I tried to keep Lucy in mind, to remember that she was why I was here, to find out who had killed her and to rescue the daughter she and Richard made.
“Will you bring Strang to me, as soon as you can?” Julia asked at last. “Steven has arranged another meeting soon. Strang’s talents would be warmly appreciated.”
“Of course.”
The doorbell rang. Never was a visitor more warmly welcomed. I made good my escape.
Chapter Twenty-Three
NICHOLS STUDIED ME hard when I went downstairs. After she helped me into the carriage, she said quietly, “You’re shaken, my lady.”
I explained matters to her as we drove home. My maid had a varied life before she came to me, including being a maid in a Covent Garden brothel, so she wasn’t as shocked as I. The frown above her thin brows showed her disapproval. “Even the poor ones are used. In desperation for money, they agree to something they have no idea about. They are corrupted until they think what they’re doing is acceptable, but often it starts with rape. Then they get the pox and die.” Her words were cold but not uncaring. That was what had been missing in the woman upstairs in her immaculate drawing room.
“I thought they could do something about the pox these days?”
“You have to have money. It’s expensive. And it’s not certain.”
We spent the rest of the short journey in silence while I thought over what I had just learned. The immediate problems were finding Lucy’s murderer and rescuing Susan but this use of poor young girls from the country was anathema to me and I wondered if Thompson’s could help. I knew there were people who meet the coaches from the country. Perhaps the girls needed to be offered an alternative. A respectable one.
That afternoon I dressed for dinner more quickly than usual, so I could tell Richard and Carier my news. When I went into his bedroom, Richard was still seated at his dressing table , but he rose and kissed me. Carier made to leave. “No, Carier, this concerns you also.” He turned. “I went to see Mrs. Drury this afternoon.” He came back and quietly continued with his duties while I told them the vile things I’d discovered that afternoon.
They listened in silence. By the time I finished, Richard was manicured, powdered and dressed except for his coat and his wig was in place. Usually I loved to watch the transformation of the private man into the public one. It seemed like a magic trick unless one saw all the effort and skill that went into it and the practised ease with which it was accomplished. Richard stood while Carier misted him in perfume, one created just for him, a masculine musky fragrance with a sharp citrus edge.
“I don’t know if the Drurys want you to try to rescue Susan and thus fall into their clutches, or something else.” I didn’t want to admit, even to myself, that the Drurys might think of anything else.
“We must find out who has joined this club.” Richard sat again, still careful to dispose his elegant body properly. It was second nature to him. “If there’s a bet running, I should be able to find out who and when. I’ll ask tomorrow.” He stretched his arm along the dressing table, turning his hand over, regarding it. “You mustn’t go there alone again,” he added, turning to look at me. “You have arranged for us to see Susan and if you can bear it, that would help but after that I want to keep them at arm’s length.” His mouth was set in a hard line. “If we fall out with them publicly, there’s always the chance they’ll set another assassin on to us and if they do that, I fear we may have to take drastic steps.” He looked up at his manservant and partner in Thompson’s, who nodded wordlessly in agreement. They meant ensure that Julia and Steven weren’t threats anymore and there was only one way to accomplish that.
Carier said, “There will always be people who enjoy more vicious forms of entertainment, my lord but this oversteps the mark.”
“Agreed. Julia wants power, and Steven has found that rape is his particular pleasure. She is using that to ensnare him, but we have to stop that. And if Susan ceases to amuse them or form an adequate bargaining piece, they could get rid of her.”
I nodded, still bewildered. “I don’t understand how people can enjoy such things.”
“Good.” He smiled briefly.
I wanted to ask if he had ever taken part in anything like that—without the rape—but I couldn’t until we were in bed later, settling for sleep. We left one candle burning on the nightstand. I could just make out his face by its golden glimmer. He frowned when I asked him but he’d always been truthful with me. I moved my head back to look at him. “Once. When I was twenty and just entering the worst of my despair. I was looking for anything that would take my pain away. Many brothels specialise in some kind of public performance, you know.” He laughed at my appalled expression. “You did ask.” I stayed where I was. “I didn’t enjoy it. I prefer the company of attractive, intelligent women fully aware of their actions and able to choose. I came to see sexual congress as fun, a pastime, not a deadly serious pursuit.” He kissed me on my forehead. “Until I met you, that is.” He drew me close and yawned, putting his mouth to my shoulder to cover the yawn and kissing it before settling again. “And now, my angel, you must kiss me and go to sleep. I noticed your listlessness tonight, even if no one else did. You’re tired, aren’t you?”
I had to admit I was and I settled down against his warmth, asleep almost before his lips had left mine.
I HAD A LEVEE IN THE morning and Richard took himself off to the clubs and coffee houses. I went shopping with Lizzie and Louisa, a light-hearted expedition that did much to restore my spirits. Now that my pregnancy was generally known, I didn’t need to conceal my new aversion to standing for long. I was helped to a chair in every shop and the goods were brought for my inspection.
Lizzie and Louisa seemed to be getting on well, not surprising because they were similar in outlook. I thought Lizzie was more beautiful than Louisa but Louisa had charm and a quality that drew people to her, born of privilege and confidence. She confided in us that she was thinking of accepting an offer soon. “I want the prerogatives of the married woman and I’ve finally met someone I could get along with.”
Lizzie was immediately enthralled. “Do tell. Who can it be? I’ve not noticed you give one man any preference over another.” The man attending to our needs in the draper’s shop feigned not to hear. He climbed on his steps to the top level, where bolts of cloth sat neatly on top of each other.
Louisa smiled. “I’ve been careful not to.” Try as we might, she wouldn’t say who she had chosen, only promising that we would be the first to know after her mother. Louisa had a considerable fortune, being an only child of a man fortunate enough to be able to leave the bulk of his estate where he pleased.
Lizzie hadn’t yet settled on anyone. I hoped she wasn’t looking for the kind of cataclysmic event Richard and I had experienced. I had come to realise that was as rare as hens’ teeth but many pleasant men had expressed an interest in my lively sister and she confided in me that she had already received a couple of serious proposals.
When I returned home, it was to discover Richard’s success in the coffee houses. The man who had boasted he could deflower a respectable virgin had also bet on the date of the event and named witnesses. It was one Lord Jervis Grey, a portly gentleman I knew by sight, perhaps fifty years old, much scarred by the pox. He would probably frighten an inexperienced young girl half to death. His wife lived in the country, caring for their vast brood of children.
“It gives us the date of the event,” Richard said. “We have until next Tuesday.” Today was Wednesday. He regarded me seriously. “I want to visit the Drurys. Can you bear it? Your visit to Julia upset you so much that I’m not sure I want to subject you to another again.”
I couldn’t let him down now. “I’ve had a little time to get used to it.” I smiled and took his hand. “That they should think we would even consider it. No, my love, I’ll come with you.”
My reward was his smile. “Thank you.”
So that afternoon we went together to visit
the Drurys. As we drew up in front of the door, I took Richard’s hand, seized with a combination of fear and anger. He pressed my hand, then asked once more, “Would you like to go home? I can say you were taken ill.”
I shook my head. A footman let the steps down and he helped me out of the carriage. We didn’t send our cards in this time.
The butler informed us that only Mrs. Drury was available and showed us into a small parlour, as well appointed and impersonal as the one upstairs to which I’d been shown last time. Julia Drury waited for us and standing behind her chair was Susan.
She dropped a curtsey and stared at us as we greeted Julia and sat. Richard ignored the girl for the present. She was doing anything but ignoring him. Now that I had the opportunity to study her closer, I did so, meeting those candid blue-grey eyes when she gazed at me.
Julia was talking inconsequential social chit-chat with Richard, as though they had been in the habit of visiting each other for years. I looked away from Susan and listened while Richard gently introduced the reason for our visit. “Your husband has a new club, I hear.”
“Indeed.” Julia’s pale eyes lit up, something flaring into life. “It will be a great success.”
“Your meeting next Tuesday is to be a special one.”
Her eyes widened. “How did you hear that?”
Richard shrugged, the dull sheen of his heavy, dark red coat moving, then settling again. “I hear most things. You had someone in mind but you must have mistaken her. Miss Terry has too much at stake to risk anything like that.”
Julia sighed. “It’s a great disappointment, I was so sure. Steven must have mismanaged her badly, don’t you think?”
“I don’t think even I could have persuaded her and she had a tendre for me at one time.”
“Really? I didn’t know that. If I had known, perhaps—” She regarded him with a slight smile.
Richard shook his head. “Sadly no.”
“Can we look forward to your presence on Tuesday?” Julia asked then. A polite enquiry, like an invitation to a rout.
“I think not. It’s not something for which either of us feels the need.”
She stared at me in surprise. “Neither of you?”
“No,” Richard replied with finality but no heat. “We have no wish to take part. We came to talk to the girl.”
Julia sighed. “Perhaps she may persuade you.” She motioned with one hand and Susan stepped out from behind the chair. She had a fine figure, set off to advantage by her tight bodiced, ivory silk gown. She had no fichu to soften the neckline, so her bosom spilled over the top from tight lacing. She breathed deeply and looked at Richard as though he was the only man in the world. “We hope to have Susan with us on Tuesday,” Julia said.
Richard’s head snapped up and, for the first time, he met the eyes of the girl he had fathered. “She is to take Miss Terry’s part?” I hoped I was the only one to realise he was cutting his words short so that no one would notice the unevenness in his voice. He took a deep breath and looked back at Susan.
She spoke, in a light, sweet voice that seemed to carry the fresh air of the country with it. “Do I please you, my lord?”
“In what way?” Despite his superb dissimulation skills, a harsh note entered his soft voice.
I studied Julia. She was enjoying the whole scene. If there had been any doubt in my mind that she knew who Susan was, it was dispelled at that moment. The malicious, delighted smile on her features could mean nothing else. She had planned this and she wouldn’t have missed it for the world. I felt sick and it was nothing to do with my pregnancy.
“Some people,” she said, “would give their fortune for this opportunity.”
Her words dropped like poison into a wine cup. She knew and she was offering him the unthinkable.
“What about Lord Grey?” Richard continued to keep his words tight.
“We have another girl in mind. We could have a double celebration.” It was as though Julia were discussing a coming-out ball. Which, in a twisted way, she was.
“Who else would agree to it?” I was startled into making the comment. The girl and my husband were still regarding each other with rapt concentration. “Who said anything about agreeing?” Julia replied carelessly.
Richard had regained some of his self-control; he’d had the time to put that steel restraint into action. His voice was much easier, much more his social self. He spoke directly to Susan. “Do you know anything about your mother’s untimely death?”
The swift changing of the subject without warning had its desired effect. The girl, until now perfectly au fait with the situation, looked uncertainly at Julia, who waved at her. “Sit down and tell him what you know.”
Susan obeyed, going to sit next to Richard. She leaned forward a little as she spoke, the better to let him view her charms. He kept his gaze on her face, not revealing the revulsion I was sure he must be feeling. “I don’t know much. What I told you before was true. I came back, found her dead and ran.”
“What do you know about Greene, the footman?”
“He was sweet on her. She kept stringing him along but she was tiring of him.” Susan paused and took a deep breath, freeing her bosom that little bit more. Someone had taught her well. “I heard he ran, too. He wanted her to break with this life, to go away with him and he thought she had. She didn’t though.” She paused, glanced away. Julia watched them both intently. I might not have been there. “The money was too good and she didn’t mind what she had to do to get it. Perhaps he found out.” Susan didn’t sound concerned or distressed by any of this. Her mother seemed to mean nothing to her and I wondered how anyone could feel like that. I still loved my mother, although she had died when I was a little girl and I’d loved the woman who had brought me up, my father’s second wife, whom I’d called “Mama”. It must take a great deal of self-centredness to feel indifference about your mother’s murder. But Susan’s expression was untroubled, as though she referred to a mere acquaintance.
“Why did you go to Mrs. Godolphin’s?” Richard’s voice was patient, expressionless.
“The position was available and the lady has the reputation of being a good mistress,” Susan answered. “Greene thought we were running away but we never intended to do so.”
“Did you see what your mother did to earn the extra money?”
“Sometimes. It didn’t seem too bad.” That careless reference made me feel sick. God knew what it was doing to Richard.
I took a hand, afraid that Richard might go too far and try to take the girl away. His questions were beginning to pass the general enquiry level and enter the personal and if Julia thought he was that interested, it would give her an advantage I didn’t want her to have.
“You’re willing to do all that?” I asked. “What your mother did?” Susan didn’t look away but kept her gaze trained on Richard’s face.
Susan pouted, remembering her part. “With pleasure,” she said lasciviously, letting her tongue linger on her lips. Richard’s chest heaved and I thought his control had come to an end.
I got to my feet. “We’ll speak again.”
Julia slowly turned her look on to me, as I meant her to do. “Indeed we will.” The wide cat-like smile of the victor.
“Does she know who her father is?” I tried to speak innocently, as though I didn’t know. My little ruse seemed to work.
“With a mother like that, does anybody?” Julia asked. Although I had been sure before, now I had a moment of doubt. Perhaps it had only been a stratagem, a way of luring her prey.
Richard stood, his social skills coming to his aid and we took our leave. He saw me to my seat in the carriage with his usual care, then sat bolt upright and silent on the way home.
I knew why. When we returned, Richard went straight upstairs and I signalled for Carier, who was hovering in the hall, to come with me. We went into the morning room. A fire burned in the hearth and I went over to it, needing warmth. I spread my hands out before it and rubbed them to
gether, then turned round to talk to the dour valet, Richard’s only friend for so many years.
“She offered him his daughter as a sexual plaything,” I told him. Carier made a sound and his lip curled in disgust. “We must have a full meeting of Thompson’s soon, tomorrow if possible, otherwise he’ll do something on his own. He may need some help upstairs. When he’s done, I’ll be here. Send for me if he needs me.”
“My lady.” Carier bowed and turned to leave but was struck by another thought. “Do the Drurys know she’s his daughter?”
Even the fire felt cold. “Mrs. Drury knows. I don’t understand how, unless Susan has told her.”
Carier’s shook his head but bowed and left the room, intent on seeing to his master’s needs.
Richard entered half an hour later. He’d changed, into a light banyan and he looked paler. “I was sick.” He sat near to the fire and looked at me, sitting with my feet up on the sofa. I let one hand rest in the skirts of my dark green, ribbed silk gown and I clutched a handful of the fabric. I couldn’t let him see my disquiet or he wouldn’t allow me to be a part of this disgusting business.
“I want to get her out of there. It might be too late but I want to go and fetch her today.” Clasping his long fingers together, Richard regarded me.
“She’s safe until that meeting they’ve planned.” I kept my voice quiet and steady. “They’ll look after her until then.”
“But what are they teaching her?” His voice rose a little at the end of the sentence, quavered on the last word. “Even if she weren’t mine, I’d want to get her out of there.”
“I’ve asked Carier to arrange a meeting at Thompson’s,” I said.
“I know, he told me.”
“Then wait until then, my love.” I must try to convince him to wait. He would be playing right into their hands if he tried to go and collect Susan on his own. “Remember, you told me to do that once? Well, now I’m telling you. Please wait. If we get her away, it must be done properly. What if she insists on being taken back? Forgive me but what if she has been so corrupted that she wants to do this thing?”
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