Bath Tangle (24 page)

Emily was at first inclined to think that they ought not to meet at all, but since he persisted in his determination, she said at last: ‘Oh, dear! I’m sure I shan’t – Oh, I don’t know how it may be contrived, unless Grandmama will let me go to Meyler’s Library, while she is in the Pump Room, which I frequently do, because it adjoins it, you know, and –’

‘But we can’t talk in a crowded library!’ objected Gerard. ‘I’ll tell you what, Emily! You must pretend that you wish to change your book, but instead slip away to the Abbey! I shall be there, and it is only a very little way!’

Emily kept the appointment, but little was gained by the clandestine interview. She arrived at the Abbey doors in a flutter, because she had caught sight of one of Mrs Floore’s acquaintances on the way, and could not be sure that she had not herself been seen. It was in vain that Gerard assured her that the sight of an unattended damsel traversing the short distance between the Pump Room and the Abbey would not shock the most prudish person: Emily could not be easy. He drew her into the Abbey, but, as might have been foreseen, this was found to be over-full of visitors, wandering about it, and looking at its beauties and antiquities. Even Gerard could not feel that he had chosen an ideal spot for the assignation; and as for Emily, she could lend him no more than half an ear, so much occupied was she in keeping a look-out for any more of Mrs Floore’s friends. In any event, it was only too plain that she was still in a state of miserable indecision, and the end of it was that they parted with nothing settled but that they should meet again that evening at the theatre. Mr Goring was coming to Bath later in the day, and had invited Mrs Floore and Emily to go with him to the box he had procured. This was just the sort of evening’s entertainment which exactly suited Mrs Floore, for not only did she enjoy any kind of spectacle, but the New Theatre being situated on the south side of Beaufort Square, she could go to it without being obliged to order out her carriage. When people marvelled at her choosing to live in Beaufort Square, she pointed this advantage out to them, adding that on such evenings as she was alone she was able to sit in the window of her drawing-room, and watch who was attending the theatre, and thus avoid being moped to death.

Emily acquiesced in Gerard’s suggestion that he should obtain a seat in the house, but she showed no enthusiasm at the prospect of being again urged to make up her mind. It was an exercise to which she was not at all accustomed. However, Gerard was insistent, and she gave way, reflecting that it was unlikely that he would find an opportunity to be private with her.

She then sped back to the Pump Room, and Gerard, who had not journeyed into the west country prepared to make a prolonged stay, went off to purchase a shirt, and some additional neckcloths. It would have been too much to have said that his inamorata had disappointed him, but she had certainly disconcerted him. When he was himself behaving with what he considered to be amazing resolution, it was a little hard to find that the person for whom he had made his brilliant plan showed so Laodicean a spirit. Moreover, he had hoped to have left Bath by midday, and to be kept kicking his heels indefinitely in such a dangerous locality was not at all what he liked. At any moment, Rotherham, suspicious of his intentions, might take it into his head to come to Bath, just to make sure he was not there; and then, thought Gerard, where would they be?

It was as he emerged from a shop in Bond Street that he had the misfortune to encounter one of the perils which beset him. He heard himself hailed, in surprised accents, and looked round to see Lady Serena, escorted by a tall man of very upright bearing, waving to him. There was nothing for it but to cross the street towards her, summoning to his lips what he hoped was a delighted smile.

��Why, Gerard, how comes this about?’ Serena said, giving him her hand. ‘What brings you to Bath?’

‘A friend – a college friend of mine, ma’am!’ he replied. ‘Has been begging me for ever to pay him a visit! He lives here, you see, with his family. At least, not here, but just beyond the town!’

‘Indeed! Do you mean to make a long stay?’ she asked kindly.

‘No, oh, no! In fact, I am going back to London tomorrow.’ He then thought that she must wonder at his having come over a hundred miles only to spend a couple of days with his friends, and at once created another friend, living in Wiltshire, with whom he said he had been staying for several weeks.

Serena, taking only a casual interest in this, introduced him to Major Kirkby. They all three walked on to the end of the street, where Gerard took his leave, saying that he was pledged to meet his host in Westgate Street. He then walked quickly away down Parsonage Lane, and the Major and Serena, turning to the left, strolled along in the direction of Bridge Street.

‘And who is that young fribble?’ enquired the Major.

She laughed. ‘Rotherham’s eldest ward. He is guardian to all his cousin’s children, and a very bad guardian, too! He takes not the least interest in them, and
this
boy he holds in contempt, and is often, I think, very unkind to him. For there is no harm in Gerard, even if, in his efforts to be taken for a Bond Street beau, he does contrive to look very like a counter-coxcomb. I can see you thought him one!’

‘Oh, no!’ said the Major. ‘I have seen too many boys of his age trying to come the dandy! Most of them outgrow it quite speedily. He wasn’t at all glad to meet you, was he?’

‘Did you think he was not?’ she said. ‘He’s very shy, you know. I daresay you overawed him with your height and your grave countenance!’

‘My grave countenance!’ he repeated, a tinge of red creeping into it. ‘Is it so grave?’

‘It has been grave since you returned to Bath,’ she told him. ‘Did you find something amiss at home?’

‘Not exactly amiss – some tiresome business, too long neglected! My mother is rather unwell!’ said the Major, snatching at this excuse, and thankful for the first time in his life that his parent’s chief diversion was to detect in herself unmistakable symptoms of some deep-seated disorder.

‘I am so sorry!’ Serena said, with quick sympathy. ‘I hope no serious illness?’

‘No, I believe – that is, I trust not! The doctor was to visit her this morning.’

‘I shouldn’t wonder at it if Bath is to blame. It was tolerable in the spring, but I know of no more enervating town to be in during the summer. It does not agree with Fanny, I know. Have you noticed how hagged she is looking? She says this heavy, windless weather we’ve endured now for a week makes her feel stuffed to death. I know exactly what she means, don’t you? I am conscious of it myself. Everything seems to be an abominable fag, and one becomes languid in spirit, and rather cross. That is to say, I become rather cross! Fanny was never cross in her life.’

‘Cross you may be, but not languid in spirit!’ he said, smiling.

‘Hipped, then, and on the fidgets!’ She glanced up at him as she spoke, and saw that he was regarding her with a little trouble in his eyes. She slid her hand in his arm, and said, in her funning voice: ‘You may take that as a compliment, if you please! Five days you were away! The only marvel is that I did not fall into a lethargy. I daresay I must have done so, had I not been occupied in thinking how shabbily I was used, and how best I should punish you!’

‘Did you miss me?’ he asked.

‘Very much: it was a dreadful bore! I hope you missed me: it would be too bad if I were the only sufferer!’

He responded in kind; and spent the rest of the walk to Laura Place in telling her of the alterations to his house he meant to put in hand. He parted from her on her doorstep. She invited him to come in, and to partake of a nuncheon, but although he longed to see Fanny he knew that he must see her as seldom as possible, and he declined, saying that he had promised his mother to come home within the hour.

‘I won’t press you, then. Pray, give my love to Mrs Kirkby, and tell her how sorry I am to hear that she is out of sorts!’

‘Thank you, I will. Do we ride tomorrow, Serena?’

‘Yes, indeed! Will you – Oh, confound it! Is not tomorrow Wednesday? Then I cannot. I promised I would ride with Emily to Farley Castle. Drive with me instead, later in the day!’

‘Willingly! At what time?’

‘A little before three o’clock? That is, if Mrs Kirkby will spare you to me.’

‘Of course she will. I shall be here!’ he promised.

She went into the house, and up the stairs to the drawing room, where Fanny was seated, with her embroidery frame in front of her. She looked up, and smiled, as Serena came in, but her eyes were heavy, and her cheeks rather wan. Serena said quickly: ‘Fanny, have you the headache again?’

‘It’s nothing! Only a very little headache. I shall lie down presently, and soon be quite cured of it.’

Serena stood looking down at her in some concern. ‘You look worn to a bone! Tell me, my dear, wouldn’t you like to go away from Bath? I don’t know how anyone can escape being invalidish here, it is so oppressive! Shall we go back to the Dower House?’

‘No, no!’ Fanny said. ‘Indeed, I’m not ill, dearest! I daresay if the sun would but shine I should be in a capital way again. I don’t know how it is, but these hot, dull days always give me the headache.’

‘We only hired this house until the end of August,’ persisted Serena. ‘Why not leave it now? Do you say no because you think I don’t wish to leave Hector? Tell me truthfully, Fanny! I’ll go with you tomorrow, if you would like it.’

‘Dear, dear Serena!’ Fanny said, catching Serena’s hand, and nursing it to her cheek. ‘So good to me! so
very
good to me!’

‘Now, what in the world is this?’ Serena rallied her. ‘I begin to think that you must be more sickly than I had guessed! I warn you, if you talk to me of my
goodness
– and in such a melancholy voice! – I shall send for a doctor. Or shall it be the Dower House?’

‘It shall be neither,’ Fanny said, with determined cheerfulness. ‘I don’t at all wish to leave Bath before I must. Don’t let us prose about my health! Next you will be telling me I look hagged and
ridée
! Did you hear any news in the town?’

‘No news, but I saw a new face: Gerard Monksleigh’s! I wish you might have seen him! Very much the Pink of the
Ton
, with shirt-points serving as blinkers, and a very dashing waistcoat!’

‘Good gracious, I wonder what brings him here? Is Mrs Monksleigh here too?’

‘No, he said he was staying with friends in the neighbourhood. Hector thought he wasn’t pleased to see me, but
my
guess is that –’ She broke off suddenly, and a laugh sprang to her eyes. ‘Oh, I wonder if Hector was right after all? Fanny, do you recall my aunt’s writing to me once that Gerard had been very much smitten with Emily? Can it be that the foolish boy has come here to dangle after her?’

‘He would be a more suitable match for her than Lord Rotherham,’ said Fanny.

‘He would be the worst possible match for her, my dear, for, setting aside the fact that he has no fortune, he is very nearly as silly as she is, and has not yet outgrown the schoolboy. However, it is not all likely that he will be a danger to Ivo, even if he has come to Bath in a love-lorn state. I notice that Emily’s flirtations are always with men a good deal older than herself: her youthful admirers she considers stupid. It won’t do, of course, if Gerard makes a cake of himself by enacting the disappointed lover for the entertainment of the Bath quizzes. I do wonder whether he was telling me a whisker when he said he was visiting friends, or whether he is lurking somewhere in Bath. It will be well, perhaps, if I drop a hint to Emily not to encourage him to dangle after her. She is riding to Farley Castle with me tomorrow.’

She spoke lightly, unaware of the fact that all recollection of this engagement had been banished from Emily’s mind. The four o’clock mail had brought her shocking tidings. Lady Laleham and Lord Rotherham were coming to Bath.

Lady Laleham was so obliging as to disclose the day of her arrival; Lord Rotherham, more alarmingly still, wrote at the end of a brief letter which all too clearly showed impatience, gathering wrath, and a determination to claim his reluctant bride, merely that he proposed to come to Bath immediately, and expected to find Emily not only ready to receive him, but prepared to come to a point. He made no mention of Mr Monksleigh; Lady Laleham, on the other hand, telling her daughter of Gerard’s abortive call at Cherrifield Place, warned her that if, by some chance, he had succeeded in discovering her direction, and was even now in Bath, he must be sent instantly to the rightabout. If Lord Rotherham were to find out that although he had been refused permission to visit his betrothed Mr Monksleigh (who appeared to think himself a rival) was making up to her, he would be very (heavily underscored) and justifiably angry. So, too, would be Emily’s affectionate Mama.

The combined effect of these two missives was to throw Emily into a fever of apprehension. Converging upon her, each filled with rage and determination, were two dread figures, one of whom would certainly arrive on the following afternoon, the other perhaps even sooner. Between them she would inevitably be crushed. She saw herself being dragged by her mother to the altar, and there delivered into the power of one who by this time figured in her distorted imagination as a merciless ogre. That her grandmother might intervene to save her from this hideous fate never occurred to her, partly because Mrs Floore, not unnaturally, had refrained from expressing to her her opinion of her only daughter; and partly because it was incredible to Emily that her vulgar, good-natured grandmama could exercise the smallest influence over the far more formidable Lady Laleham. Her only hope of support seemed to lie in Mr Monksleigh’s slender person. Terrifying under any circumstances though the approaching ordeal must be, she felt that if he would only remain at her side to protect her there might be a very faint chance of her surviving it. Or he might be able to think of a way of escape. It was true that the only plan he had so far evolved would not serve the purpose at all, since it depended for its success on the resolution she was well aware that she lacked; but when he learned of the imminent peril in which she stood he might, perhaps, be inspired with further schemes.

Her hope was not misplaced. After looking round the theatre, and perceiving, with a start of surprise, that Mrs Floore was in one of the boxes, Gerard hurried upstairs in the first interval, encountering Mr Goring’s party on their way to the foyer. He received a friendly greeting from Mrs Floore, a slight bow from Mr Goring, and from Emily a look so full of meaning that he at once realized that something of an appalling nature must have happened since the morning. Mr Goring being occupied in guiding Mrs Floore to a seat against the wall, it was an easy matter for Gerard to whisk Emily to the other end of the foyer, where in an urgent undervoice she told him of the letters she had received, and besought his counsel and support.