Part 4 (1/2)

'Well I reckon you must be from Greenland,' persisted Miss Brandywinde to Dido. 'Acos otherwise you'd never be sich a peevy clodpole as to come here. Why, it's bezants to breadcrumbs as you'll never -'

'Quiet, you little dev angel!' exploded her father, and with something less than fondness Mr Brandywinde picked up his daughter and plunked her into the cart, jamming her so tightly between a copper cauldron and a bundle of b.u.t.terpats that she let out an indignant squawk.

'What d'yer do that for, Pa? It's bezants to breadcrumbs as the Aurocs'll -'

But Mrs Brandywinde, coming out at that moment in a bright pink India muslin which she must have donned at great speed, deposited a large roll of cotton quilts right on top of her child, which had the effect of silencing the Little Angel, as a canary is silenced by having a wrapper put over its cage.

The driver cracked his whip, and the loaded cart started off at a gallop. The Agent and his wife had meanwhile jumped into a light chariot which had come up behind. Just before this rolled off, Dido thought she heard Mrs Brandywinde inquire of her husband, 'Did you collect the dibs from Mrs M?' and his reply, 'What do you think I paid the pa.s.sage with, my Honey tart? I am not made of coleslaw, I a.s.sure you!'

Then the chariot clattered off downhill towards the harbour in a cloud of dust.

'Well!' muttered the captain in a tone of gloomy satisfaction. 'I am never wrong in my judgments. The moment I laid eyes on Brandywinde I knew him to be a dem'd unsatisfactory dilly-dallying, fossicking, freakish sort of fellow.'

'I could have told you that, any time these last twenty-four hours,' said Dido.

'Will you be quiet, child, and not speak unless you are required to?' Captain Hughes added crossly, 'We had best make all speed back to the White Hart, in case that slattern was telling the truth.'

He started off at a round pace, and Dido was obliged to trot, in order to keep up with him.

3.

On his return to the White Hart Inn, Captain Hughes was informed by a waiter that two modistes had arrived and were waiting in the young lady's bedchamber to take measurements.

'Aha! Then that frowzy female spoke the truth; so far so good!' he exclaimed. 'I will step upstairs and give them their orders. Meanwhile you may have a nuncheon prepared for me and serve it in the coffee-room. Is there a mayor in this town?'

'Yes, sir, the Jefe Don Luis Pryce.'

'I will wait on him as soon as I have finished my repast. Come along, child, make haste,' he added to Dido, gesturing her to precede him up the shallow, polished wooden stairs. The White Hart appeared to be a very old building; the floors were black with age, and the upper storey was a maze of small dark rooms and pa.s.sages, with steps up, and steps down, and very little light coming from very tiny windows. There were thick cobwebs hanging from the rafters; Dido, not fond of spiders, recalled that the captain's catalogue of New c.u.mbrian fauna had included seven-inch ones able to leap thirty feet; she hoped there were none of that kind in the White Hart.

In Dido's room two ladies were waiting, seated on a wooden chest by the window. An enormous pincus.h.i.+on, the size of a saddle-bag, lay between them on the chest, together with a ma.s.sive, glittering pair of scissors and a two-yard mahogany rule.

The sempstresses stood up and curtseyed respectfully to Captain Hughes. They were dressed alike, in the black stuff gowns that seemed to be standard garb for the women of Tenby, with white fichus and white frilled caps, but in other respects they were as different from each other as possible. Dido took an instant dislike to both. One was small, aged, skinny, and wrinkled, the other big and buxom with a thick shock of coa.r.s.e curly black hair escaping from under her cap and hanging halfway down her back. Each had a velvet pin-cus.h.i.+on fastened to her fichu, and a tape-measure attached to her belt. Both looked very attentively at Dido.

'You are the needlewomen recommended to me by Mrs Brandywinde?' inquired the captain.

'Yes, Capting. I am Mrs Morgan,' said the little old one, smiling when she did so, she revealed the fact that she had no teeth at all, which made her smile rather like that of a lizard. 'And this here's my daughter, Mrs Vavasour.'

The younger woman also smiled.

'So this is the young lady who needs fitting out?'

Her pitying, disdainful glance swept over Dido's salt-stained breeches, frayed collar, darned socks and scuffed brogans, one of them with a loose buckle.

'Ah! Pretty as a pink palm blossom she be!' cooed Mrs Morgan, in a voice that did not match the expression in her sharp little black eyes.

Dido was resigned to her own looks. She knew that she had a pale, pointed face, freckled like a musk-flower, pale observant grey eyes and short stringy brown hair. They're a-trying to gammon me, she decided, but I'm not a-going to let them. She stared coldly back at the two dressmakers while Captain Hughes gave them their instructions.

'The young lady will be among the British party attending the court of Queen Ginevra to pay their respects to Her Majesty. I wish the child to be fitted out with two gowns, suitable for a young person of her ahem age and station to wear at Court besides slippers, sashes, kerchiefs whatever is needful. Can you do that?'

'Certingly, certingly, Capting.' Mrs Morgan curtseyed again.

Mrs Vavasour said, 'Both gowns oughter be white. Mull for daytime wear a round gownd over a silk pettingcoat, ingbroidered with cat-tails in turkey-work -'

'And -' struck in her mother, 'french knots round the neck, and the border round the sleeves ingbossed '

'A pink sash '

'Then, for evening wear, a white silk taffety gownd, pin-striped with cream, and a lace pettingcoat '

'A sash of the same, ingbroidered with silver sequing fronds -'

'She'll look like a Hangel from Heaving, that she will!'

'Very well, very well!' said Captain Hughes testily. 'That sounds suitable enough I know little of such matters. So the cut be plain and neat nothing fussy or overtrimmed. Can you have both gowns ready by tonight? We leave on the dawn river-boat tomorrow morning.'

Another glance pa.s.sed between the two.

'Why, surely, surely, Capting,' cooed Mrs Morgan. 'By midnight the work shall be done. The young lady will be fine as a bird of paradise willn't she, Nynevie?'

'Gracious to goodness, yes indeed!' smiled the younger woman. Dido could not decide which smile she disliked more the bare gums, or the flas.h.i.+ng silver teeth.

'How much will the two gowns cost?'

'One hundred bezants, Capting and cheap at the price.'

'Good G.o.d! Furbelows are costly in New c.u.mbria, it seems.'

He glanced at Dido, as if wondering whether the outlay was worth it; she glanced back with equal resentment. 'Well, well you shall be paid tonight.'

'Beg parding, Capting,' said Mrs Morgan respectfully but firmly. 'We has to be paid in advance. Mull and silk and taffety and lacings them's costly stuffs. Let alone the floss and ribbing and tr.i.m.m.i.n.g. Pay us now, if you please, Capting.'

'Oh, very well! I will send Mr Windward up with the money directly. Be a good child, now, Miss!' he said to Dido.

'What about when they're through measuring me?' said Dido. 'Can I go out to see the sights?'

'We shall be wanting you all afternoon, Missie,' said Mrs Vavasour. 'For trying and fitting.'

'What? Don't I get to see the sights, not at all?'

Both sempstresses shook their heads.

'The streets of Tenby ain't safe for little misses,' said Mrs Morgan. 'Little gels has got lost and never come home to their own kitchings.

'Even in their gardings they ain't safe.'

'You'd do best to stay with us, dearie!' Mrs Morgan shook her head warningly.