Maddening Minx

by Pearl Darling

  Celine drew back as the lock clicked. “I’m sorry but do we know each other?”

  The lady smiled. “I’ve wanted to do this for so long but she wouldn’t let me come back.” Slowly she pulled at her long red hair. The strands lifted up, until soon they were bunched in her hand. With a quick twist, she pulled the hair off her head. Beneath, the hair was white. With the youthful hair gone, the woman aged twenty years.

  Celine clapped a hand to her mouth. “Angelique!”

  Angelique nodded, the white hair on her head still held fast with numerous pins.

  Celine drew in a breath. “Pithadora said you had died.” She put out a tentative hand but drew it away again as the older woman stared through it.

  “That woman,” Angelique said bitterly, “that woman killed the Melinno Society.”

  “I don’t understand!” Celine reached out for a chair to steady herself, searching her mind for her last known memory of the beautiful Angelique who, just like her namesake, had seemed like an angel to her. “I last remember you with Fanny, and Miss Felicity, in the church. You were getting into a carriage.”

  “You were there?”

  “Yes it was my favorite place.”

  “Hmm. I remember finding you hidden behind the altar once when you were younger.”

  Celine stopped. “You said as you got into the carriage, ‘there’s no one left. If I’m not here, she can’t do it anymore’.”

  Angelique laughed uneasily. “Did I really?”

  “I thought you meant me hiding under the altar. I came out, but you got in the carriage without looking and left. And that was the last time I saw you.”

  “And here we are.” Angelique’s voice was businesslike as she twitched the red wig from the table and pulled it back over her white and gray hair. “Now that we have caught up, perhaps we had better deal with your young man.” She put a hand out to the key in the lock whilst looking at herself in a mirror that hung by the door behind a candlestick.

  “No, Angelique. That is not it.” Celine refused to move. She’d had so many questions over Angelique’s disappearance that Pithadora had refused to answer.

  “You can’t tell her you’ve seen me.” Angelique swung round.

  “Pithadora? But she was devastated when you didn’t come back. She cried for a week, she wouldn’t speak to anyone. And then she—”

  Angelique laughed harshly. “Asked you to start attending lessons?”

  “Yes.”

  “What is it she used to say in her best courtesan voice? Wait for the men to come to you, dear. The escaping fish is not the easiest to catch. I thought she might start on you. You were too beautiful. I pleaded with her not to. To let you go.”

  Celine frowned. “Where would I have gone? It is my home. It was my home…”

  “Ah.”

  “What do you mean ‘Ah’?”

  Angelique gazed at her intently. “Pithadora didn’t cry for me, Celine. She cried for the death of her ex-lover that Lord Anglethorpe had just killed in Wales.”

  “Henry killed her lover?” Celine said disbelievingly, “and she threw you out because of it?”

  “It’s more complicated than that. You can’t stay here, Celine. You must leave.”

  “I’m sorry, I still don’t understand.”

  Angelique turned. “Isn’t it obvious? She threw me out, Celine! I tried to take work everywhere I could, with anyone I could. No one would take me. And then I came here, for yes, I too was trained to be a courtesan. And…they took me.”

  “You escaped then!”

  Angelique shook her head. “No. I haven’t escaped at all. Why do you think no one else would take me?”

  “I don’t know!”

  “Because Pithadora’s links don’t stop with the Melinno Society of course,” Angelique hissed. She turned back to the door and unlocked it with a wrench of the key. Yanking open the door she trilled, “Why, the girls would be delighted if you said hello to them, especially if you show off your conquest of the moment, Mr. Fiske.”

  “Angelique!”

  Angelique stopped and turned. “How silly! My name is Miss Amelie, although I am flattered that you would call me an angel!” She tossed her red curls and laughed before crossing towards Edward. “Mr. Fiske, I believe you asked for a grand tour. Celine has kindly consented to join us.”

  “But you just told me to leave,” Celine protested weakly.

  “We will start at the front of house. Your Mr. Fiske, Celine, has a very intimate knowledge of our workings here.”

  The look that Angelique gave her was cold and hard. The effusive welcome had gone, and in its place was a staring wasteland of emotion.

  Celine smiled weakly. “I wasn’t aware that you knew this place intimately, Edward?” She linked her arm with his, stopping as he pulled her closer into his body.

  “I don’t know this place,” he said in a low voice. “Remember Mr. Khaffar?”

  Celine nodded slowly, as the heat from Edward’s hip burned through her dress.

  Unseen by Angelique, Edward’s arm dropped lower out of the crook of Celine’s arm. He rubbed a distracting thumb over the sensitive skin above Celine’s hips. “He owns it.”

  “Oh.” Celine sucked in a breath as the soothing rhythm of Edward’s fingers against the luxurious silk of her dress drew a fire within her belly. He leaned closer, the scratchiness of his suit prickling against the sensitive silk across her chest.

  He whispered in her ear. “I know it in terms of figures, rooms and rates.”

  “That’s how most men know this place, my dear.” Angelique’s voice was lascivious as she placed a hand on Edward’s other arm.

  Celine gasped as Edward drew back.

  Angelique cocked her head and looked knowingly at Edward. “Tell your man to wait here. We don’t often have the opportunity to offer a loving couple’s experience.”

  “Ang— Miss Amelie, I don’t think you quite understand,” Celine stuttered.

  Angelique ignored her and threw open the doors to the front room. “This, Mr. Fiske, is where our girls mingle with the gentlemen.” Several ladies looked up as Edward and Celine walked in. Half were dressed in bright red dresses, long black tresses lining their shoulders.

  “My goodness,” Edward said faintly. “What a lot of Celines.”

  Angelique winked. “I told you so, now for the best part.”

  “Ladies, might I present to you, Celine and Mr. Fiske.”

  One of the women blinked and got to her feet. “That’s not Celine.”

  Celine jerked as someone pulled at her hair.

  “And look at this dye job, no one would turn their hair as black as this. There’s no other color to it.”

  “This is my real hair,” Celine protested indignantly.

  “Pull the other one.”

  Angelique gave a tinkling laugh. “And this is Mr. Fiske.”

  A collective ‘aaah’ went up from the room. “Thank you, Mr. Fiske.”

  “You see, Celine—” Angelique continued.

  “She’s not Celine!”

  “—Thank you, Doris. You see, Mr. Fiske has allowed the girls to gain more business, and more money than they have seen in their lives. I also believe he promoted the ‘a happy workplace is more profitable’ slogan to Mr. Khaffar—”

  The sudden silence in the room was deafening.

  “Shall we move on?” Celine said uncomfortably as the woman behind her tried to touch her hair again.

  Angelique threw open the doors to another room. “The gambling room. Always serves to bring in extra income. That’s what it’s all about isn’t it, Mr. Fiske?”

  “Err. Yes.”

  “I believe you called it ‘add ons’. It certainly has been quite a money generator! And then this is the ‘back of house’.” Angelique labored up the stairs, pausing at the top for a rest. “We only have one guest in the moment.”

  “I’m not surprised, it’s only ten
thirty in the morning.” Edward paused and looked at Celine guiltily as he pushed the pocket watch she had given him back into his waistcoat. “It keeps good time.”

  “Sorry!” Angelique had opened a door and closed it again as the unmistakable tones of Freddie Lassiter shouted ‘Go away’ through the door. “I’m not sure why he sleeps here. Sometimes he doesn’t even seem that interested in the girls, just using us like a coaching inn.”

  Edward shook his head as Celine sniffed.

  Angelique folded her arms. “I believe I have showed you everything is in order, Mr. Fiske.”

  Edward nodded.

  “Are you sure we can’t ask the girls to give you a show…both of you?” Angelique glanced at where Celine and Edward still remained linked at the elbow.

  Celine shook her head and grasped Edward’s arm more lightly as they walked back down the stairs. The sight of so many copycat hers down in the salon had quite shaken her. There was no way that she wanted them to be giving Edward a show when it could be her—

  “Do come again soon.” Angelique held the front door open. Her fingers were white at the knuckles, and the smile had dropped from her face.

  Celine stopped. “Edward, please could you wait outside with Alasdair for me?”

  “Again?” Edward sounded like he had a cold, his voice was so nasal.

  “Yes, thank you.”

  “I will wait.” He clattered down the steps.

  Angelique pressed the door shut behind him. “I told you to leave.”

  Celine raised her head. “But then you invited me in!”

  “The girls were watching. They report back.”

  Celine frowned. “Report back?” She shook her head and pushed a hand into her skirts. “Angelique, have you ever seen this before?” She pulled out the note addressed to Lord Guthrie from Fairleigh.

  Angelique sighed as she took the note. “You must forget my name forever, Celine. Otherwise you will suffer a similar fate.” She paused as she read the note, bringing it closer to her face. “My god. Where did you get this?”

  Celine shrugged her shoulders. “From the archives. Do you remember it?”

  “No.” Celine watched open mouthed as Angelique tore the paper in two and let the pieces fall to the floor. As she opened the door again the pieces flew out in a burst of wind, flying high in the sky.

  “Why did you—” she lost her voice as Angelique pushed her through the entrance and with a crash closed and bolted the large front door.

  “Angelique?” She hammered on the door. It was no use, the woman refused to open it.

  Celine whirled in sudden realization, the message, it had gone! She ran down the steps, scouring the ground with her eyes, pushing past Edward. “Oh god!” She looked into the bushes by the roadside, into the flower buckets of the sellers further down the street but the small note had gone.

  Despondently she walked back to Edward. The reason why she was going to see Lord Granwich had disappeared. He would never believe her without the physical evidence.

  “Looking for something?” Edward quirked an eyebrow at her.

  “I, I had a letter,” she muttered.

  “Something about a Major Coxon-Williams?” Edward’s tones were chillier than the ambient air around them.

  “Yes. How did you know?”

  “Because Alasdair has one piece—”

  “My goodness!”

  “And I have the other.”

  Celine could not stop herself. She flew towards Edward, catching him by the shoulders. Forgetting her training, with no sultry remarks, no coquettish looks she kissed him, square on the mouth, and then on the chin, the cheek, the jaw, before finally tentatively returning to his lips as his arms stole around her waist. “Edward,” she breathed. She closed her eyes and felt the warm press of his lips between hers. It was there, the safety and the passion. It was possible to have both—

  “Celine—”

  “Guv, I think you ought to move. I’ve just seen one of Mr. Khaffar’s men.” Alasdair’s voice broke through Celine’s delighted haze.

  Edward broke away from her. She blinked as he stared into her eyes. “That was a kiss,” he said in a dazed fashion.

  “Err Mr. Fiske, we need to move.” Alasdair took both of their arms and dragged them along the pavement. “I don’t know. I’m surprised a pair of birds didn’t start tweeting around yous twos heads.”

  “I don’t understand why we are running away from Mr. Khaffar,” Celine breathed heavily as they broke into a run.

  Edward caught hold of her arm. “Because he doesn’t know it yet, but I’m going to stop working for him.” He coughed. “I have more important matters to concentrate on.” He gave her a long look that made her heat from the core of her being to the bottom of her toes. “And I need to choose my own time and place to tell him.”

  CHAPTER 16

  Edward pulled Celine into a side road and slowed to a trot, checking that Alasdair was still following behind.

  “I’ll have you know,” Celine gasped, “that it is most unseemly for a lady to be seen running down the road in the company of two gentlemen.”

  “Celine, you are no lady.” Alasdair’s voice came out muffled from his bent over form as he drew in great shuddering breaths.

  Edward winced as Celine’s face turned a dull red. “What my esteemed colleague means, is that you are no mere lady.”

  “Yes of course.” Alasdair nodded, standing and holding on to his sides. “No mere lady would walk blithely into a bordello and know the madam of the brothel.”

  Edward covered his eyes and waited for the sky to fall. Instead he was rewarded with a small familiar snort, and then a giggle.

  “No, Alasdair, you are right.” Celine clung to Edward’s arm and looked him full in the face. “One might say there is more to me than meets the eye.”

  Alasdair laughed. “There is certainly a lot that meets the…”

  “Alasdair!” Edward said warningly.

  “Mind?”

  Edward sighed. “I don’t think Mr. Khaffar’s men saw us. They’ll be at the club to pick up the takings.” He looked down at Celine’s open, smiling face. “Where were you going when you found us?”

  “Tanner’s Yard.”

  “Granwich’s place? Again?”

  Celine licked her lips and nodded.

  “Why? None of this involves you. My job is over—you found out what was in the note. That means I no longer need to work for Mr. Khaffar.”

  “Oh.” Celine gazed at him, the smile dropping away from her face.

  Edward frowned. “You knew that didn’t you? You didn’t think I liked working for the man?”

  Celine shook her head, pulling her arm away from his. She gave a small half smile and pulled her skirts away from his ankles. “I must be going.”

  Edward strode after her. “Hang on, I will come with you. You shouldn’t go there alone!”

  “I’ve nothing to fear from Granwich.”

  “I know that,” Edward muttered, “but he has plenty to fear from you.”

  “I heard that.”

  “Shall I fetch the carriage, sir?” Alasdair hopped from foot to foot behind Edward.

  Edward nodded. “Meet us at Tanner’s Yard in half an hour. We’ll make our way through Neal’s Yard and then up the lanes to Lord Granwich’s place.”

  Alasdair nodded and walked in the opposite direction, back to where they had left the carriage and hired coachman. In the split second that Edward had looked away, Celine had continued to walk. He was just fast enough to see her turn the corner into Long Acre.

  “Celine!” The flower sellers and passersby looked up as he cursed and ran after her. As he drew alongside she gave him a hard look and then continued swiftly through the mud and filth, picking her way as sure as a gazelle. “What did I say? What did I do?”

  Celine sniffed. “Nothing.”

  “There you go then, why are you—”

  �
�Precisely nothing.”

  Edward shook his head. And he wondered if he was mad. He didn’t understand women. Not his mother, nor the other woman, and most certainly not Celine.

  “Why are you continuing to interest yourself in Granwich’s business, Celine?” He frowned and stopped. “It’s Melinno isn’t it? They want something on Granwich.”

  Celine shook her head and paused. “No.”

  “You wouldn’t even tell me if they did would you? Are you sure that they are on the right side of good, Celine? Raking up an old man’s past…”

  Celine stayed silent.

  Edward took a deep breath. “I have to tell you there is something odd about Pithadora.”

  Celine turned. “What do you know?”

  Edward shrugged his shoulders. How could he say that someone that didn’t blink gave him a rather uncomfortable feeling, that her scented perfume caused him to feel sick? “She seems an odd choice for a leader of a secret society.”

  “There used to be others.”

  Edward softened his stance. “I understand she raised you, Celine.”

  “No!” Celine’s shout was cold and hard.

  “But she said—”

  “I know what she said.”

  The information in Edward’s mind began to turn softly. “Angelique. You said Angelique raised you. And the Melinno Society. You called the hostess of the Pink Canary Club Angelique too.”

  Celine turned and sighed. “Pithadora used to do the laundry. I was given to her as her apprentice.”

  “Laundry?”

  “Yes.”

  “She seems like a strange choice for a leader then.”

  Celine shrugged. “She became the only one left. By then she had graduated to training. She said she had been a courtesan in a previous life. The others were older, they had been too busy focusing on their business to recruit new people. Angelique was the only one they brought in. She was like an older sister to me. And then it was just Pithadora. And me.” She paused. “We’re here again.”

  Edward looked up, surprised to see the large door to Tanner’s Yard in front of them. Didn’t Celine notice that it sounded fishy that Pithadora, the laundress, had risen to the top? Become the last one left?