Colonel Sandhurst to the Rescue by M.C. Beaton

Author:M.C. Beaton
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472104939
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

SIX

It is seven-and-forty years since I looked upon that circle of dandies, and where, now, are their dainty little hats, their wonderful waistcoats, and their boots in which one could arrange one’s cravat? They lived strange lives, these men, and they died strange deaths – some by their own hands, some as beggars, some in a debtor’s gaol, some, like the most brilliant of them all, in a madhouse in a foreign land.

SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

To Sir Philip’s dismay, not only did Mr Davy appear more entrenched in the hotel life than he had ever been before, but Lady Fortescue had been proved right. He had heard the gossip and it was all against Lord Braby, about how he had been gulled by some false aristocrat into paying his shot at the Poor Relation. Lord Braby himself had arrived in great wrath at the hotel, only to be met by an icy Lady Fortescue, who pointed out that he was making an even greater fool of himself by cursing about a debt that he was supposed to have paid anyway. If, she said, some unknown friend had taken it upon himself to trick his lordship into paying up, then he had only himself to blame.

Having dealt with Lord Braby to her satisfaction, Lady Fortescue realized she had almost forgotten about the problem of Mary Jones, the chambermaid. She sent for Miss Tonks and asked if Mary had been getting into trouble with any of the male guests.

‘I have kept an eye on her,’ said Miss Tonks, ‘and to be fair, she is behaving impeccably. Her manner, which appeared a trifle saucy and bold when she came here, has changed and she is modest and well behaved and, despite her looks, that appears enough to quell any advances. I worked with her the other morning. It is amazing how many of our gentlemen do contrive to be awake when she walks into the room, but she goes quickly and quietly about her duties. I thought Lord Bewley was a trifle bold in his remarks to her and he seemed quite angry when I followed her into his room, but she appeared not to notice.’

‘You’ll have me out of a job,’ Mary was whispering to Lord Bewley in the corridor outside his room at that very moment.

‘What do you care?’ he said with a grin. ‘You can always go home.’

‘What? To Shoreditch? Back to sharing a bed with three little sisters?’

‘Oh, you’re a caution,’ said Lord Bewley with relish. ‘I don’t know how you do it.’

‘Do what, my lord?’

‘Keep up that act.’

‘I ain’t acting, my lord.’

‘Have it your way, my sweeting. What about coming out with me again? What about the opera? Can’t stand it meself, but prepared to make the sacrifice.’

‘I would like to see Grimaldi at the Wells,’ said Mary.

‘Sadler’s Wells it is,’ said Lord Bewley heartily. He, too, wanted to see the famous clown Grimaldi. He was struck afresh at how close in their interests and pleasures he and this girl were.

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