Perdita Read online

  “We rattle around town together a bit,” he in­formed her, not slow to claim friendship when it was clear as a candle Millicent was vastly impressed.

  “Is he just staying tonight?” I asked, hope rising. We could stave him off for one evening.

  "He only mentioned tonight, but Mama hopes she might induce him to remain longer.”

  One could almost hear the mama’s mental gears ground round. Get Stornaway to stay and divert Perdita’s interest, so that John might be free to fall in love with Millicent. I acquit her of planning to nab Stornaway for her own daughter. She was too sensible a dame to harbor that scheme. It was impossible to discuss our maneuvers in front of Millicent. The whole had to be arranged by thought transfer, by reading between the lines, and by minute raisings of the brow or lip. My own notion was that there was safety in numbers. If we ensconced our­selves in the midst of a large group, he would not be likely to stalk forward and accuse us publicly of our crimes. Even a Stornaway must have some circum­spection.

  With this end in view, I hinted Millicent into presenting her party to us. There was no difficulty in getting the provincial beaux to clump around Perdita. By a judicious sprinkling of comments and compli­ments, I installed myself in the midst of the vicar's and squire’s daughters.

  That is how Stornaway found us, when he entered the saloon some quarter of an hour later. With a truly single-minded purpose, he advanced to Perdita, who turned to greet him, her eyes dancing with laughter.

  “Lord Stornaway, what a pleasant surprise!” she said, with a bold smile.

  “Hallo, April,” he answered. “I did not think you would be surprised to see me. I warned Mr. Alton of my intentions. Come and tell what you have been up to these few days since I have seen you.” He held out his hand; she took it, and arose. That easily, he cut her apart from her safe numbers of admirers.

  As he led her to a private sofa, he cast one scath­ing, triumphant, menacing glare at me. “How is business, Molly?” he asked.

  “Good evening, Lord Stornaway. Nice to see you again. Did you enjoy Newmarket?” I asked.

  "I did not go to Newmarket, ma’am. I felt the more interesting race was being run from London. At least the filly I am interested in ran from London.”

  “I don’t think you are wise to pursue that one."

  “Your advice comes too late. I have already bought her.” On this meaningful phrase, he proceeded to­wards the sofa in the corner. I could not like to see him alone with Perdita, but as long as they re­mained in the crowded saloon, and did not make any public exhibition, I would tolerate it, though every fiber of my being longed to dash over and pull her away by main force. I would have had to do just that to extricate her, for the silly, bold chit was flirting a mile a minute with him.

  The good country folks present were not accus­tomed to such a brazen display of coquetry. She tossed her head, rolled her eyes, made mouths, primped her hair and smoothed her skirts in an endless display of bad manners. Every trick she had picked up from the forward actresses was put into execution, while Stornaway sat back, inciting her to ever greater lengths of vulgarity by his approval. As her laughter rose to immoderate heights, and as Mrs. Grifford began to look more frequently to the corner, I could stand it no longer. I arose and joined them.

  “Try and remember where you are, and what you are, Perdita, and act like a lady,” I said angrily.

  “Now you have just been telling me that is your special line, April, acting like a lady. Do as your mentor tells you. Let me see whether I can pass you off as a polite mistress, or must consign you to your apartment,” said Stornaway.

  I had chosen my words ill, to have mentioned acting. His reply revealed that Perdita was making a game of the occasion, going along with his miscon­ception. She was not really a bad girl, only young, innocent and ignorant as a lamb of such a character as Stornaway. In her mind, I knew she saw herself as the leading character in some romantic comedy. Every gesture was recognized from the mirror academy.

  “I should think out of respect for your hostess you would choose some other time and place for this display of bad manners, milord,” I was goaded into retorting.

  "Well acted, Molly. You have worked in some lady’s household in your salad days, if I am not mistaken. That sharp ear of yours has picked up the intonations of gentility very well. You must try if you cannot pass them along to your charge. Would you care to suggest another time and place for our meeting? Say your room, around midnight?”

  Perdita lifted her fingers to her mouth and snick­ered into them, while I scolded her severely. Mrs. Grifford came forward and told us there was some dancing about to begin in another room. I did not know whether to welcome the news or not, but when Perdita bounced up immediately, ready to abandon Stornaway, I quickly decided it was good. He turned to follow her, but I detained him by a fast hand on the arm. He raised an imperious brow, ready to physically shake me off. I longed to slap that lean, arrogant, aristocratic face.

  "I would like this opportunity to speak to you in private a moment,” I said, very firmly. With Mrs. Grifford looking on, her eyes as big as apples, he did not argue, but sat down impatiently.

  “Well, well,” he said, leaning back to make him­self comfortable. “Fancy meeting you here, Molly. I made sure Alton’s first move would be to consign you to Jericho. It will be mine. What’s a girl like you doing in a nice place like this, if I may rearrange an old cliché? Is this in the nature of a dress rehearsal for April’s debut at the Garden, or do you plan to present her as St. James’s instead? She made some comical sounds about being a real lady, when first I joined her.”

  "That are you doing here?”

  “I asked you first, and am still awaiting an an­swer. Well?”

  “We are visiting friends.”

  “Friends who never heard of you, till Alton had the impertinence to drag you in, uninvited.”

  “Why did you come?”

  "I am visiting friends. But mostly I have come to collect my filly.”

  "I don’t know what you are talking about.”

  “Our three-cornered deal with Daugherty. He was to give you your cut, fifty-fifty, right down the middle. I went back and beat my five hundred out of him, for letting her bolt.”

  "Five hundred! He told me fifty!”

  “Ah, the subject did arise, did it? How fallible a thing is woman’s memory. A little more assistance and you might remember which stocking top you have your share tucked into. I mean to have April, or my money back.”

  “I didn’t take a single sou from him. I had no idea what he was up to.”

  "Tch, tch. What a lying rogue it is! You’re a sly one, Molly, and a better actress than April will ever be, but you are no match for me. If you are wise, you will stand aside and let me through. I am not about to be bested by a female of your ilk. I cut my teeth several years ago, where bawds are concerned.”

  “I don’t have the money, I tell you.”

  “I don’t want the money. I want April. What did you do with so much blunt? I see April is decked in new silk and too many yards of gaudy ribbon. A new costume yourself as well, if I am not mistaken?” he added, subjecting my body to a bold scrutiny.

  "They weren’t bought with your money.”

  “I am perfectly sure you talked that greenhead of an Alton into footing your recent bills. Really, the outfit on April . . ." He shook his head in consterna­tion.

  “If I could get five hundred pounds, would you leave?” I asked. It was coming to seem five hundred pounds was not too steep a price to pay to be rid of this persistent rake. Had I had such a sum in my possession, I would have given it to him, but of course I had not. “Perhaps John can arrange some­thing.”

  "John, is it? Very chummy. I am somewhat con­fused about the relationship existing between the three of you. Is it possible he is your lover? He don’t seem jealous enough of April to be hers.”

  “Jealous? Of course he is not jealous! He came here to offer for Miss Grifford. And he is
not my lover, either; he is only a greenhead of a boy.”

  He looked unconvinced. “True, but some greenheads prefer older women. You are hardly long in the tooth yet. I am surprised you have forsaken your prime calling so early in life. I assume you started out like April.”

  “Assumptions like that about a decent woman can get you into a deal of trouble, sir. If you don’t stop pestering us, I’ll . . ."

  His lips stretched into a slow, lazy smile. “I am perched on the edge of my chair. What dire fate impends?”

  “I would like to whip you.”

  “I am not much given to violence myself. I leave it to the lower orders. Nor do I like shows of ill-bred manners in polite company, either. We shall talk again, very soon, very privately, Molly. I am off to join the dancers. I hear a fiddle scraping, and the hammering of an out-of-tune pianoforte. It must quite take you back to Tuck’s. Is April to perform for the company tonight?”

  I was too overwrought to reply to this taunt. I let him go to the dancing room, though I intended following very soon. A local fellow, Mr. Leveson, came forward and asked me if I would care to dance, giving me an excellent opportunity to do so.

  There was a country dance forming lines down the two sides of a room that was too small to hold the party properly. John stood at the head with Millicent Grifford opposite him. Halfway down was Perdita with one of the squire’s sons, the handsomer one. Stornaway was leading the squire’s daughter into the set, and I stood at the end with my partner. Leveson was a mature, sensible-seeming man of provincial accent, but good manners.

  I enjoyed the remainder of the evening about as much as anyone enjoys a visit to the tooth drawer. Perdita behaved in a rowdy, loud fashion she had never followed at home. I don’t know whether it was her being amongst strangers that accounted for it, or her recent experience with the actresses, or whether Stornaway in some inexplicable way goaded her on. I know he was at her side as often as he could be, and she was worse when she was with him. He fed her a good deal of wine too, more than she was accustomed to. Over all, I suppose it was having a whole bunch of gentlemen to lord it over that set her up in her own conceit, that and the absence of her father, who could always tame her with a single glance.

  On top of worrying about her making a show of herself, I kept a sharp eye peeled to see if Stornaway accosted John, whom he certainly watched like a hawk, as I did myself. I used the excuse of a waltz to have some privacy with John.

  "Damme, I don’t want to waltz with you, Moira! Millicent won’t be jealous of an old crow like you.”

  “Never mind that. We must talk. Has Stornaway said anything to you?”

  “Yes, he asked me if I had given up all thoughts of being a member of the FHC, after being rigged out with the outfit,” he answered with a dismal frown. “He is going to have me kicked out, and it is all Perdie’s fault. I told him I ain’t a bit interested in her, and the cretin took into his head I favor you. Begins to look as though the fellow has a couple of tiles loose. He wants to talk to me tonight, in my room.”

  “He might ask you for five hundred pounds. I don’t suppose you happen to have five hundred you could spare, John? I begin to think it is the easiest way to be rid of him.”

  “Yes, the easiest way for you! Where the deuce would I get a monkey? Can’t ask Papa for it. Already let me trade my grays in on the bays, and outfitted me for the FHC. I’ll never get to wear my striped waistcoat, and the dotted tie.”

  “We must leave here as soon as possible. Tomor­row morning.”

  “Dash it, I can’t leave tomorrow. It is Millie’s birthday. That is what they are using for an excuse for this party, her birthday. They ain’t mentioning it’s her twenty-third, so don’t twit her about it. They don’t want to admit she’s so ancient. I must stay, and you will have to stay, too, for you can’t strike out on the roads alone with Stornaway on the loose. We’ll leave the next morning. Tony is leaving then. I’ll decide tomorrow whether or not to offer for Millie.”

  “Are you really thinking of marrying her?”

  “What’s the matter with her?” he asked, so hotly that I understood it was only pique that Tony had beat him to it that prevented his speaking tonight.

  “Nothing. She is very nice. I like her.”

  “Had the sense to send Tony off with a flea in his silly ear, at least. You’ll have to keep a tight rein on Perdie tomorrow, keep her out from under my feet. Millie don’t trust her above half. Lord, as though I would ever care for Perdie Brodie, the hussy.”

  John was certainly enjoying his last evening as a bachelor, or experiencing it; he had little enjoyment, to judge by his frowns. It was a great pity he had to choose this time to become entangled, but that is unfair. The pity was that we should have intruded our problems on him at such a time.

  A supper was served after the dancing interval. Stornaway was at Perdita’s side, with a squire’s son at her other side, and equally attentive. John sat with Millicent, while I had the pleasure of Mr. Leveson’s escort, which saved me from the ignominy of eating with the oldsters. There was talk of the morrow's activities. The Griffords were having a picnic at the seashore in the afternoon, with a birth­day dinner and dance in the evening. I expect their hope was to announce their daughter’s engagement as well. As I observed Perdita juggling her two beaux in loud glee, with Stornaway casting furtive and troublesome glances from John to myself be­tween smiles at her, as I considered the rake’s firm declaration that he did not mean to leave without either the girl or his money, and that we had not the money, I was in some doubt as to smooth sailing through the next day and evening.

  * * *

  Chapter 11

  I rather expected to see John come to breakfast the next morning with a black eye, or a bent nose, from Stornaway’s threatened late night visit. The reason he did not was soon explained. “With all the extra company landed in on them—you and Perdie and Stornaway—the Griffords asked me to share my room with Tony Hall. They had put me in the best guest suite in the place, can’t imagine why. Millie was out-of-reason cross when I had to be moved, but a lord after all, they could not stable him with that yahoo of a Tony Hall. Stornaway got my suite. Tony tells me there was a rare dust-up when someone busted into old Mrs. Peachum’s room and found her unplugging her false teeth and untying her stays. It was certainly Stornaway, looking for me.”

  It was delightful to envisage Stornaway pouncing in on an unsuspecting widow, in mid-toilette. Before the image faded from my mind, we had the rake-lord in person to observe. He came to the table at nine o’clock, immaculately garbed, shaved, combed, and so on. His elegance made one acutely aware of the plain provincial jackets of most, and the foppish raiment of the temporary citified bucks such as John. The noble guest made a bow, expressed a few pleasantries about the felicity of the weather re­maining good for the planned picnic, then began looking around the table to select a place. He was soon advancing to that end where John and I sat conversing. Alton was not tardy to arise and begin making his excuses to leave.

  “I am to meet Millicent for a ride this morning,” he mentioned.

  "You won’t forget to leave a half hour free for me, Mr. Alton?” Stornaway asked, in a seemingly polite tone, but when one knew what to look for, the menace beneath was not hard to find.

  “Oh, certainly. I want to talk to you again about the FHC.”

  “I want to talk to you about a different matter. Shall we say—half an hour before luncheon, in the saloon?”

  “Fine, I’ll be there.”

  “Don’t disappoint me.” Then he turned his dark eyes to me. “I hope you slept well, Molly?”

  “My name is Miss Greenwood. I slept very well, thank you.”

  “I am so happy to hear it, Molly. April as well enjoyed a good night’s rest? I don’t want the girl looking hagged.”

  “Miss Brodie enjoyed a good night’s rest.”

  “What time can we expect her to arise?”

  “She arises when she feels like it. Apparently she
does not feel like it yet.”

  “I can wait. I am taking her for a drive in my curricle this morning.”

  “The three of us will be squeezed, milord. Don’t think you are taking her alone anywhere, for you are not.”

  “I never object to being squeezed by women. I consider it one of life’s little joys.” We fell silent while his breakfast was served. When the servant left, he continued. "Alton hid on me last night, making it impossible for me to come to terms with him. But I begin to realize it is yourself who is in charge of business matters for the group. Have you spoken to him?”

  “Yes, and he does not have five hundred pounds to spare, so you might as well go away and leave us alone.” The table was only half full, but we were sufficiently far away from the others that a private exchange was possible. For some reason, I preferred to hold our discussion within shouting distance of help.

  "Recouping my money was really second choice. I would rather have April. In fact, to show my good will in this matter, I am willing to give you Daugherty’s portion of the finder’s fee as well, the half a thousand pounds I beat out of him. Actually four-fifty; he had spent some. Deliver April to me—say, at the edge of the village this afternoon. I shall leave with her, and you will not be bothered by me again.”

  "What do you want with her?”

  “What do you think?”

  “She is only a child!”

  “I have not the least aversion to youth, provided it is accompanied by beauty. In fact, I am strange enough to prefer it.”

  “Can you not even consider that she might be an innocent girl?”

  “I did consider it, for all of sixty seconds, ma’am, and decided in the negative. She is so vulgar I question at times whether I even want her, but she is young enough yet to be trained properly. Not to disparage your efforts in that direction. I am sure you have improved her out of all recognition of her origins. It will be for me to apply the finishing luster only. Sharp as you are, Molly, one cannot expect a female of your sort to know the fine details pertain­ing to passing oneself off as a lady.”