by Abby Ayles
Having given the lad the address, Christopher watched him dash down the road and weave through the crowds before he entered and ordered an ale.
He had already finished his first drink by the time Jasper came in.
Glancing around distastefully, Jasper sat opposite him, eyeing the sticky table and evidently deciding not to rest his forearms upon it. “Could you not have chosen a grimier establishment?” he asked.
“It does not matter,” Christopher said heavily, leaning on his own elbows. “I could attach all the grime in Bath to my uniform and it would not make me lower, nor less desirable.”
“Lady Juliana has rejected your advances?” Jasper asked, the beginning of a sneer on his face.
“Worse than that,” Christopher replied, waving a hand at the barkeep and indicating a requirement for two more drinks.
“She is not even here. Her family has decided I am persona non grata. I am not to even be allowed contact with her, for fear that I might entrap her somehow.”
“Well, isn’t that what you were hoping to achieve?” Jasper pointed out.
“No!” Christopher exclaimed, causing some nearby patrons to turn and stare at them. “Juliana loves me. It is not a trap of any kind. I simply wished to make her happy.”
“If it is any consolation, brother in arms, I believe Lady Juliana Reffern has loved several men in this town alone,” Jasper said, grinning wickedly.
“That is no consolation,” Christopher said. “And it is also a lie. She has been courted, yes, but none successfully. It should be me that wins her. She wrote to me how she is hopeful that we may end up married.”
Jasper took a deep draught of the mug of ale that had arrived in front of him, prompting Christopher to do the same.
“It won’t do to dwell on her,” Jasper cautioned him. “That way lies misery. Take my lead. You shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket, in any case. You ought to be courting as many girls as you can. There are plenty of them out there.”
“I know what kind of ruffian you are. I won’t be drawn into it,” Christopher said, draining his second mug.
“Ruffian?” Jasper laughed. “The only difference between us, my friend, is that you draw the line just before the interesting part. How many girls have you courted? Danced with? Dangled ribbons and baubles in front of to get their attention?”
“That’s different,” Christopher argued. “I have sullied nobody’s honor.”
“None but your own, if this little encounter is anything to go by. If the rumors say it is true already, you might as well do it.”
“I disagree with your logic,” Christopher said, waving a hand at the bartender to bring them two more drinks. “I ought to be a saint as far as I can be in all areas of conduct, so that Juliana might find me worthy.”
“That ship is sailed, friend,” Jasper said. “There are so many more on the ocean, and we happen to be in a harbor. There are so many beautiful young women here in this town, just waiting to be plucked. They expect it, in fact. We ought to spend this time living up to our possibilities as young military officers.”
“How should you mean?”
“The girls want to be swept off their feet, courted, and induced to wickedness,” Jasper said, raising his newly filled mug. “Who are we to deny that to them?”
“You tried to seduce my sister,” Christopher remembered, squinting at the other man. “That was unsporting.”
“All in the fun of it; and she did not lose her honor after all,” Jasper said, clapping him on the arm. “Nothing lost, no damage done. She’ll settle down now with a boring gentleman like a good girl, and all because she got the wickedness out of her system with me.”
“You credit yourself with that?” Christopher asked incredulously. “With finding her an honest match?”
“Of course! It is a service that I do here. All young women have a streak of the wicked inside them. They want just to let it out a single time, and then they can be good as lambs for their families.”
Christopher, by now halfway down his third flagon, considered this with his eyes narrowed. “What you say is that you are actually helping, by trying to lead them astray?”
“You have it!” Jasper said. “It is a good act! We need to have no shame in it.”
Christopher mulled this over some more. “In point of fact, what you claim is that you provide a civic service to the good families of the area, helping them to marry their daughters off to far better candidates than the ones they first fall for.”
“Precisely,” Jasper said. “No woman should marry her first love. It isn’t good for them. She ought to have had her heart broken at least once. It’s all part of the natural development of the soul.”
“Caring for the souls of others is a deeply spiritual and selfless duty,” Christopher pointed out. “We’re told as much at church.”
“Right,” Jasper nodded. “It’s a holy service. Tempting them with the ways of the devil so that they may be stronger in their commitment to God afterward.”
“You consider yourself the devil?” Christopher said, laughing and spraying beer over the table.
“I have been called as such by many a father,” Jasper said modestly. “But I am only a servant and tool of our community. Remember, this is a holy and civic service.”
By the time he had drunk so much that he was thrown from the tavern and into the street, and had to stagger his way home with his arm around Jasper’s shoulders, Christopher had started considering that perhaps Jasper’s idea and way of life made sense.
Jasper had the right of it – Jasper had always had the right of it! And because of it, Jasper was never in pain. Not like the pain that Christopher was in now.
The kind that he could still feel even in his muddled state.
Chapter 6
“I do not think he thinks of me at all,” Juliana complained, lifting her hand to see how the early afternoon sun played over her fingers.
“It has hardly been a long wait,” Mary chided her. “Have patience. I imagine that he will write to you soon.”
“But we expected to meet here in Bath,” Juliana said, sighing and stepping around the corner of the garden’s path. The garden at Mrs. Reffern’s house was far smaller than the grounds at the Prighton estate, but it was pleasant nonetheless.
“Look at this darling rosebush,” Mary said, stopping and bending her head to inhale the fragrance of a particular pink flower that they were passing by.
Juliana, who was attached to her through their linked arms, was forced to stop too. She waited impatiently for Mary to be done, wondering how on earth the girl could think of flowers when her best friend was facing such a disaster.
“It is just a pink rose. We have those in Prighton.”
“But see how the color fades across the petals,” Mary said wistfully, turning the flower this way and that to admire it. “It is quite beautiful.”
Juliana gave an impatient toss of her head and stepped forward, pulling Mary away with force. “It is the same as it was the last three times we walked this square.”
“Some things are not noticed until the third time of looking,” Mary said reasonably, trotting forward to catch up.
“Well, I should not like to be one of those,” Juliana said haughtily. “How dull, to have to wait so long before your beauty is acknowledged.”
“You are lucky, Juliana,” Mary said quietly. “Some of us have no beauty to be noticed at all.”
“Some of you do not believe you have the beauty to be noticed,” Juliana corrected, as she always did. Her friend was beautiful in her eyes.
“Belief does not make fact. Moreover, in the eyes of many, a good birth is more important than beauty. Both you and I can proudly claim that we come from great families.”
“Yes, but neither one of us has a title at the moment,” Mary said. “Unless of course, we marry a titled man.”
“But, Mary, you must listen. We keep getting distracted from our true topic. It is not a duke I want to marry at
all,” Juliana protested. She already had her sights set on the man she wanted, so why bother to discuss anyone else?
“Soldiers are not always known for their skill with writing letters,” Mary noted. “I should think it possible that the Lieutenant has simply been busy with maneuvers.”
“Manoeuvres?”
“I heard Father say it recently while talking with one of his friends,” Mary giggled. “I have not the faintest idea what it means, but doesn’t it sound like such a wonderful military word?”
“Oh, you are such a silly thing,” Juliana laughed, in spite of herself. “I do like the word. But that cannot be the case. Christopher is always so good with his letters. He expresses himself wonderfully, and his penmanship is quite beautiful. When I read them, sometimes they make me want to weep.”
“Surely that indicates that they are bad,” Mary shuddered. “I should not think it a good thing that a man made me want to weep.”
“You have no imagination,” Juliana told her friend. “He is so sweet and kind, and showers me with compliments. They bring tears to my eye at how delicate and well-formed they are, tears of delight. The compliments I enjoy most of all. They are like food to me, and lately I am fairly starving.”
“Well, at least you have a dutiful friend in me to tell you that the sun shines through your hair like a dark jewel, and that your eyes are twin stars,” Mary said teasingly.
“And I can even offer compliments as to your taste in dress that no man would ever think to utter.”
Juliana patted Mary’s hand where it linked through her arm. “I wish you wouldn’t quote back to me the things I told you in confidence that he wrote to me. But you are quite right. I am indeed grateful that my aunt and my mother agreed you would be allowed to stay here with me.”
“And on my part, I am glad that my mother and father found no objection,” Mary added. “It would have been a terribly dull spring without your company. I fear they are preparing to introduce me to a suitor.”
“Oh, how awful!” Juliana exclaimed, letting her mind follow the idea as they turned onto the final stretch of path leading back to the house. “If you are married, then we shall no longer be able to stroll together each day.”
“You might come and visit with me,” Mary smiled. “We can stroll at least a few days out of the year. It is not so terrible. I shall miss things as they are, but sooner or later we must both take a husband. And then we will have new grounds to stroll, which might be at least a little exciting.”
Juliana hardly heard the rest of her words, as she was back to her favorite topic again. “Though I wait here in vain for my husband to appear, like a silly, abandoned child.”
“I do not think abandoned children are known for waiting for suitors,” Mary said, cocking her head thoughtfully.
She trailed her hand absent-mindedly through the hanging leaves of a handsome willow tree that shaded a bench at the side of the path. “Rather, surely they are wanting for parents.”
“Mary, you are impossible sometimes,” Juliana said. “Come, let us go inside. I tire of this same view. I cannot bear to go by that rosebush again today.”
Mary acquiesced with a nod of her head, and the two girls returned to the interior of the house instead of beginning another circle.
Their eyes were just adjusting to the darker light inside of the walls when they met a servant in the hall.
“There are no letters for me?” Juliana asked.
“No, my lady,” the maid said, dropping her eyes to the floor. She shifted awkwardly, twisting one of her feet where she stood. “I believe the gentleman you were waiting for has come to visit.”
“He’s here?” Juliana gasped, starting forward. “Where is he? In the sitting room?”
“No – beg pardon, my lady,” the maid said, still refusing to look up as she called her back. “Mrs. Reffern spoke with him while you was both in the garden. She told him you wasn’t here and he went away.”
“Were both, and weren’t here,” Mary corrected quietly.
“What?” Juliana asked. It was like all of the blood in her body had rushed to her head, and she felt quite faint. “He is gone?”
“Yes, my lady. He went out into the street again. I believe he came by horse.”
Juliana hesitated for only a moment, then gathered her skirts in her clenched fists and ran for the door.
Mary was calling after her, but she did not care. She hurtled out of the front door and down the path, then through the gates to the street. She looked left and right, but could not see him at all.
There was no time to think about propriety. If she stopped to consider whether it was quite right for a young lady to raise her skirts off the floor and dash after a man, she would not be able to do it. And there was no single moment to lose – who knew how far he might have gone already?
Taking a chance, she ran to her right, thinking that this was the direction of the house in which he usually stayed in Bath.
She ran headlong, using one hand to hold her bonnet tightly to her head, her skirts rustling behind her as she let them loose. She could only hope that she would not trip over them.
More than once she almost barrelled into someone coming the other way and had to dodge at the last minute; and before long she realized that her pursuit was not only dangerous, but also pointless.
Christopher could have gone this way, another way. He could, in short, have been anywhere.
Juliana stopped, looking in all directions and spinning in position. She could see nothing except the concerned faces of passers-by, strangers who were no doubt startled by this running girl in their midst. She could not blame them. If it were anyone else, she would have been startled too.
But there was nothing for it. No sight of him – no hint even of the red jacker of a soldier. No one to ask, and no one to help her find him. In truth, she did not even know if he intended to stay at the same lodgings as he had occupied last season. They had not discussed it.
Trying to catch her breath, Juliana turned miserably and began to walk back to the house, ignoring those who asked if she was in need of assistance. Soon she left behind those who had seen her run, and she was just one more unchaperoned girl.
That earned her a few glances in itself, but no one pried. They might have thought her chaperone was simply walking near her without a word.
She was halfway back when she came upon Mary and the maid, both of whom looked the very picture of worry. If it was any other situation, Juliana might have laughed at the looks on their faces.
“Did you find him?” Mary asked.
“Of course not,” Juliana said crossly, stamping her foot to let out some of the emotion that she felt. “Mrs. Reffern has driven him away. Now what am I supposed to do?”
Chapter 7
“This is exactly what you need,” Jasper said, leaning over to fix and straighten Christopher’s epaulets.
“If you’re quite sure,” Christopher sighed. “After last night, all I really want to do is stay inside and sleep.”
“Nonsense,” Jasper told him. “You can sleep when we’re back in the barracks without another break in sight. After this visit we’re right into Operation Captaincy, remember? This is our last chance to have some fun.”
“Not our last chance ever, I hope,” Christopher said. With the maudlin way things were turning out lately, it almost felt as though that might be the case.
“No more hesitation,” Jasper said, standing up and hopping down from the coach. He leaned his head back in to finish his thought. “You’re an officer. Lead with confidence and courage. Come into battle with me!”
Christopher couldn’t help but laugh, and he climbed down from the coach alongside him. Ahead of them lay Bath’s hall, where many ladies would be gathering that night for dancing.
Around them, other soldiers were making their way towards it, as well as gentlemen dressed in the latest fashions and older men escorting their daughters.
“It’s a fine night for it,” Jasper
said cheerfully, taking a deep breath of the clear air. It was neither too warm nor too cold, and Christopher found that he had to agree.
They headed inside, and were met with a burst of noise from the musicians at the far end of the hall. Already, several young couples were dancing on the floor, while around the corners of the room men and women sipped at drinks or sat to talk.
“Here we are,” Jasper said, pulling him over to a table from which they could pick a drink of their own. “Come, now. Here’s to having a good time.”
“To having a good time,” Christopher said, echoing his friend’s toast as they took their first drink.
