Part 2 (2/2)

I thought it probable Henry would so far forget himself as to strike the General; his fist was certainly clenching at his side. I placed a restraining hand upon his arm.

”Your daughter was abducted, sir, by his lords.h.i.+p. She was discovered by my brother and myself at the stable yard in Cuckfield-bound and gagged and imprisoned in his lords.h.i.+p's carriage against her will. It is to her credit that despite her pitiable state, she was capable of crying out for succor; which plea we heard, and came to her immediate a.s.sistance. Miss Twining cannot be held to blame; she is entirely innocent of the affair; and we must all congratulate ourselves that she escaped with no greater injury than a swoon, and considerable chafing to her wrists.”

The General's eyes bulged in his head; his countenance empurpled; and with a snort he reached roughly for Miss Twining's right hand-staring at the red weals on her arm.

”Disgraceful.” His head snapped up to meet his daughter's shrinking gaze. ”Did you connive in this outrage? Did you hope to run like a harlot from your old father?”

”Never, sir,” she whispered. Her pallor was so extreme, I feared she might faint again-and observed my brother take a step closer, in the event she slipped to the floor.

”Little liar,” the General said through his teeth, and struck Miss Twining with his open hand against her cheek.

She did not cry out, nor did she faint; she simply swayed as she stood, her face averted and her hand s.h.i.+elding the spot where her parent's hand had fallen.

”General!” Henry burst out. ”You forget yourself!”

”No, damme, but I know who does does. Get out of my house this instant, sir, and never darken its door again!”

”Papa!” cried Miss Twining, all her outrage in her looks; the General might treat her like the merest chattel, it seemed, but she would not see her friends abused.

”We shall leave you now, Miss Twining,” I said firmly, with a curtsey for the trembling girl. ”I am quite sure when your father is restored to calm, he will better apprehend how blameless you have been today. If he should require further corroboration of your excellent conduct, I am happy to supply it at any time. But now I would urge you to seek your room”-I gave her an expressive look-”and place yourself in the hands of your maid; you will be wanting supper on a tray, I am sure, and an interval of quiet. General, we must bid you good day.”

I dropped the old renegade another curtsey, and rose to find his snapping eyes fixed upon my face. ”Very well,” he said unexpectedly, ”you have my thanks for my daughter's deliverance from Lord Byron-however much I may suspect the tale, and the motives of every member of this party! We shall not speak of this day again. I cannot like a Twining's disgrace to be known to complete strangers!”

”Be a.s.sured, General, that we shall dismiss every every insult we have witnessed, from our minds as soon as may be,” my brother said evenly. insult we have witnessed, from our minds as soon as may be,” my brother said evenly.

And having bowed our farewells at the door, and seen Miss Twining hastening above-stairs-we had nothing more to do than seek our rooms at the Castle Inn.

THIS PROVED TO BE ONE OF TWO PRINc.i.p.aL HOSTELRIES that Brighton affords, a modern building replete with every convenience, including an admirable a.s.sembly Room some eighty feet long, of which the servant offered me a glimpse while conducting us to our bedchambers. The ceiling must be half again as high, and surrounded by a delightful frieze in the Cla.s.sical manner. A ball is held at the Castle every Monday, as Catherine Twining had a.s.sured me, and thus Henry and I shall be treated to all the Fas.h.i.+onables the town at present affords-swirling animatedly in a crush of music, heat, and scent. that Brighton affords, a modern building replete with every convenience, including an admirable a.s.sembly Room some eighty feet long, of which the servant offered me a glimpse while conducting us to our bedchambers. The ceiling must be half again as high, and surrounded by a delightful frieze in the Cla.s.sical manner. A ball is held at the Castle every Monday, as Catherine Twining had a.s.sured me, and thus Henry and I shall be treated to all the Fas.h.i.+onables the town at present affords-swirling animatedly in a crush of music, heat, and scent.

Our apartments overlook the Steyne, the Promenade Grove-a pleasant enough arrangement of poplars, flowers, and darting paths-and just beyond these, the sea. We are fortunate in having descended upon Brighton in advance of the true Season, which may be said to begin in June; and thus may command a commodious suite of rooms: two bedchambers with a private parlour between. Tho' the furnis.h.i.+ngs are nothing extraordinary, they are just bright and easy enough to suit a seaside holiday. The whole adventure, indeed, wants only Eliza's Eliza's careless frivolity to make it quite perfect. careless frivolity to make it quite perfect.

-And at that thought, to my surprize, I fancied I caught an echo of my late cousin's bell-like laughter. I turned enquiringly towards the door, but no quick step pa.s.sed it; I shook my head impatiently, and answered some query of the chambermaid's regarding the disposition of my things.

”SHOULD YOU CARE TO WALK, JANE?” HENRY ENQUIRED perhaps a half-hour later as he thrust his head into my room, ”or are you famished?” perhaps a half-hour later as he thrust his head into my room, ”or are you famished?”

”Walk,” I said decidedly. ”The sea air alone shall give me an appet.i.te-and I have it on the best authority that even the Prince Regent dines early early at Brighton.” at Brighton.”

”You have been gossiping with the serving-girl, I collect.”

”Who better to impart the holy rituals of the place? Her name is Betsy; she is not above twenty years old, and is exceedingly wise; she is a native of Brighton, and she urges me to order our dinner for six o'clock, with no fear of being judged unpardonably vulgar.”

Henry's face lit up; I do not think he has enjoyed a meal since Eliza slipped into her decline, some weeks ago. ”I shall bespeak a green goose, Jane, and some turbot-for we cannot dine in Brighton without a nod to the sea.”

”Lobster patties,” I said dreamily, ”and champagne.”

My brother laughed aloud. ”You shall have to walk a good two hours, my dear, to merit such indulgence! But do you know-I believe that is exactly the menu Eliza should have requested, were she our companion in dissipation.”

”She is, Henry,” I said seriously. ”She is.”

We set out across the Steyne, intending to seek the Marine Parade, and spent a good hour ambling west along the sea-front. The day being well advanced, the more notable denizens of the town could be discovered in the Promenade Grove, where an orchestra dispensed music from an elevated platform at its centre, and the Pinks of the ton ton might ogle the Beauties who effected to admire the profusion of May flowers in the neatly arranged beds. Thus Henry and I, in our funereal black, had the Parade entirely to ourselves. There is nothing so bracing as a brisk stride against the wind, with a lowering edge of cloud on the sea's horizon, and the waves churning whitely at a safe distance. I felt my spirits rise inevitably, and I thought from the glint in Henry's eye as he surveyed an elegant vessel, well hove-over on her keel with her sails full of wind, that he had left his grief behind him. He is wise to quit Sloane Street, with its memories that should not soon be forgot, and its loneliness that might never be altered; he is the sort of man who must be might ogle the Beauties who effected to admire the profusion of May flowers in the neatly arranged beds. Thus Henry and I, in our funereal black, had the Parade entirely to ourselves. There is nothing so bracing as a brisk stride against the wind, with a lowering edge of cloud on the sea's horizon, and the waves churning whitely at a safe distance. I felt my spirits rise inevitably, and I thought from the glint in Henry's eye as he surveyed an elegant vessel, well hove-over on her keel with her sails full of wind, that he had left his grief behind him. He is wise to quit Sloane Street, with its memories that should not soon be forgot, and its loneliness that might never be altered; he is the sort of man who must be doing doing things, and I admire him for it. things, and I admire him for it.

”What is to be your programme for Brighton, Jane?” he carelessly asked. ”Or do you intend to closet yourself in your room for hours on end, scribbling at your latest oeuvre oeuvre?”

”I am hardly proof against the temptations of this town, Henry! How am I to write, when so much that is delightful is spread before my feet! Better to set down my pen until I am back at home, and the rain of June has descended with persistence, and there is nothing but mud and desolation to be had out-of-doors. Then Then I might give thought to Henry Crawford, and the salvation of his blackened soul.” I might give thought to Henry Crawford, and the salvation of his blackened soul.”

”You admire Brighton, do you?”

”I have never seen such a place. There is not a beggar or a blight from one end to the other! The buildings, the plants, the horses, the people people-all perfectly elegant, all seemingly immune to the decay of nature! How the equipages gleam, and the shop fronts beckon! I should call it unnatural, and the result of witchcraft, were I not aware that a vast sum of money is necessary to its achievement.”

”Money, indeed-and most of it drawn from taxing the British subject,” Henry returned drily. ”It is the pleasure ground of a Prince, remember, and one who is no stranger to debt. Brighton is carried on the backs of the most impoverished denizens of London, and by the nabobs of India; by the canny traders of Chinese cantons and the millworkers of York. But I daresay if you asked the Regent, he would claim credit for the whole.”

It was true, of course-trust a banker like my brother to advise me of it. Paradise is never granted for halfpence. The Regent had achieved more than fifty years of age without ever having been called to a reckoning of his accounts; a more expensive Royal never lived. Parliament itself had been forced to relieve his debts; he had married his hated cousin, Caroline of Brunswick, merely to obtain a handsome allowance; and was probably a million pounds to the red side of his ledger at present. The Regent remained as enthusiastic as ever in his schemes for the improvement of Carlton House, in London, and the Marine Pavilion here, without the scantest consideration of such an ugly word as cost cost.

”You ought to have seen Brighton as I first did, before the Prince discovered it,” Henry murmured, his gaze still following the sailing vessel, on which two or three wind-whipped figures could just be discerned. ”It was called Brighthelmston then, and was the simplest of fis.h.i.+ng villages-the Pavilion a modest farmhouse Prinny leased for the enjoyment of Mrs. Fitzherbert. They were said to spend the majority of their evenings playing at cards, with their intimates, and retiring early from exhaustion at the salt air. One wag noted that there were more sheep than people on the Channel Coast in those days! An utterly wholesome and rather poignant interlude, in the Regent's shameful career.”

Maria Fitzherbert. Unfortunate woman! I could not consider her without a lurch of the heart-for I had made the acquaintance of the Regent's true wife, the twice-widowed and Catholic beauty who, even in her twilight years, remained devoted to the memory of the Prince for whom she had sacrificed reputation, respectability, and the best years of her youth. I knew such truths of that lady-how she had borne the Prince a son, and been forced to give the child up; nay, how she had acquiesced in sending the boy out of the Kingdom out of the Kingdom, unacknowledged by his legitimate family, and given over to the kindness of strangers, across the Atlantic in America.

I had never spoken of these things to Henry; I had been sworn to secrecy; and besides, they formed a part of my own life too painful to contemplate. It was Maria Fitzherbert who had watched with me, as the one man I wholly loved-Lord Harold Trowbridge-drew his final, shuddering breath. It must be impossible to hear her name without the face of the Gentleman Rogue hovering just out of reach, in my mind's eye.5 How perfectly marvellous his lords.h.i.+p should appear against this backdrop of sea and Fas.h.i.+on, this playing-field of the Privileged, striding towards us in his impeccably tailored black coat, careless under the gaze of the most lofty-for he was a duke's son, after all, and no one conveyed such excellent ton ton, for all his dubious reputation, as Lord Harold.

I do not like to see you in mourning, Jane, the Rogue's voice murmured in my ear. Black does not suit you. You should go forever dressed in silk the colour of wine Black does not suit you. You should go forever dressed in silk the colour of wine.

”Are you feeling faint, Jane? Is the wind too chill for your liking?” Henry asked in concern.

I shook my head, and rallied with an effort. ”You have proved the perfect antidote,” I told him. ”When I exclaim at Brighton's perfection, you recall me to the rottenness at its core. I cannot like the Regent; indeed, when I consider his lack of gallantry towards the fairer s.e.x, I could almost hate him. The Prince is no model for his subjects, and I must a.s.sume that Brighton has taken its likeness from its patron-a glorious exterior, wrapped about a hollow sh.e.l.l!”

”Enjoyable enough for a fortnight, despite all that,” Henry remarked comfortably. ”Do not become missish missish, Jane, when you may command a suite of rooms at the Castle! Now-you have not answered my question. I am at your disposal for at least the next ten days. What do you crave, for your dissipation?”

”Nothing very scandalous. I should like to walk each morning, Henry, and fill my lungs with the tang of salt air, so that I might remember it in August when the drone of bees is soporific in Chawton. I should like to make a trial of the waters, by hiring a bathing machine and taking a dip in the sea. I should like you to drive me along the Lewes road, so that I might have a glimpse of the 10th Hussars at Brighton Camp-I am sure that Lydia Bennet would wish me to see a place of which I have invented so much! I desire to attend the Brighton Races. I should like to dance at the a.s.semblies-but such a thing is not to be thought of, in our state of mourning; visit this Pavilion, for which it seems we have all paid so much; and take out a subscription at Donaldson's Circulating Library.”

”The Library we might manage,” Henry said dubiously, ”but as for an invitation to the Pavilion-I confess that may prove to be above even my my touch, Jane.” touch, Jane.”

”I do not expect you to secure it,” I retorted indifferently. ”I shall undertake to do so myself. Lord Moira is an intimate of the Regent's; and when his flowers arrived in respect of Eliza, the missive bore his direction at the Pavilion. He is even now in residence. He shall not forget us, I am sure.”

Henry looked impressed.

”But should his lords.h.i.+p fail me,” I continued, ”I shall learn to be content with reading. The Circulating Library is certain to have the latest publications. Perhaps even Lord Byron has been scribbling something-provided Lady Oxford accords him sufficient liberty.”

”Could not Miss Twining supply the intelligence?”

”I should never distress her by alluding to his lords.h.i.+p, Henry!” I scolded. ”But Miss Twining a.s.sures me that all the most respectable persons in Brighton may be found at Donaldson's. The ladies display their gowns, and the gentlemen consult the London newspapers, and members of both s.e.xes play cards there of an evening. It would not do to be a stranger to Donaldson's. Besides, I wish to see how often my book is in request. If the Fas.h.i.+onables of Brighton do not constantly solicit the privilege of reading Pride and Prejudice Pride and Prejudice, I shall find no good in them at all-even if Lord Byron is is the writer most commonly claimed by the town.” the writer most commonly claimed by the town.”

”Again, Lord Byron! That gentleman has certainly seized your fancy!”

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