All Eve could do was hang on and hope she could prevent Talia from being dragged further away. Then help arrived as a waterman flung down the ladder which they had used to reach the ice. He crawled cautiously along it while another man held on to the end of the ladder. Reaching Talia he grasped her under the arms and slowly dragged her out of the water. His friends pulled the ladder back onto firmer ice, and one of them helped Eve to her feet. The others picked up a screaming and sobbing Talia and looked round rather helplessly.
'Strip the lass or she'll freeze solid,' the man who had helped Eve said.
Eve glanced round. They were close to one of the printing presses, and there was a makeshift tent behind it.
'Take her in there,' she ordered, and when they had deposited Talia out of sight of the interested crowd, she began to tear off Talia's sodden cloak. Her hands were too numb to undo the buttons on the pelisse, but Amelia was there, and soon they had the pelisse off. Then the dress, torn because Talia was weeping and flailing about, unable to keep still for them to undo the buttons. Then came her shift and her stays.
'Good. Take this and rub her hard,' Eve said, handing Amelia one end of the shawl she had been wearing round her head, which someone had retrieved from where she had dropped it, and handed to her. Fortunately it was a thick woollen one, and the two girls began to dry Talia, who was now shivering violently and sobbing without restraint.
'Eve! How is she?'
'Peter? Go and find a hackney and ask him to wait. We have to get her home and into bed as soon as possible.'
She was unaware she had not used his title. Talia was as dry as they could make her. Eve took off her own cloak and wrapped it round the shivering girl.
'Amelia, your cloak too. It's a mercy the ice was dry where we lay on it,' she said rather shakily as she added Amelia's cloak to her own. 'There, that will have to do. Come on Talia, we need to get you home.'
Either through stubbornness or terror Talia seemed unable to move. Eve sighed, and tried to pull her towards the now restored ladder. Amelia bundled up her wet clothes and followed. Outside the improvised tent they found the waterman who had pulled her out of the water. He took one look at them and came to pick Talia up. Sir Peter arrived to say a hackney was waiting, and between them the two men got Talia up the ladder. Eve and Amelia followed, they all four squeezed into the hackney, and set off for Berkeley Square.
'Come in, you are both shivering,' Sir Peter said as he lifted a still weeping Talia from the carriage. 'I have to thank you, it was a brave thing you did.'
Inside the house Talia was taken up to her room by a sturdy footman, and Sir Peter gave swift instructions for a fire, a hot drink, and plenty of bedclothes. Then he turned to the other girls.
'And we need hot drinks too. You are both shivering. Where are your cloaks? Ought you not to be wearing more than those thin pelisses?'
'Where do you think our cloaks are?' Amelia demanded. 'We could hardly bring the wretch home without any clothes!'
'What is this noise? Amelia! What are you doing here? And your little friend too?'
It was Sir Peter's mother, who had emerged from the morning room and was staring at them in disgust.
Sir Peter ignored her, turning to the hovering butler and ordering hot coffee as soon as possible. He then took their arms and led the girls into his study.
'Are you wet at all? Come, there is a good fire here where you can get warm and dry.'
'Peter! I demand you tell me! What is going on?'
He turned to her and explained, at the same time helping Amelia take off her pelisse. She was not wet, just bitterly cold, as was Eve, but both were shivering, and went eagerly towards the roaring fire. They ignored the Countess and Sir Peter as he explained, both shivering at the thought of what might have happened.
*
When they eventually returned to Albemarle Street it was to find Caroline frantic with worry, for they had been out far longer than expected, even when Francis had delivered Amelia's message.
They explained, and were forgiven, though Caroline asked them never to do anything like that again.
'I hope there'll be no need,' Eve said. 'But I think the Fair will soon end, if the ice is breaking up.'
'If it stops foolish people like Talia risking other people's lives as well as her own, good. Eve, there's a letter for you.'
Eve took the letter and opened it.
'It's from Rachel,' she said. 'And what's this?' She opened the other sheet of paper and gasped. 'It's a draft for a hundred pounds! Why has she sent me this?'
'Read the letter,' Caroline advised, laughing.
Eve did so. 'Oh, she says she cannot come to London this year, she's breeding. She hopes I can remain with you, and the money is for me to purchase some new gowns.'
'Of course you will stay with us,' Amelia said.
Caroline nodded. 'Of course you will.'
'You are all so very kind.'
'You keep Amelia out of mischief. Though after today, I wonder!'
'Well, it was my fault we went to the river, but if we hadn't Talia might have drowned.'
She sounded slightly regretful, and Eve laughed. 'You wouldn't really have been pleased.'
'No, I suppose my better nature would have intervened. Unfortunately. We can go to Bedford House tomorrow,' Amelia said, 'and purchase more lengths of material which can be made up before the Season proper starts. Though there are so many people in town despite the problems on the roads it seems to have started already.'
Caroline smiled at her. 'I'll get the sewing woman to come for the following day, if she can get here. She lives south of the river. So Rachel is breeding? I suppose she wants a boy. Her husband's first wife only gave him daughters, I believe.'
'That's why he married her,' Eve said. 'I don't believe he loved her, just saw her as a biddable female who might give him sons.'
'I wouldn't marry anyone I didn't love,' Amelia said. 'Would you, Eve?'
Eve thought of the plan her father had made for her to marry Nicholas, and sighed. 'No,' she said slowly, 'but who would marry me with such a father as mine? And my very small expectations.'
'A man who loves you will ignore your father,' Caroline said. 'I wonder how far he has investigated the army for a trace of James? He has been gone for a very long time.'
'Not far, I hope, and that he has many more regiments to investigate before he comes home and discovers James never reached France.'
*
By the second week of February the weather improved. The snow still lay thick on the ground, but the roads were mainly passable and there was more sleet and rain than snow. Robert returned from Yorkshire and took up his duties once more, somewhat to James's regret.
'I felt useful,' he complained. 'If I don't do anything to help I feel you are giving me charity.'
'Don't be a young idiot.'
Justin had still not decided when would be the best time to try and persuade James that joining the army as a volunteer, at the very moment the war looked like coming to an end, was not his best course. He must await further news from France, but the posts were slow.
'Sorry.'
'You can help Robert, and he will show you what is needed, the replies you were not able to make for me. Your hand is neat, and you can write replies once he has told you what to say. I'm going away for a few days, while the weather is milder, so he needs help.'
'You're not going to try and find my father, are you?' James asked in some dismay.
'No. I feel it necessary to go and visit my mother, in Leicestershire, to make sure this weather has not caused her any problems. She is not very well, you see, in that she has difficulty moving, and the cold makes her condition worse.'
'Oh, I see. I hope you find her well, not suffering.'
'She lives at my hunting lodge, she does not like my other houses, complains they are too big and too cold.'
He did not say he also intended to call on his friend who was now cramming Stephen for Oxford. If he agreed to ta
ke James as well, Justin hoped to persuade James of the benefit of taking up a place at Oxford, and by so doing being able to join later as an officer. How he might persuade the Rector to approve of his plan he did not know, but no doubt in time he would think of a way.
He set off a few days later. He had wondered whether to ride, but Robert reported that the roads to the north were passable, if difficult, so he took his post chaise and resigned himself to a slow journey. There were fewer snowdrifts, but occasional floods as the rain came and the snow melted. It took a week to reach Leicestershire, but when he did he found his mother in good spirits and no worse in health than before. She greeted him joyfully, and then chided him for making such a perilous journey just to see her. He grinned and kissed her.
'I'm a big boy now, Mama.'
She laughed and cuffed his cheek affectionately. 'So you keep telling me, my dear. But I wonder how soon are you going to prove it to me by giving me a daughter-in-law?'
He grinned. 'Sooner than you think. I have decided it is time for me to marry and make sure the line continues.'
For a moment she looked startled, then she laughed. 'You won't marry just for that, or you'd have tied the knot long ago. Don't try to bamboozle me. Have you met a girl you can love?'
He smiled. 'How well you know me. Of course I would not tie myself to anyone I did not love. Your marriage was a love match, was it not, at a time when arranged marriages were more common.'
She nodded, and he saw a tear in her eye. 'And it lasted for such a short time,' she murmured. 'But it gave me you and Stephen. Now, tell me all.'
*
With some of the money from Rachel, Eve was able to buy a pale lemon sarsnet to have a new ball gown made. Over it was gold net, and gold ribbon and embroidery trimmed the hem, neck and sleeves. It was the most important ball Eve had attended so far, at one of the mansions in Piccadilly, and Sir Peter had sent both girls sprays of white rosebuds, while the Earl, back from Leicestershire, sent them pale pink. Amelia was wearing white, so the pink spray went well with her gown, while Eve reluctantly opted for the white. Would the Earl think she had spurned his gift, or would he realise the pink would not go with the gold of her gown?
Talia, Eve noted, was wearing a blue gown she had worn before, and after what Caroline had told them, Eve supposed she had only a few gowns. She too was wearing white roses. They had not seen her since the frost fair rescue, and when they had called in at Berkeley Square to enquire, they had been told Talia was resting and unable to see visitors. Sir Peter said she had caught a severe cold, which had meant sending for a doctor almost every day.
'For a cold only?' Amelia asked. 'She just wanted attention,' she added aside to Eve.
Talia, escorted by Sir Peter, came across the room towards them. Eve smiled at her.
'How are you feeling now?' she asked. 'I hope your cold is better.'
'Cold? It was far more than a cold. The doctor thought at one time that he had lost me.'
'Well, it was possible you would be rather ill after you fell in the river,' Amelia said. 'The water was freezing.'
'I did not fall, I was pushed,' Talia said, glowering at Amelia. 'I did not see who pushed me, but I can guess. You were both on the scene immediately, were you not? And you would both like to see me leave London. But I am not going to gratify you.'
'Are you blaming us for pushing you in?' Eve demanded. 'It was quite your own fault for walking so close to the Bridge, when we had been told the ice was not so thick there.'
'So you say.'
'If it hadn't been for Eve and her quick thinking, let alone risking her own life, you'd have been swept away, and probably gone under the ice, like some poor fellows we heard about,' Amelia said. 'You could at least thank her for rescuing you! But you are a selfish, uncaring – '
'Amelia, that's enough,' Caroline said.
Still looking furious, Amelia subsided. Talia flung up her head and turned away, clasping Sir Peter's arm.
'Peter, I do not care for the company here. It is uncouth. Pray take me back to your mother.'
'Good riddance,' Amelia muttered. 'How Peter can tolerate her I do not know. And now I suppose he will have to dance with her.'
'She is his mother's guest,' Eve said, 'so I suppose he will. But there are more dances when he will dance with you.'
'I don't think I want to dance with him,' Amelia said.
'Don't be silly. Of course you do. I'm sure he will soon come across to apologise for her.'
'Why should he have to? It's she who ought to apologise. To imply that we pushed her in when without us she'd have drowned is more than enough.'
Eve's prediction proved right, and Sir Peter soon appeared, with profuse apologies.
'I have told her that if she does not mend her manners she is no longer welcome in my house,' he said. 'Now the roads are passable she can either apologise to you both, or I will take her down to Devon. Or, if she prefers it, to Bath where she can indulge herself by falling into warmer water.'
Eve giggled. 'How did she take that?'
'How do you think? With furious protestations that she told only the truth, and no one understood her Russian temperament. Russian temper, more like! But she agreed to write you both notes of apology, and that, I fear, is all we can expect. She won't humble herself by apologising in person. Will you accept that?'
'Yes, and thank you,' Eve said, while Amelia started to shake her head, and after a glance at Caroline changed it to a nod.
Sir Peter sighed. 'Thank you both. And now, as Mama is complaining once more of a migraine, I have to escort them home. But I mean to return, and hope you will keep some of the later dances for me.'
They could only say they would, but soon they were besieged by other partners, and tried to forget Talia. The Earl arrived, too late to witness the quarrel, but Amelia drew him aside and Eve could see he was being given all the details. Then she had to pay attention to her would-be partners, and was soon drawn onto the floor to take part in a quadrille.
They were to dance the waltz, the first time Eve had danced it in public, though she and Amelia had been practising at home. To Eve's relief her partner was to be the Earl. She felt comfortable with him, and knew that if she made mistakes he would help her. It still felt very strange to be held so closely to a man, and after a few turns she found herself able to converse, though only with short responses to his remarks, for fear of losing her concentration.
'I need to talk with you about James,' he said as the dance finished and he led her back to Caroline. 'Will you sit out the next dance with me? After that it is supper time, so we can go into the supper room early.'
'Is James all right?' she asked as they made their way there. 'I haven't seen him for several days. He seemed to resent my daily visits, not liking me to be so solicitous.'
'He is much better, but not fully fit. I need to talk to him and persuade him that he cannot yet join the army, and I have a scheme that might appeal to him. But I do not wish you or Amelia to know what it is. Your father is likely to be back in England soon, and will no doubt be furious with the lad. My plan is to get him out of the way until, perhaps, your father's anger will have softened. And I don't want to burden you with the knowledge, for I have the measure of your Papa. He'd soon beat it out of you if you knew. Do you approve?'
'If you can keep James out of Papa's way for a while I can only be grateful to you. Though his anger will never diminish, in time he might vent it less severely on poor James.'
'But he will be angry with you.'
Eve laughed rather grimly. 'I am accustomed to it, and if I can swear on the Bible that I don't know where James is, he will accept it. Please, do spirit him away. I shall be so grateful. You and Sir Peter have been so very kind to him.'
*
CHAPTER 9
It was now March, and slightly warmer. Eve was sad to see the huge icicles which had delighted her for weeks gradually melt. They had to be careful when walking beneath them, for occasionally one would detach itsel
f from a roof or balcony and drop, spearing unwary walkers. They heard of more than one person injured in such a way.
She had been to see James in Grosvenor Square early one morning, thinking privately that it was a farewell visit, and feeling sad that he and her father could not come to some amicable agreement. He did not appear any different from normal, so she assumed the Earl had not yet discussed his plan with James.
Back in Albemarle Street she found Amelia and Sir Bernard in the latter's study, with a copy of the Morning Post open on the desk between them. Caroline sat in a chair near the window. It was clear Amelia had been weeping.
'What is it?' Eve asked.
'Peter and Talia are betrothed,' Amelia sobbed. 'Look, here's the notice. I didn't think he even liked her, but now he's going to marry her! I'm sure it's his horrid mother's doing.'
Eve read the simple announcement. 'I – I don't believe it! I can't imagine he would ever contemplate marrying her, especially after all the trouble she has caused.'
'And she wanted to marry a duke, or an earl at least.'
'Then why has she changed her mind?'
'I don't know! She probably realised no duke or anybody else would ever dream of marrying her, and decided to accept Peter when no one else seemed ready to make her an offer.'
'Darling, calm down,' Caroline said. 'When you meet them you must not let them see you are distressed.'
'But I am,' Amelia wailed, and fled from the room.
Caroline sighed. 'Eve, dear, can you beat some sense into her? I had suspected she had warm feelings for Sir Peter, but I didn't think it had gone so deep.'
'I – I thought – that is, I thought you all expected her to marry the Earl? They were childhood sweethearts, I understood.'
'They liked each other, true, and if they wished to marry we would have welcomed him. We'd have welcomed Peter too, and I suspect she was hoping he would make her an offer. Eve, try and persuade her not to show her anger towards them.'
'Of course. I'll go up to her now.'
Eve left the room, and was in the hall when there was a furious knocking on the door. The butler trod slowly towards it, as the knocking continued, and Eve waited to see who was in such haste to be admitted. It was Sir Peter, in a state of acute distress.
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