Supervising Sally (11 page)

Phoebe shook her head. ‘No. I played whist, and she and some of the others played Loo, in another room. But we did not play for money, and I was unaware they did. That explains it, I suppose,' she added to herself.

‘Explains what?'

‘Pray don't shout at me, my lord! When we came home she was not wearing her jewels. It sounds as though she pledged them, too. But she is just a girl. Can she be forced to pay?'

Zachary was pacing about the room. ‘In honour she should, but it's more than she can afford even if she has no pin money for the next year or more. Where was this party? I am going to see the people who allowed such a thing to happen to an unprotected girl. You, madam, should have been taking better care of her!'

‘Come now, Zachary, how could Phoebe have guessed what was going to happen at what she had expected to be just a simple evening party with friends?' Lady Drayton asked. ‘Emily's parents are respectable people, or I would not have permitted them to attend.'

He swung round. ‘I am not blaming you, Beatrice. You were not there, but Miss Kingston was, and she ought to have been taking better care of Sally. If this is the best she can do she is not fit to be in charge of her in Brussels. I mean to ask Cousin Philomena to take her place. She lives in Kensington and can be ready in two days. You can go back to Yorkshire on the stage, Miss Kingston, while I go and tell Emily's parents what I think of them!'

P
HOEBE SAT DOWN on a chair near the window. How could Sally have been so idiotic? She did not wonder that the earl was furious with her for not taking better care of her charge, and knew she deserved to be sent back home. It was hard, though, after all her dreams of seeing Brussels, and later perhaps having the chance of another position so that she need not live with Jane.

Sally entered the drawing-room cautiously, glancing from Phoebe to the earl, and biting her lip.

He was standing in front of the fire, tapping his fingers on the mantelpiece, his expression grim.

‘You – you sent for me,' Sally whispered, and crossed the room to where Beatrice sat on one of the sophas. ‘Ma'am, I – I—'

‘Gently, child. Come and sit beside me.'

Sally did so, clutching her aunt's hand nervously.

The earl took a few steps towards her and Sally drew back against the arm of the sopha. ‘I have a fellow downstairs who maintains you owe him a hundred pounds. Is it true?'

Sally gulped. ‘I didn't know it was that much.'

The earl seemed to be controlling his temper with some difficulty. ‘Even at Loo it seems an inordinate amount to lose in one evening.'

‘I – I had no money with me. They said I could pledge my jewels.'

‘Who said?'

‘This man.'

‘Tobias Hill?'

‘Yes, I think that was his name. He – when they said they were going to play for money he lent me some, at first. I didn't have any with me. And … and when I lost it, and all my jewels too, and I wanted to stop, he kept saying the luck would turn if only I played on. But it didn't,' she wailed, turning and burying her face in Beatrice's bosom. ‘Every time he said I had a winning card and I didn't pass, I lost.'

‘He saw your cards?' Phoebe asked, horrified.

Sally glanced at her. ‘Well, yes, he said he'd help me. I hadn't played before, you see.'

‘I see you're an unutterable little fool!' the earl said. ‘He was obviously cheating you. I suppose he won the pool?'

Sally nodded. ‘Several times.'

Lady Drayton squeezed Sally's hand. ‘Gently, Zachary. The child was in a difficult position.'

‘Which she would not have been in if Miss Kingston had been taking proper care of her.'

‘I couldn't stop once he made me give him notes promising to pay! I knew I'd never be able to pay him unless I won some money back.'

The earl began to pace up and down. ‘You were supposed to pay him yesterday, according to what he says.'

‘But how could I? I don't have any money left from this quarter's allowance, and even if I did it wouldn't have been nearly enough. And I don't have any jewels to sell.'

‘So you proposed to leave for Brussels and cheat him, did you? Have you not learned that gambling debts are debts of honour? Unless you can prove he cheated you.'

Sally shook her head. ‘It was only a game. I thought he'd
be satisfied with my jewellery, and forget the rest. I'm sure the jewels were worth more than he said!'

‘Quite possibly. Very well, I will settle this, on condition you never again play cards for money.'

Sally sniffed and nodded. ‘I don't want to,' she muttered. ‘It wasn't exciting, it was horrible.'

‘If you have to buy the jewels back for her, Zachary, Sir William will recompense you,' Lady Drayton said.

‘Exactly what did you give him?'

Sally told him. ‘And I promise never to do it again.'

‘You will have no such opportunity. My cousin Philomena will be accompanying us to Brussels, and she will make a far better guardian than Miss Kingston, who will be going back to Yorkshire tomorrow.'

Phoebe looked up at this. She had not expected to be sent away so abruptly, then she recalled they were to set out for Brussels in two days, so really she had to leave tomorrow. She took a deep breath.

‘I will go and pack,' she said, rising to her feet.

Sally was staring at her in dismay. ‘Phoebe? Aren't you coming with us? Why not?'

‘Because I do not consider her a fit person to have the responsibility of controlling your behaviour.'

At this Sally leapt up and confronted the earl, stuttering in her fury. ‘B-but what I d-did has nothing to d-do with Phoebe! She wasn't in the same room! How could she have known? Oh, you're b-being so unfair! Why should she lose her job just because I did s-something stupid?'

‘Sally,' Phoebe said, ‘it's all right. I understand his lordship's anger and disappointment in me. I should have been aware of the possibility when I knew you were going to play Loo.'

‘It was all my fault!' Sally began, when the door opened to admit the butler.

‘My lady, a gentleman to see you. Are you at home? He says he is a neighbour from Yorkshire. A Mr Reginald Bradshaw.'

Reginald, careless of the conventions of polite society, had followed the butler upstairs and now pushed him aside. His clothes, though of the finest materials, were not a good cut. Already the coat was straining over his increasing paunch, and there was what looked like a soup stain, imperfectly removed, on his somewhat florid waistcoat, the bright red stripe clashing with his florid complexion.

‘Of course they are at home, my man, and I don't have the time to waste. My lord, I called to see you and was informed you were here. Lady Drayton, I trust you are well. My wife and her mother sent best wishes if I should meet you. My lord, I came with a suggestion. May I sit down?'

Not waiting for an answer he sat down heavily on one of the smaller chairs, and Phoebe heard it creak in protest. She herself sat down again. She was curious to see what Reginald wanted with the earl.

‘Mr Bradshaw, I assume,' the earl said, returning to stand before the mantelpiece, stretching one arm negligently along it, and Phoebe thought she had never before heard him use such a haughty tone. It had no effect on Reginald's self-consequence, however. He beamed up at the earl.

‘Aye. Well, my lord, I heard you were travelling to Brussels soon, and I'm taking my sisters along. We're to stay with Sir James and Lady Potterton. He's one of my best customers and they've taken a house there. I mean to visit this Bauwens fellow in Ghent, on business. So I thought we might travel together. Extra safety, you know. A few extra men, me and my valet, and the coachman.'

‘The road from here to Brussels is hardly infested with highwaymen; you will be perfectly safe, Mr Bradshaw.'

‘As to that, there are some desperate old soldiers about since they were all dismissed last year. We've had a few cases up in Yorkshire, begging, attacking travellers. And my sisters can help look after your niece. They're older than young Phoebe here, know more of the world, you see.'

‘Sally is not my niece,' the earl replied, and Phoebe almost heard the gratitude in his voice.

‘Oh well, whatever. I understand you are taking her to live with her father. In fact, with Hermione and Dorothy travelling along too, you don't need another chaperon, or companion, or whatever Phoebe is called. You could send her back home, where she'd be far better employed helping my wife with the children.'

‘Really?'

Reginald was unstoppable. ‘If we take two coaches, you and Sally could travel with us, and all the servants, mine and yours, in the second. That would be more comfortable than having to share with a valet and maid, now, wouldn't it? We're putting up at the Clarendon, we could all meet there.'

‘By your plan, sir, there would be five of us in one coach. Rather an uncomfortable crush, I'd have thought.'

‘No, no, the girls can sit together, they'll not take up a lot of room. Well, what do you say?'

‘Mr Bradshaw, you are kind to suggest it, but I have made my arrangements. I always intended to ride, my valet can ride on the box with the coachman, and their maid with Sally and Phoebe.'

Phoebe threw him a quick glance, but he was not looking at her. Sally spoke.

‘Then you will allow—'

‘Enough, child. Miss Kingston, may I suggest you and
Sally should be supervising your packing? I will talk to you later about the other thing.'

He strolled across to the door and held it open. In a daze, only partly aware she had been reprieved, Phoebe crossed to the door, followed by Sally.

‘Come and see me in the library when your brother-in-law has gone,' he said quietly as Phoebe passed him. ‘Sally, too.'

Sally managed to suppress her giggles until they reached her room. ‘Did you see Zachary's face?' she spluttered. ‘When your dreadful brother-in-law suggested they travelled in the same coach?'

Phoebe was frowning. ‘Am I to come with you after all?' she asked. ‘He told us to pack, but I would have to if he is sending me back to Yorkshire.'

‘I think he changed his mind when Mr Bradshaw told him to send you back to Yorkshire,' Sally said. ‘Mama told me, when we knew he was to escort me to Brussels, that he likes to get his own way, and if he sent you back now Mr Bradshaw would claim the credit. He could never endure the thought that your brother-in-law would think his advice had been taken by an earl!'

‘Then I will have to be grateful to Reginald?' Phoebe chuckled. ‘Well, I don't mind that, so long as I don't have to travel with them. I hope we don't have to meet them in Brussels.'

‘Phoebe, I'm sorry. I never meant to get you into trouble. But it was so difficult, I didn't know how to stop. It would have been so awkward, breaking up the game, and looking silly and childish.'

Phoebe thought the last reason was probably the most important to Sally, but she forbore to comment. ‘We ought to
be packing. I suppose the earl will send for us when he is ready.'

Mr Bradshaw, Zachary decided, was like a persistent wasp determined to attack the rotting fruit. He ignored all hints that his visit had lasted long enough, and did not depart until Zachary, growing bored, told him when he intended to start for the coast. If they had to endure his company on the journey, at least it would be in different carriages, and he himself would be riding. Looking at Reginald's well-fed flesh he did not expect him to sit a horse in any but exceptional circumstances.