Penelope (36 page)

Penelope made
agreeing noises.

“And that
vanity leads a lady to acquire only the most trustworthy modiste in
town. A modiste knows a woman’s most embarrassing secrets. When a
lady needs a wig for her balding head, who does she go to? A
modiste! A modiste sees the sagging flesh, the warts, the moles,
the freckles, the spots, and every single unsightly thing about a
woman because it is the modiste that dresses a lady. Jewels will
not lure a secret out, but the public knowledge that a lady wears a
wig will do the trick quickly enough. And so a modiste becomes a
lady’s bosom friend.”

“But why only a
lady? It could have been a common maid at the palace planning to
murder the king.”

“I am telling
the story,” he said testily. “As for the answer, we knew it was an
aristocratic lord who had gone over to the French side. I needed a
persona that would have the finest ladies of the ton clamouring for
my attention. I hired a French modiste and paid her a pretty penny
to teach me everything she knew. Thereafter, Lord Adair turned
recluse and Madame Bellafraunde was born.”

“Why are you
telling me all of this? Will it not hinder your investigations? Let
me tell you, I don’t do well under torture. I will squeak at the
first sign of pain.”

“Two reasons.
Firstly, you needed a distraction. You cannot keep thinking of the
duke. Secondly, I uncovered the plot a month ago. You are my last
student. I was waiting to finish the lessons before retiring Madame
for good. The king is going to publicly honour me and reward me for
my bravery. The whole of England will know what I did soon enough.
You simply know the facts before they do.”

“I can’t
believe it,” Penelope said, belching delicately. “And I think after
that breakfast I am suffering from collywobbles.”

“If it was
believable, then I wouldn’t be very good at spying,” he replied,
pouring a cup of tea. “I will ask Jules to fetch you some laudanum.
It will help.”

Jules entered
at that moment to tell them that the carriage was ready.

But Penelope
did not depart that day. The generous dose of Laudanum, along with
Lord Adair’s insistence, convinced her to wade in self-pity for a
few more days. According to him, the utter heart-wrenching misery
of unrequited love should be enjoyed for as long as possible, and
Lockwood was the right place to do it.

She sensibly
agreed.

***

On the third
day, Penelope could no longer impose on Lord Adair. Accordingly,
she requested for a carriage and Lord Adair provided her with
one.

“Thank you for
everything,” Penelope said. She was still uncomfortable in the
presence of the handsome marquis, Lord Adair. Oddly, she felt
closer to Madame Bellafraunde, even though the two were one and the
same.

“I am glad that
you agreed to stay with me for a few days. Even though you moped
all over the place, it was still a delight having you around.”

Penelope nodded
distractedly, her hands gripping the travel bag. Lord Adair had
provided her with a few more dresses. He promised to bill the
duke.

“Your lessons
are over, and you are almost a lady,” Lord Adair said,
uncharacteristically sombre. “I couldn’t take away the Penelope in
you. I adore it too much …”

She looked up
at him, her eyes shimmering in the morning sun.

“Well this is
goodbye, love,” he said, bending to kiss her forehead.

She dropped the
bag and hugged him.

“I will miss
you,” she whispered.

Lord Adair
stood for a long time waving at the carriage and thinking about the
last few years that he had spent embroiled in a complicated
espionage trying to save the king. And here was Penelope thinking
her world had come to an end because the duke thought she was an
imbecile. Ah, the trials and tribulations of young love, he mused,
shaking his head indulgently as the carriage disappeared from
view.

The shutters of
the carriage were open. The duke wasn’t here to tell her to close
them, Penelope thought, rebelliously pulling aside the blood red
curtains and poking her head out of the window.

The wind played
with her hair while she watched London speeding by. She did not see
the filth, dirt, or dangerous alleys. What she saw were the vivid
colours of parasols, the bustling workers and the smiling, soot
faced imps. She felt as if she was leaving behind the sparkle,
excitement, and secrets of a chaotic city and entering into the
watery grey world of the countryside.

She sighed and
softly whispered a goodbye. A moment later a passing wagon dipped
in a pothole and splashed her face with dirty water.

She spluttered
and hurriedly closed the curtains. It was London’s way of replying
to her farewell, she thought, her lips quirking. Anne would have
laughed had she seen her. Her eyes closed, her heart clenching in
pain. She missed the dowager and Anne, Perkins, Mary … but mostly
she missed Lady Bathsheba and the duke.

They must be
worried. She had left without informing a soul, and thereafter she
had refused to send word through Lord Adair. She was afraid that
the duke would find her and ask her to marry him again, and she
didn’t have the nerve to refuse him.

She would
disappear into the Finnshire forest, and in a few years he would
move on and forget about her. He would marry someone he loved. She
was doing this for the duke. If he married her, then he would end
up hating her. She could bear his indifference and his arrogance
but not his hatred.

Her shoulders
slumped. She missed them all dreadfully. Oh, to have Madame scold
her one last time, to dress up for a carefree night in a ballroom,
one last snuggle from Lady Bathsheba …

The carriage
halted and shouts pulled her out of her gloom. She glanced out of
the window. They were in the middle of an isolated country
road.

She was too
miserable to be curious. She sat waiting for someone to come and
tell her what was going on.

The door sprang
open and a masked man wearing a red silk cloak, green velvet
breeches, and a pearl brooch entered the carriage.

“Jimmy,”
Penelope said bleakly, not at all surprised to find him here.

Jimmy pulled
off his feathery black mask and leaned back on the carriage
seat.

“What has the
duke done?”

“How do you
know it concerns the duke?” Penelope asked.

“When you
thought the duke was being robbed, you were willing to take the
bullet for him.”

Penelope
nodded, “Yes, I was a little obvious.”

“Is he refusing
to marry you? I can kidnap him and force him at gunpoint.”

“No, he wants
to marry me. I don’t want to marry him.”

“Why ever
not?”

“Because he
does not love me! How can I marry him and see him fall in love with
someone else? It is bound to happen. Or watch him keep mistresses …
He thinks I am not good enough. I constantly make mistakes. I am
not a refined London lady. I would make a horrible duchess. I would
embarrass him. I could go on …”

“No, I
understand, and I agree. You would make a terrible duchess. That is
not a bad thing. I don’t like duchesses. Haughty lot,” Jimmy said
soothingly.

“Well, that’s
that.”

“Hmm … how do
you know that he does not love you?”

Penelope rolled
her eyes, “I asked him why he wanted to marry me. Twice. He said it
was because of Lady Plasket. And women know these things. You
wouldn’t understand. We are intuitive in such matters.”

“Perhaps your
intuition has become a tad muddled? He could have had me arrested.
He didn’t, only because I mean something to you, even after I had
pulled the gun on him.”

“You should go
into hiding. He was distracted. His sister was on her way to Gretna
Green with a despicable man. He will recall your existence soon
enough.”

“He told me
that he will not arrest me. In fact, he offered me a job on his
estate. I respectfully declined. A manager on his estate with a
generous wage is too restrictive for a creative man like me.”

“Did he say he
was letting you go because you meant something to me … What’s
that?” Penelope asked, tilting her head to the side.

“What?”

“That. It
sounds like … No, it can’t be … Is it?”

Jimmy sighed,
and rapped the carriage walls. One of his assistances arrived at
the door wearing a mask and a cape.

“Sorry, the
baaing alerted her,” Jimmy turned to Penelope. “My new student …
err … recently contracted. I think you know him. Shall we call him
Chick Chudderly for the moment? Chick because he is a novice Falcon
and Chudderly because I feel like it.”

The novice
Falcon, dressed in red velvet trousers a size too small and a black
satin cape, glared at Jimmy.

“I am going, I
am going. Penny, if you need to be saved, just screech,” Jimmy said
grinning. He lifted his top hat with a flourish and waving it in
the air exited the carriage.

Chick Chudderly
turned towards Penelope and offered her a hesitant smile.

“You look
ridiculous,” Penelope whispered, her heart thundering.

He reached over
and pinched her bottom.

“Ouch, what was
that for?”

“To prove to
you that I am really here.”

“You always
read my mind, your grace.”

The duke pulled
off the mask and smiled ruefully, “If I had been able to read your
mind, then we would have been married by now.”

“I won’t marry
you.”

“And if I
promise to dress up as a baby falcon on our wedding day?”

“Your grace,
please,” she whispered miserably.

He made a
frustrated sound. “I am sorry. I am going about this all wrong, and
I had it all planned. Let me start again,” he said taking her hand
and pulling her up.

“Where are you
taking me?” she asked, trying to extricate her hand.

He didn’t
reply, and he did not let go. When they were outside in the bright
late morning sunshine, he turned to her to say, “This sort of thing
should be done properly.”

“What sort of
thing?” she asked, avoiding his eyes. Instead, she looked around at
the fifteen burglars, thieves and deer stealers of all shapes and
sizes standing around them in a semi-circle. Jimmy stood at the
centre leaning against a tree, his arms around a round, plump
woman, who no doubt was his apple dumpling. In the other hand he
held Lady Bathsheba’s leash. Penelope’s heart skipped at the sight
of her beloved pet all dressed up for some grand occasion. She was
wearing a yellow flowery bonnet on her head, and a pink ribbon was
tied to her tail. She bleated at the sight of Penelope

“Your grace,”
Penelope said, trying to wrench her hand free to race to the
goat.

“Hush, you can
kiss your goat in a few moments, I promise. I have taken lessons
from Madame and—”

“When?” she
interrupted stunned.

“The day I
discovered that Madame was sheltering you. I was at Lockwood for
two hours. She refused to let me see you.”

“What sort of
lessons?”

“This sort of
thing has to be done right. It needs an audience.”

“What sort of
thing? What needs an audience? What lessons? Your grace!”

“This,” he
said, kneeling down on the ground.

Only the wind
rustling through the leaves could now be heard. Penelope’s hand
trembled in his grip.

“I don’t know
when it happened,” he began softly. “You were holding my ear in a
painful grip the first time I met you. I don’t think it happened
then. Nor when you tumbled down the stairs, became pickled at
dinner, tugged my underthing from the goat’s mouth at midnight in
my bedroom … Where was I? Oh, it didn’t happen any of those times.
Not even when you went chasing ruffians down Mayfair Street, ripped
the gown off a lady in a ball, had a cheetah chasing us out of a
dinner party—”

“I wish I had
been there,” Jimmy commented impressed. “And you are not doing a
very good job, Chudderly, reminding her of her misadventures. Bob
and flap, my man, bob and flap,” he added, smiling down at his
wife.

Penelope and
fourteen other robbers shushed him.

“Go on,”
Penelope said breathlessly turning to the duke.

The duke glared
at Jimmy and then caught sight of Penelope’s face. He softened and
continued, “It could have been the kiss. But you are a terrible
kisser. Untutored, raw… Perhaps it was that, or maybe it was when
you made me laugh … or when we kissed again … that was glorious.
You learn quickly …”

“Your grace, I
don’t understand. When what happened?”

“You won the
hearts of highwaymen, my mother, my sister, Perkins, Hopkins and
the entire household staff. I have never had so many people glaring
at me before. The maids that had once quaked in terror in front of
me now eye me reproachfully, for they believe that I sent you
away.” He tightened his grip on her hand, “When you have won so
many hearts, how could you think that you had not won mine as well?
And all this time I have spent wondering when it happened. When did
I fall in love with you and … honestly, I don’t know.”

Penelope and
the robbers sighed in unison.

“But why didn’t
you tell me? I asked you and you said Lady Plasket ….”

“People in love
are gooses. They fail to see what is right under their nose. They
cannot believe that they are worthy of the one they love. You were
filled with self-doubt and so was I. I had treated you so badly
that I did not think you could love me. I knew you were attracted
to me, but attraction does not equal love. I tried to give you a
practical answer hoping that time would turn that attraction into
love.”

“Hear, hear,”
Jimmy cheered weakly, dabbing his eyes.

“And why take
Jimmy’s help?” Penelope asked, frowning at the interrupting
highwayman.