CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
After leaving the two women with the assurance that something would most certainly be done about Mr Weston, and that they would also find the pair of them a suitable situation as soon as they could, Charles and Verity emerged into a city where the very air seemed a deal more wholesome than that inside the Bridewell.
Verity took a deep breath, savouring the freshness. “Are all prisons like that one?”
Charles gave a short, mirthless laugh. “Most are far worse. At least in the Bridewell women can take their babies with them and the poor have access to medicines. It was good of you to give Susan money for better food.”
“How could I not? I suppose Molly overheard their story when they were in Bow Street. She seems to spend a deal of time there from what she said. She may even have known Captain Eastwick’s aliases, though I cannot believe Kitty does. And Molly did mention Sim’s fancies to me.”
Charles slanted a look down at her. “You should not know anything about such things.”
“If you will not let me help you, it is likely to be the only way I am to find out,” Verity retorted. “But Charles, I thought Mr Weston would be Lieutenant Neville when Susan mentioned him promising to take her to Vauxhall and Ranelagh. I was so surprised it was Captain Eastwick. He seems to like compass names, doesn’t he?”
“Lieutenant Neville?” said Charles with a frown. “Why?”
“He offered to take me there - almost with that same phrase. It was one of the things that annoyed me so much at the Stanhopes’ party.”
“Why did you not tell me?”
“When did I have a chance? You were too busy stealing my heart when we danced and then being noble and staying away from me for days and days.” She could not help colouring as she said this, but he was being so very stubborn that she had to get a response out of him somehow.
“Verity, you are impossible.”
“It is true, nevertheless. Did you not like dancing with me?”
“Very much. I like dancing with you, I like walking with you. I like the feeling of your weight on my arm, but it would be in every way improper for me to take matters further.”
“How so? Uncle James would consider marriage to a sensible, hard-working gentleman eminently rational behaviour. It would solve all our problems in one stroke.”
“Proposing to an impecunious attorney is not rational, however. And if you could refrain from using the word stroke, I would be grateful. May we consider the problem of Captain Eastwick instead?”
“Charles, are you blushing?” asked Verity, charmed.
“Behave,” he said, but his lips twitched and he had to look away from her.
Verity desisted, well pleased with the result of her provocation. “What can we do about Captain Eastwick? Can we lay information ourselves? Charles, has he been boasting to his gambling circle, do you think? Might Lieutenant Neville have overheard him in one of the clubs where he plays cards? The coincidence of that wording is quite extraordinary.”
Charles sighed. “It is possible, he certainly visits a great many establishments during the day according to Scrivener. The drawback to laying information now about his treatment of those young women is that he will deny it and be bound over to appear another day. Then he will disappear and your sister will be looking over her shoulder for the rest of her life.”
Verity nodded soberly. “I see. Is there nothing can we do? We cannot simply leave it, Charles.”
“I have no intention of leaving it. We need to confront him, I think, with plenty of witnesses. While he is distracted, we could get your sister and her little girl away from London. I have a friend who can help us there, a gentleman who on the surface has no connection with either me or you. When do you see Kitty again?”
“They are to visit Mama today.”
“How very fortunate. Then I shall deliver you home now, and perhaps stay for a dutiful nuncheon with my parents.”
“They will be astonished.”
“Unlike my clerk, who has quite given up seeing me in chambers at all. He was complaining yesterday that between me and Mr Tweedie, we might barely make up one full person’s work.”
“Oh dear, I own I was surprised Mr Tweedie spent so long at Kensington with us. He was determined that Mama should not be making an unwise decision.”
“He was more likely trying to avoid his own domestic upsets. His landlady has imported her niece, who has lost her own position. She is a very modern young woman apparently, and comes complete with a husband and young family. It is all being quite a trial and not what he is used to in the least.”
“Poor Mr Tweedie. No wonder he was so eager to dine with us on the day of the fog. Goodness, Charles, we have walked nearly all the way home. We were talking so hard I had not noticed. You are a very comfortable person to walk with, not like Julia who is always looking around and commenting on the people and who is coming out of which house.”
“Unless she is arguing with you and banging into them.”
Verity shuddered. “Oh, pray do not remind me. I do not like him, but I was mortified that Sir Philip thought us thieves. I can still feel his grip on my arms. He was so fast!”
Charles listened to his mother’s discourse with every appearance of interest as he watched Verity, Julia and Kitty converse in quick low voices on the other side of the room. He saw the moment Verity told her sister about Captain Eastwick’s treatment of Susan Norris and Hannah, the Cattsons’ unfortunate maid. Kitty’s face turned ashen and her hand flew to her mouth. It was some minutes before she regained enough command over herself to speak. When she did, Charles could see it was with an effort.
He murmured an excuse to his mother and crossed to where the ladies were sitting.
Verity made a space for him on the sofa without turning to see him approach. “She will come to us,” she said.
Charles nodded. “You have my sympathy, Mrs Eastwick. It is no light thing to discover your husband to be an unprincipled blackguard.”
“I always knew him to be unprincipled,” she replied in a choked voice. “I knew he collected money from these houses, though I thought he passed that on, and I knew what the houses were. How could I not when he has also used me on occasion. I swear I thought the women willing, as others of my friends are. I had not realised him to be so evil towards innocents.” Her throat worked again. “And all for a transient monetary gain, gone on the turn of a card. Ann and I will be ready whenever you send word.”
“You cannot bring much with you,” he warned. “It is important not to arouse his suspicions if he sees things missing from their accustomed place.”
She made a dismissive gesture. “There is little I need to pack. I have not so many good clothes that I will notice their loss. The only important item apart from Ann’s old rag doll is the cookery book Mama gave me when I was to marry Mr Prout. It saved my life. I brought it away with me as a reminder of her when we eloped, but then discovered it to be the most necessary thing I possessed when I found myself with no cook, no maid and no money. It was the only time I let fly at Simon, when I returned from the market one time and found he had taken it to pawn. I screamed at him that if he did not pawn something else and get my Domestic Cookery back - my book, no other one - then he would starve just as surely as me and have nowhere to bring his card-playing friends. I told him the only way that book would leave me again was if I went first, in a coffin.” She gave the ghost of a shrug, her eyes bleak. “I paid the price later, but I got it back.”
Charles did not question her further. “To bring this off with any degree of success neither Verity nor I should be seen to be involved, so it will be a friend of mine who comes for you, and it will be at a time when your husband is not at home. What period of the day is best?”
“He is in and out during the morning, but generally for longer in the afternoon. I used to believe that was when he settled down to fleece young men of their pocketbooks at whist. Now I do not know what to think.”
Verity pressed her hand sympathetically.
“I will tell Nick to keep a watch on your address,” said Charles. “He will give you a codeword, perhaps something to the effect that he is interested in a rare cookery book. Will that suffice?”
Kitty Eastwick nodded. “Will it be soon? It is not that I cannot live a lie for much longer, knowing what I do now - it is that I think Simon is more than usually in need of finance, so his actions may be unpredictable. He asked me yesterday how much Mama would pay us to take Ann and bring her up. I do not dare contemplate what else he might do. If I could leave her here today, I would, but he will be waiting for us on Piccadilly and would doubtless march me straight back here to demand payment should I meet him without her.”
“He would sell his own child? Good God, he is a monster.”
Kitty’s voice became little more than a whisper. “I believe so indeed. He must have loved me once, to have married me with no dowry, but that has long passed.”
“It will be soon,” promised Charles. “Within the week.” He thought for a moment. “I begin to have an idea. I will walk with you when you leave, if I may. I can go that way to my chambers as well as any other. It will do no harm, I think, to reinforce the idea that you are now not without friends.”
“We will come too, as we did before, but we cannot accompany you beyond Bond Street,” said Verity. “He and Julia must not meet or he will realise his history is known.”
“I could wish you both as far away as possible,” said Charles with feeling.
“We will see you soon, I hope,” said Verity at the end of the road. She kissed Ann and hugged her sister.
Kitty returned the embrace. “He is a good man, your Mr Congreve,” she murmured in Verity’s ear. “Do not let him get away.”
“I have no intention of it. He is presently being stubborn and full of pride, but I have every hope of wearing him down.”
They waved them off, and Verity took a moment to admire the straightness of Charles’s back as he walked beside Kitty and Ann.
Julia linked arms with her. “Sometimes Charles can be very blind. I shall be pleased to eventually call you a sister in name, as well as in spirit.”
“He has not even admitted he loves me,” said Verity. “He is being so ridiculous that I begin to doubt he ever will. I believe he wishes Furze House to be settled as much to pack me off there as to provide Kitty with a refuge. Oh Julia, those poor women. How can anyone be treated so cruelly? I keep seeing Hannah’s huddled terrified form in my head.”
Julia looked sombre. “She brought the hot water and the morning tea at the Cattsons’ house. She was not very bright, but she was willing and enjoyed her work. Would she go to Furze House with you, do you think? Would she be content, with Kitty living there? If not, I could ask Mama to give her a place with us.”
“I don’t know. She shook when Charles spoke, as gentle as he is. She would, I think, be happier in a household of women, and happier too, back in the country.” Verity bit her lip. “So many women, Julia, all deceived. How many more might there be? I begin to be sick of London. So much glitter on the surface and misery underneath. I shall be glad to go back to Newmarket. Perhaps when I am no longer within Charles’s vision and causing him trouble every day, he will realise he misses me.”
“It is possible,” said Julia. “Men are unfathomable. It is a wonder they manage to run the world at all. I will miss you though. How am I to carry through all my intrigues without you to scold me into better behaviour?”
“You will simply have to practise restraint, Julia, or I shall return to find the hallway knee-deep in reticules and the street outside littered with the decaying remains of baronets and officers of His Majesty’s army.”
Julia considered this. “It’s not an unattractive prospect...”
Charles made polite conversation after Julia and Verity left them. Scanning ahead, he appreciated the reason for Captain Eastwick choosing Piccadilly as a meeting place. All along the road were gentlemen lounging in doorways or standing idly passing the time in knots of two or three.
“There is Papa,” said Kitty to Ann. And to Charles, “He is in front of Savory and Moore, which strikes me as appropriate. There have been times when I have been tempted to go in and buy up their entire stock of laudanum.” She took a shallow breath. “But no more.”
“He is talking to Freddy,” observed the child. “Freddy is a fast runner, isn’t he? I saw him when we came out of Grandmama’s house.”
“That is not her own house, Ann. She is staying there with a friend. Now remember, you are not to mention anything of our conversation today, except that you helped her sort out her pretty silks and ate a great many bonbons.”
“No, Mama.”
Charles felt a surge of fury at the pinched, adult look on Kitty’s daughter’s face. Children of six should be happy and laughing, not old before their time. “Will you introduce me?” he said abruptly.
“Certainly,” replied Kitty. As they drew level with the chemist’s shop, she stood a little taller and said in a cool, social voice. “There you are, Simon. I wondered if we might see you on our way back. Mr Congreve, might I introduce my husband, Captain Eastwick? Simon, Mr Congreve is the attorney I told you of who is overseeing my sister’s legacy. He is returning to the Temple and very kindly offered to escort us along part of our way.”
“Enchanted,” murmured Charles, managing to sound polite, but harried. “I daresay I will see you again if you are visiting in Grosvenor Street while I am there.” He nodded to Eastwick. “Pleased to make your acquaintance. You will forgive me hurrying off. I have a great many things to attend to, which Miss Bowman’s affairs are unfortunately taking precedence over.”
He resolutely did not look back over his shoulder to see how Eastwick comported himself with his wife, but made his way to his chambers with all despatch. He needed to send a note to Nicholas Dacre, and had also to think up a plan to accidentally meet and distract Eastwick for long enough that Nick might get Kitty safely away. If the man habitually lounged along Piccadilly looking for prey, this might be easier than he had previously thought. On the edge of his consciousness was that earlier, as Julia and Verity had turned to go, Julia had reminded him not to be late to dine. He hadn’t the remotest notion why. It was Verity’s fault, she was invading his every thought and turning him into a tattered semblance of his previously organised self. The sooner she was safely in Newmarket the better. Then he might regain his acceptance of his chosen lot. He determined there and then that if he was engaged to escort them somewhere tonight, he would confine his dealings with her to polite conversation only.
On turning into the building where his chambers were situated, he was so lost in deliberations as to how to achieve this impossible resolve that he ran into a large gentleman striding through the archway just ahead of him.
“Adam!” he cried, belatedly recognising his friend. “By all that’s wonderful. I believe you are the very man I need.”
Adam Prettyman grinned. “That’s flattering. You won’t say it when you know my purpose. Jenny has entrusted me with a great long list of household linen that I am to purchase while I am signing these new leases we discussed.”
Charles waved this away as an irrelevancy. “Verity and Julia have been buying little else for days. We can recruit them to the cause. You, however... How do you fancy reviving your thespian arts and playing a naive country fellow with money in his pocket? There is a certain card-sharp of my acquaintance who would be delighted to relieve you of it.”
“Nothing I should like more. I take it this is not the shadowy gentleman you were telling me of?”
“Sadly no, he remains as concealed within his web as ever. My unsavoury quarry is Verity’s half-sister’s husband. He is a monster who deserves to rot in Newgate for as long as I can keep him there. Come up and I will explain. I must also pen a letter to a friend and check on a report of a gambling den I paid insufficient attention to when I was told of it a few days ago. It strikes me that it might be the very place for my purpose, provided we sit near a door.”
Adam smiled. “You never cease to surprise me, Charles. Tell me, do you get any of your regular work done at all?”
“Not according to my clerk. He has reason. I am particularly distracted at the moment.”
“I am all ears.”