He gave me an odd look. "You all right, sir?"
"Just tired. And powerfully hungry. Did Anton not say he would make something for my supper?"
Bartholomew's brow wrinkled. "That was two days ago, sir."
"What?" I tried to sit up. My head spun, and I held it.
"Two days you've been in bed, sir. Sick as a blind cow, sir."
I fingered the linen nightshirt I did not remember putting on. "Hell," I said feelingly. "I need a bath. And a shave." My stomach growled. "Food first, I think."
"I'll bring you a tray, sir, and hot water. And, oh-- " He dipped his fingers inside his waistcoat. "A letter, sir."
"From Grenville?" I reached for it.
"No, sir. I wrote him your note, about the canals and Mr. Fletcher, like you said, and I added that you were sick and wouldn't return until you felt better. He answered saying he'd look into the matter and to give you a tonic, but nothing since yesterday."
I had half-expected Grenville to come rushing back to London to find out what was wrong with me, or ask me what the devil I meant about canals and Fletcher, but perhaps he'd realized it was best to stay and wait for my return.
I rubbed my face again. "Then who sent the letter?"
"A lady, sir."
"Mrs. Brandon?" I asked.
He read from the direction on the folded page. "Viscountess Breckenridge." He tossed it into my lap, then went into the hall and shouted for someone to fetch me hot water and coffee.
I opened the letter. It was a formal invitation, addressed to me, informing me that Lady Breckenridge was hosting a musicale at eleven o'clock on the evening of March 16th, and would I attend?
"What day is it, Bartholomew?" I asked as he began to fill the shaving basin with steaming water from a kettle.
"Sunday the sixteenth of March, sir. The year of our lord, 1817."
I studied the invitation again. "Can you make me presentable? And get me to South Audley Street by eleven o'clock?"
"You sure you're feeling all right, sir?"
"Perfectly fine," I said. The fever had left me and now I was only restless and very hungry.
"I will endeavor, sir," Bartholomew said as he stropped my razor. "I'll shave you now, sir, while Anton fixes your dinner."
*** *** ***
Donata Anne Catherine St. John, nee Pembroke, was known better to me by her title, the viscountess Breckenridge. She lived in South Audley Street, enjoyed the comforts of a vast fortune given to her by both her father and her late husband, and moved among the most fashionable people. Tonight it pleased her to host a musicale in order to introduce a young Italian tenor to the London ton.
I was still tired from my illness, but curiosity made me answer her invitation. I walked to the house, ignoring Bartholomew's bleats of protest about traveling there on foot. I was tired of the stuffy indoors and wanted to clear my head, the night was clear, and South Audley Street was not far from Grosvenor Street. Besides all that, my daily rides in the country had strengthened my muscles, and I wanted the joy of using them.
The door of Lady Breckenridge's house was opened by a liveried footman. Her butler, Barnstable, stood beyond him and gave me a smile of pleasure when he saw me. "Captain Lacey, welcome. How is your leg?"
"Much better," I said.
I'd hurt my weak leg badly earlier this spring, and Barnstable had given me his cure--scalding hot towels and a concoction of mint and other oils that had done my muscles well. Barnstable was proud of it.
"Excellent, sir," he beamed.
He led me upstairs through Lady Breckenridge's very exquisite, very modern, very white house.
The musicale was being held in a drawing room on the first floor. Double doors had been opened between front and back rooms, rendering them one large, high-ceilinged rectangle. A harp stood before rows of chairs, and a plump woman was plucking the harp's strings, sending tiny strains of music over the crowd.
Lady Aline Carrington, a spinster of fifty, and like Lady Breckenridge, a believer in women speaking their minds, presented the tenor to me. Lady Breckenridge stood next to them, dressed in a white silk high-waisted gown and holding an ostrich feather fan. Her only adornment was a necklace of diamonds, and her dark hair was pinned into innumerable coils.
The tenor's name was Enzio Vecchio, and he had only recently reached England from Milan. I bowed to him politely. He gave me a bored glance and mouthed a greeting.
"Mr. Vecchio will take London by storm, Captain," Lady Breckenridge said, her shrewd gaze on me. "You will shortly comprehend why."
Mr. Vecchio cast a fond glance upon Lady Breckenridge. "Only because you, dear lady, will make it so."
Lady Aline, behind him, looked at the ceiling. Lady Breckenridge took his fawning without changing expression. "Captain Lacey has shaken the country dirt from his boots to join us," she told him.
I made a brief show of studying my boots, then I replied, "For a short time only, my lady. I believe the boots will be thick with mud again in a day's time."
She deigned to smile at this feeble witticism. Lady Aline snorted. Vecchio only stared at me. Lady Breckenridge slipped her hand under Vecchio's arm and guided him off to other eagerly waiting guests.
As I watched the white-gowned Lady Breckenridge walk away on the arm of the black-garbed gentleman, I experienced a dart of annoyance. The annoyance bothered me. Why should it matter if Lady Breckenridge paraded about with a very young, black-haired Italian? It should not matter to me in the slightest.
But it did matter, and that bothered at me.
Lady Aline broke my thoughts. "Let us find chairs, Lacey, before we're forced to stand like rubes in the back of the room." She took my arm with strong fingers and more or less shoved me toward two empty chairs. Politely, I settled her, and asked if I could bring her lemonade.
"I am not thirsty," she said. "I've drunk tea with Lady Breckenridge and her callers all afternoon." She patted the chair beside her. "Sit down, dear boy. I always welcome a chance to speak to you. Your conversation is intelligent. You do not say what you are expected to say."
I smiled and took my seat. "A high compliment, one I am happy to accept from you."
"Never mind the Spanish coin," she said sternly, though she looked pleased. "Donata is no fool; Vecchio's voice is quite fine. Have you heard it?"
I shook my head. "I have been buried in the country since the Season began. I have heard nothing but the bleating of sheep and the shouting of schoolboys."
"How idyllic."
"Not really. Early, noisy mornings, cold draughts at breakfast."
"And murder." She tapped my arm with her fan. "I will not forgive you for not mentioning it in your letters. I had to hear the news from Louisa."
"It is rather sordid. Nothing a lady need hear."
"Do not be ridiculous. I enjoy sordid things. But are you not in danger? Louisa says you do not believe the Romany did it. You never do."
I suppose she meant that I never liked the easiest solution. "Things are not as straightforward as they seem."
In fact, they were a muddle in my brain. The fever had not helped.
"I want to hear the entire story from you, you know," Lady Aline said. "I wanted to tell you that Hungerford, and canals, reminded me of something. There is someone I believe you should speak to."
I turned to her, alert. But just then, the crowd quieted as Vecchio walked past the chairs to the front of the room.
"I will tell you later," Lady Aline hissed.
I curbed my impatience and turned to watch Vecchio take his position near the harp. Lady Breckenridge had seated herself in the first row of chairs. Ostrich feathers drifted back and forth as she slowly fanned herself.
The woman at the harp, whom I did not know, introduced Mr. Vecchio as a new prodigy with the voice of an angel.
The prodigy was little above twenty years old. His black-eyed stare as it roved the room told me he did not think much of his audience--middle-aged women in finery, overdressed gentlemen, bored debuta
ntes--waiting to be entertained. Vecchio needed their approval if he would make a career, but he seemed to hold them in contempt.
The harpist played a few strains. The tenor opened his mouth, and then all contempt vanished.
So did the audience's boredom. From Vecchio's lips came sounds as sweet as any I had ever heard. His voice soared, filling the room with music, shaking the very beams of the ceiling, then it dipped to sounds soft and true as a lover's whisper.
As he sang, the music swept away the remaining mists of my fever. The sadness in my heart, the painful indecision about my wife and daughter, did not leave me, but the sounds touched my soul in a way nothing else had in a long while.
I sat as one entranced. I was sorry Grenville could not be here--he who loved all things beautiful would have been enraptured by Vecchio's voice.
I was not the only one moved. Next to me, Lady Aline blew her nose into a large handkerchief. The lady seated before me wiped her cheeks, and a tear trickled from the corner of her husband's eye.
The beauty of his voice was incredible. He wound to the height of the aria, holding one note high and clear that had us all trembling on the edges of our seats. Then he brought the note down, gave a rousing crescendo, and ended the piece with a flourish of his hand.
For a moment, the crowd sat in stunned silence. Then as one, we burst into applause that shook the room.
The young man closed his mouth, and the magic vanished. He became a petulant youth again, despising the crowd who cheered him.
He entranced us with two more pieces, each still more beautiful than the last, then he made his final bow, and the entertainment was over.
Thunderous applause surrounded him as he stood quietly after his last aria. The harpist, too, clapped her hands, eyes glowing, cheeks pink. The crowd then surged to surround him, each guest vying to get near him.
I did not join the throng. I helped Lady Aline to her feet and reminded her of our conversation before the music started. "You mentioned Hungerford," I said. "Said you were reminded of something."
"Your keenness of mind amazes me, Lacey," Lady Aline said with a smile. "You never forget anything. A friend of mine was complaining of canals to me earlier this week. He is here tonight; let me find him."
I followed Lady Aline while she craned her head to look over the sea of people surrounding Vecchio. She used her bulk and a few loud-voiced "I beg your pardons" to move us through the crowd toward the door.
A tall, thin man stood near the open doorway, conversing with a few ladies who had either already greeted Vecchio or did not want to fight the throng to do so. The man had a long face that matched his long body, and a self-deprecating smile. No one, that smile said, can be as great a fool as I can be.
Lady Aline greeted the gentleman fondly, then turned to me. "Captain Lacey, I would like to introduce an old and dear friend, Mr. Lewis. He is a writer."
Lewis held out a long-fingered hand to me. "Not the famous 'Monk' Lewis, alas," he said. "I am Jonathan Lewis, writer of books for youths. Have you read my Boy in the Yorkshire Dales by any chance?"
I shook my head. "I am afraid I have not."
He regarded me sadly. "The story is poignant, quite poignant, or so my publisher tells me. But young men, Captain, do not want poignancy. They want daring adventure and harrowing escapes, and a bit of skirt does not hurt, either. Oh, I do beg your pardon, dear Aline."
Aline looked amused, not offended. "Captain Lacey is staying in Sudbury, near Hungerford."
Lewis' expression changed from sadness to vast irritation. "Oh, my dear, do not speak to me of Hungerford. Hungerford, heart of my sorrow, fount of my madness. Speak to me not of Hungerford."
I hid a smile. "I found it an atmospheric little town."
"Oh, yes, atmosphere. Old England and all that. I've never been there, myself."
I was mystified.
"Explain yourself, for heaven's sake, Lewis," Lady Aline prompted.
Mr. Lewis shook his head, sighed theatrically. "An evil man did me an evil turn. ‘Give me your money, Mr. Lewis,’ he said. ‘I will make you rich.’ Such a declaration was too much for a writer of stories to resist. Alas, I should have remembered Swindler Tom in A Boy's Days on the Cornwall Coast. Tom came to a bad end, as well he should. But this time, it was I who came to the bad end."
My pulse quickened. "How is this related to Hungerford?"
"Canals, my dear Captain. ‘Invest in canals,’ he told me. ‘It is the future of England.’ ‘It is England's past,’ I said. Canals are everywhere. ‘But these canals will connect other canals, and we shall prosper.’ And so I gave him the money." He shook his head mournfully. "I lost all of it, Captain. Every last farthing."
"An offshoot canal that would stretch from Hungerford north," I said excitedly. "An offshoot that never happened, or never was intended to happen."
"Alas, no. I was a fool. Good God, do not tell me you invested, too? We are fools together, then."
"Who was this man?" I asked. "The one who asked for your money?"
"A friend." Lewis' long face grew longer still. "Or I'd thought him a friend. We had fellow feeling, I thought . . . struggling to live by the thing we loved most."
He looked across the room, as though thinking deeply on the follies of following one's heart.
"His name?" I prompted.
Lewis sighed. "A Latin scholar. A dear friend. By name of Fletcher."
"Simon Fletcher," I responded, staring.
"Yes," said Lewis. "That's the chap."
Thoughts whirled in my brain. ‘Ask Fletcher about canals,’ was the message I'd told Bartholomew to send to Grenville.
Bartholomew had obeyed. My breathing grew sharp. What had I done?
"Lady Aline," I said abruptly. "Mr. Lewis. Good night, I must away."
"What, now?" Lady Aline's brows climbed.
"At once. Please thank Lady Breckenridge for the invitation. It was most enjoyable."
I babbled a few more phrases and got myself out of the room. As I hurried away, I heard Lewis' lugubrious voice behind me. "Goodness. Who was that rude chap?"
*** *** ***
It occurred to me as I hastened down the stairs and sent the footman scurrying for my coat that Grenville probably had not come to any harm as a result of my slowness--if he had, I would likely have heard of it by now. Grenville was famous enough so that all newspapers in England would report anything untoward happening to him.
Even so, I worried about him staying alone at Sudbury. I needed to get myself back there and seek out Simon Fletcher. At once.
I heard a step behind me, but it was not the footman with my coat. I turned to see Lady Breckenridge glide downstairs and across the cool black-and-white hall toward me.
I was in a hurry, but I was not displeased that she'd come after me.
"You are leaving?" she asked as she reached me. "I know it cannot be disapproval of the entertainment that drives you away. You have enough sensibility that Vecchio's music could not help but touch you."
I nodded. "He is astonishing, yes. You are right. He will take London by storm."
She smiled, but with a tightness about her eyes. "Why flee, then?"
"I have business in Sudbury. I must go there at once."
Her brows arched. "In the middle of the night?"
"That cannot be helped. I will reach Sudbury by dawn."
Lady Breckenridge placed a gloved hand on my arm. "Several of my guests are commenting on your abrupt departure."
"Please give my apologies to any I annoyed." I glanced up the stairs. "You do not have to see me off. Your tenor must be waiting for you." If I put a touch more acid in my voice than usual, I hoped she did not notice.
She made a face. "He is wallowing in adulation. Vecchio is brilliant, but he was spoiled and petted in Milan. Londoners will take a certain amount of rudeness, but if he is rude to the Prince Regent, he will be out, no matter how lovely his voice. He must learn this."
I tried to make a joke. "It will be as well, t
hen, if I never meet the Prince Regent."
She did not smile. "No, I do not believe he would like you."
The footman was taking a dashed long time looking for my coat. Lady Breckenridge made no move either to summon him or to return to her guests.
"I enjoy receiving your letters," I remarked, for lack of anything else to say.
Her brows lifted. "Really? I thought you'd find them a bit pointed for your taste. Yours, as I observed, are quite dull. You even made the murder sound dull."
"I know," I said. "I have not the wit for writing. Not like Mr. Lewis."
She gave me an odd look then burst into laughter. I'd never heard her laugh before, not truly. It had a warm sound. "You do have wit," she said. "You simply show it to very few people."
"There are very few who care to hear it."
"Perhaps," she said, her fingers tightening on my arm, "you will include me in those few."
Our gazes met. From upstairs came the noise of many people talking and laughing, but the downstairs hall was nearly silent.
"I wonder," I asked eventually, "what has become of my coat?"
Lady Breckenridge gave me a half-smile. "Barnstable is tactfully letting me say my farewells in private. Perhaps when you return to London, Captain, we may meet for another evening of music?"
I lifted her hand and twined my fingers through hers. I expected her to pull away, but she allowed the liberty. "I enjoy music. Mr. Vecchio has a fine voice."
The contact between our hands was fine, too, even if we both wore gloves.
"He can be made into something," she said, "if he stops behaving like a boor." She withdrew her hand, flicked an invisible speck of dust from my lapel. "Go back to Berkshire and write more letters. But make them interesting this time."
"I will," I said. I traced her cheekbone with my fingertips.
Barnstable chose that moment to come bustling from the rear of the house, saying, "Your coat, sir," as though he'd searched for it long and hard.
I let my hand drop and bowed to Lady Breckenridge. By the time Barnstable had helped me into my coat and seen me to the door, Lady Breckenridge was halfway up the stairs. She did not turn back and tell me good-bye.