“And the father?” Lily asked. “Could he help?”
Betty gave another hoarse sob. “I don’t know who the father is. It could be any one of a dozen coves. And none of them would care a fig about a bastard whelp.”
Lily bit her tongue, realizing how naive her question had been. And she was at a loss for something further to say.
Betty went on tearfully lamenting her plight. “I’ll have no blunt to pay for my board, and no income for months, and Miss Delee will throw me out on the streets, and I will have nowhere to go—”
“She will do no such thing, Betty,” Lily murmured.
“But even if she allows me to stay, what will I do with a baby? How can I care for it?”
When her voice broke again, Peg interrupted softly. “Betty knows she will have to visit a midwife soon. That is why she is crying.”
Comprehending what Peg meant, Lily felt her stomach clench. “You want to have the baby, Betty?”
“Yes…even if I don’t know who the father is. But I don’t see how. I can’t go back to the streets. I can’t put an innocent child through that. I don’t want my baby to know what it is like to be so hungry, your stomach feels as if it is caving in. To be so desperate you want to die. I cannot do that, Miss Loring. I would rather kill it now.”
When Betty began weeping into her hands again, Lily stroked her back gently, trying to offer comfort. Her heart ached for the girl, and she knew she couldn’t allow Betty’s misery to continue.
“Betty…you must stop crying before you make yourself ill. Listen to me. We will find a solution somehow. I have friends whom I can persuade to help you. We will find someone to take you in so that you may have the baby and not worry about his future.”
Betty’s sobs arresting suddenly, she looked up, her expression half fearful, half hopeful. “Oh, Miss Loring…do you think you could?”
“I am certain of it,” Lily said convincingly. “If nothing else, I will supply the funds myself for you to raise your child.”
“Oh, Miss Loring,” she breathed. “You are an angel. No one is so good as you. But I could never ask you to pay my way. I can work—I am happy to work for my living.”
Lily searched the girl’s blotched, earnest face, recognizing the sentiment: Betty wanted independence, not charity. Just as the Loring sisters had always wanted.
“Then I think we must find you gainful employment,” Lily said. “What sort of work are you best suited for?”
“I am good with flowers…growing them, I mean. I was used to acting as my da’s assistant from the time I could walk.”
“Well, I will see what I can do. For now, why don’t you wash your face and lie down? Weeping cannot be good for the baby.”
“I know.” Her tears had quieted by now, and Betty sniffed as she wiped her eyes with the handkerchief. “But I cannot lie down, Miss Loring. I am supposed to report to work in a short while. The madam will turn me off for cert if I am late, and then I will be in a worse fix than I am now.”
Frowning, Lily shook her head. “You cannot continue to work there when you are with child. No, Betty, you are not to return to your club. Tomorrow you can give notice, but just rest now and don’t worry about the future. I will let you know as soon as I think of something.”
Fresh tears sprang to Betty’s eyes as she looked at Lily almost reverently. “Thank you, Miss Loring. I cannot thank you enough—”
“You needn’t thank me, my dear. It is no more help than a very kind lady once offered my sisters and me,” Lily said, thinking of Winifred and how, because of her generosity in funding the Freemantle Academy for Young Ladies, they had been able to have lives far different from the one poor Betty had endured. “I am only trying to extend her kindness.”
Patting Betty’s shoulder comfortingly, Lily rose and started to turn toward the door. But then Peg’s quiet voice stopped her. “Miss Loring?”
“Yes?”
Lily waited while Peg slowly stood up. She seemed hesitant, her gaze lowered as she plucked at her skirt. Finally she swallowed. “Miss Loring…do you think it would be possible…” She cleared her throat. “That is, would your friends…be willing to find respectable employment for me, perhaps?”
Lily regarded Peg with a quizzical look. Her tale was somewhat similar to Betty’s in that both girls had found themselves on the streets, forced to fend for themselves. Except that Peg had worked in a noble household in London as a lady’s maid. When her lordly master had cornered her in a drunken stupor and kissed her against her will, his lady-wife had caught them together and dismissed Peg without a character. Unable to find respectable work without proper references, Peg had found employment as a ballet dancer with the Royal Opera, although she’d been hired for her exquisite beauty rather than her meager dance skills.
Peg’s request was puzzling, however, since she had just garnered a very wealthy baronet as a protector.
“I thought you were pleased with the arrangement you made with Sir Robert,” Lily said slowly.
“I am pleased, Miss Loring. I mean…Sir Robert is a better patron than I ever hoped for. But I…I don’t really want to be his mistress. Truth to tell, I hate it,” she said in a low ardent voice. “I was a good girl before I became a demirep. And when I must sin that way…Sometimes I want to die, too.”
Lily felt herself flinch as a sharp knife of guilt stabbed her. She had thought Peg was merely painfully shy, not that she was so dreadfully unhappy.
“I never realized, Peg,” Lily murmured, feeling a little sick inside. “I am sorry I encouraged you to join our lessons, or helped prepare you for the soiree. I thought it was what you wanted.”
“Oh, no, Miss Loring…that wasn’t my meaning! I don’t want you to think I didn’t appreciate your lessons. I did. If I must earn my living on my back, it is far better to serve a rich gentleman. No, you were wondrous, teaching us all how to better ourselves. But if I could quit this life, I would, and gladly. And if you could help me…I would be ever so grateful.”
Lily couldn’t speak for a moment; her throat had closed with the threat of tears when she considered the plight of these poor women. Their lives were a constant struggle; they had no family, no future, with little hope of happiness or joy. But she could change that.
“Of course I will help you, Peg,” Lily declared, her voice thick with emotion. “There is no question that I will do everything in my power for you.”
Peg’s lips quivered in a tremulous smile. “I have learned one useful skill recently, at least. I’ve become very clever with a needle, sewing costumes for my fellow dancers. I could perhaps work in a modiste’s shop as an apprentice…or as a dresser’s assistant.”
“Yes, Miss Loring,” Betty broke in earnestly, despite her own troubles. “Peg has a splendid eye for fashion. Why, she could create her own designs if she had the chance. You should see her sketches. They put La Belle Ensemble to shame.”
“I didn’t realize,” Lily said, impressed.
Peg blushed. “Well, I have no real training, but I designed a morning gown for Miss Delee last season, which she professed to be very pleased with.”
“I will arrange something, I promise you.”
It was a promise she would do her utmost to keep, Lily vowed moments later as she climbed the stairs to her own bedchamber, where she sat and stewed about what to do for Betty and Peg.
An even greater tragedy, Lily reflected with anger and dismay, was that there were countless other young women just like them who faced similar bleak futures. Girls who found themselves destitute and defenseless, with no one to turn to and no friends or family to depend on.
In the long term, Lily resolved, she would set her mind to determining how she could help some of those poor unfortunates find shelter and support. Somewhere they could be safe, where they could learn a trade so they wouldn’t have to turn to prostitution merely to survive.
But that could wait, Lily knew; her friends needed help now.
She was confident she could fi
nd suitable employment for Peg, but with a child on the way, Betty was a much more serious problem.
She would have liked to talk the situation over with Fleur and Chantel—now, at once. The sooner she could find positions for the girls, the sooner they could begin their new lives and leave the ones they hated.
But the elderly courtesans were still attending the play with Lord Claybourne and Lord Poole. And Basil was out with his chums and fellow law clerks at his favorite tavern. After the success of the soiree, Basil had been eager to return to his former life, since his tutelage was no longer required by their pupils.
Asking Winifred to help Betty, however, would likely be futile, Lily suspected. Ordinarily the wealthy widow sympathized with the working class, since she came from the same origins. Winifred could usually be counted on to be magnanimous with the vast fortune her late industrialist father had amassed from his manufacturing and mining enterprises. But in this instance, Lily surmised, Winifred would just tell her to apply to Lord Claybourne.
She could perhaps ask Marcus for assistance, since he was now her brother by marriage as well as her former guardian. But Marcus had done more than enough for her by taking in the two boarders she’d already sent to Danvers Hall last month.
“You know what you must do,” Lily murmured to herself.
She worried her lower lip as she came to a reluctant conclusion: Even though she disliked asking Heath for help because she didn’t want to be indebted to him, he was her most logical choice. She shouldn’t let her aversion to being dependent on a man stand in the way of doing what was best for Betty.
As a wealthy nobleman, Heath had significant resources she didn’t have, including several estates and a vast servant staff. Moreover, he had voluntarily found a home for a stray dog. He might be willing to do the same for a deserving young woman and her unborn child.
And as her sister Arabella had recently pointed out, Lily reflected, Heath didn’t seem to be the typical selfish, uncaring nobleman—although in her case, his generosity toward her had doubtless had a purpose, trying to earn points to win their game.
Deciding she ought to approach Heath first, Lily put her mind to developing the argument she would present to him in order to persuade him.
Three hours later, nearing the time when she could reasonably expect his carriage to return from the theater, she went downstairs and took up a position in the entrance hall on a footman’s bench, passing the interval reading Travels by the light of a wall sconce.
As soon as she heard the sound of carriage wheels out on the street, Lily threw a shawl around her shoulders and went to the front door.
It was indeed Lord Claybourne bringing his party home, she saw upon stepping outside. Night had fallen, but the carriage lamps illuminated his tall, powerful figure as he stood on the curb, saying farewell to his guests.
In the event he didn’t plan to accompany them inside, Lily descended the steps and moved down the sidewalk toward the street.
Lord Poole noticed her first. “Ah, Miss Loring, I did not expect to see you again this evening. The play was splendid, just splendid. You should have come.”
Chantel had explained to her new beau that Lily didn’t want to attract notice by going out in public, but the elderly viscount was a bit absentminded, so he tended to forget.
Lily murmured something polite in response to Lord Poole’s comments, but her attention was on Heath, whose eyebrow was arched in question as he asked, “Is something amiss, Miss Loring?”
“I wondered if I might I have a word with you in private, my lord.”
After a moment’s hesitation, he nodded. “Of course. Shall I accompany you inside the house, or would you prefer to use my carriage?”
Glancing at his carriage, Lily flushed as she remembered what had happened the last time she was alone with him there. “The house, please.”
They had followed the Cyprians and Lord Poole inside when Fleur stated, “We will be in our sitting room when you are finished, my dear.”
Nodding, Lily led Heath to the nearby parlor.
“May I offer you some wine or port?” she asked as soon as he shut the door behind them.
His penetrating gaze surveyed her. “Why so formal, angel?”
“I suppose because I am nervous.”
“You? Nervous?”
“Well,” Lily replied, ignoring the hint of amusement in his tone, “the stakes are rather high. You see…I have a very large favor to ask of you.”
Heath regarded Lily another moment before repeating slowly, as if in disbelief, “You wish to ask me a favor.”
“Yes, although it isn’t for myself.”
The corner of his mouth curved dryly. “It never is.”
“Would you care to have a seat?”
“I prefer to stand. Why don’t you just come out with it, Lily? What favor do you need?”
Deciding it would be easier to explain if she was seated, Lily moved over to a wing chair and perched on the edge. “The thing is…one of our boarders is facing a difficult dilemma. Do you remember Betty Dunst?”
“Petite, dark hair, blue eyes?”
Lily wasn’t surprised that as a connoisseur of women, Heath recalled the pretty lightskirt. “Yes, that is Betty. Unfortunately she is expecting a child.”
When Lily briefly told him about Betty’s circumstances, she grew angry all over again at the injustice of it all—a young woman being thrown onto the streets and forced to work in a brothel, and then being gotten with child by one of her many customers.
“It is hardly her fault that she is enceinte,” Lily said in a tight voice. “But now that she is, she wants to have the baby—although only if she can provide him a decent future.”
Thankfully, Heath seemed to take her request very seriously. “Does Betty want a marriage arranged for her, so the child won’t be born out of wedlock?” he asked. “Securing a husband for her would be the customary course.”
The question made Lily hesitate, since she hadn’t even considered that option. “I don’t know, actually. But I don’t believe she wants to marry—and she should not be forced to wed if she doesn’t choose to,” she added adamantly. “Being trapped in an unwanted marriage could be nearly as bad as her current situation, possibly even worse.”
Her fierceness brought a faint smile to Heath’s lips. “I am well aware of your feelings on the subject of matrimony, sweeting. But Betty may hold a different opinion from yours.”
“She told me she wants to work for her living. Her father was a chief gardener on a large estate, and she claims to be good at growing things. I was thinking that you might find a place for her on one of your estates, where she might raise her child in safety. A baby would fare better in the country than in London.”
To her relief, Heath nodded. “The housekeeper at my family seat may be amenable to taking her in, but I want to speak to Betty first, to ascertain her true wishes.”
“Thank you!” Lily said, rising to her feet. “I will fetch Betty at once—”
Heath held up a hand. “There is no need to interview her this late at night. But you needn’t worry. I will take care of the matter.” He cocked his head at Lily. “You realize this will likely earn me another point in our game?”
“I expect so, but it is worth the price if Betty can be free of a life she despises.”
“Very well, then,” he murmured. “If that is all you require of me…?”
Heath glanced over his shoulder toward the door, as if impatient to leave, but Lily found herself wanting him to stay. She hadn’t planned on mentioning Peg’s troubles to him, yet she found herself blurting out a request for him to wait.
“There is one more thing,” Lily said, taking a step toward him.
He regarded her expectantly. “Yes?”
“It concerns one of our other boarders…but the matter is somewhat indelicate.”
When Heath merely waited politely for her to explain, Lily rushed on. “You said you have had several mistresses in the past,
so I hoped you might know the modistes they frequented.”
“I beg your pardon?” His eyebrow had shot up, and he was looking at her as if he had misheard.
She felt color rise to her cheeks. “Well, you see…Peg Wallace is dreadfully unhappy having to work as a courtesan. And even though her new patron could improve her circumstances significantly, she wants out of that life. So I promised I would try to find her employment as a modiste’s apprentice. And I thought that if you had spent a fortune on clothing for your former mistresses, you might have some sway with their modistes, and you could persuade one of them to consider Peg for a position.”
When Heath remained silent, simply gazing at her, Lily added hastily, “I cannot ask Marcus about his former mistresses now that he is married to my sister.”
“But you can ask me? Should I be honored?”
Lily flashed him a reluctant smile. “I don’t think so. I just would rather spare Arabella the discomfort of bringing up her new husband’s rakish past. And you are the only other gentleman with experience in such matters whom I know well enough to approach with such an improper request.”
His mouth twitching, he shook his head slowly in disbelief. “You never cease to amaze me, darling Lily.”
At his response, Lily began to feel uncomfortably awkward. “Well then, please forget I mentioned it. I can doubtless find a position for Peg on my own…. Although the modiste who fashioned new wardrobes for me and my sisters this summer is a high stickler and would be unlikely to hire a former courtesan. I can ask Fanny’s dressmaker, but she caters mainly to the demireps of the theater and opera, and I would rather give Peg a chance to break with her old life, if possible—”
“I will see what I can do,” Heath broke in.
Lily stopped to eye him warily. “You will consider helping Peg?”
“Yes, I will help Peg if I can. But I pay little attention to such things as modistes. I will speak to Eleanor Pierce, though. She should know the best course to take.”
To Seduce a Bride Page 21