It only remained for her to coax the golden-haired child to return to the tennis court, then have the Countess sent for on some excuse… Perhaps to say goodnight to her children? If she was told one of them was fretting, she could not fail but attend to its needs…
“I will of course inform his lordship of—”
“No! No, Miller! Don’t do that!” Diana St. John snapped. She quickly brought her features under control and said with grave concern, “There is no need to disturb Lord Salt. I will go to the nursery and return my daughter and the boy to the safety of the tennis court.”
“Diana, I do think Miller is in the right of this. We should inform Salt,” Lady Reanay argued, which caused the butler to hover in indecision and Diana to clench her fists tightly to suppress her anger at being contradicted in front of a menial. “Caroline and I will be in enough trouble for allowing Merry to attend the masquerade… But that is as nothing when Salt learns his heir has managed to escape his nurses and is playing truant in a deserted nursery! Dear me! The man is likely to tear the place apart and the servants too! I dread to think what her son’s disappearance will do to poor Jane…”
“Which is even more reason to keep them in ignorance, and allow me to fetch him,” Diana enunciated with a tight smile. “You can see that Lord Salt is deep in conversation with His Russian Highness.” She stared at the butler with an imperious lift of her eyebrows. “Do you wish to be the one to interrupt his lordship in the middle of what could well be a very delicate diplomatic discussion, and to give him such disturbing news that his son and heir is missing?”
The butler shook his head without knowing it. Lady Reanay peered across the sea of costumed guests to where the Earl and Countess in their Ottoman attire were chatting with Prince Ivan and a number of the Russian contingent, who had come to the ball dressed as bejeweled versions of seventeenth-century French courtiers, in high red heels and elaborately full-bottomed powdered wigs. All were smiling and at their ease, and when the Earl threw back his turbaned head with laughter at something Jane said in response to the Prince, her heart sank and she could no more have Miller inform the noble couple their little son was playing truant as cut off her own hand.
“Lady St. John is right, Miller. We must keep this to ourselves, for now, and hope that Ned is under Miss Merry’s care.” She looked up at her daughter-in-law. “Thank you for your kind offer, my dear. If you would be so good as to go up to the nursery so that we can all breathe easy again; I know Salt and Jane will be grateful.”
“I will send a footman with you, my lady.”
“No! No, that will not be necessary,” Diana St. John stated firmly. “I presume the sconces are lit, so I do not need light. Besides, if Merry does not have the boy in hand, and he sees a male servant with me he may think himself in trouble and not come out of hiding.” She smiled sweetly at Lady Reanay. “Have no fear, my lady. Once I have the boy returned to his nurses, I will send word and perhaps the Countess would then care to visit her children to see them safely tucked up for the night? Surely that will allow everyone to breathe easy, his lordship included?”
“Oh yes! That is an excellent notion, my dear,” Lady Reanay agreed. “If Jane and Salt were to visit the tennis court—”
“No need to bother Lord Salt,” Diana counseled with a smile. “I should hate for the boy to perhaps mention to his father he was playing in the nursery, all alone and without supervision. You did say he has a naughty streak…”
Lady Reanay almost choked on a mouthful of wine.
“Good Gracious! Heavens! It would be just like Ned to think it a great lark and tell his Papa of his adventure. How disastrous! Of course you are right again. I shall have a quiet word to Jane, once you send me word, and I know she will somehow manage to slip away without Salt any the wiser.”
“Of course if anyone asks after me—if Salt was to enquire as to my whereabouts—you need only say I am getting a breath of fresh air in the garden…”
Lady Reanay smiled and nodded. “Of course, my dear. I shall do that.”
She watched Diana St. John sweep away in the butler’s wake, several powdered heads turning to rake their gaze over her grandiose Elizabethan gown of red silk with its surprisingly large ruffled collar, that gave Diana the appearance of offering her beautiful head with its elaborate coiffure on a serving platter.
Lady Reanay was just starting to feel her heart rate return to its normal rhythm when, not five minutes later, Lady Caroline came up and asked if Merry had returned to the tennis court. It took her five minutes to unravel the story to Caroline, who then went off in pursuit of Diana. And then Sir Antony sauntered up, a cup of tea in one hand and a chair in the other, and sat alongside her. He was looking very pleased with himself and Lady Reanay did not have the heart to inform him of recent events, that is, until he casually inquired where his sister was to be found. He could not see her amongst the dancers, and she was not part of the costumed crush in the refreshment rooms, well, not in the one he had frequented to fetch a cup of tea.
Lady Reanay tried to delay the inevitable in the hopes Diana would send word Merry and Ned were returned to the tennis court, and Caroline was there too, before she had to explain matters to Sir Antony. So she said casually,
“That frock is most impressive. Are you a military personage, Antony?”
“No, Aunt. I am a bird. A macaw, in fact.”
Lady Reanay’s eyebrows lifted with surprise. Sir Antony chuckled at her inability to hide her incredulity.
“Do you know, Caroline has promised a pug puppy to the Russian prince,” she continued, her astonishment no less acute at this piece of information. “The fellow positively overwhelmed us with his enthusiasm for Caroline’s gift! You’d think she had offered him a ruby the size of a duck’s egg!” She shrugged a shoulder. “One wonders if he was being polite, as he was when I mentioned Diana’s visit to ’Petersburg. He nodded politely but looked at me with an odd, blank expression that it was obvious he had no idea who I was talking about. I remember Diana telling me specifically that she had met Prince Ivan in ’Petersburg. I did not meet Prince Ivan in ’Petersburg, so it surprised me, as it did the Prince.”
“Prince Ivan spends most of his year in Moscow. Diana could not have met him. And that is why you did not meet him, either. But I do believe his enthusiasm for a pug puppy to be genuine. The Russian nobility can’t get enough English goods, and pug puppies bred in England are very highly-prized items on the lists given to Russians visiting England by wives, daughters, and mistresses.” He set the teacup on its saucer. “How clever of Caro to think of such a gift. Though I suspect she was more concerned that the puppy go to a good home, than the impact of such a gesture on His Highness.”
Lady Reanay regarded her nephew pensively.
“I trust everything is now settled between you and Caroline…?”
“Yes. Everything is settled.” Sir Antony could not help smiling broadly. “I am—we are—very happy.”
Lady Reanay let out a small sigh of satisfaction, tears in her eyes, and patted his silken knee.
“Oh, that is such good news, such very good news. Salt will be pleased. Everyone will be overjoyed. Now, if you could just get your sister married off again and settled…”
“Where is Diana?” When Lady Reanay threw up her hands, as if in defeat, Sir Antony frowned. “You did not betray Merry to her, did you, Aunt?”
“Betray? But… Antony, Diana is her mother and has a right to—”
“No. No, she does not,” he enunciated. “Diana has no rights.”
She looked at her nephew for a good five seconds, saw that he was deadly serious and let out a little sigh. “Oh dear…Oh dear…” She put a hand to her cheek, desolate. “You and Salt will be so angry with me…”
Sir Antony controlled his anxiety, though his fingers went cold, and said patiently, “Please, Aunt, tell me from the beginning…”
Lady Reanay managed to explain all about Merry’s attendance at the ball. She managed to
tell him about Ned’s truancy. Both made her nephew smile. She was even able to tell him that Caroline had gone off to the nursery, too. But as soon as she started to explain how Diana had offered to locate Ned and Merry, Sir Antony lost his smile and stopped listening. Up off his chair, he thrust his teacup and saucer at a footman and rudely strode off while his aunt was mid-sentence, to be swallowed up by the animated crowd making its way through to the refreshment rooms.
Lady Reanay was so taken aback by her nephew’s uncharacteristically rude behavior that she choked on a breath, and then coughed so hard she was sure she was having a heart attack.
Kitty Aldershot and Mr. Tom Allenby had finished their first dance together and he was escorting her from the dance floor when they noticed Lady Reanay in distress. A footman was hovering over her, and she had a hand to her chest. The young couple quickly went to her aid just as a small group of guests were forming a semi-circle about her chair.
Kitty Aldershot sat on the chair vacated by Sir Antony and took hold of Lady Reanay’s hand while Tom Allenby had a footman fetch a glass of cold water. Neither spoke and waited for Lady Reanay to regain her composure. The small crowd of onlookers, seeing her ladyship now recovered sufficiently to sip at the glass of water, took a step away, but remained near enough to return should the old lady go into a fit.
“Is there anything we can do for you, my lady? Perhaps take you for a walk in the gardens. The fresh air—”
“Thank you, my dears, but no. I will be myself directly.” She smiled at Kitty and then looked at Tom Allenby who was on his haunches beside her chair. “So pleased you were able to come up to London for the ball, Mr. Allenby.” She glanced at Kitty. “I hope you mean to spend a few weeks with us…”
Tom’s smile was bashful, her meaning well understood. He gingerly looked across at Kitty Aldershot and when she met his gaze for the briefest of moments and smiled, he found himself growing hot in the face.
“Would you care for another glass of water, my lady?” he asked, not daring to look at Kitty again. When Lady Reanay shook her head, he asked, not to pry but because the look exchanged with Miss Kitty Aldershot had made him nervous and happy in equal measure, “Did I not see Sir Antony here with you just a moment ago… And Lady Caroline…?”
“Oh dear! Oh dear!” Lady Reanay groaned and out came the story yet again of Merry’s masquerade as a page boy, Ned’s truancy, and Diana’s kind offer to fetch them both from the nursery, and how not only had Lady Caroline gone off to the nursery, but so had Sir Antony. She had no idea as to why and she was now worried that there would be a fuss and it would all come to the attention of the Earl and Countess, and for some reason she believed she would be blamed for it all. And then it happened again! She was in the middle of lamenting the whole episode and Kitty was offering her assurances that she could hardly be blamed for the actions of others, when Tom Allenby made her and Kitty Aldershot a curt bow, and without another word strode off in the same direction as Diana St. John, Lady Caroline, and Sir Antony before him.
Lady Reanay and Kitty Aldershot exchanged a look of astonishment.
“Thank goodness you are with me to witness the strange behavior of the family, Kitty dearest,” Lady Reanay said with relief. “No one would believe me otherwise!”
MERRY AND NED sat quietly at the small table in front of the fireplace in the nursery playroom, drawing by the glow of the fire. A maid, who had been busy cleaning out all the grates in this particular part of the house, took pity on them drawing in the gloom of one taper and rebuilt the fire. With the coal well alight, she placed the tapestry fire screen before the fireplace to protect the children from an errant spark. As soon as she left them alone, Merry dragged the screen out of the way and brought the little painted table and chairs closer so they could feel the warmth and the bright orange glow would illuminate their respective drawings in progress.
Ned promised that after he had completed one drawing, Merry could take him back to the tennis court. Merry took him at his word and so they sat, Merry’s page boy mask discarded on the carpet alongside Ned’s nightcap, both content and busy with charcoal and crayons, both agreeing not to show the other what they had drawn until each was satisfied with their respective works of art. So absorbed were they that they did not feel the presence of a figure hovering in the shadows close by.
Merry was the first to complete her drawing and she held it up under her chin for Ned’s inspection. She had drawn what Ned had come to find in the nursery but which remained lost. He could not sleep without Monkey, so he told Merry, and so she had drawn his sleeping companion, telling him that perhaps he would sleep if he had a likeness of Monkey to put under his pillow. She had given the cloth monkey in her drawing a bigger smile than he actually had, but it was a very creditable likeness of the lost toy.
“Do you like him, Ned?” she asked.
“Monkey Mischievous! Is that for Ned’s pillow?
“Yes. For your pillow. See, he is smiling. He misses you, but because he is smiling, he must be having a good time wherever he’s run off to. What a naughty monkey!”
Ned put out his hand and Merry gave him the drawing.
“He’s not having a good time,” Ned pouted, peering closely at the drawing. “He has the bestest time with Ned.” Then he smiled at Merry before again inspecting the drawing. “I like your monkey, Merry.”
“I’m pleased you do. Do you want to show me your drawing now?”
Ned nodded and placed Merry’s drawing of his companion on the floor by his nightcap. He picked up his drawing and put it under his chin and held it there. He peered down at it as best he could, to see if it was the right way up, and satisfied, he pushed the bright yellow curls out of his eyes and looked up at Merry with a grin. He was very proud of his drawing. It was of Ned and Monkey holding hands in the garden. Merry could tell this because there was a large flower the same size as the two smiling stick figures with their stick fingers touching. One stick figure had ears on the top of its head and a long tail, and the other wore short trousers.
“Oh, Ned! What a lovely drawing of you and Monkey in the garden!” Merry gushed. “When you show Mamma and Papa, they will say you are the best drawer in all the world!”
The little boy grinned at such praise, shoulders hunching with delight. But no sooner had he made eye contact with Merry across the table than he was distracted by something lurking in the shadows over her left shoulder. He blinked, and at first he leaned across the table, trying to make out what it was in the darkness, such was his curiosity.
Merry saw his distraction and looked over her shoulder, swiveling on her chair. As she did so, Ned let out the most piercing scream imaginable. It caused her to topple backwards and fall to the carpet.
Ned screamed and screamed and could not stop. His brown eyes widened in terror and his little face went white. He pushed back his chair so hard that what happened to Merry happened to him. His chair toppled and he fell to the carpet. Such was his fright that the bump to his head and jolt to his bones did not register. He scrambled out of the chair, wide terrified eyes locked on the monster as he pushed backwards on his bottom, little legs working back and forth along the carpet, propelling him as fast as he could go, away from the thing that terrified him. He could not stop looking at the thing as much as he wanted to look anywhere but up at it.
He tried to put as much distance as possible between him and the monster but very soon his head hit up against the wall and there was nowhere else for him to go. He could not move. He could not look away, and he kept on screaming.
Floating towards him was a head. It had no body. The head floated on a big white cloud and it was coming straight towards him. The head’s face was painted white with spots of red on each cheek. It had wide wild eyes that stared at him without blinking, and blood dripped from its ears. There was sparkling blood and snowflakes in its tight curly hair, and its red mouth was painted in an evil grin. And when the head without a body that floated on a cloud opened its red-painted mouth
and spoke to him, Ned covered his ears with his hands, closed his eyes tight and screamed even louder.
TWENTY-SEVEN
MERRY PICKED HERSELF UP off the carpet, disorientated and befuddled. But Ned’s screams snapped her to the present. She saw the head on its floating white cloud, but she also saw the dark red Elizabethan dress beneath. Another, closer look at the painted face, with its garnet drop earrings and coiffure of tight curls littered with diamond and garnet headed pins and she recognized her mother.
“Mamma? Mamma, what are you doing here?”
“Magna, get him to stop screaming in that dreadful way!” Diana St. John snapped. “Stupid boy! Anyone would think he’d seen a ghost!”
“Perhaps he does think you’re a ghost, Mamma,” Merry offered timidly, hovering in indecision.
She wanted to scoop Ned up and tell him everything was all right, but she had a very bad feeling that everything was not all right, and so she hesitated, not knowing what she should do.
Diana St. John went over to Ned and beamed down at him with her very best smile, one she thought welcoming and warm. “Hello, Lord Lacey—”
“It’s Ned. No one calls him that. Aunt Jane says—”
“Oh spare me what Aunt Jane says,” Diana St. John mimicked.
Again, she smiled down at Ned, who now had his eyes shut tight with his hands clamped firmly over his ears. He was still screaming.
“Ned! Ned!” she shouted, and lifted the top layer of her silken petticoats to reveal beneath a large embroidered pocket secured by ties around her waist. She shoved a hand in the pocket and pulled out Ned’s cloth monkey. “Look what I have, Ned! Ned!”
“That’s Ned’s Monkey!” Merry exclaimed, eyes round.
“Yes! Yes! Now get him to stop screaming and open his eyes so he can see his wretched toy!”
Salt Redux Page 35