Secondhand Charm (6 page)

Chapter 12

As it happened, Miss Jessop
did
spoil their upholstery. The day’s shock upset her so greatly that she deposited her breakfast upon Prissy’s lap. Poor Prissy spent a miserable afternoon roasting in the wagon with a pallid corpse, her suffering aunt, and that noxious smell.

I trudged along, thinking of Mr. Thorndike. Oh that I were a man, or better, a dozen men, who could bring that murdering fiend to justice! Why couldn’t I have helped the poor man?

More than ever, I wanted to be a physician. But would I reach the university? And if I couldn’t enroll this autumn, would I get another chance? The king would soon forget me. Miss Jessop and Priscilla surely wouldn’t continue on now. I couldn’t travel alone.

There was one other choice.

“Aidan.” I watched closely to see if he was still vexed with me.

“Hmm?” His eyes were only tired now.

“Priscilla and her aunt will no doubt stay in Fallardston until they have recovered and received assistance from home,” I said. “Supposing I stay with them, what will you do?”

He shrugged. “Go on to Chalcedon,” he said. “My master will be wondering after me.”

“How will you get there?”

“Walk,” he said. “It’s not so bad. About three days. Farmers and villagers will often give me a meal and a bunk in return for fixing up fences or porches. A mason’s always needed.”

I took a deep breath, gathering all my courage. “Aidan,” I said, and he turned to look at me. “Will you take me with you?”

He stopped walking. So did I.

“D’you mean, just the two of us, walking?”

I nodded. “I don’t see any other way.”

He took off his cap and shook dust off the brim, but his eyes never left me. “Well … how’s that going to look?”

My words poured out. “Aidan, if I don’t get to University on time, I’ll never get to—”

“What will we say, when people ask us to give account of ourselves as we travel?”

I found myself staring at his boots. “We could … we could say that we’re … married?”

Aidan’s eyes opened wide. By now the actors’ wagon had left us far behind, and we both ran to catch up before Alfonso or Rudolpho noticed.

“I could say I was your sister,” I stammered, “but isn’t that, somehow, less safe? For me? If people thought I was your wife, they would be more inclined to leave me alone.”

“Men don’t seem to leave you alone, do they.” It wasn’t a question.

I felt my cheeks grow warm. “Honestly, I don’t know what’s happened all of a sudden. It’s never been like that before.”

Aidan was watching me with an amused look, and I realized in an instant what a vain, coquettish thing that was to say.

“I don’t mean … ” Oh, be
quiet
, Evie! But I had to go on. “What I mean is that, never in the past … ”
Oh, help.
“It’s probably got something to do with the gypsies.”

“The gypsies?”

I forced out a laugh. “Their magic trinkets. I bought a few ornaments at the feast day”—I gestured to my charms —“one of them, she said, was a love charm. Ever since then … ”

My voice trailed off. Immediately I bit my lip.

“So, you bought a
love
charm from the gypsies, did you?”

“No!”

“No?”

“I mean, yes. But not because it was a love charm. I thought it was pretty!”

Aidan did not look convinced. “May I see?”

I showed him the charm. In the waning light, it was only a dull gray rock and a string.

Aidan gave me an odd look. “I’m no judge, but I’ve seen prettier trinkets, I think.”

“Oh, never mind my trinkets!” I poked it back under the collar of my dress. “The point is, will you take me with you, or no?”

He watched me closely. Never before did Aidan Moreau have the power to make me feel so self-conscious. “And tell folks you’re my wife?”

Why must he press this point? “And tell them I’m your
very young
wife.”

He sighed and shook his head. “With my luck, if I parade you around as my wife I’ll meet a beautiful girl somewhere, one that I would have liked to court. But she’ll never have me, no matter how many times I go back and explain, because she’ll be convinced I’m a bigamist.”

I averted my face to hide my bafflement. Was he teasing me?

“I’ll take you, Wife,” he said, “as far as Chalcedon, but then I’m seeking an annulment.”

Chapter 13

Twilight fell, and my mouth tasted bitter with thirst, when at last we staggered into Fallardston. I could hear the nearby rush of river water racing over stones in the shallows, and the sound only drove my thirst to madness.

As the lights of town began to twinkle in the distance, another sound reached my ears. It was the raucous cry of some sort of bird. My whole body seemed to respond to its call.

“What’s that sound, Aidan?” I asked.

He looked up, puzzled, then realized what I meant. “Those? Those are gulls. They live near the seashore and catch fish. Look. There’s one.”

A flash of white flickered overhead, soaring in a neat arc above our heads, then disappeared again into the gloaming night.

Breezes blew in from the west, sweeping across the sea toward us, bringing a cold, fishy, salty dampness. I imagined the vast ocean, surging and receding, and was seized with desire to see the blue water and thrust my feet into the wet sand.

The first public house we found was called The Badger, which had a cheerful aspect with its bright red door and orange lamplight in the windows. Aidan went off in search of an undertaker and the coaching line dispatcher. I collected our coins and went into the inn.

The proprietress was a tall, lanky woman of middle age, with a protruding chin and sharp eyes. She took in my bedraggled appearance and pursed her lips critically. My heart sank. But she listened attentively and kneaded a great bowl of bread dough while I told our story. I feared my tongue would trip as I called Aidan my husband.

“Not married long, are you?” the woman said, nodding curtly.

“Only just.” I didn’t dare look her in the eye. I showed her the money we managed to save, and she nodded again, with a vicious thump at her dough. I wouldn’t want to be
her
enemy.

“Young woman,” she said, “My name’s Prunilla Bell, and I don’t do favors. You’ve got to pay to eat and sleep at The Badger. But there’s nothing I hate worse than lawless brigands, murdering and terrorizing the countryside. And I notice the coach didn’t pass through today. You look like an honest young woman,” she went on. I felt a twinge at that. “I pride myself on my judgment. I’ll tell you what. You and your man are bound for Chalcedon?”

I nodded.

“The last ferry’s gone,” she said, “and you’ll not find another coach for two more days. You got anyone that can give you money once you get to Chalcedon?”

Did we? Well, there was the king. If that failed, Aidan had his master. I nodded my head.

“There’s a ship,” she said, “sailing tonight with the tide, bound for Chalcedon. Should arrive by tomorrow midday if the wind stays favorable. My nephew, Freddie, is second mate.”

A ship? And travel by night? Was it safe? I supposed one could drown as well by noon as in moonlight. I remembered Grandfather’s strange insistence that I not travel by sea.

“So you take half of this money and put it down for boat passage. Ship’s called
The White Dragon
. Not a week ago it brought a princess over, can you imagine? Freddy’ll trust you for the rest. He does what I tell him.”

I didn’t doubt it. She divvied up the coins on the serving counter into two piles.

“The rest of the money, I’ll take as a deposit for your friends. They’ll share a small room and send letters home. If the mail coach gets through this time, they should hear back from their folks back home within two or three days. I can be patient until then.”

Whack, whack
went the heels of her hands into the gritty brown dough. Heaven help Prissy and Miss Jessop if this woman’s patience should run out! But there was no question of the Hornbys not sending help, provided word reached them.

I stood there debating. I’d never wish to betray Grandfather’s trust. But this was so much better, quicker, and safer than walking for three days and posing as married. Wasn’t it?

I was on my own now, with only my judgment to rely on. It was time for me to make my own choices and see them through.

“Your new husband treat you good?”

I was so startled by this I dropped a coin on the floor. “Who, him?” I stalled for a reply. “He treats me good enough.” Aidan, the kindly husband. Treating me “good.” What a farce!

Mrs. Bell nodded, and winked at me. “You got one that treats you good, you hold on tight to him. That’s my advice, and I don’t charge any for it.”

I turned away before this expert judge of honest character could see me laugh.

We eased Miss Jessop into the bed The Badger’s proprietress showed us, fetched her soup and wine, and in no time she dropped off into an uneasy, moaning kind of sleep. I brought in a basin of hot bathwater and a nightgown loaned by Mrs. Bell for Prissy, and she crawled into bed next to her aunt, shuddering with exhaustion.

“I want to go home, Evie,” she said. “I’ve done my bit of traveling.”

“You don’t need to decide anything tonight,” I said. “Remember how you’ve wanted to go on to University. Don’t abandon hope. There might yet be a way.”

“But I haven’t wanted to go, Evie,” she said. “Not nearly so much as you.”

Surely that wasn’t so. All those years of study!

“Before Saint Bronwyn’s Day, I asked Sister Claire if she could use me as an assistant teacher,” Prissy said. “If she still wants me, that’s what I’ll do. I always enjoy the little ones.”

And I’d thought Priscilla couldn’t surprise me.

She was fading fast. “Don’t be alarmed,” I said. “Come morning, I’ll be gone.”

Both her eyes flew open wide. “
What?
”

“I’m … I’m going to go on. With Aidan. He’s going to take me to Chalcedon. Tonight.”

She lifted her head off the pillow. “Just the two of you?”

“It’s the only way,” I said. “He’ll keep me safe. I know he will.”

“But Evie … ”

“Prissy, please don’t tell your parents what we’re doing!”

She sank back down into her pillow. “Don’t do anything rash, Evie,” she said. “No more than what you’re already about, I mean.”

I smoothed her hair out of her face. “Dear Prissy, I will miss you so,” I said. “We have a good, solid plan. We’ll tell people we’re newly married, so they’ll leave us both alone.”

A tired laugh rose from the bed. “Send a letter and tell us when it actually comes true.”

I rocked back on my heels. “Bite your tongue, Priscilla Hornby!”

Chapter 14

Alfonso and Rudolpho waited for me downstairs, like mirror images of each other, black and red, red and black. Too bad, really, that they were such a pair of puppets, for they
were
handsome.

“Well, fair maiden?” Rudolpho said. “We wait.”

I halted. “For what?”

“For the token,” Alfonso said, with a flourish of his hand, “of your undying gratitude!”

“The what?”

“You said you would repay our kindness,” Rudolpho said.

Ah.

“Travel with us,” Alfonso said, “and enchant the world with your beauty! On stage, you will be enamored with me,
so,
and when I take you in my arms,
so
,”—he put his arm around my waist and pushed me over to fall backward in his arms—“you will swoon with passionate desire!”

Rudolpho knocked Alfonso aside, nearly sending me to the floor. “But it is for
me
that your flames of love will burn,” he said. “And when I give you a lover’s true kiss, all the crowd will witness that it is I, Rudolpho, who holds the key to your heart.”

“Leave off, swine,” Alfonso cried, waving his fists at his brother. “The lady favors me!”

I took advantage of this distraction to address the wide-eyed Mrs. Bell.

“Mrs. Bell,” I said to that worthy woman, “these two gentlemen are actors, planning to set up their show here in Fallardston. Would it attract patrons if they performed here?”

Mrs. Bell scrutinized the two brothers. “It could,” she conceded. “I don’t pay, though.”

“But you could offer a room, couldn’t you? And supper on the nights they perform?”

She wiped a mug with her rag. “Settled,” Mrs. Bell said. She spat on another mug and wiped it. “I want a show tomorrow night.”

“There,” I said, with a curtsy to La Commedia dell’Arte. “I’ve repaid your kindness.”

I took this as a chance to make my escape, but Rudolpho blocked the exit of the taproom. “
Bella signorina,
” he breathed, “it was something different I had in mind, this repayment of kindness that you so temptingly held out like the carrot before the donkey.”

I took a step back. “Does that make you the donkey?”

“How about a leetle kiss?
Un bacio piccolo
?”

I looked up, a smart retort on my tongue, and paused. All my words left me. He was leaning closer, closer, his lips parting … 

“Young woman,” Mrs. Bell’s welcome voice reached my ears. “Your husband awaits.”

Rudolpho tossed his curly head back. “Husband? Who is this husband? The fair maiden has no husband! She is a
maiden
in distress, yes?”

I flew through the door. “Thank you both!” I cried. “Good-bye!”

I ran out into the stableyard and found Aidan speaking to a dour-faced man with a black wagon. The draped form of Mr. Thorndike lay stretched in the wagon’s bed.

“Good, you’ve taken care of him,” I cried, seizing his arm. “Come on, let’s go. Now!”

“Where are we going?” Aidan said. I tugged him toward the road. “And why the hurry?”

“Halt! Young maiden!” Rudolpho called after me.

“Aidan, run,” I ordered. “Rudolpho is making Mrs. Bell doubt you and I are married.”

“The deception begins, eh?”

We took off running. The cobbles were brutal against my sore feet.

“I think they’ve given up,” I panted, looking over my shoulder. “Mrs. Bell’s got a nephew with a ship. We can take passage and pay the rest when we arrive in Chalcedon.”

Aidan stopped. “A ship?”

I paused, remembering. Thoughtless me. Aidan’s father, a sailor, had died at sea.

“Never mind, Aidan,” I said. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. We’ll walk.”

He watched me closely, then nodded comprehension. “I don’t mind. I’m not afraid of ships, even though I don’t often … A ship makes the most sense.”

We came over a high point on the street. Before us spread the twinkling lights of Fallardston, with more clustered at the very edge. Then, there were no lights, except the frosted reflections of moon and stars on the peaks and valleys of ocean waves.

The sea. I stopped.

“Oh,” I said. “Oh, look, Aidan. Isn’t it beautiful?”

“It’s big, anyway,” Aidan said. “Let’s get on the boat, and we can admire it from there.”

We reached the docks, which smelled of fish, and were lit only by lanterns and the spilled light from the windows of taverns lining the boardwalk. In no time we located
The White Dragon
. An elaborately carved dragon made up the prow, and a dragon was outlined on the largest of its many sails. Aidan explained that this was a galleon, a grand vessel indeed.

I approached a sailor who seemed to have some authority and asked him, “Do you know a second mate by the name of Freddie? Possibly Freddie Bell?”

The sailor cringed. “It’s Fred,” he said. “Just Fred.”

“You mean you’re Freddie?” I cried. My charms must be at work again.

Freddie Bell, a beanpole with a huge Adam’s apple, goggled at us. “Well? What is it?”

“Your aunt, Prunilla,” I said. “She said that with this”—here I showed him our coins—“you would give us passage to Chalcedon, and there wait for us to pay the rest.”

He thrust out his lower lip. “She said that, did she? I run a ship, not a charity ward.” Luckily, though, he scooped up my coins. “Be ready for the whistle.” He moved along.

Aidan reached for my arm. “Let’s get off this dock before we fall off.”

Steps led down to where foamy water met the rocks. We explored until we found dry sand, then sat, groaning at our stiff limbs. Exhaustion overwhelmed me.

I unlaced my shoes, then, ordering Aidan to look away, I reached under my skirts to unfasten and remove my stockings. I pressed my aching toes into the spongy sand, then, hoisting my skirts, ran into the water.

“Oh!” The cold water shocked me.

Aidan uncovered his eyes. “Evie! What are you doing?”

“Come on in!” I called, trying not to smile. “The water’s lovely!”

Aidan looked slowly around, to make sure no one was watching, then he, too, pulled off his shoes and stockings, rolled up his trousers, and jumped into the surf.

He yelped at the cold, and I nearly fell into the water laughing.

“Thanks,” he said, kicking a splash of water at me. I splashed him back, but since neither of us really wanted to be soaked, we stopped, and instead amused ourselves by stomping around in the shallows. Wet sand sluicing through my toes and sandy water stroking my feet as the waves lapped back and forth were delicious, intoxicating, marvelous.

“I might never leave this place,” I told Aidan. “The king can keep his university. I’ll just stay here and play in the sand.”

“There’s better beaches than this near Chalcedon,” Aidan said. “In high summer, it’s warm enough to go in swimming. For those that know how.”

“Do you?”

“No. I wish I did.” I thought of his father once more.

A flash of something pale in the water caught my eye. I grabbed Aidan’s arm and pointed. “Did you see something? Out in the water?”

Aidan shook his head. “Did you?”

“Something large and light colored,” I said. “So close!”

Just then, the ship’s whistle blasted. Aidan and I ran splashing to the shore. We slapped sand off our feet and pulled our stockings on. What felt smooth and luxurious on the beach now felt maddeningly itchy as we wrestled into our shoes.

Farther along the docks we could see the hurly-burly of passengers and cargo boarding the ship. Then my view was blocked by three figures, silhouetted black against
The White Dragon
’s lanterns, who came down another spur of the dock and stood near us, but high above on the boardwalk. Two men, and a smaller figure with a girl’s size but a woman’s poise.

Aidan and I waited, knowing how we’d look coming up from the dark beach alone. One of the men had a creature on its shoulder. A monkey! I’d only seen pictures before. He slid off the man’s shoulder and loped along the boardwalk to sniff and chatter at us.

“Chick-eeet! Chick-chick-chick-chick-eeet!”

The sound jarred me, as did the strange, hairy face. So like a human infant, and yet so different! I held myself very still until the monkey scampered back to his master.

“ … well, so far,” the other man was saying. “He’s got the costumes, and he swears he’s got the payment. He’ll meet us there in two days.”

“Payment
ought
to be easy,” the man with the monkey grumbled.

“It’s complicated,” the first man said. He handed him a clinking parcel. “Here’s a start.”

“And do we know we’ll be invited onto the ship?” Definitely a woman, from her voice.

“She’ll see to that,” the first said. “Hurry. Your ship is leaving.”

The man with the monkey and the small, trim woman hurried down the dock. The other man watched them, then headed back up the pier toward the shore, the way he’d come.

I caught his profile clearly, and sucked in my breath.

He paused and looked around. I crouched and waited. Finally he turned and went on.

“What’s the matter, Evie?” Aidan whispered in my ear.

“The man giving orders,” I whispered back. “From the coach. He was the scarred man.”