Wicked Godmother (22 page)

‘Lovely!’ said Rainbird. ‘Joseph may deliver this first thing in the morning.’

‘Read it out,’ urged Dave.

The butler read it out; the ladies sighed, but the cook said, ‘He will know it didnae come from her. It lacks elegance.’

Mrs Middleton looked as miserable as a poet who had just been savaged in the
Edinburgh Review
. The others leapt to her defence, and Angus was told to go and put his head in one of his cooking pots.

In the morning, Rainbird, being assured by Jenny that Miss Spencer was up and dressed, scratched at her bedroom door. Rainbird was the only man who had ever appeared on Josephine Spencer’s horizon to make her sometimes regret her spinster state. She liked his sparkling grey eyes and his comedian’s face. She liked his wiry body. She liked the way the butler, without stepping one inch out of line, made her feel like an interesting and attractive lady. So when Rainbird asked her if she would come to the servants’ hall at quarter to ten that evening so that he might ask her sage advice about a personal matter, she readily agreed. When he added that he would rather she did not mention the matter to Miss Metcalf, for although Miss Metcalf was a sterling lady, she did not possess Miss Spencer’s knowledge of the world, Miss Spencer, much intrigued, promised not to tell Harriet.

Dressed in his best livery, Joseph presented the forged letter at the marquess’s town house. Angus MacGregor was right. The marquess did not believe it came from Harriet at all and wondered if Belinda were back in London and plotting mischief. He was about to send it to her with a covering letter, explaining his suspicions, when he thought it might after all be an excuse to see her alone. He knew she was leaving London, and he could not bear the idea of her going without at least having a short word with her in private. The letter would provide a good excuse. He would pretend to believe she had actually written it. As the day went on, the longing to believe she had actually written it overcame his commonsense and as the hour of ten approached, he found he was dithering like a schoolboy, throwing away one mangled cravat after the other until he achieved the desired effect.

Miss Spencer was at first put out to find the servants’ hall full of servants. But Rainbird ushered her up to the housekeeper’s parlour on the half-landing of the backstairs, saying Mrs Middleton had kindly agreed to let them have the use of her room.

The other servants had strict instructions to leave the house as soon as the marquess had been ushered in. Joseph was to be sure to take Beauty with him.

By five to ten, Rainbird had Miss Spencer’s full attention. With a glass of fine claret in her hand, she listened to all the tales of adventure and mayhem that had happened at Number 67. What the butler wanted her advice about, he would no doubt get around to soon. But meanwhile, it was pleasant to sit in the cosy parlour and listen to this amusing and attractive butler. She should be leaving soon, but Harriet would ring the bell in the front parlour and ask for her presence. Miss Spencer settled back to enjoy herself.

The marquess found himself received by Joseph and ushered into the front parlour. Joseph bowed and said he would fetch Miss Metcalf.

He met Harriet on the stairs. She had changed her gown and started in surprise when Joseph said the Marquess of Huntingdon was waiting to speak to her.

‘Miss Spencer is there, I trust?’ said Harriet.

‘Yes,’ said Joseph, reflecting it wasn’t really a lie because Miss Spencer was there in the housekeeper’s parlour and Miss Metcalf had not asked if Miss Spencer was in the front parlour.

Then Joseph ran downstairs and joined the others. Like a little army on the move, they all crept up the area steps, Beauty silenced by a large bone between his jaws, and made their way silently off into the night.

‘My lord!’ exclaimed Harriet when she saw the marquess was alone. ‘Pray be seated while I fetch Miss Spencer.’

Harriet rang the bell beside the fireplace. Rainbird had cut the bell wires in the kitchen so that there would be no jangling noises to make Miss Spencer suspicious.

‘She will be here presently,’ said Harriet, chiding herself for being so nervous. After all, the house was full of servants.

‘I came,’ said the marquess, standing up again and beginning to pace up and down, ‘because I received this odd letter supposed to come from you.’

He turned and held it out.

Harriet read it carefully. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I never wrote it.’

He felt quite flat and miserable.

‘Nonetheless, Miss Metcalf, I am here, and it is the first time I have seen you alone and so I wish to apologize, most sincerely and with all my heart for having attacked you so brutally. Although I did not write that letter, it expresses – rather badly – my own sentiments. I could not bear to see you go without saying farewell.’

‘I had forgiven you a long time ago,’ said Harriet, twisting her hands in her thin muslin gown. She had little blue flowers twined in her hair and looked so virginal and at the same time so very seductive that he realized he must leave quickly before he forgot himself.

‘Miss Metcalf,’ he said, ‘I once proposed to you. I found you . . . attractive . . . more attractive than any lady I have ever known. But I was merely grabbing at you like a spoilt child will grab at sweets. Have no fear that I will press my unwelcome attentions on you again. You are honesty and purity itself, and you are too good to be tied to the likes of me.’

‘You do yourself an injustice, sir,’ said Harriet.

‘It is you, and you alone, who makes me feel like a slavering monster.’

Harriet’s kind heart was touched.

‘I do not think you a monster,’ she said gently. She stood on tiptoe to kiss him on the cheek, moved by a mixture of longing and compassion. But as she made to kiss his cheek, he twisted his head in surprise, and the kiss landed full on his mouth. He desperately tried to control himself, but his arms went around her like steel bands, and he buried his mouth deep in hers, kissing her desperately, pulling that soft pliant body tight against his own. Caught up in his own dizzying and roaring passion, he was unaware that the once chaste lips under his own were parting, that the body against his was pulsating and throbbing.

With a sudden cry he broke free. ‘Forgive me!’ he cried and strode to the door.

‘Huntingdon!’ shrieked Harriet, catching at his sleeve. ‘You cannot leave me. Kiss me again.’

He picked her up in his arms. His face swam before her own before his mouth came down on hers again and one long hand came round to close over her breast.

‘Harriet!’ Miss Spencer jumped to her feet. ‘I heard Harriet cry out.’

‘It was someone in the street, my little love,’ said Rainbird.

Miss Spencer stood and looked at him open-mouthed, wondering whether she had heard the endearment or had just imagined it. Rainbird sent up a prayer to the god of love to give him courage. All he needed was the strength to last the next half hour. Surely by that time the couple upstairs would have got around to resolving something.

‘I am a humble servant, Miss Spencer. I am married,’ lied Rainbird. ‘My poor wife lives in the country, and although I do not love her, I cannot desert her.’

‘But servants cannot marry,’ said Miss Spencer.

‘I married very young, before I came into service,’ Rainbird went on. ‘I knew you were leaving soon and . . . and . . . I wished a little of your company. If you are disgusted by my presumption, please leave.’

‘Oh, Rainbird.’ Miss Spencer sighed, moving towards him, her arms outstretched. ‘How could I leave you now?’

‘I can never leave you, Harriet,’ the marquess was saying. ‘I do not wish to frighten you with my lovemaking, but you must marry me.’

Harriet buried her face in his chest and said shyly, ‘Oh, Huntingdon, the force of my feelings for you frightens me!’

The besotted marquess kissed her again, and again, and again.

Somehow, they descended to the floor, their mouths still locked. And then after kissing her practically senseless, the marquess rose on one elbow to gaze down fondly on his beloved’s face, and that was when Harriet felt a gentle breeze from the window moving across her bared breast.

‘We are quite mad,’ she said, sitting up and hitching her gown onto her shoulders again.

‘Josephine will be here any moment.’

‘We will be married soon?’ he said.

‘Yes,’ said Harriet. ‘Very soon.’

He stood up and lifted her to her feet and tenderly helped her to straighten her ruffled hair.

‘Then we shall be respectable till then,’ he said. He listened to the abnormal silence of the house, and then he laughed.

‘I know who wrote that letter, my sweeting. You have the best servants in the world.’

‘Perhaps Josephine – Miss Spencer . . . ?’

‘No, she disapproves of men such as I, and she would disapprove of you, my sweet, if she could see your abandon!’

The servants of Clarges Street sat out under the stars in the Green Park and wondered how Rainbird was faring and whether their plan had worked. Beauty lay snoring with his head on Lizzie’s lap.

‘It has been a lovely Season,’ said Lizzie softly. ‘I feel different. It makes you feel different, being educated. I can read most of the newspaper now.’

‘You’ll be going off and leaving us,’ said Joseph. ‘And who cares? Not me anyhow.’

Lizzie smiled a little smile and leaned forward and put her hand over Joseph’s. He covered her hand with his other hand and glared up at the stars. He looked very angry, but he did not release her hand.

‘D’ye think we’ll ever get our freedom?’ sighed Alice. ‘Me and Jenny had ever such a nice pair of fellers interested in us at Brighton. But they was soldiers with no money, nohow, so how’s they going to keep us? Not that they even mentioned marriage. Still, it would be rare to be able to walk out with a handsome chap, don’t you reckon, Jenny?’

‘Well, one of yis can marry me when we get our pub,’ said Angus MacGregor, and that sent them all into gales of laughter, particularly when Angus said he would settle for any of them.

‘Mr Rainbird says another Season like this ’un, and we’ll be well on the way to getting that pub,’ said Dave. ‘What’ll we call it?’

They all settled down to their favourite discussion – naming the pub – while back at Number 67, Rainbird strove manfully to keep Miss Spencer occupied, and the Marquess of Huntingdon kept trying to tell himself he could leave after one more kiss . . . and another . . . and another.

The end of the Season. Miss Spencer was the first to leave. Harriet was leaving later in the day to stay with the marquess’s parents, the Duke and Duchess of Parveter.

Harriet and the servants stood outside on the step to wave good-bye to Miss Spencer.

Miss Spencer gave Harriet a hug, then she shook hands with the servants in a mannish way, and then she turned to the butler.

‘Good-bye, Rainbird,’ she said. Her eyes had a warm glow, and her leathery face softened as she looked at him. ‘Thank you . . . oh, thank you for everything.’

Rainbird looked at her, turned a little away from the other servants, and to her amazement, Harriet saw one of his eyelids droop in a wink.

Then in the afternoon it was Harriet’s turn to go. She had tried to take Lizzie with her, promising her the post of lady’s maid, but with many tears Lizzie had refused. She knew the others would stay together, and she wanted to be with them when they all managed to gain their freedom.

They were flattered and delighted to receive not only a purse of sovereigns from the marquess but a warm hand-shake all round. Harriet was handed into the carriage with Beauty, who was chewing up shreds of silk after having torn off the ribbon Harriet had placed about his neck. The marquess stood with one foot on the steps, looking at the servants all lined up. His eyes moved from one face to another and then came to rest on that of Mrs Middleton.

‘An excellent letter, Mrs Middleton,’ he said. ‘You certainly put your heart into it.’

Mrs Middleton let out a surprisingly girlish giggle and buried her face in her hands.

The carriage turned the corner into Piccadilly. They waved until it had completely disappeared and then trailed into the house, feeling let down and dejected.

There were beds to be aired and covers to be brought out and furniture to be shrouded.

And then there were the old prayers to be said, the ones they said at the end of every Season.

‘Thank you, Lord, for this Season’s tenant. Please send us a tenant for the next.’