Penelope

by Beaton, M. C.

  Augusta cared little for literature or books but she had to admit that sometimes Shakespeare came in handy. She had recently seen Edmund Kean in Richard III and had much enjoyed seeing “false, fleeting, perjur’d Clarence” ending up in the butt of malmsey.

  She retreated up the stairs, locked the cellar door, unlocked the music room, and then sat down in the drawing room to wait.

  From the music room Penelope’s sad voice, raised in song, echoed plaintively through the dark house.

  “Ah, I know it, all is gone now,

  Gone forever love divine!

  Now no more sweet hours of rapture

  Come to cheer this heart of mine!”

  I wonder how long she’s going to mope, thought Augusta.

  Then she heard the sounds she had been waiting for. The servants were returning home.

  She waited a few minutes and rang the bell. When the butler answered her summons, she told him that there was a cask of canary in the cellar marked with a red cross. “I want you to get two of the strongest footmen,” said Augusta, “to take that particular cask out to Barnet in the morning. They are to deliver it to a Mr. Cobbett at the Willows with my compliments. The cask is made of a special wood so it is very heavy. Tell the men to be careful.”

  After all, reflected Augusta when the butler had left, a French spy should have more knowledge of how to dispose of a body than she herself!

  Chapter Ten

  THE WEARY SUMMER dragged on and still the Earl did not return to town.

  Hyde Park was changed from a green oasis to a sort of crumbling dusty desert set about with temporary taverns. After the peace celebrations, every drinking place in town which had taken up temporary residence in the park had decided, it seemed, to make their stay permanent. Where green grass had grown, now were long rows of dirty, evil-smelling booths. The visits of foreign royalties went on, and people complained they could no longer get their clothes washed as all the washerwomen were working for Kings and Princes, and milk was in short supply because, it was said, the cows in Green Park were being frightened by the perpetual cheering and fireworks.

  Augusta assiduously accepted every invitation she could get and by dint of only opening her mouth to make some quiet flattering comment, and by creeping around the houses of the great and searching in their bureaus, came up with a surprising amount of useful information for the Comte.

  It came as a great surprise to Augusta, however, and a greater surprise to Miss Stride, when an invitation with an imposing crest arrived in Brook Street. Miss Harvey and Miss Vesey were invited to a party to be held by the Prince Regent at Clarence House.

  Augusta’s joy knew no bounds. She began to berate Penelope on that young lady’s dismal looks. It was time Penelope came out of mourning for her lost engagement and performed her duties as Augusta’s niece.

  Both ladies were to be squired to Clarence House by Lord Barrington, and Penelope was warned to be very civil to that gentleman.

  Penelope felt she was past caring about anything and when the great evening arrived, numbly accepted Lord Barrington’s heavy gallantries. Lord Barrington was a tall, thin man with a painted face and powdered hair and eyes like a lizard. When he spoke in his high, mincing voice, he had a habit of curling his long tongue up to the roof of his mouth at the end of each sentence which added to his reptilian appearance.

  Penelope was in court dress, black muslin over a rose silk underskirt. Lord Barrington had presented her with a diamond pendant which she wore at her throat, having no strength of will left to refuse his gift. She had written several pleading little letters to the Earl, but all had been returned to her, unopened.

  The party was held in a special hall at Carlton House, built by Nash for the occasion. The walls were draped with white muslin, and a temple in the middle of the room held two bands, concealed behind banks of artificial flowers. Covered walks led to various supper tents, painted with allegorical subjects such as “The Overthrow of Tyranny by the Allied Military Powers.”

  Penelope hardly noticed any of this splendor. She was introduced to one guest after another by Lord Barrington, some she knew and some she didn’t, and all the while hard eyes stared from her to her elderly escort, judging, speculating, and finding fault.

  She curtsied and murmured replies—and then suddenly stood still. The Earl of Hestleton was disappearing down one of the walks.

  She gave a hasty excuse and slipped away before anyone could stop her, her heart hammering against her ribs. She went from one supper tent to another, searching among the guests, and at last she found him.

  He was standing with Guy Manton and a group of friends. He looked as austere and elegant as she remembered, with only a hectic gleam in his eye betraying that he had had too much to drink. These eyes suddenly focused on Penelope as she stood shyly at the entrance to the tent, almost as if the Earl were wondering if he had seen a vision.

  Penelope certainly looked ethereal enough with her slight figure trembling as she stared at him with wide, pathetic eyes.

  The Earl turned to his friends and said in a loud voice, “I heard a vastly amusing song. I must sing it to you.” His friends laughed and cheered him on

  To Penelope’s horror, he began to sing “The Harlot’s Progress” in a loud baritone. She swung round and found her way barred by Augusta, Lord Barrington, and Miss Stride who were staring at the Earl. Slowly she turned around again and faced the Earl.

  He spoke, rather than sang, the last two lines. Holding up his glass and bowing low to Penelope, he said slowly, “And now (though sad and wonderful it sounds) I would not touch her for a hundred pounds.”

  Penelope’s eyes filled with tears as the Earl handed his glass to one of his friends and strode towards her and grasped her wrist. “Tell me, my sweet,” he said in a mocking voice, “who is enjoying the pink and white favors of your body now. Barrington? Ah, Barrington, I can recommend her. Extremely warm in bed and quite economical out of it. A bargain, dear boy, I can assure you.”

  Barrington froze and then glanced at Augusta. “What’s this?” he cried. “I thought your niece a virgin. I didn’t know you were trying to unload Haymarket ware onto me!”

  Penelope pulled her wrist from the Earl’s grasp and fled, running, stumbling, and pushing her way through the startled guests. She did not stay to collect her wrap but fled in a demented way through the dark streets. A group of wild bloods tried to block her path, but she eluded their grasping hands and stumbled onwards.

  She arrived at last at Brook Street and paused for a moment, clutching the railings and holding her side, waiting to recover her breath. The butler answered her knock at the door and looked curiously at her tearstained face, but Penelope flew past him and up the stairs to her room. She hurriedly crammed her old clothes into a bandbox and then scrambled out of her court dress. She must get away before Augusta returned. She must escape in case the Earl arrived to taunt her further. She was ruined! All London would know by morning that she had slept with the Earl! “Augusta will kill me,” thought poor Penelope, little realising that Augusta was actually capable of doing just that.

  She did not want to take any of the dresses Augusta had given her but common sense prevailed. She took three of the plainest dresses and packed them with the old ones and then sadly put on the old gown she had worn when she had travelled to London so hopefully those few months ago.

  It was then she realised she had no money. The only place she could think of to go to was back to the seminary in Bath, but she had not even a penny of her own. There was the diamond pendant, but she did not feel she could take it.

  Suddenly she remembered the artist, Mr. Liwoski. He had been very kind to her and they had often chatted together when he had finished his work for the day. Augusta had his address in the drawing room bureau. She ran softly down the stairs and gently opened the drawing room door.

  The Comte de Chernier rose to his feet. Penelope gave a gasp and stared at him in dismay.

  “Do not be frightened
of me, Miss Vesey,” said the Comte. “I am waiting your aunt’s return from Clarence House. You are back early.”

  Penelope hardly knew the man but his voice was sympathetic and, before she could stop herself, she was pouring the whole story into his ears.

  The Comte surveyed her thoughtfully. It was entirely in his own interest to have the beautiful Miss Vesey out of the way. Augusta’s plans for social advancement would then only rely upon himself.

  “Come, my child,” he said. “I am a great friend of your aunt and you must think of me as an uncle. I am ever ready to help beauty in distress. I shall give you money, my dear, and you may make your way to this seminary in Bath. No, no! I insist. He pulled three rouleaux of guineas from a capacious pocket and put them into her hand.

  “This is a fortune!” said Penelope. “I do not need all this. I only need my coach fare to Bath.”

  “Come now,” said the Comte. “I insist. I think I hear your aunt’s carriage.” He thought no such thing but he was anxious to be rid of Penelope. Penelope turned white and ran to the door.

  “Au revoir!” called the Comte after her, “et bon voyage.”

  Penelope had only been gone a half hour before Augusta’s carriage rattled to a halt outside.

  She waddled into the drawing room and stopped short at the sight of the Comte. “Where is she?” she snarled.

  “Penelope?” said the Comte, raising his thin brows. “Your niece has left, madam. She said something incoherent about throwing herself in the river.”

  “Good riddance,” said Augusta, sitting down heavily.

  “She’d bedded with Hestleton which would have been all right had she kept him engaged to her. But she didn’t. So she’s labelled a tart.

  “Had she still been here, I would have whipped that slut within an inch of her life. Barrington called me a Covent Garden Abbess. Said I had been trying to foist a shopworn slut onto him. Was there ever such a night!”

  “It looks as if you will need me more than ever,” murmured the Comte, but Augusta was still reliving the humiliations of the evening.

  “And if that weren’t enough,” she went on, “Hestleton starts sneering at me in front of everyone. Called me the pig-faced lady and said it was the first time he had seen a sow crossed with a mushroom.”

  The Comte raised his hand to hide a smile. “Never mind,” he said, “if you continue your work, you will soon have your title.”

  “I want it in writing,” said Augusta.

  “Come now, madam, you cannot expect me to commit myself on paper.”

  Augusta looked at him, her eyes suddenly gleaming with triumph as she remembered that her evening at Clarence House had not been a total disaster.

  “Oh, yes you will,” she said. “Would it interest you to know that I was hidden in a certain antechamber when the Duke of Wellington and the Prince Regent were having a certain private discussion?”

  The Comte surveyed her for a long minute. Then he rose and walked to a desk and pulled the inkstand towards him.

  “As you will, dear Miss Harvey,” he said over his shoulder. “What an enterprising lady you are, to be sure.”

  “But I pray you, send me no more pickled bodies. It quite upsets my digestion. I have not drunk a glass of canary since!”

  While Augusta and the Comte bargained, Penelope was lucky enough to obtain a room at the Belle Savage on Ludgate Hill. For one hundred and six shillings and three farthings, she managed to secure an inside seat in the coach which left at five o’clock in the morning.

  She tossed and turned on the damp, unaired sheets of her bedchamber, waiting for the dawn, dreading that any minute the door would open and Augusta would waddle over the threshold.

  Penelope was now very frightened of her aunt. If only she had left long ago. But she had hung on, hoping against hope for a reconciliation with the Earl. He had turned out to be a heartless, mocking dandy and Aunt Augusta, an evil, callous woman. As a rosy dawn sent long fingers into the dingy room, Penelope’s despair and misery began to flee before an overpowering hate for the Earl.

  He had not wanted to marry her after all! He had become engaged to her only to trick her into his bed, and, having done so, had no more use for her.

  She would pay back the Comte every penny he had given her. There, at least, was one gentleman!

  By the time Penelope had dressed and washed, eaten a surprisingly good breakfast, and climbed into the coach, her youthful optimism had begun to rise to the surface. Life at the seminary would be hard, but after a few months she would ask the Misses Fry to find her a position as a governess.

  For three long days the milestones passed Penelope’s unseeing eyes—Hounslow, Windsor, Maidenhead, Reading, Newbury, Marlborough, Chippenham, and so to Bath.

  Penelope dismounted stiffly at the White Lion. She was too anxious about her future to wait there for breakfast but immediately hired a hack to take her to the seminary.

  How dark and dingy it looked, she thought as she paid off the hack and pushed open the tall wroughtiron gates.

  The tall, thin house had a silent, brooding air and an unseasonal chill wind was blowing from the crescent of hills which surrounds the city of Bath.

  Penelope rapped on the knocker and waited. The door opened a crack and the sleepy face of little Mary, the scullery maid, peered out through the opening.

  “Oh, miss!” cried Mary, opening the door wide. “Have you come to take me away? Remember as how you said I could be your lady’s maid.” Mary’s voice faltered as she noticed Penelope’s old dress and shabby bonnet.

  “I’m sorry, Mary,” said Penelope gently. “I have come back to try to find work. Things did not work out at all as we hoped.”

  “Oh, you poor lamb,” cried Mary, pulling her into the house. “The dragons isn’t awake yet, only me, so come down to the kitchen and I’ll brew us a nice cup of tea.”

  Penelope wearily followed the little scullery maid down the stairs. She suddenly felt very tired indeed.

  “The Misses Fry was ever so proud of you,” said Mary, pouring boiling water into a teapot. “They saw your engagement to that Earl in the Court Circular and showed it all round the school. They …”

  “Mary,” came a stern voice from the doorway. Miss Harriet Fry stood there, her curl papers bristling. “That tea is not for the servants.” She suddenly caught sight of Penelope.

  “Miss Vesey,” she cried. “How nice of you to pay us a visit.”

  Penelope got to her feet and Miss Harriet’s quick eyes took note of her shabby appearance and her face hardened.

  “I—I am actually come on a matter of business.”

  “In deed !” said Miss Harriet majestically. “Then please follow me to the study. I will speak to you later, Mary.”

  Penelope followed the stout little figure of Miss Harriet up the familiar steps and into the study. She had a desolate feeling of once more being under authority.

  “Well, Miss Vesey?” said Harriet, sitting down and addressing herself to the fire irons. She did not ask Penelope to sit.

  “My visit to my aunt was not successful,” said Penelope, “and I wondered if you would consider employing me as a governess?”

  “You were engaged to the Earl of Hestleton,” exclaimed Miss Harriet. “We read it in the Court Circular. What happened?”

  “The Earl and I decided we should not suit,” said Penelope quietly.

  Miss Harriet arose and addressed herself to the clock on the mantelpiece. “We have no vacancies, Miss Vesey. Had we not just employed a music teacher—a singularly charming man and distantly related to the Smythe-Bellings—perhaps we might have seen our way to taking you back. But as it is …” Her voice trailed off.

  Penelope picked up the rags of her dignity along with her bandbox. “Perhaps then,” she suggested, “you could recommend me for a post as governess in some household?”

  “Oh, no, no. I couldn’t do that,” said Miss Harriet to the carpet. “After all, there’s something havey-cavey about your ret
urn from London. If you did not suit such a lady as Miss Harvey—seventy-five thousand a year, charming!—there must be some flaw in your character. You do understand?”

  “Oh, yes, I understand,” said Penelope. “You could very well help me, but humiliating me seems to be infinitely more enjoyable. Good day to you, ma’am.”

  Penelope left before Miss Harriet could think of a rejoinder.

  As she marched to the gate, she heard the light patter of footsteps behind her and swung around. It was little Mary, her eyes wide with concern. “Oh, miss,” she gasped, “wouldn’t they take you back?”

  Penelope shook her head and then, searching in her reticule, found two guineas and pressed them into Mary’s work-worn hand. “There you are, Mary,” said Penelope, fighting back tears, “that will at least buy you some cakes.” And she walked hurriedly out through the gates and off down the road, leaving Mary standing in the driveway, staring at the gold.

  A pale small sun had risen on a gusty, blustery day with great white castles of clouds sweeping over the hills. Penelope turned a bend in the road and when she was sure she was at last out of sight of the windows of the seminary, she sat down on a grassy bank beside the road and cried and cried. Cried for her lost love; cried because people were never what they seemed, and for the bitter end of her cherished dream of a home of her own.

  She was so engrossed in her misery that she did not hear the heavy rumbling of wheels or notice the antiquated travelling carriage rounding the bend.

  The carriage lurched to a stop beside her, and a woman’s fat jolly face in an enormous poke bonnet peered out of the window.

  Penelope suddenly noticed the coach and the fact that the carriage door was opening and fumbled for her handkerchief.

  She looked slowly up. A large motherly woman was standing in front of her. “You’re in trouble,” said the lady. “Mr. Jennings saw you first. He’s got quick eyes and he says, ‘Mrs. Jennings,’ he says, ‘there’s a young miss in trouble. Get down instanter and see if you can help.’ So here I am.”