CHAPTER TEN
Charles turned to Verity, conscious of a reluctance to spoil the camaraderie of the last hour. “What was is it you wished to tell me?”
“Oh, so much, Charles. I hardly know where to start. Some of it might have been a little foolish, so please, you will not shout at me so very loud and bring the servants in?”
“I shall attempt to restrain myself,” he promised, shaken by the troubled look on her face. “Come, sit close by and tell me. Why, for instance, were you out quite alone?”
As she poured out the circumstances of Mrs Bowman’s headache that had evidently passed, Bridget’s illness, Bedford House, the crowd, the phaeton race and the little girl falling, Charles was visited by the habitual creeping disbelief at how these things always happened to Verity. Then she reached Kitty, and Kitty’s husband, and his attention sharpened. By the time she had got to Molly Turner and the walk through thick fog in one of the more notorious parts of London, he had ceased to smile at all.
“God’s tears, Verity, do you know how lucky you were?”
“I didn’t then, but telling it over, I do now,” she said in a small voice. “I’m sorry, Charles. This is worse than the time Julia and I set the bear free because we felt sorry for it being chained the whole time at the fair, isn’t it?”
“It approaches it. If you see your friend Molly again, which I devoutly hope and pray you will not, but from previous experience you probably will, you may tell her she has an attorney for life.”
“It was that bad?”
“It could have been. You have no idea, Verity. And yes, I do see, as you are about to observe, that one instance led to another and you could not have done anything else. You might, however, have asked them in Layton & Shears to hail a hackney for you.”
“But then I should not have met Kitty! I realise now I should have taken more notice of her house. Or I should perhaps have requested that Captain Eastwick set me on the right road back.”
Cold shot through Charles. “No,” he said slowly. “No I begin to believe not doing that may have been one of your better decisions.”
She slanted an intelligent look up at him. “Is it because of what Molly said? He is one of those who dominates every room he is in and I own I did not feel comfortable with him. Something had evidently happened to overset him because he was very agitated when he first came through the door. The change in him on seeing me was quite remarkable.”
“You are quick. Yes, there are two things your Molly said that interest me considerably.”
“I am to meet Kitty tomorrow morning. I can ask her for Molly’s direction.”
Charles made an involuntary movement of protest. “I cannot stop you seeing your sister, Verity, but neither do I like the scheme. The fact that she is uneasy enough about her situation to propose the meeting in a clandestine manner bothers me considerably.”
“But Charles, I must see her again. I want her and Ann to come back with us to Newmarket.”
“You cannot abduct a man’s wife and child, however good your intentions and however dubious you suspect that man to be.”
“I can suggest it to her though. And Charles, I think you want to talk to her, do you not? Her and Molly both.”
“Dammit, Verity, how do you do that?”
She laid a hand on his. “Because I am not stupid. Do you think we women never talk together? I learnt from Jenny months ago about you winning Adam Prettyman’s West Indian actor at cards and setting him free. Even before we went to Bow Street I knew you did other work away from Mr Tweedie’s chambers. There has always been a passion for justice within you, Charles. When we were growing up I heard how you thrashed Edward Coalville when he took a stick to the boot boy. That was not the only time you insisted on righting wrongs yourself. It makes me annoyed when people disparage you for being ‘just an attorney’ when there is very much more to you than that. If you wish to pretend otherwise, then by all means do so, but do not expect me to fall in with it. You are who you are. Do not try to prevent me playing my part to help.”
“Even though you were frightened today?”
“Because I was frightened today. I do not like to think other ladies might also feel like that, and with better reason.”
Charles felt a helpless rush of admiration for this infuriating, headstrong, naive-yet-knowing girl. No, not a girl. She was a woman grown.
“May I accompany you to Newton’s tomorrow?” he said at last. “I will not interfere with your conversation, but I should like very much to know if anyone is watching your sister. And if they are, I would not entirely object to them knowing you yourself have a protector.”
“Thank you,” she said meekly. “Would you also like me to write a note to Lilith, asking that her brother accompany us to Somerset House tomorrow afternoon?”
He spread his hands in exasperation. “It seems you know my business better than I do. By all means let Fitz and I be bored together.”
She gave him an impish smile. “Then I shall do so. Heavens, we had best wash. Mama and Mr Tweedie will be down soon to dinner. Do you think he will be scandalised if I change into a gown with a little more colour? I believe I will still be able to smell the fog on this one if Bridget airs it for a week.”
“I am perfectly sure he will think you charming whatever you wear.”
“You have been very nicely brought up, Charles,” said Verity. “Thank you for listening to me. You have no notion how much better I feel.” She squeezed his hand and kissed him lightly on the cheek before hastening upstairs.
Charles sat a moment more on the sofa. His hand crept to his face as if to imprison the gossamer touch. Oh Verity. Oh Lord. Now what do I do?
Dinner was over, backgammon had been played, tea had been drunk and Charles was only waiting for his father to return before escorting Mr Tweedie home through the fog. He had, considered Verity, been thoroughly amiable throughout the evening. She had been particularly diverted by the polite determination of both gentlemen to beat the other hollow at backgammon whilst deprecating the sad fall of the dice on their opponent’s part.
A confusion of noise at the front door announced not only Mr Congreve’s arrival, but also that of Mrs Congreve and Julia. It appeared Charles’s father had gone to Richmond for the express purpose of escorting his wife and daughter home. Amidst the lamentations regarding the weather and the protestations of gratitude for their rescue from dullness, Verity found her hand being pressed by Charles with a murmured confirmation that he would be here in the morning for their appointment.
“I will be ready,” she promised. “Thank you for staying. I enjoyed the evening, but I hope it did not put you out very much.”
He smiled. “There was no way I would rather have spent the time.”
She followed her mother upstairs for the night, still delighted by the change in her. “That was such a pleasant evening, Mama,” she said, perching on her mother’s bed. “I had no idea Mr Tweedie could be so entertaining.”
“He always was a dear man.”
“I have never seen you so cheerful either. You seemed almost translated.”
“I feel translated. I have remembered who I was.” Her mother sat in front of the mirror and looked at Verity in the glass with a kind of rueful wonder. “So many years, Verity. So much weight on me, a layer at a time, I didn’t even realise it was happening. Talking to George Tweedie has reminded me of the person I used to be.”
“The person you used to be when?” asked Verity, wrinkling her brow.
“Before I married.” She turned, looking at her daughter directly. “Mr Bowman was not my first choice as a husband. The gentleman George and I were speaking of this evening, your uncle’s great friend, Will Lawrence. He and I were engaged. He was on his way to ask his grandmother if she would give us her blessing to make the betrothal public when...” Mrs Bowman broke off, then rallied. “When he was set upon by highwaymen and killed.”
“Oh Mama...”
“After that, I did not care much whom I wed. Perhaps I should have held out a little longer but... your grandmother has a strong personality.”
It was the closest she had ever come to admitting she had made a mistake. Verity was forcibly reminded of Kitty’s words. I made my own bed. “Mama, I saw Kitty today,” she said abruptly. “It was so unexpected. I am to meet her again tomorrow. I do not believe she is happy. May I try to persuade her to come to us?”
Mrs Bowman was pulled out of her reflections. “Kitty? Why yes! A thousand times, yes. Verity, this is wonderful. How did you come to meet her? Is she well?”
“I don’t know. She is thinner and older, but still beautiful. She is warier than she used to be, I think. I had very little time with her before Captain Eastwick came in. Mama, she has a little girl who looks just like her. She is called Ann.”
Verity’s mother’s hand went to her breast. Tears stood in her eyes. “She named her daughter for me?” she whispered. “Why, then, did she never write?”
“She says she did. I told her we did not receive the letters. Charles is to go with me in the morning to talk to her. I do not know if it will be possible, or even if she will want to, but I will bring her back if I can.”
“Kitty!”
“Verity. You came.”
“Not floods, snow or thunderstorms would have kept me away.” Even as she embraced her sister, Verity noticed how Kitty’s wary gaze went to Charles. “Do you remember Charles Congreve?” she continued. “Julia’s brother? He insisted on accompanying me after my adventures of yesterday. I will tell you about them presently.”
“I... yes. How pleasant to meet you again.”
Verity registered the scurry of calculation in her sister’s face. Seven years had made so much difference in her. “I have told Mama. She begs me say that you must come to her immediately, you and Ann, if you so wish. I did not ask yesterday, you have only the one child?”
“That is kind of her, and more than I deserve. Yes, I only have Ann. I have quickened twice since bearing her, but... but it was not to be. I am not sorry for it. Ann’s birth was very hard. Oh, how I longed for my mother then.”
“Then you will come to us?”
A shadow came over Kitty’s face. Her arm tightened protectively around her daughter. “I do not think I can,” she said in a low voice. “Simon would find us. He cares little for me now, except as a convenience and to be useful to him, but he has a clear idea of what is his. Perhaps I might send Ann. I am fearful for her the whole time. I thought her too young for his schemes, but he has been in such a strange way recently that I believe he might grasp at anything.”
Charles spoke for the first time. “If your husband is violent or is cruel, you have the right to leave him.”
“Rights have very little place in Simon’s world,” said Kitty bleakly. “He has a powerful personality and we are possessions. If we could escape clean away I would do so in a heartbeat, but he has acquaintance everywhere. He would find us. And then he would use Ann against me.”
Verity exchanged a troubled look with Charles. “The offer remains open,” she said, “and Mama does dearly wish to see you and Ann with as much dispatch as possible. Could I write a note, perhaps, asking you to call? Would that satisfy Captain Eastwick? If I made it clear that it was a social visit?”
Again there was deliberation in Kitty’s eyes. “I daresay I will pay for the privilege, but yes, an invitation has the most likely chance of success. I very much wish to see her again - and to ask her forgiveness.”
“Then I will do so as soon as I return and I will have it sent around. Oh, Kitty, I had such a foolish adventure yesterday. I turned wrong after leaving you and found myself quite lost in the fog. By the most fortunate chance I met a lady who put me right. Molly Turner, her name is. She said she knew you. I liked her enormously.”
Her sister’s face lightened. “Molly? Well, if that isn’t just like you, Verity. You could not have found anyone better. Molly and her mother were my neighbours when I was in Water Street.”
Charles frowned at the name.
Kitty glanced at him quickly. “You know the area? Yes, naturally you do. In those early years I became only too accustomed to moving from place to place in a quest for cheaper situations. Water Street was the worst. While we were there, Simon went away to find work. I was close to birthing Ann and frantic with fear - but Molly saw to all. She was with me throughout and showed me how to go on. I was so grateful. I would have been dead without her and her mother, I am sure. I can never repay her. A month later Simon returned with money in his pocket and we moved to better rooms, but I remained friends with Molly.”
“As well you are not still there,” said Charles, a grim set to his voice. “Even the authorities fear to go into the Alsatia district. It is a desperate place.”
“It is all of that. We have never been in quite such bad straights since. Simon follows a pattern of sorts. Every now and again he goes away for three or four weeks and returns in funds. For a while he lives like a king and then he gambles it away. He is not a weak man, but everything is always the present with him. He has no notion of setting coin aside against the future. I learnt very soon never to scratch together any savings. He would take it and spend it and never think that there would be no money for food or coal. Now I keep just enough to live on, and instead lay in frippery.” She waved a hand at the counters around them. “Small feminine items like handkerchiefs, ribbons, belts - little things that I can pawn for the price of a meal.”
“Is he in business, your husband?” asked Charles. “He is evidently not a serving soldier.”
“No, he... he has interests that bring in money,” said Kitty. “He does business near the docks. He buys and sells. He undertakes commissions. Sometimes these take him out of town. I don’t ask about them. He... brings people together and he also has power over them.”
“Power?” asked Charles.
“Everything, every scrap of knowledge is currency in his book. He mines it, and reuses it. I told you he is a gambler. If he would only limit himself to cards and not games of chance, we would be comfortable, for he is skilled at anything requiring memory and the foibles of others.” She grimaced. “The men he plays with are not so fortunate. There have been many over the years. He has that air of dominance and recklessness that attracts followers. For a long while he would run card games at home, but he has been more particular these past several months about keeping his business away from the house. I do not know why, but I am grateful for it.” She swallowed. “He thrives on victory and has no compassion. It was not pleasant to see his opponents crushed, handing over everything they possessed.”
Verity was feeling nauseous at the picture her sister painted. What a life Kitty must have been living.
Charles looked grave. “Mrs Eastwick, you realise I am an attorney?”
Her expression was frank. “I do. Your name is not unknown amongst my acquaintance. I wondered if you were the same Mr Congreve that Verity used to know, but I didn’t see how you could be. Pay-me-later, they call you, do they not? I regret to say Simon thinks of you and your kind as saps, to give your time for no reward. I also know that even unpaid, you help those who are unable to help themselves. It is why I am talking so freely, though my own situation is beyond aid. I readily admit I was fascinated by Simon. I married him of my own free will - indeed, I could have done naught else - so I have no rights, but I would be rid of this life, Mr Congreve. Scales fall slowly, but they do fall. I have done things out of desperation that I cannot relate out of shame. I thought there was no way out.”
“Kitty,” began Verity.
Kitty’s face softened as she looked at her. “That is what I thought. Then yesterday Verity appeared in front of me and cracked open a hole in my world. If there is a means of escape, and if above all things I can keep Ann safe, I will take it. It worries me, though, that Simon will hear of me talking to you, even here in a linen-draper’s shop. He has eyes and ears everywhere and as I said, you are not unknown.”
“Then tell your husband the truth,” said Verity. “That I have an inheritance from my uncle, but in order to receive it, I must prove to the executors that I can spend six months in a rational manner. Poor Charles, it is the greatest bore for him to be forced to accompany me on a daily basis. You can, perhaps, mention how irritable he looked as I pored over lengths of linen for curtaining or the table and what a waste of time he clearly thought it.” She smiled up at Charles as she spoke, and was amused to see him return her a haughty look.
“Tedious in the extreme,” he agreed. He turned away and dropped his voice. “Mrs Eastwick, your friend Molly mentioned a certain word that you may know. A name, I believe it to be, though she did not say it as such. It is not in any way a condition on my helping you, but I would know more if it is in either your or her power to tell me.”
Kitty became a shade paler. “I know very little except the name, but it is one my husband is chary of. Please, I cannot say more. No one can.”
“Then do not,” said Verity. “I will write a note of invitation today and send it. Do call tomorrow, if you can. Mama is so much longing to see you and Ann.”
“And I her. I will come. Now that I have talked to you, I am determined. I will tell Simon I have hopes of her sponsoring Ann to an education such as your godmother gave you.” She gave a bitter laugh. “It extends the fiction between us that all is well. I cannot stay talking any longer, I’m sorry. Ann and I must get to the market to bargain for ingredients for today’s broth.”
“We should also leave,” said Verity. “I am being thrown fulminating glances from the clerk at the handkerchief counter. I helped a child escape yesterday morning. He had taken a handkerchief and I could not see him sent to the gallows.” She embraced her sister, feeling the thinness of her body and the sharp angles of her bones, and raised her voice. “Dearest Kitty, so strange to see you again, twice in two days. I could talk forever, so much as we have to catch up on, but I am promised to my friend for a visit to the paintings at Somerset House and we have already been out longer than I said.” She embraced Ann too and then turned blindly to go.
Outside, Charles offered his arm. “Verity?”
“Charles, I cannot abandon her. I cannot. We have to save her.”
His voice was strong and deep and utterly confident. “We will.”