Fair Fight (19 page)

I thought, but did not say,
You will never be of the first rank, no matter how many Sinclairs you join to. Blood cannot be traded in a coffee shop
.
I could just imagine the London aristocracy, coming upon Granville in his unfashionable coat and over-dressed hair. It was a wonder he had not been chased off. Perhaps he had been – he would never confess to such a thing.

Perry and I dined with the new-married Dryers often – Granville had then bought a country estate furnished exactly as badly as one would imagine. Mrs Dryer was almost as withdrawn after her marriage as she had been following the bereavements she had suffered. It pained me to see it. When once she did speak of a wish to ride out, I felt she spoke to me.

‘Cannot you ride, here?’ I asked her.

‘We have not enough horses,’ she said, ‘even if I were not still a little afraid of them.’

‘Not enough?’ Granville said. ‘How many horses do we need?’

‘I suppose, a servant’s horse, so that I might have a chaperone,’ Mrs Dryer spoke so low she might have been addressing someone concealed beneath the tablecloth.

Granville snorted, ‘A fine expense, stabling a horse for the pleasure of the footman. If you truly wish it I shall take you riding myself, whenever I can find the time for it.’

I suspected he would not find the time very often, and later I found a moment alone with him, in order to raise the subject.

‘You do not need to concern yourself with my wife, George,’ he said. ‘The days of your concern for her ended the morning I married her. I am convinced that I must keep her close – and this conversation only serves to reinforce that conviction.’

I knew then that Perry had spoken to him.

If this put me in an ill temper, it was made the worse by my receiving one of my mother’s infrequent letters, detailing the achievements of my brothers and bewailing my own lack of ambition. My accursed brother Edward – who had gone into the church, despite being as ungodly as I – had married and produced her a grandson. She spared me nothing in expressing her shame at my not taking the trouble to visit the creature.

How you can bear to be situated within five miles of your brother and remain such a stranger is sadly bewildering,
she wrote.
I have no doubt but that you could benefit by taking Edward as your example. You cannot live as a parasite upon your friend for the whole of your life, George. You must make your own way. Let you take Edward as your model and lift the yoke of anxiety from around your mother’s shoulders.

Having such breakfast reading as this – alone, of course, for Perry could not be shifted – was an insalubrious start to the day. My throat burnt with the injustice of it. My mother knew well enough that I was Perry’s agent and she had the gall to call me parasite. I could have strangled her with the yoke she spoke of. I was spitting rage.

Quite why this letter made me determined to visit Dora I could not have said, except that I felt a great dudgeon against the whole world. One of my friends was sleeping upstairs in his own fumes, yet was rich as a lord, and the other, richer still, had the only two females I had ever cared for as his own. I had nothing, I was named parasite! I had to go somewhere.

Mrs Sinclair’s dressing room had been shut up, dust-sheeted and sombre. I never could understand why Perry had not handed all his mother’s belongings to his sister, but he remained adamant that nothing should be touched. I could not even be sure that the maids went in to clean. I thought I would not leave it all to rot; it was a little matter to steal in and liberate an evening gown of handsome teal silk from the press. I wrapped it carefully in paper to keep it clean upon the road, and carried it before me on the saddle, tied on so that I should not lose it.

I tipped the boy at The Hatchet to hold Blackbird, and took a nip of rum for courage. Then I presented myself at the bawdy house.

She took an age to see me. I sat in the little parlour and allowed Granville’s lady pugilist to bring me rum-and-water. She had a bruise upon her chin as though she had dipped her face in wine. The rum was of good quality; the whole place looked nicer than it had when first we came there. Granville’s money was everywhere; in the silk-covered settee, the papered walls, the abundance of candles. I tried not to consider this but sat, sipping my rum, the package containing the gown upon my knee, trying not to twitch with impatience.

When finally I was summoned up the lamp-lit staircase, I was ready to burst with it. I felt as young and foolish as I had when I had come there as a schoolboy.

Dora was wearing a silken undress-gown and was perfect enough to make my throat catch. She had painted a little heart upon her cheek. Her smile was like a hand, pulling me inside.

‘Handsome Mr Bowden, what pleasure,’ she said.

‘The pleasure is all mine, truly.’

She laughed at the ardour in my voice.

‘What do you have for me, Mr George Bowden?’

‘It is nothing much.’ I walked closer to her and laid the package in her lap. My hand itched to touch her cheek.

‘If it’s nothing much you shouldn’t have fashed yourself to bring it.’ She pulled the string from about the package and opened the paper.

On her lap, against the ivory of her skirt, the teal silk suddenly looked a little dull. Dora’s smile dulled a little in response.

‘What’s this?’

‘A gown . . . it is very good silk.’

‘It’s devilish old-fashioned.’ She shook it out. ‘The waist’s as low as my ma wore.’

‘You could have it made over,’ I said.

She put it aside without looking at it further.

‘Perhaps I will,’ she said, ‘but what drove you all the way here with such a dry gift, Mr George Bowden? I bid you visit me when you could offer what Mr Dryer does. He’s no sense of fashion, I’d warrant, but even he’d not bring me someone else’s old gown to make over.’

‘I am sorry you do not like it.’

She stood. Her face came up to my shoulder. She raised her soft hand and stroked my cheek.

‘You’re lovely to look at,’ she said, ‘but handsome won’t pay, Mr George Bowden. I’ve said as much before.’

‘What can I offer you?’ I said, somewhat wildly. ‘I can never rival Granville! If I could better it, I would do it in a moment.’

I turned my back upon her. I felt almost as though I might weep. Behind me I heard her take her seat once more.

‘There are some things he won’t give me,’ she said.

‘Tell me,’ I turned and knelt at her feet, ‘tell me what I can give you that he will not.’

‘You’ll think me dreaming.’

‘Never,’ I took her hand and pressed it to my lips.

‘I’ve a wish to be a lady,’ she said, ‘with a staff of servants and a carriage. I’m afraid of growing old here, Mr George Bowden. I think to escape this life, before I turn into my ma.’

‘I cannot offer you that, either.’

‘Maybe so. And likely if you could, I’d not be the lady you’d choose.’

‘If I had any choice I would make you my first object, I give you my word.’

‘You’d have to give me better than your word, George,’ she had never before called me by my Christian name alone, ‘and there lies the trouble.’

‘If I make my fortune, Dora,’ she had not given me permission but I spoke her name heedless and tasted the sound of it upon my lips, ‘I will come back for you and make you a lady.’

‘And we’d flit off to somewhere my name ain’t known? I look to be a lady, not a whore raised up.’

‘We would go as far as we could,’ I said, thinking of Granville and Perry.

She let me kiss her for a promise but nothing more. She said she would keep the gown and have it made over as being suitable for a lady, until I could come back for her.

12

O
f course, I could not come back for her, and nor was I sure that I wished to. It was only the old draw of the impossible that made me long for her. The next time I did lay my eyes, if not my hands, upon her, was many months later, at St James’ Fair.

Granville had dragged us there to see his little milling molly set to upon a real stage. He was full of pomp over it; insufferably pleased with himself for having got her there. Of course, I only went along for the gaming, and Perry for the entertainment. My own amusement was greatly increased by the addition of Mrs Dryer to the party. God alone knew what Granville was thinking in bringing her to such a place – his face every moment showed that he regretted his choice. There was quite a press in the boxing booth and she cowered and clung to him, as many young ladies would in such environs. Granville being the man he was, his chivalry would not extend to his missing a moment of the blood-sport.

Perry whispered to me that his sister had quite demanded to be brought and I could not help but wonder if she had meant to be close to me by it. I was idly turning over the idea of taking her off for a walk about the fair, but I did not like to miss the betting or the lark. Granville had his little hard-headed miss set up against the most enormous brute of a man and was refusing to see the joke of it.

‘By God, man! Look at his fists! They are the size of her skull. He shall twist it off her neck in a moment,’ Perry said.

‘You have no appreciation of the use that speed may be put to in cases such as this, Perry. It is not all weight and thuggery. There is science here that you have no knowledge of.’ Granville’s voice was impossibly smug for a man whose bout was yet to be fought.

‘I have eyes, you fool,’ Perry said.

I laughed. ‘It is a lamb against a lion,’ I said.

‘It is more!’ Perry cried. ‘It is a babe against a blacksmith! It is the most ridiculous thing. I thought you were fond of this chit. You mean to slay her.’

Granville looked affronted and replied, ‘Do not you forget David and Goliath.’

Perry and I laughed the harder.

‘Well might you quote the Bible. You will need God on your side in this case,’ I said.

Mrs Dryer, all this time, was watching the stage. She was not listening to our talk, but only clinging to Granville’s arm as though she grew there. She paid no attention, therefore, when Granville’s eyes grew wide and dismay crossed his face. He caught my eye and gestured with his head to the other side of the ring. There, craning above the crowd to find us, in the most violent shade of pink and with all her creamy wares displayed to best advantage, was Dora.

‘Here’s fun.’ I tapped Perry on one broad shoulder and directed his attention to where she stood. His face broke into a smile.

‘Oh-ho!’ He looked from Granville to Mrs Dryer. ‘I’d say you have a matter of moments, sir, before you lose the day on and off the stage!’

I thought that a piece of high humour. Granville did not see the merriment.

‘George,’ he said, looking more ruffled than I had seen him in a good while, ‘you must take care of this matter. You know you must.’

I allowed myself another smile at his expense and then I delivered him from his misery.

‘Rest easy, old friend. I shall see the day saved.’

Granville’s eyes closed for a moment in relief. Then he turned his head and looked only at the ring.

I wove my way toward her. She saw my approach and ceased her craning, leaning instead against the wooden platform on which I predicted that her sister was to be utterly pounded.

‘Mr George Bowden. You’re bold, ain’t you? Right beneath Mr Dryer’s nose.’

She hit me with her closed fan, a gentle tap against my chest.

I drew her into the crowd by her elbow. Even this was as soft as I remembered her lips to be.

‘He is with his wife,’ I said.

‘Oh my days, swear home he ain’t!’ This delighted her in some way.

She tried then to look, but I had drawn her too far away.

‘I didn’t mark her; I’ve got to get a peek. What’s she wearing?’

‘I don’t know, I’m sure. Some gown or other. Sweet mistress, you must know, Mr Dryer sent me himself to warn you that you must not speak to him.’

‘Well, he needn’t think I would. But I might be allowed a look.’

‘Will you not look at me?’

‘I look at you whenever I get the chance, handsome George Bowden.’ She turned back to me and laid a hand upon my arm.

‘I hope you might do more, by day’s end.’

She laughed. ‘Grown rich, are you?’

‘I have a good sum riding on the outcome of this bout.’

‘Who here doesn’t?’

‘Only those too cowardly to lay their coin,’ I said. ‘Will you forgive me for betting against your sister?’

Dora’s eyes widened, and then she laughed in earnest.

‘Oh, you ain’t to make your fortune this day! Oh, Mr Bowden, you’re lucky you’ve a handsome face, for you haven’t a brain in your head.’

‘What? What can you mean?’

Dora leant toward me. Her breath was hot against my ear. The scent of her brought back a vivid image of her on that other day, lying on her back, arms thrown above her head.

‘Change your bet,’ she whispered. ‘My sister can’t lose. Mr Dryer swears it’s all fixed.’

I could not for a moment absorb the meaning of her words, so close did she stand to me, but once I did, I believe I stumbled away from her with barely a word. Rage throbbed at my temples. Granville, who already had everything I never would, was prepared to profit from me and turn me into a fool. He would take all I had left and his conscience allowed him. Dastard! Blackguard! Oh, I should take my sword to him.

I could not return to their merry little group. Even Perry, as much Granville’s fool as I was, I could not bear to lay eyes on at that moment. Rage condensed into spiteful determination as I reached the side of the ring, where the girl’s opponent rested. It was the work of a moment to tap his shoulder and beckon him to lean down over the ropes, so that I might speak into his ear.

‘I know this bout is fixed,’ I said, very low.

The cove pulled back so that he could see my face. He shrugged, as though to say he could not help it.

‘I have here a bond for thirty pounds. It is yours if you lose control of yourself today and forget to allow yourself beaten. I know it is more than they are paying you.’

The cove grew very still. Then he said, in a quiet rush, ‘Give it to that lady, there, in the feathered hat. If it be right I shan’t lose,’ and he straightened up and turned away from me.

I had put everything else I had upon the outcome of the fight and even borrowed a little extra from Perry. The odds had not been high but as the result was a sure one and as I had laid out a healthy sum, the returns were substantial, even with the thirty-pound loss. Of course, the greatest prize was Granville’s shaken arrogance.

My old friend being what he was, however, he was never brought down for long. He had moved in a moment onto his next project, before the molly’s blood had soaked into the sawdust. He was determined to see the beefy fellow from the bawdy house door turned into a Champion of England, and himself drawn to the bosom of the London fancy at last. Whether or not Granville felt himself beaten, victory was still mine, and I had the profit to prove it.

I had seen similar sums put into my hand as the result of a wager before, but always in the context of a gaming house, where I would habitually put it back onto the baize. I determined that I would not do that this time, though the little voice in my ear whispered that I was missing my opportunity to double it. Granville might have had many of the things I wished for, but he did not spend his wealth as I would have if it were mine – I went out and purchased something I had longed for ever since I first set eyes on one: a phaeton.

It was a beautiful one-horse machine, built for speed, of glossy deep-red wood, with brass trim polished high and a black leather seat. The wheels were so large and slim that to drive it was to fly above the ground. The hood retracted back on smooth hinges, so that the wind whipped about my head as I went. The whole cost me close to two hundred pounds but I did not regret it for an instant. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever owned and Blackbird looked the picture of elegance harnessed to its traces.

When I brought it home Perry said, ‘Ah, perfectly suited to you, George. A ridiculous, dandyish thing,’ but he rode with me all the day, tooling about the park and grounds at a fine pace, whooping as we took the corners, until Blackbird trembled with exertion and our voices grew hoarse. It was the most exhilarating thing imaginable. Perry did not even miss his bottle until well after his usual hour.

I took Dora out in it at my earliest opportunity. I would not leave it in the street but sent a boy to fetch her. She did not even scold me for coming when she saw what I drove, only laughed aloud and went to fix her hair firmly enough that the wind should not ruin it. I took her out to the long, empty roads of Clifton and we sped through all those half-built streets of deserted mansions and crescents, both of us cock-a-hoop with the speed and danger of it.

When at last we stopped upon the downs, to admire the view and refresh ourselves – I had brought a bottle of ale with a good cork in it and held it between my feet all the time we drove, no small feat – I felt like a king. Dora did not even stop me from caressing her.

She was different that day than I was used to seeing her. The wind had pinked her cheeks and despite her care, her hair was escaping its pins to make a golden halo about her head where the sunlight caught it.

I did not tell her that I owed the acquisition of the phaeton to her sister’s injury, nor the part I had played in that sad event. I was surprised, indeed, at the bitterness in her voice when she spoke of Granville now.

‘He ain’t even asked how she does,’ she said. ‘He ain’t spared a thought for her. Tom’s training’s all he thinks of now.’

‘It will surely be to your sister’s great advantage if her husband becomes Champion,’ I said.

‘Will it? Can you be so sure that he’ll keep by her? Granville talks of carrying Tom off to London and having him play the gent. He’s full of ideas of balls and the like, and showing him off like a pet. He wants to take him about to all the quality places and have the other gents look him over. Can you see my sister at a ball? They’d not let her through the door.’

It was an incongruous image. ‘Perhaps not,’ I said. ‘I never realised you were so attached to your sister. I dislike my own brothers so heartily, I never think of others being fond of their own siblings.’

‘Sometimes I could strangle her. Sometimes I’ve tried it. Even so, I’d not want to see harm done her. Tom never married her, you know. She ain’t his wife in law. He can walk off and never think of her again, just as Granville could to me; just as any of you could,’ and she would not let me kiss her again.

At last I snapped the reins to begin Blackbird moving and let the wind blow the bitterness out of her mouth.

‘Come, sir,’ Perry said. ‘If you are so sure of your man, let this stake be the match of none we’ve ever made! A Championship of England deserves a kingly wager.’

Perry, Granville and I were sitting beside the fire in Granville’s austere library, drinking a particularly fine brandy. Granville would not replace the ancient bookcases, but he filled them with first-class literature in good bindings. He would not lay out his coin for more comfortable chairs but the decanter was filled with liquor of the highest quality. If sometimes I found it frustrating, I believe that day, with a crystal glass of first-rate nectar in my hand, I found it almost endearing.

‘Very well, what say you to a plantation I have lately bought? I am expecting the deeds any day,’ Granville replied.

Perry looked to me and then directed my gaze to my snuff box, which was on the table before him. I picked it up and proffered it; my friend’s fingers shuffled about inside it for an unnecessarily long time before he was satisfied with his pinch. I have always thought it bad manners to let one’s fingers stay too long in another man’s snuff box.

‘Now you begin to interest me. Tell me more,’ Perry said, when once he had taken his pinch and completed the necessary ritual of head-tip and handkerchief.

‘It is a small island in the West Indies, growing sugar,’ Granville said, declining my snuff box with a wave. ‘There is a house, I understand, fit for a gentleman. A steward watches over the place currently and seems a steady enough cove. The profits are excellent, or I should never have bought it.’

‘A house fit for a gentleman? I cannot imagine you in foreign climes, Granville,’ I said. The picture was an entertaining one.

‘I am not much tempted to visit, I confess. I bought the place at a good price and mean only to sell it on.’

‘As I will, when I win it,’ Perry said.

‘Touché,’ Granville nodded.

‘What is the name of the island?’ I asked. ‘Perry was quite the geographer at school. No doubt he can tell us of its longitude and latitude.’

‘I am afraid I can’t recall just now. It is named after some saint or other, I believe.’

‘George mocks me,’ Perry said. ‘I was repeatedly thrashed at school for failing in just such a task. So, jester, what shall I stake against Granville’s plantation? You are the master of my investments; what have I to equal it?’

‘You have shares in any number of ventures,’ I said.

‘Shares? Shares are not kingly,’ Granville said.

‘Well then, perhaps the house at Queen Square,’ I said. I had long thought Perry should unload the thing; it was grown sadly unfashionable as an address.

‘I am not sure it’s worth the plantation,’ Granville said, after a moment. ‘However, I have a purpose it could suit. I accept.’

Hands being shaken, the two turned to me.

‘Well, George,’ Perry said, ‘will you wager your precious phaeton?’

‘Perhaps I might. What would you stake against it?’

‘I?’ Perry looked outraged.

‘I dare not bet against Granville this time,’ I said. ‘My gut warns me that it would be most unwise.’

‘You are wiser than you appear, Bowden.’ Granville raised his glass to me.