Joan Smith

“It’s about time you got here!” was Lady Clappet’s uncivil welcome to her brother the instant he set foot in her gloomy Blue Saloon.

“Nice to see you again too, Maggie,” he answered blandly, and strode toward her. Lord Luten’s thin lips curled in displeasure as his eyes roved about the overly ornate and formal room. “Do you suppose I would break a bone if I lowered myself ever so gently onto that concrete sofa by the window? Who’s your upholsterer nowadays, Portland?”

“Furniture is for looking at, not lying down on,” she answered comprehensively.

“Remind me to tell you sometime about a new piece they’ve invented. A bed, it’s called.” He strolled at a languid gait toward the sofa of cement
-
like hardness and eased himself onto it while Lady Clappet glared. Neither pleasure nor admiration made up any part of her expression. She particularly disliked whippets, and there was a quality in Luten that brought that lithe canine to mind.

It wasn’t the coloring; Luten had black hair, a slash of black eyebrows, and a swarthy complexion. And it wasn’t the shape of his nose or face either. He had a square jaw, a good-sized Roman nose, and thin lips. It was something in the set of his sleek head, the flow of his streamlined body, the sense of wary alertness. And when she looked into his eyes, the unsettling idea strengthened. Bright, curious eyes, but not friendly, as a brother’s eyes should be.

Her bosom heaved in indignation. How very like Luten to arrive two days after he was summoned, and not even bother to apologize for his tardiness, but only find fault with her decor. She wore a widow’s cap on her steel-gray curls, and on her body a gown cut to conceal her spreading girth, and colored mauve to indicate her sorry condition. Regarding her, her brother thought her complexion, a mourning shade of gray, also honored her late husband.

“You ought to go about more, Maggie,” he said brusquely. “Your face is beginning to resemble a garden slug.”

“It is a wonder I’m not livid with aggravation!”

“You’re not far from it. Why did you ask me to call?” he said, and leaned back, stretching his arms along the sofa top.

She looked with loathing at Luten, disliking his posture, the short Brutus cut of his hair, the complication of his Osbaldeston cravat, the height of his collar, and even the gleam of his Hessians. His jacket, she acknowledged grudgingly, was well cut. How Luten could pass for anything but a dandy was a mystery to her. Her own dear Clappet had never been called a dandy.

“Well?” Luten demanded impatiently.

She took a deep, breath and spoke in ominous accents to impress her audience. “My—son—has—left—home.”

Luten lifted his dark brows and considered this pronouncement. His reply was not at all gratifying. “Oh. You drove him out with your nagging, in other words.”

“
I
drove him out? It was nothing of the sort. If you had come when I first asked you to, this disaster might have been averted. Poor little Peter, adrift in the world
...
He left last night. Had Uxor pack up two bags and left without so much as saying good-bye.” A lace-edged handkerchief was lifted to her soggy eyes as her words trailed off into tears.

“He won’t have drifted far. I’ll drop around to the hotels and send him home. I don’t see why
he
should leave. It’s
his
house, and if the next step is for you to have your trunks packed up, Maggie, let me make clear while I’m here that they are not to be deposited on
my
doorstep.”

The word “heartless” was heard to emerge through her sniffles. While Lord Luten sat watching patiently, she dried her tears, straightened her shoulders heroically, and requested a glass of ratafia to restore her disordered nerves.

He poured the required restorative, looking in vain for a decanter of wine for himself. Finding none, he shrugged his elegant shoulders, gave her the glass, and with unnecessary care resumed his seat on the hard sofa.

“He is putting up with that wretched Nicolson fellow who has taken a set of rooms at Albany,” she said. “Not that he bothered to tell his own mother! I learned it of Mrs. Nicolson, who had the decency to write me a note to allay my worries when she heard of it.”

“Hmmm,” he said, considering his best course. Lord Luten didn’t often spare pity for mankind, but in the case of his nephew Peter, he was much inclined to do so. That a young buck spending his first Season on the town should be forced to reside with a mother who perpetuated her mourning for three years was hard on the boy.

Maggie was a bad-natured shrew who cloaked her humor in a veil of motherly concern. Her sort of stifling protection was more likely to goad the boy on to folly than anything else. His being forced out of his own home looked very much like the first step along the route. Yet to bring him back was a hard fate for the boy.

“Why don’t you skip the Season this year, Maggie?” he suggested. “You seldom go into society in any case. You’d be happier in the country at Hanch House.”

“Abandon poor Peter?” she gasped. “I would not dream of it.”

“I’ll keep an eye on him.”

She shook her gray curls sadly. “It’s too late for that. He has fallen into the hands of—of one of those women, Luten,” she announced, and cast an accusing eye at him.

He looked remarkably unmoved, except perhaps to interest, which should have been outrage. “Aha! The plot thickens! A
bad
woman, you mean?”

“The very worst. I think she is married as well.”

“All to the good. At least she can’t be angling to shackle him.”

“Can she not? I wouldn’t put it a pace past her to be divorced or widowed.”

“The hussy!” he interjected, trying to hold his lips steady. But a second thought caused him some concern. “An
older
woman, do you mean?” Peter, not quite twenty, was a complete greenhead in his petticoat dealings.

“Oldish, so Mrs. Rolfe tells me. She has rooms in the same apartment building as Nettie Rolfe. The woman runs one of those houses
....
”

“Gambling?” Luten asked, wondering that a perfectly respectable address such as Mrs. Rolfe’s should be used for so low a purpose. The corner of Conduit and Swallow was not the heart of polite London, but it was not yet sunk to vice either, so far as he had heard.

“Worse!” she assured him, with a flashing, sapient eye.

“Oh, dear.
That
sort of house. But are you quite sure? I hadn’t heard the Abbesses had invaded the West End.”

“Nettie says there is a stream of young gentlemen in and out the door all hours of the day and night.”

“No, it can’t be. I would have heard,” he said, causing her to look sharply at him. “Don’t panic. I happen to own some property in the neighborhood. I assure you I don’t plan to let it sink into a slum. There are no brothels on Conduit Street.”

“It is not a brothel precisely. I do not mean to imply it is a regular establishment.
She
is the only one who operates out of the apartment. Or in it, I ought to say. The woman is not a streetwalker. Nettie says she entertains them right there, in the apartment, with music and dancing and drinking till all hours. She has seen Peter enter many times. In fact, she says he is the most frequent visitor. My poor baby! Nettie might have told me before he went
four times.”

“Do you know the woman’s name?”

“The card at the door says Mrs. Harrington. She has an elderly companion residing with her for appearance’s sake. They pretend to be genteel. Her accent is tolerable—provincial, you know, but not low. Nettie was quite taken in by her. She smiled and said ‘How do you do’ the first week, till she realized what was going on, then she cut her very short. The woman had the gall to let on she was tutoring the boys in Latin—as though anyone of her sort would know Latin! We English are very wise to withhold our acquaintance a little. You never know.... Who would have thought, right on Conduit Street! Next I will have one of those females setting up next door, in Berkeley Square,”

“What is it you want of me, to slip Peter the clue?”

“Certainly not. You must warn the hussy away from him.”

“You have not told me
she
comes trailing after
him.
It will be better to speak to him—first, in any case. If he’s agreeable to take my advice, that’ll be an end to it.”

Lady Clappet considered this a moment. “He might do so. He always speaks highly of you, Luten. I cannot imagine why. He wants you to enter his name at White’s, but I think it should wait a year, till he learns how to gamble properly first. One hears shocking tales of losing fortunes at White’s. I think we have allowed him too large an allowance. Four thousand is pretty good for a minor!”

“It’s more than adequate, but then Peter’s fortune is large. His first Season, he’ll have his wardrobe to spruce up. He’ll be wanting a new town carriage, and to join a few clubs.”

“He has not done any of those decent things. I
know
he is giving his money to that woman,” she moaned.

“They don’t confer their favors gratis,” Luten agreed blandly.

“But to be taking money from a mere boy—and the others the same. It is very
young
gentlemen she entertains.”

“Her sort ought to be whipped at the cart’s tail,” he agreed. “I cannot believe any lasting attachment has been formed in so short a time. Two weeks, is it, since you came to London?”

“Two weeks tomorrow, and Peter has not been home
one evening
since. Raking all over town with Nicolson and his horsey set. They will be rattling off to Newmarket for the races in May, very likely. Such a comedown for a Clappet. His father would roll over in his grave. Peter’s being plucked from Cambridge too—imagine—and his father a wrangler, like you, Luten. He will never graduate now, though he lets on he has hired a tutor and will go back to university again. He only says it to appease me. He thinks of nothing but horses and racing and that dreadful woman.” In her own mind, she couldn’t decide which of Peter’s vices was the worst.

“Well, Maggie, ‘the dreadful woman,’ at least, we can do something about,” Luten told her. “As to the rest, horse-racing is a respectable way to lose money. I’ll stop by Nicolson’s place and speak to Peter. Shall I ask him to come home? It might be better if he put up with Nick for a spell, till your vapors have a chance to evaporate.”

“I’m desolate without him. You must send him back.”

“I’ll mention it, but you must stop harping and nagging  the boy. He’s nearly a man now. He wants to spread his wings a little, see the town. Give him more freedom; it’s time for it. If you don’t, he’ll slip the leash, and you’ll lose control completely.”

“We’ve given him four thousand a year,” she reminded his guardian. “How long a leash are you suggesting?”

“I’m not talking money. Don’t sit up nights waiting for him, and don’t make him feel a sinner if he wants to go up to Newmarket for a few days. Those are the natural diversions of a fellow in his position. He’ll be married and settled down soon enough. Let him enjoy his few years of freedom.”

“I might have expected such lenient advice from a bachelor,” she replied tartly. “
You
enjoy your freedom so well it has become a way of life. I don’t want Peter still on the town when he’s your age. At thirty, it is time you should have your nursery set up. Lady Aurelia was just saying
...
”

“She said the same at the opera last week, Sis, but I pretended not to hear her,” he answered, letting a trace of ennui creep into his voice.

It was the understanding of Luten’s family that he should marry Lady Aurelia, an eligible cousin who had been on the catch for a husband the past half-dozen years. Luten had not the least intention of honoring Lady Aurelia or any other woman—not in the near future at any rate. One day he’d settle down, of course, but till he met the right woman, he was quite happy to enjoy his bachelorhood.

He spent the spring Season in London, with jaunts to the race meets. The remainder of the year found him trout fishing and grouse hunting in Scotland, often spending a month in Brighton in the summer, visiting friends and receiving visitors, sitting in Parliament when the mood hit him or when some matter of particular interest to him was being debated. For the rest, he had his two country estates and his town house to see to. It was enough. And when it ceased to be enough, he bought a new racehorse or boxer or woman.

He rose and stood, arms akimbo, regarding his sister. “It’s time to put off your half-mourning for Clappet. Buy yourself some new gowns and bonnets. And a pot of rouge,” he added, scrutinizing her cheeks. “Have a ball, or at least a rout party. Have a life of your own, Maggie, and slop living Peter’s for him.”

Lady Clappet looked down at her gown, then lifted her fingers to feel her cheeks. “I had planned to go to a concert this evening, but with Peter run off on me
...
”

“Go. Go to the concert by all means. I’ll have your son back tomorrow.”