Beatrice Goes to Brighton (8 page)

But before Hannah could reply, she found she was being asked to dance by Lord Southern himself, Lord Southern who had only given her two fingers to shake on her arrival, and yet who now seemed to wish to mark her out for special attention.

Hannah was still wrapped in rosy clouds of glory. The only thing that marred her pleasure was that she was a childless spinster. What a tale to tell grandchildren before a winter’s fire! She did not even notice that Lord Alistair had taken Lady Beatrice on to the floor.

Lord Alistair had noticed that Sir Geoffrey Handford, who had arrived late, was approaching Lady Beatrice in a threatening way, and something had moved him to prevent her from being faced with a nasty scene. The dance was another country one and took quite half an hour to perform, and Lord Alistair had the satisfaction of seeing Sir Geoffrey stride off to the card-room.

There was not much opportunity for conversation during the figures of the dance, but afterwards, as was the custom, Lord Alistair promenaded with Lady Beatrice round the floor.

‘Our Miss Pym is in high alt,’ said Lady Beatrice. ‘What did she say to make our sulky Prinny take such a liking to her?’

‘She treated him with all the reverence normally accorded to a saint and he reacted favourably. It is now being said that Miss Pym
must
be foreign royalty. That lady attracts adventures, so beware.’

‘If by adventures you mean distress and danger, I hope her days of adventuring are over. Goodness, this ballroom is hot. They have enough candles to light the Vatican.’

‘There is a balcony at the end which overlooks the sea, if you would care for a breath of air.’

‘Gladly.’

They walked together to the end of the room and found themselves on a small balcony facing the sea. A small moon was shining on the sea and the susurration of the waves rising and falling on the beach reached their ears.

Lady Beatrice put her hands on the railing of the balcony and looked out. ‘How very peaceful it is,’ she said, half to herself. ‘If only I could leave now. Sir Geoffrey, I feel, is determined to seek me out and make a scene.’

‘I do not think he can do that with the prince present. It is well known he craves a title higher than that of knight and will do nothing to bring the royal wrath down on his head. How did he come by his knighthood? Stealing money from Indian potentates hardly counts as gallantry.’

‘I assume he came by it as most men do in these venal days,’ said Lady Beatrice. ‘He probably paid vast sums of money to people in the right quarters.’ She turned and glanced back into the ballroom. ‘I wonder if I shall miss all this,’ she said. ‘Just at this moment, freedom is so sweet that I doubt it.’

‘And Miss Pym will be company enough?’

‘I am sure of it.’

‘And will you then cease to flirt? Or will you break hearts in some rural village?’

Lady Beatrice sighed. ‘How cruel you think me. And yet I do not believe men have hearts to break.’

‘There speaks a lady who has never been in love.’

She turned with her back to the shifting, restless sea and looked up at him. ‘I have been in love, my lord, or thought I was.’

‘So what happened?’

She turned back and stood looking out to sea again, so still and quiet that he thought she did not mean to answer him, but at last she said, ‘I had just returned
from the seminary and my parents were delighted to discover they had a marketable daughter and Mr Blackstone was the highest bidder. But during the period of my engagement, I went to balls and parties during the Season. There I met a young man, handsome and courteous and kind. I was so very much in love with him. I told him I did not want to marry Mr Blackstone and he said I should have nothing to fear. He would marry me himself. All that was required was his parents’ permission, for he was dependent on their fortune. He rode off to York where they lived, promising to be back within a month. How I waited! How I dreamt of his return. He had lent me his handkerchief on one occasion at a ball and I slept with it against my cheek. But the days stretched into weeks and he did not come back. The arrangements for my wedding were going ahead. I could not believe he would forget me. Even when my father was leading me up the aisle of St George’s, I thought he might come bursting into the church to sweep me away. I learned later that he had married.’

‘His name would not be William Purdey, by any chance?’ asked Lord Alistair.

She looked up at him in surprise. ‘Yes. Do you know him?’

‘I met him once when I was visiting friends in Yorkshire. He is about your age and married his bride about the same time as you wed Blackstone. I thought it might be he. Well, I regret to tell you that your lover is a hardened philanderer and causes nothing but grief to his wife and four children.’

‘How does he look? Is he as handsome as ever?’ She put a hand on his arm and looked appealingly up at his face.

He covered her hand with his own and said quietly, ‘He is fat and vulgar. His looks were ruined a long time ago with drinking and womanizing.’

‘So,’ said Lady Beatrice in a low voice, ‘I have wasted years in worry and wondering what
happened
.’

‘He probably was in love with you,’ said Lord Alistair. ‘Expert philanderers are usually in love with their victims – that is their charm. So you must not go about breaking hearts any more, Lady Beatrice, if this disappointment is what turned you against men. Or flirt with someone like myself, who has no heart to break.’

‘And why is that?’ she teased. ‘Am I not then the only one to have been disappointed in love?’

‘No, I have not been disappointed in love, for I have never been in love.’ He raised her hand to his lips and smiled down into her eyes.

She smiled back automatically, in the mocking, caressing way she had perfected.

Why he chose that moment to kiss her, he did not know, but one minute he was smiling down at her, quite at his ease, and the next he had jerked her into his arms and crushed his mouth against hers. Her lips caught fire beneath his own and her body was soft and pliant against his, hip against hip, bosom against bosom. Her scent was in his nostrils and he felt quite dizzy.

He released her abruptly and said in a stifled voice, ‘You witch!’

‘I did not mean …’ She looked bewildered. She had meant to say that she had never reacted to any man like that before, but his eyes were as cold as ice. She suddenly shivered and with an odd little duck of her head, walked before him into the ballroom.

Lord Alistair remembered he was obliged to take Miss Pym in to supper and hurried to that lady’s side.

All Hannah wanted to talk about was the Prince of Wales, what he had said and how he had looked. Lord Alistair sat with her throughout supper and appeared to listen to her while all the time every part of his body was aware of Lady Beatrice, a little way away from him down the long table. She had put a poison in his blood, he thought savagely, which had bound him to her so that although he was not near her or touching her, he could feel her body and taste her lips. And he had thought himself immune.

He interrupted Hannah’s paean of praise for the prince by saying abruptly, ‘You should reconsider sharing accommodation with Lady Beatrice.’

Hannah looked at him in surprise. ‘Why, my lord. I think we suit very well.’

‘She is a dangerous and wicked woman. I would like to strangle her.’

‘Nonsense, my lord. She is a bitter woman, yes, but surely after the marriage she endured with Blackstone that is understandable. I have found her to have a kind and good heart. Look at her, my lord. All that warmth and beauty to be given away to such an
ogre as Sir Geoffrey. Fie! Not if I have anything to say to it!’

Hannah studied him covertly while she ate her food. Something had disturbed him greatly. And then she saw how his eyes kept straying along the table to where Lady Beatrice sat. She was all at once aware of a little glimmer of hope. Lord Alistair’s reaction to Lady Beatrice before the ball had been one of calm amusement tinged with disdain. He had not felt powerfully about her at all.

And there was a change in Lady Beatrice. She was partnered at the supper table by an elderly gentleman of staid appearance and yet she was undoubtedly flirting with him, but in a stagy way, as if giving a performance.

Hannah set herself to amuse Lord Alistair by recounting more of her adventures. She wanted to continue to amuse him so that he would continue to call on her and therefore would have ample
opportunity
of being in Lady Beatrice’s company. She succeeded so well in entertaining him that the company, covertly watching her, became even more convinced that this Miss Pym was Someone.

After supper, Lady Beatrice found herself
confronted
by Sir Geoffrey. Although his eyes sparkled with rage, he appeared to have himself well in check.

‘May I suggest,’ he said, ‘that you owe me an explanation.’

‘You are not owed an explanation,’ said Lady Beatrice. ‘I have found a way to escape and there is nothing you can do about it.’

‘You would have come about,’ he replied, his eyes roving over her body, from the whiteness of her bosom revealed by the low-cut dress down to her feet, as if he could see through her gown. She instinctively shrank back. ‘It is all the fault of that Pym woman,’ he said, pasting a smile on his face as he realized they were attracting attention. ‘Tell her to walk carefully about the streets of Brighton.’

‘Do not dare harm her! She has done nothing. I have merely decided to escape from both you and my parents.’

He moved his face closer to her own. ‘Hark ’ee,’ he said thickly, ‘you will marry me and be glad to by the time I have finished with you.’

She turned on her heel and walked away, leaving him staring after her.

Mrs Cambridge was wondering what to do about Miss Pym. Mrs Cambridge had openly snubbed her, nay, threatened her! All Brighton would now be courting Miss Pym and she, Letitia Cambridge, would be left out in the cold.

Hannah, mindful of her obligations to the
dressmaker
, was telling all who complimented her on her gown that she bought all her clothes from Monsieur Blanc.

She looked up in surprise as Mrs Cambridge came up to her. ‘My dear Miss Pym,’ gushed Mrs
Cambridge
, ‘can you ever forgive me? I was so rude to you, but in faith I thought you were someone else.’

‘Indeed!’ Hannah looked at her frostily.

‘Such a terrible, clumsy mistake. Can you forgive me?’

Hannah’s odd eyes looked completely colourless as she said, ‘I do not know who you thought I was, but I take leave to tell you that no lady should have been subjected to such insult.’ She rose quickly from her chair and walked away. Mrs Cambridge stood biting her lip with mortification. Then anger took over. How dare this Miss Pym, if that was her name, snub a leading member of Brighton society! Mrs Cambridge promised herself to get revenge somehow.

Lady Beatrice sought Hannah out. ‘Is there
somewhere
we can sit quietly?’ she asked.

‘I am surprised you have the time,’ said Hannah. ‘I would have thought the gentlemen would be queuing up to ask you to dance.’

‘Well, they were, but the ladies of Brighton have seen fit to broadcast my heartless reputation, and so I am a wallflower again. Look! The prince is taking his leave, and so that means we too can leave whenever we want.’

‘I think I would like to go.’ Hannah shook her head ruefully. ‘What on earth would all these grand people say if they knew they were courting a mere
housekeeper
?’

‘Ex-housekeeper,’ corrected Lady Beatrice. Then she turned a delicate shade of pink. ‘Here is Lord Alistair.’

Lord Alistair Munro bowed before them. ‘Would either of you ladies care to honour me with a dance?’

‘We were on the point of seeking you out to ask you
to escort us home,’ said Hannah, ‘but I would dearly like to watch you dance with Lady Beatrice.’

To Hannah’s surprise there was an awkward silence and then Lady Beatrice said quickly, ‘No, let us leave. I am fatigued.’

It was a silent journey the short distance home. Hannah pressed Lord Alistair to take tea with them, and after a little hesitation, he accepted. Benjamin served them efficiently, Hannah was pleased to notice. She wondered how he was getting on with the other servants. She herself had been relieved to find that the presence of a houseful of servants had not fazed her in the least. When tea was served and they were sitting by the fire, Hannah decided to pretend to fall asleep in the hope of dissipating the awkward silence between the couple. She closed her eyes and after a few minutes let out a small snore.

‘Poor Miss Pym,’ she heard Lady Beatrice say, ‘she is quite done up.’

‘An eventful evening for her,’ came Lord Alistair’s voice. ‘I must try to dispel this air of embarrassment between us, Lady Beatrice. I should not have kissed you. I crave your forgiveness.’

‘Granted, my lord. I have forgot it already.’

There was a long silence. Hannah was about to give up her pretence and open her eyes when she heard Lady Beatrice say, ‘I am concerned for Miss Pym.’

‘How so?’

‘Sir Geoffrey blames her for my freedom. He threatened to harm her.’

‘Then I suggest you and Miss Pym leave Brighton immediately.’

‘We shall leave soon. I have not told her, for I do not wish to alarm her by what may well turn out to be a choleric and empty threat. More tea?’

‘Thank you.’

She leaned across the table and he saw the soft roundness of her breasts and shivered. What would it be like to reach out a hand and caress one of those excellent globes? Then he felt himself becoming angry. She probably knew exactly what she was doing.

‘I would tell Benjamin to keep a close watch on Sir Geoffrey,’ said Lord Alistair, ‘and make sure he does not plan either of you any harm.’

‘That is a good idea.’ She handed the teacup to him. As he took it from her, his hand brushed against her own. She gave a little cry, and in snatching her hand away, she knocked the cup of tea all over the splendour of his ruffled white cambric shirt.

‘I am so sorry,’ she said, dabbing furiously at the stain with the edge of the tablecloth.