The Girl in the Mask

by Marie-Louise Jensen

  ‘Are you all right?’ I asked him at once, but only a strangled, muffled groan came from him, and I realized the men had stuffed a cloth into his mouth. I pulled at it and the fabric came free, leaving him retching and choking. I applied myself once more to the bonds at his wrists.

  ‘Thank you,’ he managed to gasp at last, his voice hoarse. ‘Thank God you didn’t get out of the cellar! Mr Allen could not have … ’ he stopped to cough and gasp for breath.

  ‘Could not have reached you in time,’ I agreed soberly. ‘The whole Guildhall would have gone up. All those people … ’ I suddenly felt faint, and had to lean against his chair for a moment, breathing deeply, trying to recover myself.

  ‘I don’t think … such an atrocity was ever the intention of the leaders of this rebellion,’ said Mr Charleton. ‘That would set public opinion against them. Something went wrong somewhere. Can’t you free my hands?’

  I returned to the bonds, having got my momentary weakness under control. ‘I’m trying, but the knots are so tight,’ I said breathlessly. Part of my difficulty was that my hands were shaking, but I didn’t like to admit it. ‘Did you say there was an arms cache in Slippery Lane?’ I asked as I tugged at the knots.

  ‘I did, but please strive to forget the details. They are most secret.’

  ‘I just wondered … was that the business you and Mr Allen had there? The morning I had that unfortunate encounter with the chairmen?’

  ‘It was indeed. Do you not have scissors or something equally useful in your reticule, Sophia?’ Mr Charleton asked me.

  ‘No, I don’t carry a reticule. I’ve nothing to keep in one; no smelling salts, no money.’

  ‘How very remiss of you. You’ll know better in future,’ he remarked.

  ‘If you are in a mood to be jesting,’ I remarked, ‘you cannot be as badly hurt as I feared. And I believe I’ve had to speak to you before about using my name, sir.’

  ‘We are a little past the formalities at present, wouldn’t you say?’ Mr Charleton’s voice was still hoarse but it was growing stronger. His knots however still wouldn’t budge. In frustration, I tried to grip them with my teeth but only succeeded in hurting myself. ‘Are you biting me or untying me?’ demanded Mr Charleton. I laughed shakily and tugged uselessly at the knots.

  ‘If scissors are so useful, why do you not carry some?’ I demanded.

  ‘I had a number of tools and a sword with me. Unfortunately, no matter how competent a swordsman I may consider myself, I was no match for five men. They took everything from me. I suppose it’s too much to hope that they left the door unlocked behind them this time?’

  ‘I haven’t checked, but I heard the key … ah! It’s loosening now!’ and sure enough, as I spoke, the first knot came undone. I untied the rest and the rope fell to the floor. Mr Charleton was rubbing his wrists and wriggling his fingers to help the blood begin to circulate again. I knelt at his feet and started to tug at the knots around his ankles.

  ‘Your gown will be quite ruined,’ Mr Charleton observed.

  I laughed at the irony of it. ‘What a trivial matter to concern yourself with. Besides if it is so ruined that it can never be worn again, I’ll be pleased. I rather think it was to have served as my wedding gown tomorrow.’ I shuddered at the thought.

  ‘In that case, let us by all means sacrifice it,’ agreed Mr Charleton.

  The knots around his ankles were not so tight, and quickly came free. We both stood up, looking awkwardly at one another. ‘So now what?’ I asked.

  ‘We find a way out,’ Mr Charleton replied. ‘As quickly as possible, for I imagine those men may soon be back to see what went wrong with their little firework display.’

  ‘I’ve looked,’ I said dubiously. ‘There’s no other door. But let’s by all means look again.’

  We made a quick search of the cellar. There was nothing. Mr Charleton attempted to climb onto the cabinet to reach the grille to the street, but one of its legs was rotten and gave way beneath him, collapsing onto the floor. He jumped clear, unhurt, and swore.

  ‘That grille is our only hope, as far as I can see,’ said Mr Charleton. ‘It’s a link with the outer world, even if it’s not an escape route. We can’t shout, because the conspirators may be watching and listening. But if we could attract someone’s attention more discreetly, they may be able to fetch help. The soldiers should be in the city soon, but Allen won’t know where to find me. I should have sent him a message after you intercepted the note.’

  ‘Did I not do a great job, getting the note for you?’ I asked, hopeful of praise.

  ‘Appalling,’ replied Charleton crushingly. ‘You drew far too much attention to yourself, and if your aunt had not been a complete amateur at intrigue, she would have guessed what you were after at once.’

  There was a silence. Mr Charleton laughed and pinched my chin gently. ‘Don’t look so crestfallen,’ he told me. ‘You did very well for a first attempt. The way you exchanged it for a blank paper and passed the note on to me was particularly neat. I’m sure Aphra Behn would have said you had promise. If you want praise, you can have it for your marksmanship. Jenny assures me it was you that shot the hat from my head the night you held me up. Now are we going to try and get out of here?’

  Only slightly mollified by his words, I looked up at the opening and put my mind to our difficulty. I knew the High Street ran past overhead, and that there might be any number of people out there. ‘If I could stand on your shoulders, I might be able to reach up there,’ I said.

  Mr Charleton looked startled. His eyes swept over my gown and a slight smile crept into his eyes. ‘It was really very thoughtless of you to embark on this adventure in that attire, Miss Williams,’ he said. ‘Did you not realize that breeches would be more appropriate tonight?’

  ‘My friends will keep confiscating them,’ I retorted. ‘I struggle to hold on to a pair for more than a week or so at a time. Turn away, would you?’

  Mr Charleton did so. ‘Are you really going to undress?’ he asked amused.

  ‘Certainly not,’ I replied. ‘That would be immodest. I’m merely going to climb out of the costly cage I’m trapped in.’

  I shed my cloak, laying it over a mouldering chair, and then stripped off my gown, and threw it on top. Layers of lace petticoats followed, and finally I undid the tapes of my hoop and stepped out of it. I stood in my white linen shift and stockings, and although that may not be conventional public wear for a young lady of family and fashion, it was a perfectly adequate covering. Lastly, I kicked off my high-heeled shoes. The stone floor was cold on my stockinged feet and the air of the basement was damp. I shivered a little.

  ‘I’m ready,’ I said. To my relief, Mr Charleton neither stared nor made any remark, but merely enquired how it would be easiest to climb up. In discussing this, I lost any embarrassment I felt for appearing in my underwear. In the end, Mr Charleton shed his tightly-fitting coat, I climbed onto a chair and from there to sit on his shoulders. Standing up was trickier than I’d expected. There was a lot of wobbling and a few near falls involved.

  ‘Ouch! That’s my ear, Sophia,’ exclaimed Mr Charleton as I knelt on his shoulder and almost lost my balance again. ‘If you feel tearing it off would benefit our enterprise, please do go ahead, but I should prefer to keep it.’

  I couldn’t help laughing; perhaps the danger we were in had robbed me of sense. ‘Sophia,’ Mr Charleton chided me: ‘We’re locked into a cellar with some twelve barrels of gunpowder and the desperate rebels who placed them here might return any minute to see why they haven’t yet gone off, but please don’t let me hurry you!’

  This sobered me. I managed to kneel on one of his shoulders while he steadied me as best he could by holding onto one hand and one leg. By stretching precariously, I just managed to catch hold of the bar of the grille above me, and then it was an easy matter to stand. Once I was upright, Mr Charleton steadying me with a firm hold on my ankles, I could see a portion of the street.

  A pair of boo
ts walked by. ‘Hello!’ I called quietly to them, but although they slowed, they didn’t stop. Another pair came near; shoes this time. ‘Help! Help us!’ I called. The pace of the shoes quickened as their owner hurried away from us.

  ‘They don’t want to stop,’ I called down to Mr Charleton.

  ‘Keep trying,’ he replied. He sounded breathless, as though he were gritting his teeth. It occurred to me that slight as I was, I was perhaps no lightweight to have standing on his shoulders for any length of time. I addressed several more pairs of feet through the grille before one approached.

  ‘Help!’ I called to whoever it was. ‘Please help! We’re trapped in the cellar and need to get a message to our friends!’

  ‘Would that be to Mr Allen?’ asked Jenny’s voice, and I almost wept with relief, reaching my hand through the bars. She gripped my fingers tightly.

  ‘We bin lookin’ everywhere for you! We only knew you was supposed to be at the Guildhall. Is Mr Charleton there? How do we get you out?’ she asked me.

  ‘He’s here, and would be grateful if you hurried!’ called Mr Charleton, his voice muffled.

  ‘The door’s over to our left, but it’s locked!’ I told Jenny. ‘And please hurry! There’s gunpowder down here, and they’ve already tried to set it alight once! They may come back!’

  ‘I doubt it,’ said Jenny. ‘The city’s crawlin’ with soldiers. That general bloke’s arrived, and no one’ll be trying nothing now. We’ll be with you as quick as we can, but I’ll have to find Mr Allen.’

  She disappeared and I looked down at Mr Charleton. ‘How do I get down?’ I asked uncertainly. It was a long drop.

  ‘Can you hold your own weight on the grille a moment? Then if you let go, I could catch you,’ he replied.

  I gripped the grille tightly in both hands: ‘Yes, let me go,’ I called. He moved away, and I swung free for a moment until he gave the word. Then, taking a deep breath I let go. I fell in a rush, convinced I would hit the stone floor and injure myself. Mr Charleton caught hold of my waist, broke my fall, and then overbalanced backwards and we both fell in a tangled heap onto the dirty floor.

  ‘Are you all right?’ I cried, realizing that by landing on him, I’d had the easiest fall. I hurriedly pulled myself off him as I spoke, glad of the darkness to hide my blushes, and he sat up slowly, rubbing his elbow.

  ‘Nothing broken, just bruised,’ he said ruefully. He stood up and held his hands down to me. I put my own into them and he pulled me to my feet but didn’t let me go. ‘I think that’s the end of our adventure,’ he said looking down at me. ‘Are you sorry?’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ I replied. ‘It was all over very quickly.’

  ‘For you, perhaps. I’ve been working on preventing this for many months. We should have worked together from the beginning.’

  ‘If you’d told me what you were doing, we could have done,’ I replied.

  ‘I couldn’t risk it. I knew your aunt was involved in the plot, I suspected your father too. How could I guess you were not?’

  I felt awkward that he was still holding my hands and tried to pull them away, but he wouldn’t let me. Instead, he drew me closer, sliding his arms about me. I protested faintly and not very convincingly. ‘One kiss, Sophia?’ he begged. ‘I may never see you again.’

  I could see no harm in a farewell kiss, and so offered him my cheek. But that, it seemed, was not what he had in mind at all. Instead, he drew me against him in a close embrace, bent his head and pressed his lips to mine.

  I could have pulled away; perhaps I should have done. But to start with I was too astonished to move. No one had ever kissed me before. By the time I could think again, I realized I didn’t want to. I may even have put my arm around his neck and kissed him back, but I have no clear recollection.

  A hammering on the basement door made us break apart. ‘Put your gown back on,’ Mr Charleton whispered to me. ‘You might prefer not to be stared at when they free us.’ He took my face between his hands and kissed me softly one more time. Then he let me go and left the room. I could hear him calling through the locked door as I began the tedious task of buckling on my hoop and putting on my petticoats. My hands were clumsy. The memory of the unexpected kiss lingered strangely in my mind, making it hard for me to concentrate on tapes and buttons.

  They must have found someone in the Guildhall with a key, for suddenly the basement was full of soldiers. I’d just managed to dress myself when they burst in on me. As I left the room, I spotted Mr Charleton’s mask lying on the floor next to where my gown had been. Something made me pick it up and take it with me. Jenny was waiting for me outside, and we hugged each other in relief.

  The next hour was a blur of strange faces, questions and a flurry of activity as the gunpowder was removed from the building and carried away. The whole city was, as Jenny had said, full of soldiers, smart in their gleaming uniforms and polished boots. The streets echoed with the sound of shouted orders and the tramp of marching boots. I didn’t see either Mr Allen or Mr Charleton again.

  ‘It’s time for me to go,’ I whispered to Jenny.

  ‘Go?’ she asked in astonishment. ‘Go where?’

  ‘I’m going to run away.’

  ‘Now, in the middle o’ the night?’

  ‘Yes. It’s the best time. If I stay, I’ll be married to that odious lizard first thing in the morning. I need to fetch my breeches, and then I hoped you might help me get out of the city and … steal a horse,’ I confessed.

  Jenny grinned, her eyes lighting up. ‘I know where the rebels kept a load o’ their horses,’ she said. ‘It was me told Mr Allen and Mr Charleton all that. It won’t even be real stealing, cos their owners is all goin’ to prison.’

  Unnoticed in the commotion, we slipped away from the crowd outside the Guildhall. We were stopped at Trim Bridge, for all the city gates were under guard. However, having given our names and addresses, we were allowed to pass. I retrieved my breeches from the hay bales and hurriedly exchanged my costume for their inexpressible comfort.

  ‘Jenny,’ I said softly. ‘I think I should fetch some of my trinkets and clothes from the house before I go. Will you wait for me?’

  Jenny caught hold of my sleeve. ‘Don’t you get yourself caught, whatever you do,’ she said.

  ‘I won’t.’ I was certain it would be safe. I was only going to creep into my room through the window, pick up a few things and disappear again.

  The upstairs of the house was in darkness when I reached it. Most of the servants would be asleep and my father and aunt were probably still out, though they must have noticed my absence by now. I pushed the window open, relieved to find it unlocked. Then I dropped into the room, and stole softly across to my jewel-box. I’d barely put my hand upon it when the door was flung open behind me and light poured into the room. I froze, my heart jumping into my mouth in shock.

  ‘You!’ exclaimed Aunt Amelia, an oil lamp held aloft in one hand. ‘What are you doing in here? And in those clothes! What have you done with your gown?’

  I didn’t reply, frantically trying to fabricate some story that would account for my disappearance. Bitterly I regretted I’d not gone with Jenny at once. What would it have mattered that I had no money, if only I could have been away from the city and free?

  My aunt didn’t wait for me to answer. The light of her lamp fell on my trinket box and she pounced on it, snatching it from me. ‘Aunt?’ I cried astonished. ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘What am I doing? I’m trying to save myself from the wreck of this family’s fortunes,’ she cried. Her voice was different to usual. More decisive, entirely lacking her usual foolishness. ‘You may as well know now, for you will certainly hear it in the morning: your father has gambled away everything he possesses. I warned him over and over again, but he wouldn’t listen. Captain Mould ruined my husband, and now he’s ruined my brother too. There’s nothing left. And your father can find nothing better to do than to head for the taverns to drown his sorrows in liquor!’<
br />
  I felt the shock of this news burn through me. It was so utterly unexpected that I could barely take it in. ‘But you … you were working with him … ’ I stammered, puzzled. ‘Why?’

  ‘The cause is greater than personal likes and dislikes,’ she said.

  ‘Do you mean the cause of the Pretender?’ I asked. Aunt Amelia laughed in a way that made me shiver.

  ‘Yes, that cause. But there was a greater one. Earning myself an independence while I was here.’

  I didn’t understand her. All I could think of was that my father had lost all his money. ‘What are we going to do?’ I asked numbly.

  ‘We?’ demanded my aunt, with a mocking laugh. ‘What do you mean we? I’m leaving. You’re nothing to me, Sophia. Do you really think I wish for the company of a spoiled, badly-behaved girl like you? I only persuaded your father to bring us here for the opportunities the place offered. I could never have afforded to come here and set myself up in such style alone after my fool of a husband lost everything. This time at least, I’ve made the money I need.’ Her tone was spiteful and triumphant. She cared nothing for my father or me.

  ‘You’ve been playing a part,’ I said. ‘You’ve been using us.’

  ‘You are so naïve, Sophia,’ she said scornfully. ‘People like you are so easy to prey on. Luckily the Bath is full of such gullible fools, willing to believe that a foolish matron of good family who plays cards is honest. Only the captain knew better. He was the only one I feared. But he couldn’t well expose me without exposing himself.’

  ‘You’ve been cheating?’ I whispered aghast. ‘And the captain too?’ I was shocked. Amazed. It had never occurred to me that her astonishing luck was anything other than just that. She’d deceived me completely. With an effort, I turned my mind from her betrayal to my own situation. ‘I suppose we’ll go home now,’ I said. Sudden relief filled me at the prospect. I didn’t need to run away after all. I didn’t care about being poor as long as I was at home. I was used to it. ‘Perhaps Father will go back to the West Indies.’