House of Mirrors (29 page)

Rafe wished he could talk to Sam about her. That man had been able to find the good in anyone. Mindy would have something pithy and sharp to say about Rafe’s mother. And Jonah would simply pull him into an embrace. Rafe was engulfed by a desire to be back at the show. The longing for genuine warmth and love took him by surprise and made him stop in the middle of the narrow country lane. His true family. His true love.

“Jonah,” he said and smiled up at the sky. So he could walk faster, he shouldered the pack he’d brought from London. He’d settled the past as best he could. Now he’d set about arranging the rest of his life. He sent up a prayer to a god—perhaps even the one Jonah had worshipped for all those years—that he hadn’t lost his chance.

Chapter Twenty-four

Jonah staggered down the gangplank from the steamer like a drunkard. It had taken him days to get his sea legs, and he’d lost weight on the voyage to England from retching until there wasn’t so much as bile left in his stomach. Now it seemed he’d have to adjust to walking on land again, and heaven forbid he’d suffer the horrible nausea again. Just the thought of vomiting made his stomach heave.

He swallowed and steadied himself as he looked around the busy harbor front, scanning the shore for a glimpse of Grimstone—Lord Rafael Pettigrew Darkwell—his Rafe. The surge of warmth that filled him at the thought banished his nausea and nerves. Here he was, a stranger in a strange land, but he was coming home because Rafe waited at the end of the journey.

Jonah mentally reviewed the few notes he’d received together in a sheaf, since a traveling carnival was not the easiest thing for the postal service to locate. Rafe only occasionally declared his affection and never in an extravagant fashion, but he’d made it clear he was looking forward to Jonah and the entire company joining him in England.

Especially you, Jonah, my very good friend
, he’d written. There had been a few other unguarded lines in those letters. Jonah had memorized them.
I think of you often and at the oddest times—during a business meeting—and also just before I fall asleep. That is when I most clearly see your face.

Jonah had shared the rest of the letters’ contents with the other excited members of the carnival.

I’ve booked a music hall for several months of the winter, but in spring we will tour the southern countryside. We’ll see how the show is received and perhaps expand our territory. Maybe next winter, the Mediterranean. Let “the Signortoris” see how real Italians behave.

The busy Port of London was beyond anything Jonah had ever seen—even more chaotic than New York harbor had been. He felt charged by the energy of the great city surrounding him and realized what a circumscribed life he’d lived in his small corner of Ohio. He was truly a country mouse in the city, but he was ready to become a citizen of the world and leave the cornfields behind. At any rate, he’d never return to America, because he refused to set foot on an ocean liner again for the rest of his life.

“Jonah, you gonna stand woolgathering all morning or help?” Mindy’s strident voice caught Jonah’s attention. He looked at their new manager, dressed in a glorious costume of green and gold for her arrival in England. Jonah knew Mindy was more excited and anxious about the upcoming engagement than she’d ever admit to, and as usual, she exhibited her nerves by running everyone ragged.

“I don’t think we can do anything just yet,” Jonah said gently. “The customs inspectors will have to make a more thorough inspection. Perhaps we should meet with Rafe first and see where we’re to go next.”

“Do you see him?” Mindy held up her green parasol to block the light drizzle that was starting and peered around the waterfront teeming with stevedores, vendors, sailors, prostitutes, pedestrians, pushcarts, wagons, carriages, and a few motorcars.

“Not yet. He’ll be here.” Jonah didn’t doubt it but couldn’t help catching some of Mindy’s jittery apprehension. What if something did go wrong? They were an ocean away from all they knew, with their entire livelihood dependent on an engagement that Rafe had set up. Without him, they were lost.

Without him
, I
am lost
. Jonah felt he’d been patient these past few months, waiting for a reunion with Rafe, but he didn’t know if his patience would hold much longer.

“There! There he is.” Claudia pushed past Jonah and sailed forward. She was even more extravagantly dressed than Mindy, swathed in the yards of rose fabric she’d worn several weeks ago during her wedding ceremony. Dimitri was a big man, tall and muscular, but alongside her, even he was diminished by her generous bulk.

Mindy was saying something else, probably giving more orders, but Jonah didn’t stop to listen. He hurried down the last few steps of the gangplank, and his feet hit solid ground. He dodged around Dimitri and stopped stock still; the strongman nearly ran into him.

Rafe stood on the pavement, dressed as Jonah had never seen him before. His old black cape and spangled shirt had given the impression of magic and mystery, but now he was every inch a gentleman, from his black top hat to his glossy black shoes. His broadcloth coat was also black, and he might have looked as sober as a judge but for the gleam of a white shirt and plum-color vest beneath. His hand rested on the silver knob of a walking stick, and he seemed posed rather like a model in an advertisement for gentlemen’s fashions. Another act? He was playing the role of Lord Darkwell. Except Grimstone truly was Darkwell.
This
was the life he’d left behind: nobility, wealth, social prominence.

Jonah was taken aback for a moment. He felt inadequate beside all that splendor. But then Rafe saw him, and his eyes lit up, fiery embers glowing in the dark coals. He smiled and held out a hand. “Talbot!”

Jonah rushed to shake it, and his palm slipped against Rafe’s cool leather glove. Here in public they could only touch this way. It was a crime that their affection was limited to that, no embraces and certainly no kisses. But soon…oh, soon there would be much more. Rafe’s eyes promised him that.

“How was your voyage?” Rafe smiled as he talked. Jonah was glad he wasn’t the only one who couldn’t stop grinning with happiness.

“Don’t bring it up. I’m putting it firmly behind me.”

“That bad?”

“Worse,” Claudia answered for him. “Jonah wasn’t the only one sick as a dog. My poor Dimitri may have strong muscles, but his stomach is weak.”

Rafe glanced back and forth between the pair and reached to shake Dimitri’s hand. “Congratulations. Jonah mentioned your nuptials in his last telegram.”

Dimitri wrapped an arm around his bride’s waist—or as far as he could reach—and squeezed. “Bet you never thought I’d settle down.”

Jonah felt a momentary flash of irritation at the freedom this couple had to express public affection. It wasn’t fair. But it also wasn’t worth stewing over. Too much happiness flowed through him to hold on to any sort of sourness.

Mindy commandeered the conversation. “Good to see you, Grimstone—er, Lord Darkwell, but we can chitchat later. We have a show to unload, and I need to know where we’re to go.”

Rafe laughed. “Practical as always. Very well. We’ll catch up later.”

The unloading of the wagons and their transportation to the theater took surprisingly little time. Everyone who’d chosen to stay with the show treated this like any other setup or takedown, minus the canvases and the animals, which had been sold to another carnival. As much as the crew might argue and fight in their off-hours, when they were working, they became one unit.

Saul Parinsky took Crooked Pete’s place in organizing the workers. Pete had declared he was too old to travel across an ocean, and besides, a wet country like England was no place for his rheumatism. He’d settle in Florida permanently. Jonah had been surprised at the lack of sentimentality when everyone bid good-bye to Pete and others who’d chosen to stay behind. As close as the showpeople were, they accepted shifts and changes in their company with composure.

Hours later, with the elements of the new stage show in place at the theater, Rafe directed the crew to their quarters at the Tolley Inn. It was an inexpensive but serviceable establishment, where he’d secured a number of rooms for the duration of the show’s run. “Mrs. Tolley has been boarding theater people for years, and I’m told she serves a good meal,” he promised.

Rafe invited some of the performers to dine with him. Mindy, Parinsky, the Fishers minus their children, and Jonah, all dressed in their best, were still hardly presentable enough for the high-class restaurant where they met Lord Darkwell. But if the maître d’ was unimpressed by their appearance, not so much as a flicker of an eyelash betrayed his disdain as he escorted them to the private room where Rafe awaited them.

Once more, Jonah was utterly impressed and viscerally moved by the sight of Rafe in evening wear: jet-black lapels against a gleaming white shirtfront, a white tie, and hair also as dark as night and slicked smoothly back. The shaggy length had been trimmed short, and his mustache and goatee were clipped with precision. He was elegant, sophisticated—in short, a beautiful figure of a man. He stole Jonah’s breath away and made him feel dowdy in his cheap gray suit.

“Sit,” their host commanded, holding out the chair on his left for Mindy. “You must tell me how everything went the rest of the season. I want to hear all your tales.”

Rafe gestured Jonah to sit beside him, and once they’d taken their seats, he bumped his foot against Jonah’s beneath the table. “Has anyone heard what became of Jamie or Treanor? Are they with the Orcully Brothers now?”

“Miss Jamie, yes. Her and her little dogs. That’s what we heard through the grapevine.” Ellen Fisher was always happy to gossip. “But Jack Treanor”—she shook her head—“after Dimitri laid a beating on him, the man disappeared, and there’s been no news of him through the regular channels.”

Jonah suppressed a smile as Rafe’s hand slipped from his own lap to Jonah’s thigh and gave a light squeeze before letting go.

“I wish them both luck despite the trouble they caused,” Rafe said. “Especially poor Jamie, who’s quite a lost soul, really.”

“Easy to say from a distance and with a country estate to retreat to,” Parinsky grumbled. “But for those of us who struggled through that summer because of the financial setbacks they caused, it’s not so easy.”

Jonah put up with Parinsky because the man was part of the landscape of his life, but sometimes his sour remarks were just too much to ignore. “You seem to forget that Lord Darkwell had a gun aimed at his head by Jack Treanor. If he can forgive, I should think you might make more of an effort.”

“It’s all in the past now, anyway.” Mindy glossed over their sniping. “Who cares what happened last summer? We made it through, and now we’re beginning a whole new life. It’s only the future that matters to me.”

Jonah glanced at Rafe, and they both smiled. This was a far cry from the girl who’d droned on about how much better the carnival had been when her father owned it. Mindy was a whole new woman.

“This Poe show is only the beginning,” she continued. “Think of other stories that could be turned into scenes for people to enjoy. Like a living waxworks.”

Despite himself, Jonah’s imagination was lit by the idea. It wasn’t the same as mounting a full-fledged play, but it was manageable for a small company like theirs. “Kipling’s
Just So Stories
might be good. But no. This is England, and none of us has a British accent. Better our own stories. Some humorous Mark Twain pieces, or maybe stories about the Western frontier. Do you think people here would be interested?”

Rafe nodded. “In ’87, when Buffalo Bill’s
Wild West Show
was in London for the Queen’s Jubilee, it was a big success, and I believe British youth’s infatuation with the American West still holds.”

“And where does juggling and acrobatics fit in?” Fisher interrupted. “My family is too talented to act as mere props in some tableau.”

“No, of course,” Mindy soothed. “Jonah’s show would only be one of many acts. The stage wouldn’t be complete without a ‘Signortori’ performance.”

The waiter arrived to take their orders and put an end to any more discussion of the show. When he left, the talk turned to more general conversation about their experiences on the road and the voyage. Rafe told them facts about life in London that they would need to know and passed out maps of the city he’d purchased for them.

“You’ll enjoy exploring. But you should be aware of certain areas you should steer clear of.” Rafe continued to talk about London and English life, all the while avoiding telling much at all about his own.

Jonah listened quietly to the questions and answers ebbing and flowing around him. He studied the stylishly appointed room, its crystal chandelier and gilt-framed paintings, thick velvet drapes over the windows, and elaborate molding between walls and ceiling. He felt he’d fallen into a painting or an illustration in some book. He’d never imagined himself dining in such a place or traveling to England.

Not too many months before, he’d pictured his life laid out before him, and even at the time it had seemed bleak. He would fill a pulpit like his father before him, marry some nice young woman, and beget children who in their turn would become clergymen or wives. Jonah had not been able to imagine choosing to walk away from that predestined life and strike out on his own. He hadn’t been raised to forsake his duty.

He realized now that his disastrous relationship with Rev. Burns had been the best thing that could ever have happened to him—beating and all. It had snapped him awake and sent him veering on a new course that led him to a life he’d never dreamed of and straight into Rafe Darkwell’s arms.

Jonah turned to look at the man beside him, such a distinguished gentleman, but still with the rakish charm and devilish grin of Rafe Grimstone. Although the meal hadn’t been set before them yet, he couldn’t wait for it to be over so they could leave the dining table and finally seize a few minutes together alone.

Still speaking to Parinsky, Rafe glanced sideways at him, and Jonah knew, with a sense of triumph and relief, that he felt the same. Perhaps they might each make an excuse and then meet up by chance in the men’s room. Wasn’t that how encounters happened in the big city? But with such a small party, it would be quite clear to the others what they were up to. Now wasn’t the time. Jonah had been patient for months. He could wait a little longer to have Rafe to himself.