The Rebellious Debutante

by Meg Alexander

  ‘Mama, there are no young men in Bath. You should see Aunt Trixie’s beaux. They are carried to see her in sedan-chairs and to climb the steps they need two sticks. All they talk about is that filthy, disgusting water, and the wonders it does for all their ailments. Her bosom-bows are just as bad. To hear Mrs Larwood, one must wonder that she is still alive.’

  ‘Even the elderly have nephews, Amy, and grandsons too. I am sorry to say it, but sometimes they cultivate their failing relatives for the worst of reasons.’

  ‘Oh, Mama, you won’t forbid us to go about at all?’ Perdita asked anxiously. ‘I could not bear it.’

  ‘Of course not, my dear. It is just that I would advise you to be cautious in your choice of friends.’

  Amy threw an arm about her mother’s neck. ‘You don’t need to worry about Perdita,’ she said solemnly. ‘No gentleman has suited her to date, and as for me, I don’t intend to marry within the next six months.’

  Elizabeth chuckled. ‘I’m glad to hear it, but do pray heed my words, No harm must come to Louise.’

  ‘We’ll look out for her,’ Amy promised. ‘I had intended to ask you if I might be a day girl for this last term and stay with Perdita at Aunt Trixie’s, but I shall become better acquainted with Louise if I continue to board.’ She dropped a kiss upon her mother’s cheek. ‘I wish you will not worry so,’ she said cheerfully. ‘As I recall, Louise is so shy that she would flee if a stranger tried to speak to her.’

  Elizabeth smiled at both her girls. ‘I would not have you think me a fuss-pot, my dears, but I am conscious of the responsibility for Louise.’

  Perdita felt rebellious. ‘Mama, you have not taken her in charge just yet. Surely it is the Earl of Rushmore who should be concerned.’

  ‘He is, Perdita. That is why he applied to me. He is aware that an unwed military man can have no notion as to how to go on in bringing out a young girl. I wish you will forget your dislike of him, my love. It is Louise who needs our help at present.’

  She expressed the same sentiments to her husband when he and she were alone.

  ‘You look troubled, Lizzie.’ Perry slid an arm about her waist. ‘What is it, my love?’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know… I am wondering if we have done the right thing, I suppose, though I don’t see how we could have refused to help Rushmore’s ward.’

  ‘Out of the question!’ Perry replied firmly. ‘But do you fear that she will be a trouble to you?’

  ‘No…it isn’t that. From all I hear she is a quiet and biddable girl, but both Amy and Perdita have taken the Earl in such dislike…’

  ‘Need that concern you? If I am not mistaken, his lordship will not visit Bath more than is strictly necessary. To me he does not look like a man in need of healing waters.’

  Elizabeth smiled at that, but then she gave him a reproachful look. ‘I wish you will be serious, Perry. The very sight of him is enough to light Perdita’s fuse.’

  ‘I can’t say that I blame her overmuch. I was taken aback myself to find her in Rushmore’s arms today. Perdita looked as if she could have killed him.’

  ‘Their encounters have been unfortunate, my dear. He is inclined to ride roughshod, you know. Perdita is more accustomed to being placed upon a pedestal by her hopeful swains.’

  Perry’s face darkened. ‘You can’t mean that Rushmore thinks of throwing his handkerchief in Perdita’s direction? If I thought that, he would not enter this house again.’

  ‘I thought you admired him.’

  ‘I do…but he isn’t for Perdita. She’s just a child and he is old enough to be her father.’

  ‘Nonsense! He can’t have reached the age of thirty, and Perdita is no longer a child, my dear. It can’t have escaped your notice that she has grown into an exceptionally beautiful woman.’

  ‘She’s still very young,’ he growled.

  ‘Now don’t get upon your high ropes,’ his wife advised. ‘We are all aware that there isn’t a man alive whom you would consider good enough for her. I can only put it down to a father’s partiality.’ She twinkled at him. ‘What a pity that my own father didn’t share your views. He couldn’t wait to hand me over to you.’

  Perry grinned at her. ‘He recognised my sterling worth.’

  ‘And also the fact that you sailed aboard an English warship and were able to spirit me out of a war-torn Italy.’

  ‘Not so!’ Perry told her stoutly. ‘He’d already offered me your hand before then—’

  ‘And for the same reason. Sadly, you refused that offer. I confess that it has always been the most lowering thought.’

  ‘Minx!’ Perry slipped a finger beneath her chin and raised her face to his. ‘Tell me that you regret it, and I’ll release you from your vows at once.’

  ‘Never! You shan’t escape so easily!’ Confident in her love, Elizabeth offered him her lips. Then she slid her arms about his neck. ‘Do you suppose that all will be well?’ she whispered. ‘If only I could be certain that Perdita will not come to dagger-drawing with the Earl if they should chance to meet in Bath.’

  ‘Don’t trouble your head about it, Lizzie. Dagger-drawing I can tolerate, but I won’t have Rushmore throwing out lures to Perdita. I thank heaven that she does dislike him. She will find a dozen ways of hinting him away. Should you mention it to Aunt Beatrice?’

  ‘No…I believe not,’ Elizabeth said slowly. ‘I don’t even wish to put the notion into her head that Rushmore is to be considered a prospect for Perdita. Aunt Trixie is so romantical.’

  Perry had the grace to blush, but he stuck to his argument. ‘Did you not assure me that they are at odds whenever they meet? You can’t have it both ways, Lizzie. If they quarrel so, neither can have a tendre for the other.’

  To her credit, Elizabeth did not challenge this statement, though memories of her own wooing rose at once to mind. She and Perry had crossed swords from the very moment of their meeting. It had not stopped them from falling in love.

  ‘You may be right,’ she said without conviction. Under the circumstances she found herself wishing that her proposed voyage to Gibraltar might have been postponed. She didn’t suggest it. Her decision to leave without Perdita had been a disappointment to her husband. She would not add to it by staying behind herself.

  Even so, she could not repress a niggling presentiment of disaster. Then she shrugged. She was becoming fanciful. It was high time that she concentrated on everyday matters, rather than worrying about problems before they existed. What was it that Perry always said? ‘Don’t worry, it may never happen.’ How she wished she might believe it.

  Chapter Five

  Elizabeth was given little time to indulge in further speculation. Within the next few days she and Perry were to leave for Portsmouth, where he was due to rejoin his ship.

  Before then the girls must be sent off to Bath, with Ellen in attendance. Thankfully, the Earl of Rushmore did not appear, so she was able to draw up her lists and supervise the family packing without interruption.

  Amy had cajoled her cousins into taking her on further expeditions about the capital, but Perdita did not go. Her feet were improving though they were not quite healed, and on the day before their departure she was glad of the excuse to join her father in his study for a companionable chat.

  Perry settled her comfortably by the fire. Then he walked over to his strongbox and unlocked it, taking out a thick bundle of notes.

  ‘Here, my dear!’ He pressed the money into her hands. ‘You must take this roll of soft… Doubtless, you will find a use for it.’

  ‘But it is far too much, Papa!’ Perdita stared in awe at the roll of notes. She had never handled so much money in her life.

  ‘I think you will not find it so,’ Perry assured her. ‘You must pay subscriptions in the Pump and the Assembly Rooms. There will be tickets for the concerts too…’ He looked at her a little anxiously.

  Perdita caught his hand and held it lovingly against her cheek. ‘You must not worry that I shan’t enjoy myself, Papa. Aunt T
rixie is such a dear, and I shall have Amy close at hand. We shall be able to walk and ride and visit with our friends.’

  ‘That’s my girl! My darling, I am proud of you. I should have been disappointed had you fallen into a fit of the sullens.’

  Perdita managed a wavering smile, which did not deceive him in the least.

  ‘We shall miss you quite dreadfully,’ she said in a low voice. ‘These next few months will seem like an age.’

  Perry’s hand ruffled the fashionably short crop of curls. ‘We shall miss you too,’ he told her lightly. ‘But you will be kept busy, especially in trying to keep Amy out of the shops in Milsom Street. Your mother and I rely on you to prevent her from buying bonnets and other fol-de-rols more suitable for a dowager than a schoolgirl.’

  Perdita laughed at that. Amy’s longing to be considered an adult had led her to experiment with headgear of terrifying dimensions, none of which she had been allowed to buy. Fortunately her own sense of humour had persuaded her in the end that an excess of cherries, apples and other fruits draped about the brims of some of the latest creations left her open to charges of running a market stall.

  ‘Of course, I don’t intend you to stint yourselves,’ Perry continued. ‘Doubtless you will see items in the shops without which a happy life cannot be sustained.’ He had intended only to tease a little, but the effect on his daughter was unexpected.

  ‘Papa, you are much too good to us,’ she said in a muffled voice. Then she hurried away before her feelings overcame her.

  Elizabeth expressed the same sentiments on the following day as the family’s private chaise, accompanied by postilions, set out to take the girls to Bath. Their parents waved it out of sight. Then Elizabeth turned to her husband.

  ‘Well, my dear, how much did you give them?’ she asked with a twinkle.

  ‘Oh, just a trifle,’ he replied vaguely. ‘I have sent Beatrice a draft upon my bank. The girls may apply to her if they find themselves at a standstill.’

  ‘That, I suppose, is why Perdita is clutching her largest reticule as if she expects to be set upon by footpads before they have travelled a mile?’

  Perry hugged his wife. ‘Why can I never manage to deceive you, Lizzie? She has been very good. You’ll agree that she deserves to be rewarded?’

  Laughing, Elizabeth looked at him in mock despair. ‘What am I to do with you?’ she asked.

  ‘I can think of a number of things…’ Perry leered at her and twirled an imaginary moustache. ‘Beware, my proud beauty! You will rue the day that you defy me!’

  ‘You are impossible!’ Elizabeth slipped past him. ‘Behave yourself, monster! I have far too much to do to listen to your nonsense.’

  ‘Now give me credit for something, Lizzie! Amy, you know, was determined to travel to Bath in the Mail Coach. Did I not dissuade her?’

  ‘Perhaps we should have allowed it. I fancy she wouldn’t care to repeat the experience.’

  Amy did not share that belief. As she glanced at the passers-by she began to giggle.

  ‘Our state procession is creating a stir,’ she answered. ‘That man has taken off his hat and bowed. I think I’ll give him a gracious wave. It must be the postilions. He thinks that we are of the first importance…most probably princesses at the very least.’

  Ellen gave a scandalised gasp. ‘You will do no such thing, Miss Amy. Don’t you dare smile at him. Such airs, I do declare! And with your family crest upon this carriage too.’

  ‘No one would have noticed us if we had taken the Mail Coach.’ Amy was unrepentent. ‘Think of the fun we should have had, travelling with a group of strangers!’

  Ellen snorted in disgust. ‘Fun, indeed! You’d soon have changed your tune, squashed up as you would have been with a crowd of nasty, smelly folk from the Lord knows where.’

  Amy grinned at her old nurse. ‘Ellen, you are a snob!’ she accused.

  ‘I hope I know what is due to your father’s consequence,’ came the swift reply. ‘Behave yourself, Miss Amy, and come away from that window, else you’ll sit between your sister and myself. Then you’ll see nothing.’

  This dread threat caused Amy to offer an olive branch. ‘Have you ever travelled by the mail coach, Ellen? You seem to know a lot about it.’

  ‘Indeed I have, and I may tell you that if you had ever done the same you wouldn’t care to do so again. I thought my last hour had come!’

  ‘Were you set upon by highwaymen?’ Amy’s eyes were sparkling.

  ‘We were not! The guard was armed. He would have seen them off. It was much worse than that…’

  ‘Oh, do tell us about it! It must have been a real adventure.’

  ‘Some adventure!’ Ellen sniffed. ‘The driver had but one good eye, and his horses were in like case. Had he been sober he might have managed them—’

  ‘He was disguised?’ Perdita looked startled.

  ‘Blind drunk is what I’d call it myself. He took a fresh noggin or two at every halt. When we reached Lunnon he fell off the box.’

  Both girls shouted with laughter.

  ‘’Tweren’t funny, I can tell you,’ Ellen said darkly. ‘I thought we must be overturned. The Lord knows how we came out of it with a whole skin.’

  ‘Well, you did!’ Amy patted the old woman’s hand. ‘Now you have got your wish and can travel without fear.’

  ‘That’s as maybe! ’Tis a long way to Bath, and we must stop along the road…’

  ‘But Father sent a man ahead to bespeak a private parlour at the inns. I doubt if anyone will try to abduct us, Ellen, although, of course, they may have designs on you.’ Perdita could not resist a little gentle teasing.

  She was rewarded with a grim smile. ‘Get on with you, miss. You know what I think about men.’

  ‘We do indeed! Ellen, I believe you have some dark and sinister secret in your past. Tell us of the dastardly deed.’

  ‘Miss Amy, you are a complete hand! Now, give over with your teasing, the pair of you! Young ladies should not be speaking of abduction and the like.’

  Amy was tempted to suggest that perhaps they should sing hymns. Instead, she turned to the safer subject of Ellen’s nephews and nieces. As always, Ellen waxed voluble upon the doings of the younger members of her family, and it was not until they reached the first halt that she felt obliged to offer yet another word of caution.

  ‘Now remember!’ she warned. ‘You are not to speak to strangers, or acknowledge them.’

  ‘Not even if they drop dead at our feet?’ Perdita enquired with a smile.

  ‘There wouldn’t be much point if they were dead!’ Ellen felt that she had scored a point as she motioned her charges to follow the landlord to their private dining-room.

  She did not allow them to waste much time. A long journey still lay ahead of them and she was anxious to reach Bath before nightfall.

  In the event it was mid-evening before they arrived at Laura Place, to be greeted with huge delight by Miss Beatrice Langrishe. Two of that lady’s most faithful beaux and one of her women friends had joined her in a game of cards, but at the sight of Amy and Perdita she came towards them with outstretched arms.

  ‘Welcome!’ she cried. ‘My dears, you must be exhausted! Let me ring for some refreshment for you, unless you care to go to your rooms at once. Did you have a pleasant journey? And how are your mama and papa? I can’t wait to hear your news.’

  Both girls disclaimed the notion that they might be tired, or that they were in need of refreshment.

  ‘Nonsense! You’ll take a glass of wine at least!’

  To Amy’s gratification she was included in this invitation. Miss Langrishe, it was clear, had no high opinion on the restorative properties of a glass of milk or a hot posset. Nor did she feel that it was in the nature of human beings to deprive themselves of the best cuisine that money could buy, and that at frequent intervals. Her chef was a legend in Bath. Now he sent in a tray of appetising morsels including hot oyster patties and tiny vol au vent cases, some filled with creame
d mushrooms, others with curried eggs and yet more with shredded ham in a Cumberland sauce.

  Perdita noted with amusement that at the sight of food her aunt’s companions made no attempt to take their leave and Miss Langrishe beamed upon the assembled company as they took full advantage of her hospitality. An evening spent in the company of her friends represented, to her, the height of civilised living. She nodded her encouragement as Amy helped herself to a second devilled chicken leg.

  ‘That’s right, my love. With your slender figure you need have no worries about increasing embonpoint. How I wish that I could say the same.’

  This brought immediate protests from her two admirers. The goddesses of antiquity, so they claimed, could present no finer appearance than in Miss Langrishe in the full bloom of her maturity.

  The lady chided them for blatant flattery, but she was not displeased, though she accused them of pandering to her vanity.

  ‘I’m a silly old woman,’ she said without a trace of affectation when her friends had left. ‘The Captain cannot know that certain of his remarks were passed on to me. He described me as gliding across the floor of the Assembly Rooms like a galleon under sail… Well, perhaps I am no sylph, but neither, I hope, do I look like a warship.’

  ‘Dear Aunt, I am sure he meant it as a compliment. Is it not obvious that ships and the sea were his life for many years?’ Perdita smiled at her aunt. ‘How could he honour you more than by comparing you with what he loves best in the world?’

  ‘That, I fancy, is his stomach!’ Miss Langrishe signalled to the footman to pour the girls another glass of wine. ‘It will do you no harm at all for just this once,’ she said in reply to Perdita’s warning glance at Amy. ‘You will sleep well this night, and tomorrow you shall tell me all your news.’ She had noted the drooping eyelids of her guests and dismissed them to their rooms as soon as they had drained their glasses.

  ‘Ellen will think that we are as drunk as her coachman.’ Amy giggled as they climbed the staircase. ‘Aunt Trixie is a dear, isn’t she? She never makes me feel as if I’m still in the nursery.’