The Mermaid in the Basement (7 page)

All of this had little effect on Clive, for it was a struggle to put Serafina’s charges out of his mind and to place his thoughts on Kate. As he approached the theatre, he heard the sound of laughter, music, and horses’ hooves on the cobblestones. Open carriages passed with ladies displaying their fashionable hats and pretty faces. He passed a costermonger pushing a barrow of fruits and vegetables. The man’s shoulders strained against a coat a size too small, and his pinched face was thin with hunger and despair. Clive stopped at a public house and drank for half an hour, waiting for the time to pass. By the time he left, he was half-drunk. He knew that he did not hold his liquor well, but he chose to ignore it.

When he entered the Old Vic Theatre, he went at once to the side entrance that led backstage. As usual, though his mind was dulled by drink, he felt a sense of excitement as he moved through the crowd. He was in the midst of the business of the actors and actresses, along with those who handled the physical elements of the drama.

“Well, Clive, how are you tonight?”

Clive turned to face Dylan Tremayne, who now stood beside him.He nodded and muttered, “Hello, Dylan.”

“A little early you are tonight. But I think you’d better go take your seat.”

“Got to see Kate.”

“Wouldn’t be a good idea tonight. She’s not in a particularly good mood.” Dylan’s eyes were fixed on the young man’s face, and he said gently, “Put it off for a while, friend.”

But Clive’s mind was blunted by alcohol. He shook his head and mumbled, “Gotta see Kate . . .”He lifted his eyes and saw Kate just exiting from her dressing room. He felt numb, as he always did when he drank too much, and at some deep level knew he was in no condition to talk to the woman. But the alcohol had also dulled his sensitivity to tact. He moved forward, aware that Dylan was speaking to him, but he shook his head angrily.Walking toward Kate, he said, “Hello, Kate.”

She turned and looked at him, then said with disgust, “You’re drunk, Clive. Go somewhere and sleep it off.”

“No, I’ve gotta talk to you.” Clive was vaguely aware that others were listening, but he reached out and grasped Kate by the arm. “I want to marry you, Kate.”His voice sounded much louder than he intended, and he heard several voices laughing.

“Another one with a proposal,” someone said.

“Go away, Clive. I don’t have time for you.”

“I’m telling you I want to marry you. I want you to be my wife.”

Kate laughed suddenly. “You’re a young fool, Clive.We’ve had a good time, but it’s all over. Now go away and be a good fellow.”

“You don’t mean that, Kate. I love you.”

“That’s not enough. I told you from the first that you were a silly boy, but you insisted on chasing me around. It’s gotten tiresome.”

Clive swayed slightly from side to side and focused his eyes on Kate. “You can’t make an idiot out of me!”

“Nature’s already done that,”Kate said cruelly. She had beautiful features, but as she faced Clive, there was something feral in her eyes. “Now get out of here and leave me alone!”

“But I—I gave you a family ring.”

“You want it back?”

“Yes.”

“Well, you can’t have it. It’s the price you pay for education, Clive. Now I’ve got to go.” She turned and made for the wings, but Clive reached out and grasped her. His fiery temper suddenly erupted. “You can’t treat me like this! I won’t let you!”

“Turn loose of me!”

“No, I won’t! Give me that ring back or I’ll break your neck!”

Clive began shaking Kate, who screamed, and at once strong hands were on Clive, pulling him away. He turned to see that Dylan and Ives Montgomery were holding him. “Take your hands off me!” he shouted furiously.

“Time for you to leave, Clive.” The two actors turned him around, and Ives said, “You got off light, Newton. She took me for everything I had and then laughed at me.”

Clive was struggling in the hands of the two strong men. “I’ll get that ring back if I have to kill her!”

“Now you don’t mean that,”Dylan said. “Let me get someone to take you home.” But Clive lurched away, muttering threats, and as soon as he was gone, Ives shook his head. “He’s got to learn to handle his problems better than that.”

Dylan was staring after the young man and said with compassion in his voice, “Probably the first thing Clive ever wanted that he couldn’t get.”

Dylan knocked on the door of Kate’s dressing room, and when he heard her voice, he opened the door and stepped inside. She was sitting at her dressing table and had changed her costume for street clothes. She rose from the chair and faced him squarely. “Well, what is it, Dylan? I suppose it’s about that young fool who attacked me.”

“Yes. I’ve come to ask you to give him a break. He is a fool, but we all are from time to time.”

“What do you want me to do? The best favour I can do him is to not see him anymore, and I’ve told him that’s the way it would be.”

“You ought to give him the ring back, yes? I suspect it’s a family treasure.”

“Well, it’s my family treasure now.” She held up her hand and said, “Beautiful, isn’t it?” Indeed, the ring was large and caught the reflection of the gaslight. Kate held it up, admired it, and said, “It’s the pay I get for putting up with him. He was a real bore, Dylan.”

Dylan tried to reason with Kate, but she stubbornly refused. “I’m keeping the ring,” she said. She suddenly came over and took him by the arm, pressing herself against him. “I’m not going out to eat tonight. I’m going home.Why don’t you come with me? I’ll fix us something.”

“No thanks, Kate.”

Kate bit her lip and stared at the handsome man in front of her. Often, she had left the door open for him to make advances, but he never had. She believed that he was some sort of religious fanatic, but in Kate’s mind all men were alike even if they were parsons. It irritated her that she could not ensnare Dylan, and she said, “Dylan, you’re the first man who ever turned me down. I just can’t believe you’re that holy.”

“Why, I’m not calling myself that, ay? You don’t know the struggle I have to keep myself from going to rack and ruin as I was before.”

“You weren’t always a holy man, then.”

“I don’t call myself that even now. I was a sinner just as bad as any other man, you see.”

His words caught Kate’s attention, and as she watched him, she was acutely aware that something in him made him different from other men. She had heard men protest that they had no lust for her, but she had always been able to read that very thing in their eyes. Dylan seemed to walk in another dimension, and she asked impulsively, “What happened, if you were such a sinner, to make you so good?”

Dylan studied her closely. She was a beautiful woman, but he was well on his guard with her. “Well, it’s this way, Kate. Sometimes a man bends over for a moment, and when he straightens up, the whole world has changed. A man can change that quick—and a woman too.”

“What kind of change?”

“God can change a heart in a blink of an eye. The Bible calls it the new birth. Like being born again, it is. God takes away your old sinstained heart and gives you a fresh new one. Now that’s a glorious thing to happen to a fellow, yes?”

Kate stared at him. “I don’t believe it.”

“Oh, but it’s true. The Gospel is the good news, Kate. Jesus died for our sins, and when you come to Jesus and ask Him to forgive you, there’s no argument. It’s done in a moment, and from that time on you’re a new person, see? I’d like to see that happen to you, Kate.”

Kate stepped away and eyed Dylan coldly. “I’ve got everything I want. I’ve got my looks, money, men chasing me. I could marry a dozen times tomorrow. Even a lord or two has been after me. You know that.”

“But what about when all that’s gone, Kate?”

“Gone? Gone where?”

“Why, you’ll lose all of that. There’ll come a time when you and I won’t have our teeth, when we’re all wrinkled and weak. Old age doesn’t show any favourites. This black hair of mine will either be gone or silvered. Your good looks will fade as all things on this earth do. Then where will your admirers be? We’ll lose everything in this world. Time takes it away from us.”

Fear touched Kate Fairfield’s eyes. She’d had thoughts like this but had always managed to put them away. “I don’t want to hear about all that.”

But Dylan was persistent. He spoke softly but with a fierce intensity that held Kate still. “Jesus is your friend, Kate. One day you and I will both stand before God. What will I be telling Him when He asks what I did? You know what I’ll say? I’ll say, ‘Lord, I was a sinner. I committed every sin that I ever thought of, but Jesus bore all my sins on the cross—so I throw myself on your mercy because of what Jesus did.’” Dylan paused, and his eyes held hers. “What will you say to Him, Kate?”

Kate closed her eyes, and a tremor went through her body. She whirled suddenly, grabbed her coat, and gave him an angry look. “I’m not going to give up what I’ve got, Dylan! Maybe when I get older I’ll have time for God—but not now.” She hurried through the door, leaving Dylan standing in the middle of the dressing room. He went to the door and watched her sadly as she hurried away. “Poor lost woman. You have it all—and yet you really have nothing.”

As she usually did,Helen Morton arose early and fixed her own breakfast. She knew it would be useless to prepare a breakfast for her mistress, for Kate did not rise early. Helen was a young woman of twenty who had become the personal maid of the actress almost a year ago. She had learnt that Kate demanded tact and discretion from her maid, as well as skill in hairdressing and wardrobe. She was expected to go blind when Kate brought a man home with her. The actress had warned her thoroughly that she would be dismissed if she ever spoke of anything that happened in the rooms where Kate lived in the south of London.

Helen fixed a good breakfast, then for a time she sat there reading yesterday’s paper. She had always loved the cobwebby hours just before dawn. As soon as the morning began to break, she began to think of what clothing her mistress would wear. Rising from the table, she went to the door of her mistress’s bedroom, slipped off her shoes, and silently opened the door. There had been times when there had been a man in the bedroom with Kate, but in the dimness of the room, she suddenly realised that the bed was empty. The covers were turned down and the bed had not been slept in.

She must not have come home last night.
Helen shrugged, for this was not an unusual occurrence. She started across the room. A dim light from the gaslight in the street gave the room a pale opalescence. Something was different in the room, and Helen stopped. She looked past the bed and saw what appeared to be a bundle of dark clothes, blankets, or sheets piled together. She walked by the foot of the bed, and when she reached the pile, she realised that they were not clothes at all.

Helen’s body seemed to freeze, for by the dim light she saw that Katherine Fairfield was staring up at her with sightless eyes. A terrible dark stain marred her graceful throat, and her bosom was saturated with blood.

Helen could not move for a moment, but then a bubbling scream rose to her throat. She backed away, holding her hands out as if someone were attacking her, then turned and fled from the silent room where the dead woman lay staring at the ceiling.

FIVE

M
um, can I ride Patches this morning?”

Serafina was buttoning the jumper that she had just put on David. Shaking her head, she said, “Not today, Son. Don’t you remember we’re going to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard?”

“Will that be fun?”

“Oh yes, it will be very impressive.”

“Will the queen be there?”

“I doubt it, David. She has many things to do.”

“I’d like to meet the queen.”

“Well, so would a great many other people, but she just can’t get around to greet all of her subjects. I’m sure she’d like to, though.”

“Does she have any little boys?”

“As a matter of fact, she does. She and the prince consort have a nice family.”

“I’d like to go play with the queen’s children.”

“Well, I would like for you to, but it’s very difficult to get in to see them. The prince and the queen are very concerned parents. They’re very strict with their children.”