The Masqueraders

by Georgette Heyer

  ‘And me in peril!’ cried the affronted Miss Grayson.

  Sir Anthony raised his eyes from the chicken and looked coolly across at her. ‘Oh, were you in peril?’ he inquired. ‘I came merely to put an end to an indiscretion, as I thought.’

  ‘Peril! At the hands of such a Monster!’ Miss Grayson was indignant. ‘I wonder, sir, that you need ask.’

  Sir Anthony poured wine for himself and Mr Merriot. ‘My dear Letty,’ said he, ‘you have so frequently assured us that Mr Markham is a model of all the virtues that I did you the honour to respect your judgment.’

  Miss Grayson turned scarlet, and looked as though she were about to cry. ‘You didn’t, Tony! You are just being – disagreeable. And he’s not a model of virtue! He is an odious brute, and – and so are you!’

  ‘Tut, child, the gentleman’s hungry, and will be the better for his chicken,’ said Mr Merriot.

  ‘I am not a child!’ flashed Miss Grayson, and was off in a swirl of skirts to Miss Merriot’s side. From the shelter of Miss Merriot’s arm she hurled a tearful defiance. ‘And I would sooner go to Gretna with that Monster than marry you, Sir Tony!’

  Sir Anthony remained unmoved. ‘My dear Letty, if this piece of absurdity was to escape my attentions, believe me it was not in the least necessary. So far as I am aware I have never asked you to marry me. Nor have I the smallest intention of so doing.’

  This pronouncement brought Miss Grayson’s head up from Kate’s shoulder. In round-eyed astonishment she gazed at Sir Anthony, busily engaged with the wing of a chicken.

  ‘I have to suppose,’ said Miss Merriot sharply, ‘that the gentleman is an original.’

  Mr Merriot turned away to hide a laughing face. ‘These family arrangements – !’ he said.

  ‘But – but Papa says –’ began Miss Grayson. ‘Why, Tony, don’t you want to marry me?’

  ‘I do not,’ said Sir Anthony.

  Miss Grayson blinked, but she did not seem to be offended. ‘Why don’t you?’ she asked with naive curiosity.

  At that Sir Anthony looked up, and there was a twinkle in his eyes. ‘I suppose, Letty, because my taste is at fault.’

  ‘Well!’ Miss Grayson digested this in silence. She disengaged herself from Kate’s arm, and went slowly to the table. Sir Anthony rose at her approach, and received one little hand in his large one. ‘Tony, will you tell Papa?’ she asked.

  ‘I have told him, my dear.’

  ‘How did he take it?’ asked Miss Grayson anxiously.

  ‘Philosophically, child.’

  ‘I am so glad!’ said Miss Grayson, with a relieved sigh. ‘If you don’t want to marry me, Tony, I can go home with a quiet mind. And I can even forgive you for being so disagreeable.’

  ‘And I,’ said Sir Anthony, ‘can finish my dinner.’

  Three

  My Lady Lowestoft

  Miss Merriot called ‘Come in!’ to a scratching on the door. Came Mr Merriot into the big bedroom, and walked across to the fireplace where Kate stood. Mr Merriot cocked an eyebrow at Kate, and said: – ‘Well, my dear, and did you kiss her good-night?’

  Miss Merriot kicked off her shoes, and replied in kind. ‘What, are you parted from the large gentleman already?’

  Mr Merriot looked into the fire, and a slow smile came, and the suspicion of a blush.

  ‘Lord, child!’ said Miss Merriot. ‘Are you for the mammoth? It’s a most respectable gentleman, my dear.’

  Mr Merriot raised his eyes. ‘I believe I would not choose to cross him,’ he remarked inconsequently. ‘But I would trust him.’

  Miss Merriot began to laugh. ‘Be a man, my Peter, I implore you.’

  ‘Alack!’ sighed Mr Merriot, ‘I feel all a woman.’

  ‘Oh Prue, my Prue, it’s a Whig with a sober mind! Will you take it to husband?’

  ‘I suppose you will be merry, Robin. Do you imagine me in love on two hours’ acquaintance? Ah, you’re jealous of the gentleman’s inches. Said I not so?’

  ‘My inches, child, stand me in good stead. I believe it’s the small men have the wits. My compliments on the sword-play.’

  ‘At least the old gentleman taught me a trick or two worth the knowing,’ placidly said the lady, and pulled up her coat sleeve to show a stained shirt. ‘The last glass went down my arm,’ she said, smiling.

  Her brother nodded. ‘Well, here’s been work enough for an evening,’ he remarked. ‘I await the morrow. Give you good-night, child, and pray dream of your mammoth.’

  ‘In truth I need a mammoth to match me,’ said Madam Prudence. ‘Pray dream of your midget, Robin.’

  She went away humming a snatch of an old song. It was apparent to her that her brother frowned upon the morrow, but she had a certain placidity that went well with her inches, and looked upon her world with calm untroubled eyes.

  The truth was she was too well used to a precarious position to be easily disturbed, and certainly too used to an exchange of personality with Robin to boggle over her present situation. She had faith in her own wits: these failing her she had a rueful dependence on the ingenuity of her sire. Impossible to tread the paths of his cutting without developing an admiration for the gentleman’s guile. Prudence regarded him with affection, but some irony. She admitted his incomprehensibility with a laugh, but it did not disturb her. She danced to his piping, but it is believed she lacked the adventurous spirit. Now Robin might fume at the mystery with which the father chose to wrap himself about, but Robin enjoyed a chequered career, and had an impish dare-devilry that led him into more scrapes than the old gentleman devised. Withal he surveyed the world with a seriousness that Prudence lacked. He had enthusiasms, and saw life as something more than the amusing pageant Prudence thought it.

  It seemed he had taken this last, unlucky venture to heart. To be sure, he had had a closer view of it than his sister. She supposed it was his temperament made him enthusiastic for a venture entered into in a spirit of adventure only, and at the father’s bidding. She remembered he had wept after Culloden, with his head in her lap at the old house in Perth – wept in a passion of fury and heartbreak, and dashed away the tears with an oath, and a vow that he hated lost causes. To Prudence it was a matter of indifference whether Stewart Charles or German George sat the throne; she suspected her sire of a like indifference, discounting heroics. They were swept into this rebellion for – God knew what cause; they were entangled in its meshes before they knew it. That was Mr Colney’s way. He made a fine speech, and it seemed they were all Jacobites. A year before they were entirely French, at Florence; before that there was a certain gaming house at Frankfort, whose proprietor of a sudden swept off his son and daughter to dip fingers in a pie of M. de Saxe’s making.

  French, German, Jacobite – it was all one to Prudence. But this England was different. She conceived a fondness for it, and found it homelike. Doubtless it was the mother in her, that big, beautiful, smiling creature who had died at Dieppe when Robin was a child.

  She remarked on it to Robin next morning, before their departure for London.

  Robin laughed at her; he was busy with the painting of his face. ‘Lord, my dear, you’re the very picture of English solidity,’ he said. ‘Do you ride with the mountain?’

  ‘So I believe,’ said Miss Prudence. Her eye fell on John, packing away Master Robin’s razors. ‘La, child, have you shaved? And you with not a hair to your chin!’

  This drew a grim smile from the servant. ‘You’d best have a care, the pair of you,’ he said. ‘We’re off to put our heads in a noose. The gentleman with the sleepy eyes sees things, I’ll warrant you.’

  ‘What, do you shy away from the mountain?’ Robin said. ‘I might engage to run in circles round it.’

  The man looked upon his young master with rough affection. ‘Ay, you’re a cunning one, Master Robin, but th
e big gentleman’s awake for all you think him so dull.’

  Prudence sat saddle-wise across a chair, and leaned her arms on the back of it. Chin in hand she regarded John, and said lazily: ‘Where’s the old gentleman, John?’

  There was no expression in the stolid face. ‘I’ve lived with him more years than you, Miss Prue, and I don’t take it upon myself to answer that.’

  ‘How long have you lived with him, John?’

  ‘Since before you were born, mistress.’

  Robin put down the hare’s foot, and got up. ‘Ay, you’re devilish close, ain’t you, John? Maybe you know what he’ll be at now?’

  ‘Maybe I do, maybe I don’t,’ was all the answer vouchsafed him. ‘What’s to be your ladyship’s dress to-day?’

  Robin came down to the coffee-room twenty minutes later in a dimity gown and pink ribands. The hood was cast aside in favour of a straw hat with rosettes, and more ribands, but Prudence, very sober in fawn breeches, and a coat of claret-coloured cloth, carried a fine mantle over her arm, which was presently put about Madam Robin’s shoulders.

  Miss Letty was agog to be off. They set forward in good time, Robin and the lady seated demurely in the chaise, with the seeming Mr Merriot and Sir Anthony riding a little way behind, for escort.

  There were questions, of course: Prudence was prepared for them and knew no faltering. She spoke of a home in Cumberland – it seemed remote enough – and of the Grand Tour. Sir Anthony had made it: that went without saying. They conversed of foreign towns amicably and safely. Prudence displayed a remarkable knowledge of places; indeed she had the greater part of Europe in her memory, as it were, and an intimate acquaintance with haunts unfrequented by the fairer sex. Once she saw the straight brows rise, and tranquilly awaited developments.

  ‘You’ve seen a vast deal for your years, Master Peter,’ said Sir Anthony.

  ‘They number twenty, sir,’ she replied. If the truth be told they numbered twenty-six, but she looked a stripling, she knew. ‘But I lived abroad with my parents some years before my mother’s death. She could not support the English climate.’

  Sir Anthony bowed politely, and desired to know where Mr Merriot might be found in London.

  ‘My sister is to visit my Lady Lowestoft, sir,’ Prudence answered. ‘I am her escort, and I believe her ladyship will give me a lodging. Perhaps you are acquainted with her?’

  ‘Faith, all the world knows Lady Lowestoft,’ said Sir Anthony. ‘If she denies you, or you grow tired of the petticoats, my dear boy, you may command a lodging with me at any time.’

  Prudence flushed in sudden surprise, and looked sideways at the gentleman. This was unexpected; it seemed Sir Anthony was developing a kindness for her. She thanked him gravely, and learned that he owned a house in Clarges Street.

  They came to London in the dusk. Prudence sat straight enough in the saddle, but she owned privately to fatigue. It was necessary to restore Miss Letty first to her father, where also they left Sir Anthony. The lateness of the hour was pleaded as an excuse for not entering the house with Miss Letty, but Miss Merriot promised to wait upon her as soon as might be. The chaise drove on to Arlington Street, and drew up at my Lady Lowestoft’s door.

  Prudence came down out of the saddle with a sigh of relief. Robin touched her shoulder. ‘Bravery done, child. Journey’s end now.’

  ‘A halt,’ Prudence amended. ‘No doubt we’ll ha’ done with our travels when we get to heaven.’

  My lady’s black page it was that ushered them into my lady’s withdrawing room. This was a spacious apartment, resplendent with gilt and yellow brocade. My lady, it seemed, had a taste for the new French furniture. The page went away to carry Mr and Miss Merriot’s names to his mistress, and Miss Prudence looked round with a comical grimace. ‘Faith, it seems my Lady Lowestoft is the same Thérèse de Bruton,’ she remarked.

  The door was opened, and swiftly shut again behind a lady who came in with a swirl of a silk gown over an enormous hoop – a lady with black eyes like slits in a thin, vivid face, a powdered wig, and many jewels. She stood with her back to the door, her hand still on the knob, and as she looked sharply from one to the other of her visitors the narrow black eyes narrowed still more, and her face was all alive with laughter. ‘Eh, but which is the man of you, my little ones?’ she demanded.

  Prudence made her bow. ‘So please you, madam.’

  My lady came to her with quick jerky steps. ‘Never! Do I not know thee, my cabbage? Eh, Prue, my dear!’ She cast her arms about Prue’s large person, and kissed her on both cheeks. Robin fared the same, but returned the caress with greater alacrity than his flushing sister. Prudence had never a taste for stray kisses.

  ‘And the bon papa, my children?’ cried my lady, holding a hand of each.

  ‘There, madam, we suppose you to have the advantage of us,’ Robin said.

  She looked a query, with her head tilted birdlike to one side. ‘Ah? What’s this? You have no news of him?’

  ‘In truth, madam, we’ve mislaid the old gentleman,’ Prudence said. ‘Or he us.’

  My lady burst out laughing again. ‘I would you had brought him! But that was not to be expected. Yes, he wrote to me. I will tell you – ah, but you are tired! You must sit down. Take the couch, Miss Merriot – tiens, that is not a name for my stupid tongue! – Prue, my angel, some chocolate, yes? Marthe shall make it herself: you remember Marthe, no?’

  ‘Egad, is it the same fat Marthe,’ Robin said. ‘I drank her chocolate in Paris, ten years ago!’

  ‘The same, my cabbage, but fatter – oh, of an enormity! you would not believe! To think you should remember, and you a little gamin – not more than fourteen years, no? But the wickedness even then! And again in Rome, not?’

  ‘Oh, but it was my Lady Lowestoft, then, at the Legation. We – what were we? Sure, it must have been the Polish gentleman and his two sons. There had been some little fracas at Munich, as I remember.’

  This made my lady laugh again. She was off to the door, and sent her page running with orders to Marthe.

  ‘So the old gentleman wrote to you, madam?’ Prudence said. ‘Did he say he would send us?’

  ‘Say? Robert? Mon Dieu, when did he in all his life say what one might so easily comprehend? Be sure it was all a mystery, and no names writ down.’

  Prudence chuckled. ‘Egad, we may be sure of that. But you knew?’

  ‘A vrai dire. I might guess – since I too know Robert. Ah, he might count on me, he knew well! It is this rebellion, not?’ She sank her voice a little, and her bright eyes were keen as needles.

  Robin put a finger to his lips. ‘To be frank, ma’am, I believe I’m under attainder.’

  Her very red lips formed an O, and she wrinkled up her nose. ‘Chut, chut! He must then put your head in a noose too?’

  ‘Why, madam, to say sooth we were not loth. Prudence lay snug enough at Perth.’

  My lady beamed upon Prudence. ‘I had thought you in the thick of the fight, my child. It is well. But since it ended, where have you been? Voyons, it is many months since it is over, and you are but just come to me!’

  There came that bitter look of brooding into Robin’s eyes. It was Prudence who made answer. ‘Robin was fled to the hills, my lady. I waited snug enough, as he says.’

  ‘To the hills?’ My lady leaned a little forward. ‘With the Prince, no?’

  Robin made an impatient movement. The cloud did not lift from his brow. ‘Some of the time.’

  ‘We heard rumours that he had gone. It is true?’

  ‘He’s safe – in France,’ Robin said curtly.

  ‘The poor young man! And the bon papa? Whither went he?’

  ‘Lud, madam, do you ask us that?’ laughed Prudence. ‘In France, maybe, or maybe in Scotland still. Who knows?’

  The door opened, and the page le
t in fat Marthe, a tray in her hands. It was a very colossus of a woman, of startling girth, and with a smile that seemed to spread all over the full moon of her face. Like her mistress, from one to the other she looked, and was of a sudden smitten with laughter that shook all her frame like a jelly. The tray was set down; she clasped her hands and gasped: ‘Oh, la-la! To see the little monsieur habillé en dame !’

  Robin sailed up to her and swept a practised curtsey. ‘Your memory fails you, Marthe. Behold me – Prudence!’

  She gave his arm a playful slap. ‘My memory, alors ! No, no, m’sieur, you are not yet large enough to be mademoiselle.’

  ‘Oh, unkind!’ Robin lamented, and kissed her roundly.

  ‘Marthe, there is need of secrecy, you understand?’ My lady spoke urgently.

  ‘Bien, madame; I do not forget.’ Marthe put a finger to her lips. ‘Tenez, it must be myself to wait always upon the false mademoiselle. I shall see to it.’ She nodded in a business-like fashion. ‘John is with you yet?’

  ‘Be very sure of it,’ Robin said.

  ‘All goes well, then. No one need suspect. I go to attend to the bedchambers.’ She went off with a rolling gait, and was found later in Robin’s room, twitting the solemn manservant.

  Four

  Mistress Prudence to Herself

  From my Lady Lowestoft much might be learned of Society and Politics. She moved in the Polite World, and made something of a figure in it, for she had sufficient wealth, some charm, and a vivacity of manner that was foreign and therefore intriguing. There sat withal a shrewd head on her shoulders.

  She was a widow of no very late date; indeed she had interred Sir Roger Lowestoft with all decency little more than a year back, and having for a space mourned him with suitable propriety she had now launched upon a single life again, which promised to be very much more entertaining than had been the married state. It must be admitted Sir Roger was little loss to his lady. She had been heard to say that his English respectability gave her cramp in the soul. Certainly she had been a volatile creature in the days of her spinsterhood. Then came Sir Roger, and laid his sober person, and all his substantial goods at her feet. She picked them up.