Amanda Scott - [Dangerous 04] (32 page)

Mary crouched near the bed, struggling to cover herself with a quilt.

Realizing that the maid was naked, Letty snapped, “What’s going on here?”

“It’s that Mary,” Liza said. “He don’t like her, and that’s true, Miss Letty.”

“Don’t be foolish, Liza. Jeremiah does not dislike Mary.”

“Not him,” Liza said indignantly. “Him!” She pointed to Morden, who had been trying to adjust the hastily wrapped bedsheet.

Morden glared at Letty. “You seem to like pushing in where you are not wanted,” he said in a guttural growl. “First at court, and now here. Women should not push themselves forward so. Go away now. No one wants you here.”

“Perhaps you are not aware that this is my house, Mr. Morden. If anyone is going to get out, it is you. How dare you seduce a maidservant beneath this roof!”

To her shock, he smiled, and the smile was not pleasant. “I know this is your roof, girl,” he said. “However, you evidently do not know what goes on beneath it. Perhaps you should ask Mary if I seduced her,
nicht wahr?”

Involuntarily, Letty glanced at Mary, and saw the maid look away with tears rolling down her cheeks. Turning back to Morden, Letty said, “You may be sure that I will talk to Mary, but no one who threatens my pet with a dagger is welcome in this house. Now, get your clothes on and get out before I send someone for a constable. Here is your cravat,” she added, detaching that article from Jeremiah’s clutches and handing it to Morden.

“Better you think twice, I think, before you are calling for a constable,” Morden said. “I have powerful friends. They can do you much harm.”

Knowing he spoke no less than the truth, Letty nonetheless was determined to conceal her fears. Meeting his gaze, she said, “Do your worst, for I, too, have powerful friends. And considering the way things are going in Parliament just now, you may soon find that mine are significantly more powerful than yours are.”

“That is quite true,” Miss Abby said, startling Letty, who had forgotten that the old lady had followed her. Miss Abby went on, “Jamaica will very likely bring down the present government, you know. Everyone says so. Not that one would expect you to understand about that, of course, being a foreigner like you are. Come away out of there at once, Mary. You should be quite ashamed of yourself.”

“What’s all this, then?”

The group in the doorway parted instantly at the sound of the strident voice, and the imposing bulk of Mrs. Hopworthy loomed on the threshold. Arms akimbo, she exclaimed, “Miss Abigail! Lady Letitia! Mercy, mercy, what goes on here?”

“Well may you ask, Mrs. Hopworthy,” Letty said, catching hold of Jeremiah before he could leap from her shoulder, and affecting a calm she did not feel. “Mr. Morden was just leaving,” she said. “You may take that sheet with you, Mr. Morden. I am sure the bootboy can show you somewhere you can dress.”

His face scarlet now, and muttering furiously under his breath, Morden brushed past the outraged housekeeper.

Sure that he was cursing her, and wondering how much he knew, Letty shooed the others back to their work and told Mary to get dressed. “We are going to retire to the housekeeper’s room, Mary. Come to us there as soon as you have dressed. I want to talk to you.”

“Yes, my lady.” Mary’s voice was hoarse, her eyes downcast, and her cheeks still streaked with tears.

Turning to leave, Letty said, “Mrs. Hopworthy, perhaps you will just make sure that Mr. Morden has left the house before you join us.”

“Yes, my lady, I certainly will.”

As the housekeeper bustled off on her mission, Letty said, “Miss Abby, I do not want to distress Mrs. Linford unnecessarily, but I failed to consider that perhaps you would prefer to conduct our talk with Mary upstairs.”

“Oh, no,” Miss Abby exclaimed. “Not until we find out what she was doing with that dreadful man. Miranda will be so vexed, she will very likely say we must turn her off without a character without even hearing what she has to say, and I don’t think I could bear that. Mary has been with us since she was the merest child.”

“He don’t like her. He likes me best. Here, Miss Letty, here’s his chain.”

Astonished, Letty turned to find Liza behind her, holding out Jeremiah’s silver chain. In the course of watching Mrs. Hop-worthy dismiss the other servants, she had forgotten all about the girl. Now she did not know what to do with her. If she sent her upstairs to Mrs. Linford, Liza would give her, at best, a garbled account of the incident. Nevertheless, it was unthinkable to allow her to witness the forthcoming scene with Mary.

Taking the chain, she said quietly, “Liza, I think perhaps you ought to—”

“Mary did a bad thing! He don’t like her. He likes me best. He told me so!”

“Liza, please …” Then she realized what Liza had said. “What do you mean, he told you? When did Mr. Morden tell you anything?”

Glaring at her, Liza burst into tears, whirled about, and ran up the stairs.

“Oh, dear, now you’ve upset her,” Miss Abby said. “The poor thing don’t know what she means half the time, I’m afraid.”

“I think she knows very well this time,” Letty said thoughtfully as she reattached the monkey’s chain to his collar.

“O
H, WHAT IF MIRANDA
comes downstairs to see what caused all the row?” Miss Abby wailed when they stepped into the housekeeper’s sitting room.

“Since the row has stopped and we have not yet seen her, I think we are safe for the moment,” Letty said calmly, stroking the monkey, still on her shoulder.

“He’s gone, my lady,” Mrs. Hopworthy said when she joined them. “Would you like some tea? I can have one of the girls bring some in at once.”

“No, thank you, Mrs. Hopworthy. Do sit down.”

“Perhaps I should go and hurry that Mary along,” the housekeeper said.

“I’m here, ma’am,” Mary said in a small voice from the doorway.

“Come in and shut the door,” Letty said.

“Please, my lady, am I to be turned off without a character?” Tears still trickled down the maid’s damp cheeks.

“It’s what ought to happen to you,” the housekeeper said with a sniff before Letty could speak. “Carryings-on with menfolk is what I won’t tolerate, girl.”

“We was only trying to help,” Mary said with a sob.

“We!”

“How were you helping, Mary?” Letty asked quickly before the housekeeper could further unburden herself of her outrage. “I don’t understand.”

“Our ladies have been so worried, ma’am, about how they could get enough to pay the rent if his lordship was to make them stop letting people come here like they do. We thought we should help them, don’t you see? Me and some of the others thought … Well, we knew that some of the men what comes here likes us, and when they offered us money for … well, for what they wanted, it didn’t seem like such a dreadful thing. Mr. Morden, he’s that handsome, ma’am.” Mary shot a sidelong glance at Miss Abby’s scandalized expression and fell silent.

Frowning, Letty said, “I did not realize that Mr. Morden was one of your patrons, Miss Abby.”

“Nor did I, my dear. Indeed, I don’t believe he is.”

They looked at Mary.

Flushing deeply, she said, “I don’t think so either, ma’am, but he did come here once with Sir John Conroy, and he flirted with me. So when he came round asking would I like to make some extra money … Oh, my lady, please don’t turn me off. I send half my wages to my mother to help feed my little sisters.”

Letty said sternly, “I will see if I can persuade Mrs. Linford to let you stay, Mary, but you must never again allow someone like Mr. Morden to have his way with you. How many of the other maids have done anything like that?”

Mary bit her lower lip, looking from one to the other. Then, with a sigh, she said, “Most of ’em lately, my lady. Mostly, they just gives a good time to the coachmen what comes with our ladies’ friends. I’m the only one that’s done it with anyone grander. We all get paid, though,” she added with an earnest nod. “We’d not have done it without we got the money, Miss Abby. We slipped it into the housekeeper’s jar, the one what she uses to pay the tradesmen.”

A moan escaped Miss Abby’s lips.

“You may go now, Mary,” Letty said. “Tell the others they must stop, too. I think perhaps you had all better forfeit your half-days until we get this sorted out.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Mary shot a frightened look at Mrs. Hopworthy, but when the housekeeper only pressed her lips tightly together, the maid fled.

“I don’t like this, my lady,” Mrs. Hopworthy said when the door was safely shut again. “It is not my habit to keep immoral girls in service here.”

Stifling a sudden impulse to point out that morality had not, until this moment, seemed important to anyone in the house, Letty said only, “I am sure it is not your practice, Mrs. Hopworthy. Presently, however, we have more problems to worry about, and I am convinced that Mary and the others thought they were helping.” She could not resist adding, “One can scarcely blame them if they did not quite understand that what they were doing is wrong.”

Again the housekeeper pressed her lips to a thin line. Letty noted that she was careful not to look at Miss Abby.

Poor Miss Abby was scarlet. “What have we done? Oh, Letty dearest, what have we done?”

“We can talk about that upstairs,” Letty said. “I believe Mrs. Hopworthy wants to make certain the other maidservants are not neglecting their duties.”

“I do,” Mrs. Hopworthy said grimly.

“Please send someone to ask Jenifry Breton to come to me in the drawing room,” Letty said gently. “I want her to take charge of Jeremiah.”

“I could take him to her for you, my lady,” Mrs. Hopworthy said, slanting a wary look at the monkey.

“Thank you for offering, but I will feel much better if I can hand him over to her myself,” Letty said. “Now that he seems to delight in escaping from people and making such a nuisance of himself—”

“Oh, pray don’t say that he may not visit us again,” Miss Abby said. “That would be so unfair. This was not his fault. Indeed I …” Glancing at the housekeeper and then at Letty, she wrung her hands together. Then, with a sob, she said, “I expect we should go now and tell Miranda what has happened.”

“Yes,” Letty said. “I think we must.”

“I’ll fetch Miss Breton myself, my lady,” the housekeeper said.

“Thank you.” Letty ushered Miss Abby out of the room and up the stairs.

The old lady went reluctantly, and remained uncharacteristically silent.

“Don’t fret so, Miss Abby,” Letty said when they reached the landing outside the rose-scented anteroom. “Mrs. Linford can’t
eat
any of us, you know.”

“She will be considerably vexed,” Miss Abby said with a sigh, “but in truth I was not thinking of Miranda.”

“You weren’t?”

“No, I was remembering the day you said it sounded like we were running a brothel here. I told you then that it was no such thing, but oh, my dear, I’m afraid it was! Oh, what will Miranda say?”

When they entered the drawing room, Mrs. Linford looked up from her book and said calmly, “I trust everything has settled down now. I cannot conceive of what can have stirred all that row.” She glanced expectantly from Miss Abby to Letty, then added complacently, “I daresay it was that monkey. I must say, my dear, I do not welcome him in my drawing room.”

“No, ma’am,” Letty said. “Jenifry is coming to fetch him. Indeed, I think I hear her coming now.” When Jenifry hurried into the room a few moments later, Letty said, “Take Jeremiah upstairs with you, Jen. He has slipped his chain twice already today, so take care that he does not do so again.”

“Yes, my lady,” Jenifry said, taking Jeremiah and holding him against her shoulder like one might hold a baby. “I should perhaps point out that it is nearly four o’clock, Miss Letty,” she added.

“Mercy, is it? Where has the time gone? I’ll have to change here, Jen. Put out my clothes, and send word to Jonathan that he must have the carriage waiting at the door in half an hour. I cannot be late, but I need ten more minutes before I dress.”

“You’ll never dress in twenty minutes, my dear,” Miss Abby said. “Perhaps you had better go at once.”

“We must talk first,” Letty said firmly.

Miss Abby’s face fell, and she shot an anguished look at her sister. “I expect we must, but I do wish we needn’t, you know.”

“Sit down, Miss Abby,” Letty said gently, taking a seat near Mrs. Linford.

Jenifry turned to leave.

“Wait, Jen,” Letty said. “I want to ask you a question.” When Jenifry turned back, she said, “Did you ever have occasion to speak of the affairs of this house to your friend Walter?”

Blushing furiously, Jenifry looked at Mrs. Linford and Miss Abby before she said earnestly, “I wouldn’t, my lady. You know that I’d never gossip about your affairs or those of people close to you.”

“I do know, Jen. I just needed to hear you say it. Thank you.”

Without a backward glance, Jenifry hurried from the room.

“Now, Miss Abby,” Letty said, “shall I tell it, or would you prefer to tell Mrs. Linford yourself what we learned belowstairs?”

Mrs. Linford said, “You tell me, Letitia, if you please. Abigail never could tell a tale in less than ten minutes, and you do not want to be late to the palace.”

“No, I don’t,” Letty agreed. “Very well, then.” As quickly as she could, and for once without any interruptions from Miss Abby, she explained the situation.

Mrs. Linford listened without speaking. As far as Letty could tell, the only indication that the old woman understood the magnitude of what she was hearing was that she grew slightly paler. When Letty finished, Mrs. Linford was silent for a long moment before she said, “I see. How very dreadful. Do you know how long the maids have been engaging in these unfortunate activities?”

“Mary did not say, ma’am, but I don’t think it can have been long. Mrs. Hopworthy surely would have discovered it by now if they had a long habit of entertaining men in their bedchambers, particularly since Mary said they have been slipping the money they’ve made into the housekeeping jar.”

“Yes, I expect she would, then. My dear, we must
not
tell Justin about this.”

Letty had been thinking the same thing, but hearing her thought spoken aloud somehow put it in a new perspective. “The reputations of people very close to him could be at risk, ma’am. Your niece, for one. We do not know how much Mr. Morden knows of what has been going on here, but that he was able to seduce a maid is enough if he chooses to broadcast it to the world.”