Midnight Pleasures (44 page)

But horses, like sex, had become a delight whose payment was greater than the offered pleasure. The rhythmic motion of horseback riding invariably instigated three days of agony in a darkened room, covered in sweat and gripped by nausea, his head clenched in a steel band of pain. And the only advice doctors had offered was that his head injury of six years ago had led to an inability to endure rhythm. Any kind of rhythm.

Quill’s jaw hardened and he mentally shrugged off the image of a galloping horse. To his mind there was nothing worse than lamenting over what could not be. Women and horses were simply part of his past, and no part of his future.

Then he grinned. The very sports he was mourning—a hard riding session and a woman’s nightly companionship—were delights that held absolutely no interest for Peter. Lord, but he and his brother were as alike as chalk and cheese.

At any rate, he was likely worrying about Gabrielle and Peter for naught. Peter might not like the idea of marriage, but he did love female companionship. A decorous French miss, with whom Peter could gossip, discuss fashion, and attend balls, might well become his closest friend. And Gabrielle was an elegant name, one that brought to mind a woman versed in the ways of the world. Peter had a great admiration—nay, a passion—for beauty. Surely an exquisite young Frenchwoman would be able to coax him into compliance with an unwanted marriage.

Unfortunately, Quill would have abandoned that hope could he have seen the aforementioned exquisite Frenchwoman.

Peter’s fiancée was kneeling on the floor of her cabin, looking into the eager face of a young girl who sat before her on a small tuffet. Gabrielle’s hair was tumbling about her ears, and her old-fashioned dress was crumpled. The last thing she resembled was a sophisticated French miss from
La Belle Assemblée
.

“The tiger crept through the tangled jungle.” Gabby’s voice was a thrilling whisper. “He put one paw softly before the next, barely disturbing the song of the magpies far above. His long tongue licked his chops at the thought of the delicious meal that trotted before him.”

Phoebe Pensington, a five-year-old orphan being sent back to live with English relatives, shivered as Gabby, whose soft brown eyes had taken on a tigerish glare, continued.

“But when the tiger reached the edge of the forest, he stopped short. The goat was walking along the shore, his white hooves prancing at the very edge of the tumbling azure waves of the Indian Ocean. And the tiger was afraid of water. His stomach urged him to follow, but his heart pounded with fear. He stopped in the speckled shade of a bongo-bongo tree—”

“But Miss Gabby,” Phoebe broke in anxiously, “what did the tiger have for supper that night if he didn’t eat the goat? Wouldn’t he be hungry?”

Gabby’s brown eyes lit with amusement. “Perhaps the tiger was so mortified by his own lack of courage that he went to a far-off mountaintop and lived on nothing but fruits and vegetables.”

“I don’t think so.” Phoebe was a very practical little girl. “I think it’s more likely that the tiger would have gone after that goat and eaten him up.”

“The tiger had a cat’s natural abhorrence of water,” Gabby said. “He didn’t see the beauty of the waves as they danced into shore. To him the curling waves looked like the claws of tiny crabs, reaching out to nibble his bones!”

Phoebe gave a thrilled little shriek just as the door to the cabin swung open, breaking the spell of Gabby’s voice.

The black-gowned figure of Eudora Sibbald stared at the scene before her. Miss Gabrielle Jerningham was unaccountably positioned on the floor. As always, her hair was tumbling out of its knot and her dress was rumpled. It wasn’t for Mrs. Sibbald to recognize the beauty of Gabby’s shining golden-brown hair as it worked loose from pins and combs and assumed its normal position: halfway up and halfway down. No—what Phoebe’s governess saw was a proper hoyden, a young lady whose hair echoed her general demeanor.

“Phoebe.” Her voice rasped like a rusty gate.

Phoebe scrambled to her feet and bobbed a curtsy.

“Miss Jerningham,” Mrs. Sibbald continued, rather as if she were addressing a recalcitrant scullery maid.

Gabby was already on her feet and greeting Mrs. Sibbald with a charming smile. “Do forgive us—” she began.

But Mrs. Sibbald interrupted. “Miss Jerningham, I might have misunderstood you.” Her bearing indicated that she never misunderstood anything. “I trust that I did not hear you mention
nibbled bones
?”

Really, Gabby thought to herself, Sibbald couldn’t have entered at a worse moment.

“Oh, no,” Gabby said, her voice soothing. “I was merely telling Phoebe an improving tale from the Bible.”

Mrs. Sibbald’s jaw lengthened. She’d heard what she’d heard, and it didn’t sound like any Bible tale to her.

“The story of Jonah and the whale,” Gabby added hastily. “You know, Mrs. Sibbald, since my father is a missionary, I find it quite natural to relate stories from the Bible wherever I go.”

Mrs. Sibbald’s mouth relaxed slightly. “Well, in that case, Miss Jerningham,” she allowed. “However, I must beg you not to overexcite the child. Excitement is injurious to the digestion. And where is Master Kasi Rao Holkar?”

“I believe Kasi is taking a nap at the present, Mrs. Sibbald. He mentioned a wish to retire.”

“If you’ll forgive me for saying so, Miss Jerningham, you coddle that boy. Prince or not, a deserving tale from the Bible would do him some good. After all, he’s a native. Lord only knows what sort of influences he had as a child.”

“Kasi grew up in my house,” Gabby said. “I assure you that he is as Christian as little Phoebe.”

“An unfeasible comparison,” Mrs. Sibbald announced. “No Indian could be as Christian as an Englishman.

“It is teatime,” she continued. “Miss Jerningham, your hair has fallen again. I advise that your coiffure receive immediate attention.” And on that lowering note, Mrs. Sibbald left the cabin.

Gabby sighed and sank into a chair, realizing that there did seem to be a large number of wispy curls hanging about her face. Then she felt a tug on her gown.

“Miss Gabby, she forgot me. Do you think I ought to remind her?” Round blue eyes stared worshipfully at Gabby.

Gabby pulled Phoebe’s leggy little body up onto her lap. “I swear you have grown half a head in this trip,” she said.

“I know,” Phoebe replied, looking with disapproval at the hem of her gown. She stuck out a booted leg. “My dress has become so short that my pantaloons are beginning to show!” Her eyes were round with horror at that idea.

“When you reach England, I’m sure that you will have a new dress.”

“Do you think she’ll like me?” Phoebe whispered into Gabby’s shoulder.

“Will who like you?”

“My new mother.”

“How could she not like you? You are the sweetest five-year-old girl aboard this whole ship,” Gabby said, rubbing her cheek against Phoebe’s soft hair. “In fact, you may well be the sweetest five-year-old who ever sailed from India.”

Phoebe pressed closer. “Because when I had to say good-bye to my ayah”—a farewell that seemed to have traumatized her far more than the untimely deaths of two parents she scarcely recognized—”my ayah said that I must be very, very good or my new mama will not like me, since I don’t have any money to bring her.”

Gabby silently cursed Phoebe’s ayah—and not for the first time. “Phoebe,” she said as firmly as she could, “money has nothing to do with whether a mother loves her babies or not. Your new mother would love you even if you arrived in your nightdress!”

And she devoutly hoped it was true. From what the captain had told her, there had been no answer to the letter sent to Phoebe’s only living relative, her maternal aunt.

“Miss Gabby,” Phoebe said, her tone hesitant. “Why did you tell Mrs. Sibbald that your story was of Jonah and the whale? My ayah told me never to tell an untruth—and especially never to a hired person. And Mrs. Sibbald is a hired person, isn’t she? She was hired to accompany us to England.”

Gabby gave Phoebe another little hug. “Your ayah was right in the main. But sometimes a fib is permissible if you can make someone feel happy. Mrs. Sibbald would very much like to think that you are learning stories from the Bible. And when I told her you were, she felt happy.”

“I don’t think Mrs. Sibbald ever feels happy,” Phoebe observed, after thinking about it for a time.

“You could be right,” Gabby replied. “But in that case, Phoebe, it is even more important not to overset her.”

“Do you think that if I told my new mama that I had some money it would make her happy? Would it make her like me?”

Gabby swallowed. “Oh, sweet pea, I am only talking about little fibs. You couldn’t say such a thing to your new mother! That’s a
big
untruth, as opposed to a small one. And it is very important not to tell even small untruths to important people like your new mother.”

There was an unconvinced silence.

Gabby thought desperately. Really, for all her eagerness to have children, she was beginning to see that it was far more difficult than she had imagined.

“Are you bringing any money to your new husband?” Phoebe’s voice was muffled because she had her face pressed to Gabby’s shoulder.

“Yes,” Gabby said reluctantly. “But that money will not make Peter love me.”

Phoebe’s face popped up like an inquisitive robin from its nest. “Why not?”

“Peter will love me for myself,” Gabby said with quiet conviction. “Just as your mother will love you for yourself.”

The little girl hopped onto her feet. “Well, then, why did you tell Mrs. Sibbald that Kasi was in his chamber having a nap? That wasn’t true, and it didn’t make her happy.”

“A different kind of rule,” Gabby explained. “My sweet Kasi is frightened to death of Mrs. Sibbald.”

“What kind of rule?” Phoebe inquired.

“You have to protect the weak from the strong,” Gabby said, and then amended herself. “That’s not exactly right, Phoebe. You know what Kasi is like. Handing him to Mrs. Sibbald would be like feeding the goat to the tiger.”

There was a slight noise behind the screen protecting the tub from plain sight. The little girl peered around the screen. “Kasi Rao, it’s time to get out of there.” She put her small hands on her hips. “What would Mrs. Sibbald say if she could see you in the tub with all your clothes on?”

“Let him stay there if he prefers,” Gabby called across the room.

But Phoebe shook her head firmly and stated, with a force that Mrs. Sibbald would have admired, “It is time to have tea, Kasi. You needn’t worry. I won’t let Gabby talk about the tiger again.”

A very slender boy with innocent eyes that took up half his face peeked around the corner of the screen and then checked, unwilling to emerge from the safety of the corner.

Phoebe took his hand and tugged. “There is no one here but us, Kasi.”

Soft brown eyes darted back and forth between Gabby’s smiling face and the hand she held out to him. Kasi wanted to come out, obviously, but it was so far across the room, and the room was so very open.

Phoebe pulled at him impatiently. “Mrs. Sibbald thinks you’re napping, so you’re quite safe.”

“We’ll have tea together,” Gabby said reassuringly, as Kasi gathered his courage and hurtled himself to her chair, sheltering under her arm like a chick that had strayed from its nest. “Are you hungry, little brother?”

“Kasi isn’t your little brother,” Phoebe said. “He’s a prince!”

“Well, that’s true. But his mother was related to my father’s first wife. And he grew up with me, so I feel as if he is my brother.” Kasi had stopped trembling and was playing with the locket Gabby wore around her neck, humming a tuneless, happy song as he tried to open the catch.

Phoebe came around to the other side of the chair and leaned against Gabby’s leg. “May I see the picture of your husband again?”

“Of course you may.” Just before they set sail for England, a miniature of her future bridegroom had arrived. Gabby gently took the locket from Kasi’s fumbling hands and opened it.

“Is he waiting for you in London, Miss Gabby?”

“Yes,” Gabby said firmly. “We shall all be met at the dock, Phoebe love. Your new mother will meet you, and Mrs. Malabright will meet Kasi, won’t she, sweetheart?” She looked down into Kasi’s pointed little face.