Regency Buck

by Georgette Heyer

  During the second interval a circumstance occurred to destroy all Miss Taverner’s pleasure. She became aware of being closely scrutinised, and glancing towards the opposite boxes found that the Earl of Barrymore was fixedly regarding her through his quizzing-glass.

  She recognised him at once, and knew from the slight smile on his lips that he had recognised her. He nudged his companion, pointed her out, and very palpably asked a question. Miss Taverner could guess its import, and with a heightened colour turned away.

  She took care not to glance in that direction again, but Peregrine, chancing to look round the house, exclaimed sud-denly: ‘Who is that fellow who keeps staring into our box? I have a very good mind to step round and ask him what he means by it!’

  ‘I do not think I should notice his impertinence, if I were you,’ replied the Captain. ‘It is only Cripplegate, and the Barrymores, you know, cannot be held accountable for their odd manners. If you had known Hellgate, the late Earl, you would think nothing of this man.’

  Peregrine was frowning across the house. ‘Yes, but he seems actually to be trying to catch our attention. Ju, you do not know him, do you?’

  She looked fleetingly towards the opposite door. The Earl kissed his hand to her, and Captain Audley turned to her with a surprised question in his eyes. ‘My dear Miss Taverner, are you acquainted with Barrymore?’

  She said in a good deal of confusion: ‘No, no! I have never spoken to him in my life.’

  ‘Well, I think perhaps I will go round and inform him of it,’ said the Captain, rising from his chair.

  She laid her hand on his sleeve, and said with strong agita-tion: ‘It is of no consequence! I am persuaded he mistakes me for another. See, he has found his error for himself, and is no longer looking this way! Pray sit down again, Captain Audley!’

  Civility obliged him to comply, though he looked to be far from satisfied. But the third act commenced almost immediately, and as the Earl went away before the farce no further annoyance was suffered that evening.

  But the effects of his having recognised in Miss Taverner the curricle-driver at Horley were soon felt. Knowledge of her identity did not prevent him from describing the circumstances under which he had first met her, and by the time she entered the Assembly-rooms at the Old Ship with Mrs Scattergood on the following evening her name was being bandied about pretty freely, and two ladies who had hitherto treated her with marked amiability bowed with such cold civility that she felt almost ready to sink.

  The rooms were full, and a large part of the gathering was composed of officers, with whom, from the circumstance of a Cavalry barracks being situated a little way out of the town on the Lewes road, Brighton always teemed. The Master of Ceremonies presented several of the younger ones to Miss Taverner, but she stood up for the first two dances with Captain Audley.

  It might have been her fancy, but she thought that she could detect a shade of reserve in his manner, a grave look in his usually merry eyes. After a little while she said as lightly as she could: ‘I daresay you have heard by this time of my shocking conduct, Captain Audley. Are you disgusted? Do you think you should stand up with such a sad character as myself ?’

  ‘You refer to your drive from town, I collect. I should not have described it in such terms.’

  ‘But you do not approve of it. I can see that you think ill of me for having done it.’

  He smiled. ‘My countenance must be singularly deceptive, then. I think ill of you! No, indeed, I do not!’

  ‘Your brother is very angry with me.’

  He returned no answer, and after a moment or two she said with a little laugh: ‘It was not so very bad, after all.’

  ‘Certainly not. What you do could never be bad. Let us say rather that it was not very wise.’

  She was conscious of a constriction in her throat; she overcame it, and replied: ‘I am sure I do not care. Such an excessive regard for public opinion is what I have no patience with. Your brother is not here to-night, I think.’

  ‘He was engaged to dine with some friends, but I daresay he will be here presently.’

  They went down the dance at this moment, and when they stood opposite to each other again another topic for conversation came up, and continued to occupy them for the rest of the time they were together.

  As she walked back beside the Captain to where they had left Mrs Scattergood, Miss Taverner saw that Worth had entered the room, and was standing talking earnestly to her chaperon. From the glance Mrs Scattergood cast in her direction she felt sure that she was the subject under discussion, and it was consequently in a very stiff manner that she greeted her guardian.

  His bow was formal, his countenance unsmiling; and for the few minutes that he remained beside them he talked the merest commonplace. Tuesday’s events were not referred to, but that they held a prominent place in his thoughts Miss Taverner could not doubt. All the mortifications of her last meeting with him were vividly recalled to her memory by the sight of him, and no softening in his manner, no kinder light in his eyes came to alleviate her discomfort. Upon her civility being claimed towards an officer who approached to lead her out for the next dance, the Earl walked away to the other end of the room, and presently took his place in another set opposite a young lady in a diaphanous gown of yellow sarcenet. He left the ballroom before tea, and without once having asked his ward to stand up with him. She saw him go, and was wretched indeed. As for his taste, she thought very poorly of it, for she could not perceive the least degree of beauty in the lady in yellow sarcenet – nothing, in fact, to have made it worth the Earl’s while to have attended the ball.

  The evening provided her with a fair sample of what she guessed she would be obliged to endure until her escapade was forgotten. Several dowagers eyed her with a good deal of severity, and her particular friends seemed to have agreed amongst themselves to behave towards her as though nothing had happened, which they did so carefully that her spirits sank lower than ever. The gentlemen saw the affair as a famous joke; they were ready enough to talk of it, and to applaud her daring; and the boldest amongst them quizzed her with a kind of familiar gallantry which galled her pride beyond bearing. To make matters worse Mrs Scattergood bemoaned the results of her imprudence all the way home, and prophesied that the evils of such conduct would be felt for many a long day.

  At the end of the week the Regent arrived in Brighton, accompanied by his brother the Duke of Cumberland; and somewhat to Miss Taverner’s surprise a card was received by Mrs Scattergood inviting them both to an evening party at the Pavilion on the following Tuesday. The royal brothers were seen in church on Sunday: the elder stout, with a sallow sort of handsomeness, and an air of great fashion; the younger lean, extremely tall, and with his black-avised countenance dis figured by a scar from a wound received in Tournai.

  Miss Taverner could not forbear looking at him with a good deal of interest, for the scandals attaching to his name were many, and he was generally credited with nearly every form of vice, including murder. Only a couple of years before his valet had committed suicide, and there were still any number of persons who did not scruple to hint that the unfortunate man had not met his end in the way that was officially given out. The Duke of Clarence, who, like every one of his brothers but Cumberland himself, was an invincible and an indiscreet talker, had referred to that particular scandal upon one occasion, and while assuring Miss Taverner that there was no truth in it, had added: ‘Ernest is not a bad sort, only if he knows where you have a tender spot on your foot he likes to tread on it.’ Looking at the Duke of Cumberland’s face, Miss Taverner could well believe this to be true.

  Before the party at the Pavilion took place Judith had the comfort of knowing that her cousin was in Brighton. He and her uncle arrived at the Castle inn on Monday at four o’clock, having come down from the White Horse Cellar, in Piccadilly, in a little under six hours, travelling post; and called at Marine Parade after dinner. Peregrine had driven out to Worthing earlier in the day, and was no
t yet back, but both the ladies were at home, and while Mrs Scattergood was engaged with the Admiral, Judith was able to take her cousin apart, and pour into his ears an account of her disgrace and its cause.

  He listened to her with an expression of concern, and twice pressed her hand with a look of such sympathetic understanding that she was hard put to it not to burst into tears of self-pity. The relief of being able to unburden her heart was great; and the knowledge that there was one at least who did not condemn her induced her to show a more marked degree of preference for her cousin than she was aware of doing.

  ‘You see how bad I have been,’ she said with a trembling smile. ‘But I should never have done it if Lord Worth had not laid it down so positively that I was not to go with Perry.’

  ‘The impropriety of your behaviour is nothing when compared with the total want of delicacy he has shown!’ he replied warmly. ‘You were at fault; your action was ill-judged, but I can readily perceive how you were provoked into doing it. Lord Worth will be content with nothing less than a complete ascendancy over your mind! I have watched with alarm his growing influence over you; it is evident that he thought you would meekly obey his arbitrary commands. Do not be unhappy! He has been betrayed into showing himself to you in his true colours, and that must be of benefit. He is autocratic; the mildness of manner which he has lately assumed towards you is as false as his pretended regard for you. He cares nothing for you, my dear cousin; no man who could address you in the humiliating terms you have described to me!’

  She was considerably taken aback by the vehemence of this speech, nor did its import produce any of that comfort which was presumably its object. The evils of her situation seemed to become greater; she said in a desponding tone: ‘He has never given me any reason for suspecting him of having a regard for me.’

  He looked at her intently. ‘To me it has seemed otherwise. I have sometimes been afraid that you were even inclined to return his partiality.’

  ‘Certainly not!’ she said emphatically. ‘Such a notion is absurd! I care nothing for his good opinion, and look forward to the day when I shall be freed from his guardianship.’

  He said with meaning: ‘And I, too, look forward to that day, Judith.’

  Upon the following evening Mrs Scattergood and Miss Taverner drove in a closed carriage to the Pavilion, and were set down at the domed porch punctually at nine o’clock, and ushered through an octagonal vestibule, which was lit by a Chinese lantern suspended from the centre of the tented roof, into the entrance hall, a square apartment with a ceiling painted to represent an azure sky with fleecy clouds. Here they were able to leave their shawls, and to peep anxiously at their reflections in the mirror over the marble mantelpiece. Mrs Scattergood gave their names to one of the flunkeys who stood on either side of the door at the back of the hall; the man announced them, and they passed through the door into the Chinese Gallery.

  A numerous company was gathered here, and the Prince Regent was standing in the central division of the gallery in a position to welcome his guests as they came in. His resplendent figure instantly caught the eye, for he had a great inclination towards finery, and his girth, which was considerable, did not prevent him from wearing the most gorgeous waistcoats and coloured coats. His doctors had forbidden him on pain of death to remedy the defects of his figure with tight-lacing, and since he was always very anxious over the state of his own health, he obeyed them. But in spite of his corpulence, and the lines of dissipation that marred his countenance, there were still some traces to be found of the Prince Florizel who had captivated the world thirty-odd years before.

  As Mrs Scattergood, rising from a deep curtsy, begged leave to present Miss Taverner, he smiled, and shook hands with a good-humoured condescension which had often endeared many people to him whom he afterwards contrived without the least difficulty to alienate.With that easy courtesy he knew so well how to assume he insisted that he remembered Mrs Scattergood well, was happy to see her again (and in such looks), and very glad to make the acquaintance of her young friend. It was difficult to realise that so affable a prince had done what he could to assist in oversetting his father’s precarious reason, had discarded two wives, and heartlessly abandoned any friend of whom he had happened to tire. Miss Taverner knew him to be selfish, capricious, given over to every form of excess, but she could not remember it when he turned to her and said with his attractive smile and air of kindness: ‘You must know, Miss Taverner, that from one member of my family I have heard so much in your praise that I have been anxious indeed to meet you!’

  She hardly knew where to look, but chancing to meet his eyes, which were twinkling archly, she was emboldened to return his smile, and to murmur that he was very kind.

  ‘Is this your first visit to Brighton?’ he inquired. ‘Do you make a long stay? It is a town I have come to regard as so peculiarly my own that it will not be out of place for me to bid you welcome to it.’

  ‘Thank you, sir. It is my first visit. If I could indulge my inclination I believe I should stay here for ever.’

  ‘That is famous!’ he said jovially. ‘That is how I feel, I can tell you, Miss Taverner. It is many years since I first came to Brighton – we called it Brighthelmstone in those days, you know – but you see what a hold it took on my fancy! I was constrained to build myself a little summer palace here, and I give you my word that whenever I can I come down to live in it.’

  ‘And I am sure it is no wonder, sir!’ said Mrs Scattergood, to whom this speech was partially addressed. ‘I have frequently been describing to Miss Taverner the beauty and elegance of the Pavilion. Nothing could ever equal it!’

  He smiled, and seemed pleased, though he deprecated her praise with a protesting movement of his hand. ‘I believe it to be a little out of the common,’ he acknowledged. ‘I do not wish to say that it is by any means perfect, but it suits me, and has been admired by those whose taste and judgment I depend upon. Miss Taverner will be interested, I daresay, in some of the examples of Chinese art she will find here. The light immediately above us, for instance, ma’am,’ he continued, pointing upwards to a horizontal skylight of stained glass set in the middle of the ceiling, ‘represents Lin-Shin, the god of thunder, surrounded, as you see, by drums, and flying.’

  Miss Taverner looked, and admired; he invited her cordially to inspect whatever she had in mind to, and seemed as though he would have volunteered to guide her round the gallery himself, had he not been obliged to turn away from her to receive another guest who had just been announced.

  Mrs Scattergood and Miss Taverner withdrew to where an acquaintance of the former was standing, and while the two elder ladies stood chatting together Miss Taverner had leisure to look about her and to be astonished.

  Her view of the exterior of the Pavilion had led her to expect the interior to be of more than ordinary splendour, but she had not been prepared for what met her gaze. The gallery in which she stood was of immense length, and partially separated into five unequal divisions by a trellis-work of what looked to be bamboo, but which, upon closer inspection, turned out to be painted iron. The central division was surrounded by a Chinese canopy of similar trellis-work, hung with bells. Above, a coved ceiling projected through the upper floor, and had set in it the light towards which the Regent had directed her notice. A chimney-piece in brass and iron, worked in further imitation of bamboo, was placed directly facing the middle entrance, and on either side of it two niches, lined with yellow marble, contained cabinets. There seemed, as far as Miss Taverner could see, to be corresponding niches in the other divisions, as well as two recesses with a porcelain pagoda in each. Stained glass lanterns hung from the angles of the ceiling, and in addition to these a soft light was thrown by branches concealed in the glass tulips and lotus-flowers which adorned the three mantelpieces in the gallery. The extreme compartments were occupied by two staircases, also made in imitation of bamboo, and two doors, which, being fronted with looking-glass, made the perspective of the gallery seem inter
minable. The walls were battened and covered with canvas painted with peach-blossom as a ground-colour, on which rocks, trees, shrubs, birds, and flowers were pencilled in pale blue. All the couches and chairs were of ivory figured with black, and the daylight was admitted only through the lights in the several coved roofs, and through the stained-glass window above one of the staircases. The corresponding window over the other staircase was merely imitative.

  While she was looking about her, and wondering at what she saw, a footman had come up with a tray of refreshments; she took a cup of coffee from it, and turned to find Mr Brummell at her elbow, dressed in the plainest of black coats and knee-breeches, and looking singularly out of place in the midst of such splendid surroundings. ‘Spellbound, Miss Taverner?’ he inquired.

  ‘Mr Brummell! I did not know you were in Brighton! Yes, indeed: it is all very – very beautiful – quite extraordinary!’ She saw the faint, incredulous smile he used to check applause, and gave a relieved sigh. ‘You do not like it either!’ she said.

  ‘I thought you had decided it was all very beautiful?’

  ‘Well, I expect it is. It must be, of course, for everyone is in raptures over it.’

  ‘Have you heard me express myself rapturously over it?’

  ‘No, but –’

  ‘Then there is no reason for you to be sure of its beauty.’

  She smiled. ‘Pray do not snub me, Mr Brummell! If you are to do that I shall be left without any support in this horrid censorious world. You must know that I am a little in disgrace.’

  ‘I have heard rumours. If you think my advice of value I have some for you.’

  ‘Yes?’ she said eagerly.

  He flicked open his snuff-box in his inimitable way and took a pinch. ‘Drive your phaeton,’ he said. ‘You are really very stupid not to have thought of it for yourself.’