"It is not really ... my secret," Petrina said hesitatingly, "and I . . . promised that I would not . .
. tell you."
"You will tell me, if I have to beat it out of you!" the Earl said grimly. "It is lucky for you that, thinking you were a mere boy, I did not treat you a great deal more roughly."
"It is exceedingly unsporting to hit someone smaller than yourself," Petrina said with a flash of spirit.
"Thieves and burglars receive their just retribution," the Earl retorted. "Now, are you going to tell me what I intend to hear, or do I have to shake it out of you?"
He took a step towards her as if he would put his threat into operation and Petrina said hastily:
"I will tell you, but could I first please have something to drink? I am very thirsty."
The Earl put his own glass down and with tightened lips went back to the grog-tray.
He poured out half a glass of champagne and taking it back to Petrina, who had not moved, put it into her hand.
She took two or three sips and ran her tongue over her lips as if they were dry, before she said:
"I will tell you the truth because I have to, but please, will you promise never to tell a living soul?"
"I make no promises," the Earl replied. "I am not prepared to bargain with you."
"It does not concern me," Petrina said, "but if anything of what I am about to reveal to you was repeated, it could do immeasurable harm and ruin the lives of two people."
There was a note of sincerity in her voice that was unmistakable and the Earl answered:
"I hope I have never done anything to make you think you could not trust me."
Petrina's eyes met his and after a moment she said:
"No ... of course not."
As if she was suddenly conscious of the way in which she was dressed, a faint flush rose in her cheeks, and she walked towards the box to stand beside the table with her hands on it.
"I think this box contains . . . love-letters," she said in a low voice.
"Yours?" the Earl asked, and the question came like a pistol-shot.
Petrina shook her head.
"As I have told you," she answered, "I have never been in love, but a. . . friend of mine thought herself to be . . .in love with Sir Mortimer for a short time. She wrote him some very foolish letters and now he is . . . blackmailing her."
"Blackmailing her?" the Earl ejaculated.
"He has told her that if she does not promise to give him five thousand pounds within two years, he will take the letters to her fiancé, which might prevent the marriage, or to her husband once they are married."
"I always thought Sneldon was an outsider," the Earl said slowly, "but I did not realise he was quite such a cad as that!"
He spoke as if to himself, then in a different tone he asked:
"But what has this to do with you? Why should you interfere?"
"Because although I was quite prepared to pay the five thousand pounds to help my friend, I saw no reason why Sir Mortimer should get away with it," Petrina answered.
Just for a moment it seemed as if the Earl was going to continue to rage at her. Then, as if he could not help it, a faint smile twisted his lips.
He put his hand up to his forehead and sat down in an arm-chair.
"Only you, Petrina, could think of such a solution to the problem."
"No-one would ever have known I had been there if you had not happened to be in the Mews," Petrina said.
"And if it had happened to be someone else," the Earl retorted, "you might have found yourself in front of the Magistrates tomorrow morning, or in an even worse position which I would not wish to describe to you."
Petrina looked at him with curiosity. Then she said:
"Could we open this box and be quite certain that it does contain the letters in question?"
"Why do you think they are there?" the Earl asked.
Petrina moved from the table to the hearth-rug to sit down on it at the Earl's feet.
"I have really been very clever," she said in a tone he knew so well.
"Tell me!" he ordered.
"When Clai . . . my friend . . ."
"I had already guessed it was Claire Catterick you were helping," the Earl interposed. "I have just heard that she is engaged to Frederick Broddington."
"All right then—when Claire told me that Sir Mortimer had threatened her, I was determined, if I could, to get back the letters without having to pay for them," Petrina began.
"You would have found it difficult to draw out such a large sum without my being aware of it," the Earl remarked, then added: "Never mind that. Go on with the story."
"So yesterday evening when I saw Sir Mortimer at a Ball, I asked someone to introduce me to him," Petrina continued. "He wanted me to dance and while we were doing so I deliberately looked absent-minded until inevitably he asked me what I was thinking about.
"I gave a little self-conscious laugh. 'You will think it very foolish of me,' I replied, 'but I was thinking how amusing it would be to keep a diary of everything I do and everyone I meet'
" 'The Diary of the Debutante,' he murmured. 'That is a good idea!'
"'I am sure it would be very indiscreet, but it would never be published,' I giggled. 'Not until I was too old for it to matter.'
"'I think it is something you must certainly do,' Sir Mortimer remarked. Tut everything you think of in it and do not forget the pieces of spicy gossip which will certainly be of interest to posterity, especially if they are about famous people.'
"I had a feeling," Petrina interposed, looking at the Earl, "that he was thinking I might hear and discover things in this house which could be of use to him."
The Earl did not answer and she continued:
" 'Do you think I could do that?' I asked Sir Mortimer with wide eyes.
"'I am sure, Miss Lyndon, it would be a fascinating document,' he replied. Write down everything you think and hear for the next week and then let me see it.'
" 'I could not show it to anyone, for it might be libellous,' I said, like some of the things which are said about the Prince Regent in the newspapers.'
"'I would not let you get into trouble, Miss Lyndon,' he replied in a caressing tone.
"I was silent for a moment or two," Petrina explained, "then he asked, 'What is worrying you now?'
"'I was just wondering,' I said, 'where I could keep my diary. You know as well as I do that a writing-desk is never safe from the prying eyes of servants, and there is nowhere else.'
'"What you need is a cash-box,' he answered. You can buy them in Smythsons in Bond Street, with a special key for which there is no replica.'
" What a good idea!' I exclaimed. Then all I have to do is keep the key safe and nobody else will be able to read what I have written.'
"'Nobody except me,' Sir Mortimer said. You must not forget that I have promised to be your Editor and advisor.'
" You are so kind, so very, very kind,' I told him. 'I will start tomorrow.'
"You can get your diary as well as the cash-box from Smythsons,' he said.
"'I shall go there first thing tomorrow morning, I promised-" Petrina looked at the Earl. "That was clever of me, was it not?"
"But how did you know where he kept it?" he asked.
"I guessed it would be in his bed-room," Petrina replied. "If he thought the letters from Claire were worth five thousand pounds, he would not risk letting the box lie about in his Sitting-Room. I felt sure too he would have it hidden in his wardrobe, or on top of it."
She smiled and added:
"Papa told me once that when book-markers or punters won a lot of money on a race-course they would hide it on the top of the wardrobe in their bed-rooms, where thieves invariably forget to look."
"And was that where it was?" the Earl asked.
"It was where I looked first," Petrina said.
"How did you get in?"
"I was clever about that, too. I guessed that Sir Mortimer would not keep many servants,
because if he were rich he would not need to blackmail Claire! So I went to the basement door and looked to see if all the windows were shut and locked."
She smiled.
"That was another thing that Papa was very insistent about, because thieves in towns often get in through the basement windows because the servants, feeling hot and stifled below ground, leave them open."
"You might easily have been caught."
"It was not really very dangerous," Petrina answered. "There were two windows. I could hear a man snoring in one room, and in the next, which I think was a sort of Sitting-Room, the window was half-open."
She lowered her voice dramatically as she said:
"I climbed in, crept along a passage, and found the way to the stairs. It is only a small house."
"Every word you are saying makes me shudder," the Earl exclaimed. "Supposing you had been caught?"
"You would have had to bail me out of prison," Petrina said. "And I expect you would have been able to blackmail Sir Mortimer into not bringing charges against me."
She thought the Earl looked angry and went on quickly:
"I was quite certain that Sir Mortimer was not at home, because he never leaves whatever Ball he is at until the very end, and anyway I made sure that all the rooms were in darkness before I got in through the basement window."
She looked at the box and said triumphantly:
"I found what 1 was seeking . . . and there it is! Shall we open it?"
As the Earl did not answer she jumped up, lifted the box off the table, and set it down at his feet.
It was substantially made, and while the Earl looked at it calculatingly, Petrina fetched the gold letter-opener from his desk.
"I thought you might be able to prise it open with this," she said, "or shall I try to find something stronger?"
"You are not to leave the room dressed like that," the Earl said sharply.
"Very well," Petrina agreed meekly, "and if we start with the letter- opener we might be able to use the poker."
It was with some difficulty and at the cost of several bruised fingers and a large number of hastily smothered oaths from the Earl that finally the box was opened.
Petrina pulled back the lid, then gave a little exclamation.
The box was full of letters tied neatly in piles. There were also bills, notes of hand, and a number of IOUs signed with what appeared to be drunken signatures.
The Earl sat back in his chair.
"You have certainly made a haul, Petrina!"
"So many letters!" she exclaimed. "I wonder which are Claire's."
She pulled out quite a number of bundles before she found what she sought
"These are Claire's," she said triumphantly. "I would know her writing anywhere."
There were at least a dozen letters, she estimated, and some of them looked as if they contained a large number of pages.
Petrina held them in her hand.
"This is all I want," she said. 'What do I do with the rest?"
The Earl looked down at the broken cash-box.
"I think, Petrina," he said, "you had better leave the rest to me."
"What are you going to do with them?"
"I will return them anonymously to their rightful owners," he answered, "and they will then be free from Sneldon's clutches. They will none of them ever know the part you have played in rescuing them, but undoubtedly they will be eternally grateful to their unknown benefactor."
"Do you mean to say that Sir Mortimer was blackmailing all these people?" Petrina asked.
"I do not intend to speculate on his nefarious behaviour," the Earl said loftily, "but I will make quite sure, Petrina, that in the future a large number of distinguished hostesses do not include him on their invitation lists."
'Will you be able to do that?"
"I can do it," the Earl answered, "and I intend to do so."
"Then I am very glad," Petrina said. "His behaviour is utterly despicable, and poor Claire was desperately unhappy."
"Tell her she can show her gratitude best by not telling anyone, least of all Frederick Broddington, what has happened."
"She would not be stupid enough to do that"
"Women enjoy confessing their sins," the Earl said cynically.
"Not Claire. She wants Frederick not only to love her but also to admire her. Anyway, I will make her swear on everything she holds holy to keep silent."
'That is sensible," the Earl approved; then in another tone he said, "But there is nothing sensible about your appearance. Go to bed before I become as angry with you as I ought to be!"
Petrina looked at him with a little smile.
"You are not really angry," she said. "And you know as well as I do that it would have been infuriating to have to pay up."
"Infuriating or not," the Earl said firmly, "in the future, if you have a problem of this sort you will tell me about it. Is that a promise?"
"I am not . . . certain." Petrina hesitated. "To promise you in such a wholesale way would be ...
a leap in the dark."
"You will stop prevaricating!" the Earl roared at her. "Just because I am letting you off lightly this time, I have no intention of allowing you to get into any more scrapes or take such risks in the future."
He thought Petrina intended to argue, but instead she said unexpectedly:
"You have been very kind and helpful and much . . . nicer than I expected. So, if it pleases you, I will promise."
"Without reservation?" he asked suspiciously.
"Without reservation!" Petrina echoed.
But there was a mischievous smile on her lips which he knew so well.
"After all," she added, "there cannot be many Sir Mortimers in the Beau Monde."
'You will tell me about every sort and type of problem before you try to tackle it yourself,"
the Earl said. "And also, Petrina, let me make it clear that I will not have you dressing up in my clothes."
Petrina looked down at her pantaloons as if she had forgotten she was wearing them.
"Did you recognise them?"
"I cannot imagine anyone else in the house is likely to have an Eton jacket," the Earl replied.
"It is very comfortable," Petrina said with a smile. "You cannot imagine how constraining skirts can be."
"That is not going to be an excuse for you to walk about as you are now," the Earl said. "I only hope to God my grandmother does not see you."
"I wash I could tell her the whole story," Petrina said wistfully. "She would so enjoy it!"
This the Earl had to admit was true, but to retrieve his position of authority he merely said:
"Go to bed, you tiresome brat, and do not forget your promise or it will be Harrogate, or worse, where you are concerned."
Petrina rose to her feet, still holding Claire's letters.
"Good-night, Guardian," she said. "You have really been very kind and civilised over this, and I am grateful, even if you have injured my neck while my wrist will be black and blue."
"Did I really hurt you?" the Earl asked quickly.
"Quite a lot, as it happens," she answered, "and I think you ought to make reparation by taking me riding with you."
"Now I suppose you are blackmailing me!"
"Will you or will you not pay up?"
"All right," he conceded, "but it is not to become a habit. I dislike feminine chatter first thing in the morning."
"I will be as quiet and meek as a little mouse," Petrina promised.
"That is the last thing you are likely to be!" the Earl remarked. "Go to bed and leave me to cope with all this mess."
Petrina looked down at the bundles of letters in the cash-box.
"At least," she said, "you will be able to discover if you have received more ardent and more interesting love-letters yourself than those written to Sir Mortimer."
The Earl looked up at her half-angrily, then realised that once again she was trying to provoke him.
"Go to bed!" he thundered.
He heard her give a little chuckle as she moved across the room towards the door.
* * *
Upstairs in her bed-room, Petrina put the letters in a safe place, then undressed, and having hidden on top of her wardrobe the Earl's clothes, which she had found in a cupboard, she got into bed.
In the darkness she thought over what had happened and decided that on the whole it was a good thing that he had caught her.
Now he could deal with the other letters while she would not have known what to do with them.
At the same time, it had been a moment of sheer terror when she felt him gripping the back of her neck.
Petrina had learnt quite a lot since coming to London and she had known that while she had been in danger of being arrested as a thief she could also have been in a different sort of danger.
There were, she had learnt, Rakes who pursued women in a way that she knew could be very frightening.
Things that were said in conversations she had overheard and that she had read in newspapers had told her a great deal about the world since she had been in London.
She had learnt that there was a great deal of unrest in the country over the restrictions imposed by the Government, the wide-spread poverty, and, above all, the injustices under the law.
The papers which the Earl took reported the political situation, which was something that had never been discussed or even mentioned at Petrina's School.
Now she learnt that petitions for reform bombarded the Regent, in vain.
In Birmingham, she read, a town meeting of at least twenty-five thousand men who had never had a Member of Parliament, and never would if the Government's line held, had elected a radical Baronet as their representative.
The anger of the hundreds and thousands suffering from a renewed trade slump had resulted in penny-a-week Political Clubs. They organised their own reading-rooms and Sunday-Schools.
Parliament had passed, after four years of frustrating argument, an unenforceable act to limit children in the cotton-mills to a twelve-hour day!
Petrina also read, in the more outspoken newspapers, the reports of the social conditions in London and other great cities.
She had a feeling that if the Earl knew how interested she was in what was happening in a very different sphere from the one in which he lived, he would somehow stop the information from reaching her.
Love, Lords, and Lady-Birds Page 6