The Women of Nell Gwynne's (12 page)

FOURTEEN:

In which Lord Basmond is mourned, with Apparent Sincerity

H
E MUST HAVE fallen," declared Sir George Spiggott.

"A lamentable accident," said Ali Pasha, looking very hard at Sir George. So did Jane, who had trailed after them clutching her chiton to herself.

"What becomes of the auction now, may I ask?" said Prince Nakhimov.

"He had bones like sugar-sticks," said Pilkins through his tears. He was on his knees beside Lord Basmond's body. "Always did. Broke his arm three times when he was a boy. Oh, Lord help us, what are we to do? He was the only one with...I mean to say..."

"The only one with the plans for the levitation device?" said Lady Beatrice. Pilkins looked up at her, startled, and then his face darkened with anger.

"That's enough of your bold tongue," he shouted. "I'm not having the constable see you lot here! I want you downstairs, all of you whores, now! Get down there and keep still, if you know what's good for you!" He turned to glare at Dora, who had just come up in a state of respectable dress from the kitchens.

"Suit yourself; we'll go," she said. Looking around, she added "But where's Maude?"

"Where is the Count de Mortain? He cannot have slept through such screams," said Prince Nakhimov.

"Perhaps I'd better go fetch her," said Lady Beatrice, starting up the stairs.

"No! I said you were...were to...oh, damned fate," said Pilkins, drooping with fresh tears. "Go on, get up there and wake them up. And then I want to see the back of you all."

"Happy to oblige," said Jane, striding past him to go downstairs. Lady Beatrice, meanwhile, ran up the grand staircase and along the gallery, where the faces of Rawdons past watched her passage. The moonlight had shifted from her portrait, but Hellspeth Rawdon still seemed to glimmer with unearthly luminescence.

Lady Beatrice knocked twice at the door of the bedroom that had been allotted to the Count de Mortain, but received no response. At last, opening the door and peering in, she beheld one candle burning on the dresser and Maude alone in the bed, deeply asleep.

"Maude!" Lady Beatrice hurried in and shook Maude's shoulder. "Wake up! Where is the count?"

Maude remained unconscious, despite Lady Beatrice's best efforts. Lady Beatrice sniffed at the dregs remaining in the wine glass on the bedside table, and thought she detected some medicinal odor. There was no sign of Count de Mortain in the room.

When this fact was communicated to the parties downstairs, Sir George Spiggott exclaimed, "It's the damned frog! I'll wager a thousand pounds
he
pushed Lord Basmond down the stairs!"

"You had better send for your constabulary now, rather than wait for morning," Ali Pasha told Pilkins.

"In the meanwhile, perhaps someone would assist me in getting Maude downstairs?" Lady Beatrice inquired. Prince Nakhimov volunteered and brought Maude, limp as a washrag, down as far as the Great Hall; from there Lady Beatrice and Dora carried her between them down to the kitchen.

"How awfully embarrassing," said Jane, from the hearthrug where she was bathing. "We were supposed to be the ones administering drugs!"

"We ought to have expected this," said Lady Beatrice grimly. She went to the sink and pumped a bucketful of cold water. "I should think the count drugged her and then killed Lord Basmond, meaning to steal the device."

"What?" Jane looked up from soaping herself. "I thought his lordship fell down the stairs."

Dora explained that Lady Beatrice had found Lord Basmond dead in his bedroom before his body had been flung down the stairs. Jane's eyes narrowed.

"Don't be so sure the count was his murderer," she said. "Mine was in a towering temper—did me only once, quite rough and nasty, and kept telling me it was a damned good thing I was English. At last he got out of bed and left. I asked him where he was going and he told me to mind my own business. He wasn't gone above ten minutes. When he came back he looked a different man—white and shaking.

I pretended to be asleep, because I was tired of his nonsense, but he didn't try to wake me for any more fun. He tossed and turned for about twenty more minutes and then leaped out of bed and ran from the room. He was only gone about five minutes this time, and very much out of breath when he came back. Jumped into bed and pulled the covers up. It seemed only a moment later we heard you screaming."

"Did he ever seem as though he paused to hide something in the bedroom?" asked Lady Beatrice, upending the bucket's contents over Maude, who groaned and tried to sit up.

"No, never."

"He might have killed his lordship, but that doesn't mean the device has been stolen," said Dora, crouching beside Maude and waving a bottle of smelling salts under her nose. Maude coughed feebly and opened her eyes.

"Damn and blast," she murmured.

"Wake up, dear."

"That bastard slipped me a powder!"

"Yes, dear, we'd guessed."

"And we'd had such a lovely time in bed." Maude leaned forward, massaging her temples. "Such a jolly and amusing man. He's got no money, though. Told me he was delighted to accept a night of free food and copulation, but isn't in any position to bid on the levitation device."

"Have you any idea where he's got to?"

"None. What's been going on?"

The other ladies gave her a brief summary of what had occurred. In the midst of it, Mrs. Duncan came shuffling downstairs in tears, clutching a candlestick.

"Oh, it's too cruel," she sobbed. "What'll become of us now? And the Basmonds! What of the Basmonds?"

"Bugger the Basmonds," said Maude, who was still feeling rather ill.

"How dare you, you chit! They're one of the oldest families in the land!" cried Mrs. Duncan. "Ruined now, ruined! And there he went and spent all the trust fund—What's to happen now?" She sank down on a stool and indulged in furious tears.

"Trust fund?" asked Lady Beatrice.

"None of your bloody business. It's the end of the Basmonds, that's all."

"There aren't any cousins to inherit?" inquired Dora sympathetically.

"No." Mrs. Duncan blew her nose. "And poor Master Arthur never married, on account of him being—well—"

"A fairy prince?" said Jane, toweling herself off. Lady Beatrice winced, for it was hardly a tactful remark, but Mrs. Duncan lifted her head sharply.

"You been reading in the library? You wasn't allowed in there!"

"No, I haven't read anything. I don't know what you mean," said Jane.

"That's in a book in the library," said Mrs. Duncan. "About the Rawdons having fairy blood. Old Sir Robert finding a girl sitting up there on the hill in the moonlight, and she putting a spell on him. And that was why, ever since..." She trailed off into tears again.

"What a charming story," said Lady Beatrice. "Now, if you'll pardon a change of subject, my dear: I notice the levitation device has been removed from under the cake. Do you happen to know where it was put?"

"Wasn't put anywhere," said Mrs. Duncan. "I pushed the nasty thing into the pantry like it was and left it for morning. You mean to say it's gone?"

FIFTEEN:

In which our Heroine is Obliged to Exert Herself

M
RS. CORVEY, UPON inspecting the box on the passage floor, discovered a switch on one end. Cautiously, using her cane, she pushed the switch to its opposite position. A humming noise ceased, so faint it had been imperceptible until it stopped.

"I believe we may now pass safely, Mr. Ludbridge."

"Glad to hear it," Ludbridge said, wheezing as he tried to get to his feet. "Oh—ow—oh, bloody hell, I'm half crippled."

"You may lean on me," said Mrs. Corvey, taking his hand and pulling his arm around her ^shoulders. "Not to worry, dear; I'm a great deal stronger than I look."

"As yet I've no idea what you look like at all," replied Ludbridge. "Ha! The blind leading the blind, although in our case it makes excellent sense. Lead on, dear lady."

They made their way out again into the main tunnel, and hurriedly down it to the laboratory. Ludbridge was able to crawl through the hole in the window easily enough, but was obliged afterward to sit and catch his breath.

"It seems a lifetime ago I went in there," he said, gasping. "By God, the night air smells sweet! Rather odd nobody noticed the pane missing in all that time, though."

"In fact, someone did," said Mrs. Corvey. "It had been replaced when I found it this evening."

"Really? Well, that's enough to lend new vigor to my wasted limbs," said Ludbridge, getting up with a lurch. "Let's get the hell out of here, shall we?"

Mrs. Corvey led him out through the hedge and around the moat. She had a moment of worry about getting through the portcullis, for Ludbridge was a man of respectable girth. However, just as they came to the causeway the portcullis came rattling up. Someone drove the carriage forth in great haste; the portcullis was left open behind them. Mrs. Corvey looked after the carriage in keen interest, thinking she recognized Ralph gripping the reins. She wondered what might have happened, to send him out at such speed.

"We had best hurry, Mr. Ludbridge," she said.

"Swiftly as I may, ma'am," he replied, crawling after her on hands and knees. When they reached the courtyard Mrs. Corvey was disconcerted to see lights blazing in the Great Hall. She endeavored to pull Ludbridge along after her, and was greatly relieved when they tumbled together through the door into her room.

"F
ORTY YEARS I'VE worked here," said Mrs. Duncan, somewhat indistinctly, for she was now on her third glass of gin. The scullery and parlor maids, all in their nightgowns, were huddled around her like chicks around a hen, in varying degrees of tearful distress.

"Well, consider: you are now at liberty to travel," said Jane helpfully. Mrs. Duncan gave her a dark look and two of the maids were provoked into fresh weeping.

"I've just remembered," said Lady Beatrice. "I left something in Prince Nakhimov's room. I wouldn't wish to be so indiscreet as to take the front stairs, when the constable may arrive any moment...Are there back stairs, Mrs. Duncan?"

The cook pointed at a doorway beyond the pantry. "Mind you be quick about it."