Vintage Love (152 page)

The heavy gray eyebrows met in a frown and the Marquis commented, “You speak very well, girl. Not at all like one of the lower classes. Where did you get your education?”

“I was most fortunate, sir,” she said. “My mother took care of a scholar and I lived in the house. As part of her wages he gave me lessons in any number of things.”

“Consider yourself a lucky girl,” the Marquis said in his odd, hoarse voice, a result of chronic bronchial trouble. “Do not lose your fine way of speaking. It may serve you well in life.”

“Yes, sir,” she said quietly, looking down.

“And you are an orphan you say,” the Marquis went on. “May I ask what happened to your late father?”

Fanny looked directly at him now, her large green eyes wide. “My father was a strolling player, sir, a man of great talent. Many years ago he left my mother to search for employment in the theatre at Bristol. He never did come back. The letters my mother sent to him were returned so we presumed he had died.”

The Marquis scowled and moved his cane a little. “I should say the fellow deserted her! That you and your mother were abandoned by this scoundrel of an actor!”

She protested hotly, “We have never thought of it that way. My mother always said he was a kind man with fine manners and speech. That is why I have wished to learn to speak well. I would like to be an actress one day!”

There was a shocked silence in the study as the Marquis glared at her in astonishment. Then her stout cousin Lily had bobbed forth to curtsy to her employer and say, “You must forgive the girl, sir. She is from the country and does not know what the life of an actress means. Her ambitions are moral even if her goal isn’t! And she shouldn’t be blamed for loving the memory of her father, sir. That surely isn’t a bad quality!”

“Filial devotion!” the Marquis said. “I find no fault in that, Lily. But the pitfalls of a life in the theatre should be explained to the girl.”

“I shall do it, sir, never fear!” Lily promised. “If you will be so kind as to take her on as a scullery maid I’ll give her a proper training!”

“Very well, Lily,” the Marquis said. “Fanny shall be our new scullery maid.” And turning to her he had added severely, “Mind you pay attention to all your cousin tells you and forget that stage business! It could lead to your ruin!”

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir,” she’d bobbed her gratitude.

“We shall do our best to offer you a good home here, Fanny,” the Marquis said. “Do the duties assigned you and you will have no problems.” With that he waved them out.

So it had been settled. But as they made their way back to the kitchen Fanny had defiantly told the elderly Lily, “I shall work hard but I won’t give up my dream of becoming an actress!”

Lily’s round, fat face showed impatience. “Drat it, child, let me train you to be a proper servant first before you worry about anything else!”

And Lily had been an excellent tutor. Marsden, who had served at Waterloo as orderly to the Marquis and who was now his butler, also had shown a keen interest in her. The tall, long-faced man with frayed, gray side-whiskers and thin gray hair had shown her particular attention, perhaps because he and Lily were warm friends. At any rate, within a few months Fanny had been promoted to upstairs maid.

It was as upstairs maid she had first seen the three sons of the Marquis. There was Viscount George Palmer, first in line to his father’s title, a young law graduate of Oxford, who had inherited his mother’s good looks and fair complexion and also her indifferent health. He had recently returned from a long voyage to Australia and New Zealand to strengthen his lungs.

Then there was his twenty-three-year-old brother, Kenneth. He was darker in complexion and had his father’s stern features. He was now the Reverend Kenneth Palmer, curate of the neighboring Brenmoor Cathedral. And the youngest, the twenty-two-year-old, Charles, who had recently taken his commission in the Fifteenth Cavalry Regiment, his father’s old regiment. Captain Charles was quite as handsome as his oldest brother and also fair like him. He had a jolly disposition and was fond of practical jokes.

It was inevitable that Viscount George and Captain Charles be the favorites with the servants, while the Reverend Kenneth was regarded with some wariness as being whey-faced and unduly stern in his moral judgements of others. Unlike his two brothers, he had little friendliness about him and went back and forth to the Cathedral, spending scant time at home. Fanny had found him cold and a little frightening.

It was Viscount George who had first shown an interest in her. As a girl she had often attended the travelling shows which came to her village. One entertainer in particular had caught her fancy, a singer and dancer called Little Nell. Fanny attended her performances often enough to memorize all the entertainer’s songs and dances.

She soon began giving her mother and the old scholar a sample of what she’d learned. They had been most enthusiastic in their reception of her talents. So it was not strange that after she’d been long enough at the Brenmoor mansion she began to entertain the other servants with her musical act, often at their insistence.

One night in March after the dinner had been served and everything cleared away Peg Grant, one of the other maids, a tiny, straw-haired girl urged her, “Do some songs and dances for us, Fanny!”

Fanny had been standing by the blazing fireplace and now she turned a questioning face to her cousin Lily. The stout Lily, in turn, had hesitated and then given Marsden a look. Marsden, regal at the end of the kitchen table with an accounts book in his hands, had nodded his assent. There was a burst of cheers and laughter from the younger servants, hushed at once by Lily.

“Very well, now,” the stout woman had said sternly. “Let us have no row! If Fanny is to entertain us let us listen quietly like ladies and gentlemen!”

“Hear! Hear!” Marsden said, closing his accounts book.

Fanny took a stand at the end of the big kitchen and began her first song. It recorded the adventures of a dairy maid who caught the eye of the Squire and married him. She carried it off with spirit and ended it with a little dance.

She’d been so absorbed in her performance that she’d paid no attention to her audience. Now as she finished she was astonished to find that standing on the sidelines was the good-looking Viscount George. He was smiling with admiration and with the other servants hushed into silence by his presence, he came to her and congratulated her.

“You did that like a professional,” he said. “I’m amazed.”

“It’s only a poor imitation, sir,” she apologized, pink with confusion.

“Not at all,” the handsome young George told her. “I’ve seen much worse in the Halls. Isn’t that so, everyone?” He turned to the others.

“Fanny is a proper riot!” Peg piped up and clapped her small hands enthusiastically. The other servants followed her example leaving a smiling, blushing Fanny.

The young Viscount said, “There! You see?”

“They’re much too kind!”

“Never,” George Palmer said. “You are good enough to be a professional entertainer right now!”

“I’m quite happy here,” she assured him, seeing that her cousin Lily was watching with bated breath.

“Fine!” George said, smiling. “But if you ever wish to change your work I’m sure someone would be willing to hire you as an entertainer.”

It was her moment of glory. From then on the others kept requesting her to sing their favorite songs. She didn’t mind since she enjoyed doing it and her secret ambition still was to become an actress, despite what she had heard about their ranks being filled with loose women not in any way highly regarded. Her ambition and her respect for her father’s profession continued. And she continued to give her impromptu concerts.

Little did she guess then that her friendship with the charming George was to be the cause of her leaving the great mansion. There was not even a small cloud on Fanny’s horizon at the moment as the harsh weather ended and spring came. But she had been impressed by the pleasant, young man and often thought about him.

• • •

From the thick, yellow fog behind her came the distant sound of carriage wheels and horses’ hooves on the cobblestones. She had chosen a street of modest mansions with fine steps leading up to each and a door to the servants’ entrance situated at one side beneath the steps with access by its own stone set of steps downward.

Hearing the carriage approach she pressed close to the wall of one of the houses and waited uneasily for the vehicle to pass. She had visions of wayward gentlemen riding in it and dragging her off the sidewalk and into the carriage. Everything terrified her at this late hour on this lonely street. She knew what a fool she had been to run off from her snug quarters at Brenmoor House to brave the threats of the London night. If she had been determined to leave she ought at least to have waited until morning!

Her heart pounded as the hackney cab went past and then, to her alarm, came to a halt a short distance beyond her. She pressed rigidly to the building, expecting someone to jump out and come running to pounce on her. But this did not happen. Instead she heard the sound of slightly drunken but happy male voices and a stout young man in brown coat and top hat stumbled out onto the street and bade goodnight to companions still in the cab. The cab moved on and he waved after it and then, staggering just a trifle, started up the steps to his door, fumbling for his key in his pocket at the same time.

Fanny was watching this small drama when to her horror she saw two sinister figures appear from hiding under the steps, a tall, ugly man in nondescript, ragged clothes and battered cap, and his singular companion, a bow-legged dwarf. The dwarf was wearing a battered stove-pipe hat and a coat too long for him, open and dragging on the ground.

The stout gentleman was still fumbling for his keys when the footpads came up behind him. The tall one quickly seized him by the throat and cut off any chance of his crying out by holding an arm tightly around his victim’s windpipe. At the same time he urged, “Get at it, Snipe!”

Snipe, the dwarf, was dancing with excitement as he quickly went through the stout man’s pockets and thrust all he found in the oversized pockets of his own greatcoat.

“Finished!” the dwarf chortled. It all happened in a matter of a few seconds.

“Better make sure he doesn’t recognize us!” the tall one said hoarsely and to Fanny’s horror took a knife from an inside pocket and plunged it into the stout man’s chest. The stout man went suddenly limp and with a look of ecstasy on his ugly face the tall man let him fall onto the steps.

“Come on!” The dwarf, a macabre figure in the fog-shrouded street, was dancing again, with an expression of fear on his large ape-like face. He had short black whiskers which, along with rows of large white teeth made the simian resemblance all the more strong.

“Right!” the tall man said in a low voice, bending over his victim. “He’s a goner!”

“This way!” Snipe, the dwarf, said tensely. And to Fanny’s horror they started down the street towards where she was standing.

Sick and trembling from what she’d witnessed, she prayed that the fog would hide her sufficiently so that the evil twosome would pass on without seeing her. But it was too much to expect.

The dwarf came running awkwardly towards her on his short bow legs and then suddenly halted with a look of sheer hatred on his big simian face under the battered hat. He turned and in a shrill voice shouted, “Here, Martin! Someone here!”

The tall criminal was just coming down the steps and when he heard his companion’s cry he came sprinting to join the dwarf. Fanny knew she would be dead in a moment if she remained there. She had no choice but to try and make a run for it. Catching up her skirt in one hand and clutching her valise in the other she turned and ran wildly back along the street with no idea where she might be heading.

“Crikey!” the dwarf shouted angrily after her.

“Got to get her!” Martin the murderer cried and dashed after her on the double with the dwarf coming along a poor third.

Fanny knew she could not outrun the tall, rangy Martin. Her only hope was to escape by confusing them. She turned at the first corner and then after racing down a short street turned again. They were not far behind. Then she was conscious of a church ahead and next to it what seemed to be an open field surrounded by an iron railing in which was a gate. She flung open the gate and raced into what she now recognized as a cemetery. She picked her way between the tombstones and finally saw a hedge which seemed to offer a hiding place. She flung herself onto the wet grass and crawled under the hedge to hide between it and the church wall.

She was sobbing now and her breath was coming in painful gasps from her unusual exertion. She’d barely hauled her valise in with her when she heard the footsteps of the murderers as they came running into the cemetery. She fought to silence her agonized breathing, fearful that they would hear her.

Martin, the tall one, gazed around with a menacing look on his coarse face. “I’d have sworn she came in here!” he said.

The dwarf, Snipe, was waddling among the headstones looking for her. He spoke up in his high-pitched voice; “I don’t agree, Martin. A female isn’t likely to come into this place of the dead!”

“No?” Martin eyed him with annoyance.

“She’s not here,” the dwarf said. “She tricked us by leaving the gate open, giving her time to run on.”

“Maybe,” the other one said.

“She’ll be blocks away by now,” the dwarf complained, still searching, and now close by the hedge where she was hiding, close enough so that he could have reached out and touched her. She held her breath and pressed rigidly against the stones of the church wall.

“I got a good look at her,” Martin said. “I’ll know her if I see her again!”

“So did I,” the dwarf said, halting by the big man. “And if we
do
see her again we’d better manage more smoothly than this time. She saw it all! She can put our necks in the hangman’s noose!”

“If we come upon her I’ll not give her time for that,” Martin said grimly. “We’d better get along and divide the swag.”