Letty assured her. “And there can be no difficulty returning him afterward, because I shall be going to the theater with Her Majesty and then returning to the palace for dinner. Jonathan need not return for me before ten at the earliest, and Lucas can look after Jeremiah.”

“Then that is settled. What will you wear tonight?”

Letty stayed chatting with her until Jenifry came to say that she had Letty’s clothing for the evening all sorted and packed. Then, pausing only long enough to collect a joyful Jeremiah, the two young women set out for Upper Brook Street.

Their reception there put Letty in mind of Jeremiah’s raptures, for Miss Abby came rushing into the entrance hall while Jackson was taking their cloaks.

“I saw your carriage from the drawing-room window,” she exclaimed. “Oh, how we have missed you, my dear! Do come up at once. Miranda will be so pleased to see you.”

“I have my clothing for this evening in the carriage, ma’am,” Letty told her. “Since it may begin to rain again at any moment, I wonder if Jenifry and Lucas can take it upstairs and hang up my dress, at least. That is, if they won’t be disturbing you, or …” She paused tactfully.

Miss Abby nodded emphatically. “Yes, of course. They can disturb no one, for there is no one here to disturb. Nor will there be ever again if Justin has his way. Oh, my dear, we have so been longing to talk to you about all this! And here is dear Jeremiah,” she added when the little monkey’s head popped from Letty’s large muff. “Liza has been asking us every day why Jeremiah does not come to visit her. And today she asked particularly, because
no one
has come to see us.”

Fully aware of Jackson’s interest, although he was busily bestowing their wraps, Letty sent Jenifry and Lucas to take her clothing upstairs, and encouraged Miss Abby’s small talk until they were alone in the stair hall on their way up to the drawing room. Then, when Miss Abby paused for breath, she said quietly, “I collect, ma’am, that Raventhorpe has prevailed upon you to curtail your services.”

“Curtail? Oh, my dear, he has said we must stop them altogether, and indeed, I do not know what we shall do. It is just as we feared it would be, you know, for he has already begun to tell us that he thinks we would enjoy a little holiday at Ramsgate or Brighton. As if anyone could enjoy the seashore at this time of year, particularly after all the rain we have suffered! It would be just more damp air. I tell you, I could not abide it, Letty. Even Liza, who generally loves the sea, refuses to go. I am afraid she wants to stay here for the most foolish of reasons, however.”

“Goodness, ma’am,” Letty said, settling Jeremiah on her shoulder but keeping a firm grip on his silver chain. “What reason can that be?”

“She has decided that she wants to marry Justin,” Miss Abby said.

“What? Mercy, does he know?” Letty stifled her laughter, trying to imagine his reaction if he were to learn that Liza held a tenderness for him.

“No, and I am not going to tell him. Poor Liza, she is very fond of Justin, but she is fond of most men, I think. She treats them all the same from what I can see.”

When they entered the drawing room, they found Liza and Mrs. Linford sitting by the fire, the former stitching a sampler, and Mrs. Linford reading. Both looked up at their entrance, and Liza cast her work aside at the sight of Jeremiah. “Oh, the dear!” she exclaimed in delight. “May I take him, Miss Letty?”

Having not seen Liza since rescuing her from Boverie Street, Letty was a little surprised by the casual greeting, but she said, “Of course you may.”

With no more than a nudge of encouragement, Jeremiah leapt from her shoulder to Liza’s arms. Finding that she still held his silver chain, and realizing that the monkey had cleverly detached it from his collar again, she reattached it with a laugh, and warned Liza to keep a close eye on him.

“I hope you do not mind that I brought him with me, ma’am,” Letty added with a smile at Mrs. Linford. “Poor Elvira has contracted a feverish cold, and Jeremiah’s antics have driven her almost to distraction.”

“He is nearly as welcome here as you are, my dear.” Her next statement belied this generous sentiment, however. “Do take him away to the kitchen or somewhere, Liza. Perhaps Cook can find him a tidbit left over from luncheon.”

“He likes any sort of fruit,” Letty said. “Or nuts, if the cook has any.”

“I’ll find some,” Liza promised, hoisting Jeremiah to her shoulder and directing the rest of her conversation to the monkey.

When they had gone, Letty said, “Miss Abby tells me that Raventhorpe has suggested you might enjoy a holiday by the sea, ma’am.”

“Indeed, he has, but the sea does not agree with my constitution at this time of year,” Mrs. Linford said.

“I should think it would not agree with anyone,” Letty said. “What was he thinking to suggest such a thing?”

“He is determined to direct the course of our lives, Letitia,” Mrs. Linford replied with feeling, “and I will not stand for it. We have notified everyone we can think of to stay away until this little tempest blows over, but I will not allow Justin or anyone else to order my life for me. I do understand his point that your reputation will suffer if by some mischance a scandal erupts. But I think he exaggerates the danger, don’t you? After all, we have weathered many little upsets like this over the years, and none has amounted to more than a storm in a cream bowl.”

Letty nodded, understanding how the two old ladies felt. At the same time, however, she realized that she did appreciate Raventhorpe’s taking a hand. That he had persuaded them to curtail their activities could only prove a blessing.

“Soon we shan’t be able to pay you our rent,” Miss Abby said sadly.

“Surely it hasn’t come to that, ma’am,” Letty protested. “The rent is quite small. Mr. Clifford told me it can never be more than forty pounds a year.”

“To your Mr. Clifford that may be small, my dear, but it is not so to us,” Mrs. Linford said. “Much of what our friends pay for our services goes to the servants, you know, and to pay for our food and theirs, as well as the rent.”

“But surely you don’t believe I will cast you out, ma’am. I promise you, rent or no rent, you are welcome to live in this house forever and a day.”

“We have our pride,” Mrs. Linford said stiffly. “I thought we had made that clear to you, Letitia. We have never had to depend upon the charity of others, and we do not wish to begin at this late date.”

“People would
know,”
Miss Abby said in anguished tones. “They would all think we had somehow come to ruin through not seeing to things properly, and that is so grossly unfair, when dear Miranda has managed so very well all these years. How could we ever hold up our heads again?”

Tempted though she was to point out that people were likely to think more highly of a pair of suddenly impoverished gentlewomen than they would think of those gentlewomen running a house of assignation, Letty held her tongue. As she strove to think of something constructive to say, sudden distant shrieks put her forcibly in mind of the day Jeremiah had interrupted Catherine and her lover.

Leaping to her feet, she looked accusingly at Miss Abby. “I thought you said there was no one—”

“But there isn’t!” Miss Abby, too, had jumped up. “That’s not just Jeremiah shrieking. I can hear Liza’s voice, too. Oh, mercy, what can it be?”

“The servants will soon tell us,” Mrs. Linford said placidly.

“I don’t think we should wait,” Letty said, hearing another feminine scream. “That came from neither Jeremiah nor Liza.”

Hurrying to the landing with Miss Abby at her heels, she realized the noise was coming from below. Catching up her skirts, she ran downstairs, where it became clear that the noise originated somewhere beyond the green baize door in the wall below the sweeping curve of the stairs.

The door was slightly ajar. Letty hurried to it and flung it wide.

More stairs spiraled downward. As she hurried down toward a corridor at the bottom, the pandemonium increased in volume.

“Oh, don’t hurt the poor thing!” Recognizing the shrieking voice as that of the maidservant, Mary, and seeing Liza in the midst of a group of people gathered in a doorway along the corridor, Letty ran toward them.

Liza, who was holding Jeremiah’s silver chain but not the monkey, caught sight of her and screamed, “Miss Letty, hurry! He’s going to stab Jeremiah!”

Others saw her then, and a hush fell over them, allowing her to hear Mary say clearly above the monkey’s angry chattering, “Put down that dagger, sir. He meant no harm. Oh, please, put it down!”

“Verdammter Affe! Ich werde ihn ermorden.”

Pushing her way through the group huddled round the door, Letty said sharply, “You will murder no one!” Pulling up short at the sight of Charles Morden with a bedsheet wrapped around him, waving a wicked-looking dagger, she exclaimed, “Good mercy, sir, what are you doing here? What
is
all this?”

At the sound of Letty’s voice, Jeremiah darted out from under the bed, holding a white cravat aloft like a banner as he ran toward her. Leaping to her arms and then to her shoulder, he hurled rude epithets at the man still waving the dagger.