Debutantes

by Charlotte Bingham

  ‘May I ask how so, Mr Forrester?’ May said as Herbert stopped to draw breath. ‘I have been curious as to how this situation might have arisen.’

  Herbert had his answer well prepared. ‘Of course, Miss Robertson,’ he said. ‘Let me explain. My wife is greatly involved with a good many charitable works, mostly to do with the management and care of children such as yourself. In most cases the children with whom she is concerned are unencumbered by any previous history. They travel, so to speak, without luggage. It is one of the jobs of these organizations to help place these unfortunate young people in employment when they reach the age where this is possible, and the rate of their success in this matter is very high indeed. Very high.’

  ‘I am pleased to hear this, Mr Forrester,’ May replied in answer to Herbert’s look of reassurance. ‘But even so I would have preferred to have had to face a committee of people such as your good wife, rather than have my future discussed by a gentleman as busily occupied as yourself.’

  ‘Yes,’ Herbert said, momentarily disconcerted, more by the look the young woman gave him than her actual words. ‘I was about to come to that, Miss Robertson. The point is that in some cases there might be some conditions laid down by one of the children’s parents in a will, shall we say? Or sometimes when a child is abandoned the mother perhaps, either due to an attack of conscience or from very real concern for the future of a child she can no longer afford to support, makes a small provision for the future of the abandoned child, and in such instances somebody or bodies are nominated as trustee or trustees and delegated to see to the execution of any such instructions. Which is precisely the case in point here.’

  May adjusted her pretty little straw boater before looking up at Herbert.

  ‘Please understand that I have no wish to be impertinent, Mr Forrester, but why in my case should this person be you?’ she asked. ‘Did you know my mother?’

  ‘No,’ Herbert said, hoping that he had done so with the right amount of measure. ‘No, I am afraid I did not know your mother, Miss Robertson.’

  ‘Yet she named you as a trustee. She specifically named you as one of the people who were to supervise the execution of her will?’

  ‘As the sole trusteee, Miss Robertson. And I admit I was as bemused as you are now. But then when I came to thinking, I realized this is a very large concern here, you understand. I employ a great many bodies here in York and now also down in London. I fancy your mother was possibly one of my employees, and while I cannot pretend to know each and every one I like to think they look upon Forrester and Co as their family. Those that is who have no proper family of their own, d’you see? If such was the case, there’d be no great surprise in your mother making sure that it was I who saw to the execution of her will.’

  ‘Of course,’ May agreed. ‘I understand now. Of course that must have been the reason.’

  ‘Good. Then I think we must now move on to discussing what you would like to do for employment, Miss Robertson.’

  ‘What I would most like would never do, alas,’ she said with a smile. ‘What I would most like to do, Mr Forrester, is become an actress.’

  ‘No, I should think not neither!’ Herbert smiled back, thinking such a suggestion could only be lighthearted. ‘Besides, what would a young lady like you coming from a convent know about the theatre? I should imagine you’ve never even been to one.’

  ‘We used to do plays at the convent. Well no, not plays exactly. Plays were not allowed. What we did were called tableaux. Of a religious nature, naturally. For some reason I always enrolled to play a saint, and even though we were not allowed to move or talk, even doing tableaux I found thrilling. I used to imagine myself so hard into the role that even though all I had to do was stand there I was quite convinced I was whoever I was meant to be representing and it would take ages afterwards before I could return to being myself. I used to walk around with a beatific smile on my face and my hands clasped thus—’ May reproduced the posture exactly for Herbert’s benefit, and because of the light of mischief in her eyes he found himself wanting to laugh instead of look seriously at May’s holy depiction. ‘And sometimes I swear I could even feel the halo round my head.’

  ‘Yes, I’m sure.’ Herbert blew his nose carefully to cover the smile he could no longer control. ‘But I’m afraid a notion such as becoming an actress cannot possibly be entertained. That is in the unlikely event of your being serious.’

  ‘But I am perfectly serious, Mr Forrester,’ May replied. ‘There is nothing I want more in my whole life than to be an actress.’

  Herbert looked at her for a moment, and seeing the light of determination in her eyes shook his head and said, ‘I’m afraid such a thing is right out of the question. At least it is while I am your trustee and in charge of your bequest. When you reach your majority naturally what you do then is of your own choice. But I have to caution you in your innocence of these matters that the theatre is no place for a young woman of your gentility.’ Something, however, was taking shape in Herbert’s mind, an idea which although as yet having no real shape or substance he knew was forming into something very positive. ‘So instead,’ he continued, ‘we must consider what would be a fitting mode of employment for you, and I suggest you give due thought to the proposals I am about to make to you, discuss them with your friend Mrs Danby, and as soon as you can let me have your decision. I have already made arrangements with most of the parties concerned and I have their assurances they would all be well pleased to have you come and work for them.’

  But as he began to detail the various jobs which he thought might be suitable his mind was elsewhere. What if this young woman really could act? the voice was saying inside his head, even while he could still hear himself continuing to explain his pre-planned ideas to her. If she really can convince herself when doing the most innocent tableaux that she is some poor martyred soul, so much so that she finds it difficult to unbelieve it, then what effect does she have on those who see her in such a state? He would love to have asked her, but dare not because he saw no good reason for it. Besides, the last thing he knew he must do would be seemingly to support any such notion. To Herbert’s way of thinking it wasn’t that long a step from the stage door to the brothel, so he could well imagine the last thing Ruby would have wanted would have been for her beautiful daughter to be encouraged in this direction.

  Yet that wasn’t the direction in which his idea was headed, the notion that was being born in his mind. It was telling him that there was another role May Robertson could act, one which would elevate her in Society rather than discredit her. Out of sight below his desk as he continued talking his hands clenched involuntarily as he tried to make sense of what was going on inside his head, but the idea was still only embryonic and not yet ready to be born, so he finished what he had to say, handed May a list of the names of the people willing to find her employment and then got to his feet to conclude the interview.

  ‘I shall need to see you again, Miss Robertson,’ he found himself saying. She wanted to know why, saying that for a man as busy as he it would be less time-consuming if she wrote to him with her decision, but Herbert was adamant that he would rather see her face to face and discuss in detail her chosen employment and the logistics of the whole enterprise. Besides, as he explained, he wished to hand over her bequest at that meeting, and together they would have to make arrangements for its safe banking, so if she could spare the time he would be delighted to see her as soon as she had made up her mind. Naturally all her travel expenses and suchlike would be met by himself.

  At the conclusion of the interview he invited Mrs Danby in so that he could address himself briefly to her and explain what had been discussed. He took to May’s chaperone immediately, although physically she was very different from the young woman whom she was accompanying. Mrs Danby was tall and very thin, almost painfully so, with a small receding chin and large permanently sad-looking eyes. Yet she was the entire opposite of her mournful appearance, being really very qui
ck-witted, as Herbert soon found out, as well as energetic and open-hearted. From her deportment and her manner of speech she was obviously well bred and equally well educated, yet her clothes although immaculately kept were hardly fashionable and on closer examination could be seen to be more than a little worn in places. From this Herbert deduced, quite correctly as he was later to discover, that although of noble birth the Honourable Mrs Charles Danby was now living in severely reduced circumstances.

  Again, something was triggered in his mind, as if Mrs Danby herself was to play a major part in whatever plot was busily concocting itself in Herbert Forrester’s head, and he knew with great certainty that not only must he meet Miss May Robertson again soon, but it must be Mrs Danby who once again chaperoned her.

  When he suggested this Mrs Danby at first expressed a little uncertainty since it seemed she rarely came to York. Generously Herbert offered to meet all her expenses for a second journey as well as those of her charge, inviting them both to stay at Abbey Close if it were decided that another trip to the city was possible. Again Mrs Danby demurred, saying that it wasn’t simply a question of the money but of her own domestic arrangements since her husband was due home that weekend and she was uncertain as to what precisely his plans were for the next month. Realizing that any further insistence might be misinterpreted, Herbert said he quite understood and he would wait to hear Mrs Danby’s decision, but that if it would make matters any easier to arrange then he would be only too happy to extend the invitation to stay to her husband also, as well as making all the arrangements for their travel.

  Much to the private astonishment of both Mrs Danby suddenly found herself agreeing, her pretext being that she knew her husband had for some time expressed the desire to visit York, since it was one of the great cities with which he was not in the least familiar. Yet secretly she knew that wasn’t the reason at all. The reason she was going to return to York was to do with something quite, quite different, yet for the life of her Alice Danby could not say what in the world that reason might be.

  THE BARGAIN

  Herbert said nothing of his plan to Jane until it was all worked out and every detail had been costed in full and seen to be viable. Then he put it to her as simply and unaffectedly as he could, beginning with the story of how he saved Ruby from drowning and ending with the cost sheets he had requested James Morris to have made up for him. Jane listened intently without interrupting once. She had no real need to read Ruby’s last letter to Herbert because she knew that if that was what her husband said then this was the case. None the less because Herbert insisted she must read the letter for herself she did as he asked, reading it carefully all through before handing it back to him without comment.

  When he reached the end of his proposal Jane found herself smiling for the first time for as long as either of them could remember. Herbert came straight to her, and kneeling down in front of her took both her hands in his and kissed them before telling her how happy he was to see the light back in her eyes again and a smile lighting up her face in the way it had.

  ‘So you don’t think I’m mad?’ he asked, still on his knees. ‘I’d have given odds-on you laughing me out of the door.’

  ‘Of course I think you’re mad, Herbert,’ Jane replied, stroking one of his cheeks with her hand. ‘But then, as you have so often said yourself, every idea which has turned out to be a great one has been laughed at in the beginning, so I am as convinced as you are that this is a wonderful notion. Besides, it can only do good. Whatever the outcome it will give May Robertson the chance of a lifetime. Heavens, it will afford her an opportunity which otherwise would never come her way! Were you to do it for that reason alone I would give it my blessing, I promise you. That you say the real reason you are doing it is for Louisa and myself is incidental, at least for me. What’s done is done, what’s past is past—’

  Herbert interrupted her urgently. ‘No, but it isn’t, you see. It doesn’t have to be. Not this way.’

  ‘Is that the only reason you’re doing it, Herbert? Because if it is—’

  ‘No.’ Herbert stood up and walked away from her, standing for a moment to gaze down into the dying embers of the fire. ‘No, my reason for doing it, why I somehow dreamt it up in the first place, wasn’t just for Louisa, or just for you. It was also for the girl herself. For what I promised her mother and because I thought a girl as pretty as she would be wasted, stuck away in a shop or pushing a pen somewhere. It was only after that the rest of the idea fell into place, see? Almost as if it were meant. Almost as if – I don’t know. I can’t explain how I feel, Jane. I’m a plain-thinking man and this sort of thing has me confused.’

  ‘You mean there seems to be something preordained about it, Herbert.’

  ‘If that’s the word I’m looking for, yes. If that’s the word that means it’s as if all this was there, just waiting to happen.’ He nodded again, standing now with his back to the fire and his hands clasped behind him. ‘I tell you, Jane, I’m not that often disconcerted, but there was just something about it all, something unreal. When that girl walked into my office—’ This time he shook his head and frowned, unable to give expression to anything near his true feelings.

  While her husband was silent, Jane looked through the rest of the papers on her knee, most of which were a summary of the costs involved in mounting the enterprise, carefully prepared and annotated in James Morris’s perfect copperplate writing.

  ‘What will you do with the house afterwards?’ she enquired.

  ‘I don’t suppose I shall do anything with the house afterwards, my dear. The house will have nowt to do with me then. Yes, I know,’ Herbert added quickly as he saw Jane look up at him in surprise. ‘I know, I know. It’s going to cost a bob or two, but I’ve made provision. Besides, if you look at it this way, that the money it’s going to cost us we were going to spend on Louisa, house and all, then it’s almost economical by comparison.’

  Jane would like to have reminded him that they’d already lost a considerable amount of money on the extravaganza they had been duped into laying on at Wynyates, but since she had every confidence not only in her husband’s business acumen but also in his stratagem, she said nothing. A man who was well on his way to becoming one of the most successful railway barons in the north of England was not a man to risk the livelihood of his family on some hare-brained and ill-thought-out scheme, nor would he ever lay out a sum of money which he could not afford to lose.

  ‘So all that is left now—’ she began instead.

  Herbert took over as she left her question in the air. ‘All that is left now is to gain the agreement of Captain and Mrs Danby.’

  ‘If they should refuse, Herbert, I am sure there would be no difficulty in finding another suitable couple. My Benevolent Society has several applicants in similar circumstances.’

  ‘I don’t want them to refuse, Jane. Besides the fact that May is like a daughter to them already, Mrs Danby although impoverished is extremely well born. She’s a Padgett, and as you said yourself she has what we require. She has – what did you call it?’

  ‘The entrée, dear.’

  ‘Funny that, isn’t it?’ Herbert laughed. ‘And there was I always thinking an entray was what you ate between the fish and the joint.’

  ‘It is, Herbert dear,’ Jane smiled in return. ‘It is both of those things.’

  ‘Any road,’ Herbert concluded, drawing himself up to his full height and pulling down the front of his waistcoat. ‘The Honourable Mrs Charles Danby has the perfect credentials and by time I’ve done with her and the good captain they will be top of everyone’s lists. So I don’t want ’em to refuse. Getting them to agree would be winning half this particular battle.’

  Jane carefully rearranged the skirt of her Worth dress, smoothing out the creases and making sure it was hanging prettily, able now to face the memories attached to it. ‘I cannot imagine for one moment that you have any cause for concern, Herbert, because the interesting thing is that we are all four
of us in the same boat, as it happens. We all know what it’s like to have only the one child, and then for something to happen to that child.’

  Herbert looked round at her in admiration. This was one side of the subject he had not considered, and he was grateful to Jane for her intuition. He sat down opposite her, placing a hand on each of his knees. ‘I have to tell you, I couldn’t have borne it, you know. To find myself in a like situation. For your only daughter to want to become a nun. I couldn’t have borne it. If we’d been forced to send Louisa to such a place and she had discovered like the Danby girl that she had a calling, I don’t know what I’d have done.’

  ‘I’m sure you’d do the same as you hope Captain and Mrs Danby will do. Accept the fact that it is God’s will, and then adopt into your family some poor girl in need of love and a proper home.’

  ‘Happen I would, Jane love,’ Herbert agreed. ‘Happen that’s exactly what I’d do.’

  It happened that is exactly what Captain and the Honourable Mrs Charles Danby elected to do as well. When they came to stay at Abbey House, Herbert outlined his idea to Captain Danby after dinner when the ladies had all retired. He began by hoping his guest would not find him presumptuous in any way, but that if he did he would understand that no offence was intended, that his host only wanted the best for May. Far from being offended, Captain Danby was immediately attracted to the notion of adopting May as his second daughter and expressed the opinion that his wife would be in full agreement. In fact they had already, although he admitted only fancifully, discussed the idea because they had both grown so fond of May, as indeed had their own daughter Charmion. Captain Danby concluded by saying that as long as there were no unseen legal ramifications, and naturally as long as May herself agreed, then he thought the notion a splendid one.