Fool's Gold (28 page)

‘I never meant to upset her,’ Cornish muttered. ‘I — I didn’t realise she hated me so …’

‘She doesn’t,’ stated Chen Kai firmly. ‘It’s not as simple as that.’ He stroked Alicia’s hair gently. ‘Don’t cry, dear, or you will frighten Tamsin.’ The sobbing gradually subsided. ‘Was bound to happen sooner or later. If not you, then someone else.’

Cornish stood in the doorway and watched, white-faced, as Kai led Alicia unresisting out of the
sala
, his arms around her, her head on his shoulder.

Kai led her across the courtyard and into her room, closing the door gently behind them. He did not see the pale figure of Pearl standing in the shadows watching them.

Alicia’s chair was empty at breakfast, but Cornish could hardly ask Chen Kai about her in front of his guests.

He was harnessing the horses in the stables when he saw her in the doorway, regarding him with a wide, troubled gaze.

‘Was I supposed to be going to Sacramento?’ she asked hesitantly.

‘I realise — after yesterday —’ He hadn’t felt so lost for words since he was a gangling youth. ‘Would you like me to tell Revel and Brenchley you’re indisposed?’

She didn’t answer. Just stood there with that lost look on her face.

He tried again. ‘I — apologise for yesterday. I misread the situation. If you’d rather not come …’

She looked at him in some confusion. ‘Don’t you want me to come.’

‘Better if you do,’ he said ungraciously. ‘Or there’ll be more questions from Letitia.’

‘I’ll go and get my hat.’

As he turned away he caught sight of Chen Kai standing in the shadows and wondered irritably how long he had been standing there.

‘What’s the matter with her?’ he asked, eyebrows raised. ‘I tried to apologise and …’

‘She is not ready to talk about it. Please to say no more to her.’

‘When might it suit her to receive my apology?’

Chen Kai’s mouth set in an ugly line. ‘If you knew the half of it, Corr-onel, then you would not sneer.’

‘So tell me!’

‘Is not for me to tell,’ growled Chen Kai.

*

They were in Sacramento before the worst of the noonday heat and the party split up to go its separate ways.

Alicia, armed with her instructions, set off around the stores. She felt strangely tired and drained today. She would normally have revelled in the purchase of the rugs, cushions and trimmings that would turn Tresco from a house into a home, but today she could not arouse any enthusiasm. There was something nagging away at the back of her mind, but she knew from hard experience not to dig too deep to bring it out.

Everywhere she went she was congratulated on Cornish’s success. Word had travelled fast and it was clear that Lamarr was not the most popular man in Sacramento. Everyone was delighted to let her take everything she chose on approbation; they offered her credit, but she preferred to pay in cash, although the double eagles slipped through her fingers alarmingly quickly.

She met Señora Leon in the milliner’s shop, where the Senator’s handsome wife was trying on hats.

‘Ah, Señora Owens! You will give me an honest opinion, I am sure. Which of these hats should I buy?’ she demanded, her striking dark beauty marred by a frown as she tried on a wide-brimmed chip straw tied with clouds of white tulle.

‘Show me the other.’ Alicia picked her way around a heap of bandboxes and parcels. ‘Oh no,’ she said before Señora Leon had even tied the ribbons of the rosy pink poke bonnet under her chin. ‘That colour makes you look sallow, and you’re not.’

She removed a chip straw trimmed with vivid scarlet silk flowers from a stand. ‘This one!’ she insisted.

‘I have the bonnet in an emerald green,’ offered the milliner.

The chip straw with its bright glossy flowers was perfect, as perfect as the bright bonnet. On paler hair, or against paler skin, it would have looked gaudy and over-dressed, but against the raven’s wing sheen of Señora Leon’s luxuriantly waving hair and her glowing skin, it was stunning.

‘Perfect!’ she agreed. ‘
Exquisito
!’ She turned to the milliner. ‘I take this one and the other I will wear. And you please have my purchases sent around to my house?’ She took Alicia’s arm in a firm grip. ‘And now, you come and take tea with me, heh?’

Alicia demurred, but was overridden. ‘No, I insist. Otherwise I never find an opportunity to talk to you by yourself. Always there are the men, or those gossiping women. Even worse!’

Alicia bought the stockings she required and the lace for the petticoat she was altering, but she resisted all the milliner’s blandishments and flattery to purchase a bonnet for herself. Her packages looked extremely meagre beside Señora Leon’s purchases.

Back at the elegant house, the handsome brunette admired herself in the mirror. ‘You are right. This colour is much better for me. Alicia — I may call you Alicia, I hope, and you must call me Consuela — you have so good feel for colour and style, so why …’

‘Why do I dress like this?’ She looked wryly down at her grey dress, which even with the new lace trimming was plain. ‘I am a widow, ma’am, and a housekeeper. It does not become me to dress smartly. A widow is expected to stay unobtrusively in the background.’

‘In other societies, perhaps. But in California, even in these days, young and unattached women are still in great demand; if a pretty young widow like you doesn’t remarry, it won’t be for want of asking,’ she observed shrewdly. Then, much to Alicia’s relief, she changed the subject. ‘Ah, here is Luisa with the tea-tray.’ An elderly woman, almost as broad as she was high and dressed all in black, carried in a tray with cups and saucers of the finest china and silver teapots. Close on her heels came a mournful man with a tray set with delicate sandwiches and cakes of all descriptions. Alicia’s mouth watered.

‘
Que bonito
!’ said the Señora with a sigh of satisfaction. ‘This will refresh us. You look tired, my dear. It is the heat, of course. So trying for you
norteamericanos
. Quite enervating.’

Alicia could barely suppress a smile. She wondered what her hostess would say if she knew that the object of her sympathy had once panned for gold fifteen hours a day, waist deep in muddy torrents and icy waters, under lowering skies or pitiless sun, or that she had walked from San Francisco to Shasta and then on to Sacramento so soon after escaping the hangman. Perhaps it was just as well that she didn’t know’!

‘I think there is a great deal more to you than meets the eye, Alicia,’ remarked Consuela shrewdly. ‘You and I might have a great deal more in common with each other than either of us has with those priggish gossips we mix with. There! I am being very frank with you, because I think we could be good friends.’

‘A Senator’s wife and a housekeeper with a dubious reputation?’

‘I always ignore any gossip or slur which emanates from Belle Kingsley — Lamarr, I should say — and you’ll find anyone worth knowing will do the same. As for my standing, well, appearances can deceive. Here I am the Senator’s wife, leader of society. Only my husband and a few close friends know that my father was just a
peon
, a peasant, in Panama City. My husband was on his way back to California. He married me and brought me with him.’ She gave an elegant shrug. ‘Wife of the Senator or
peon’s
daughter, I am still the same me.

‘Now tell me,’ she said as she poured tea. ‘The Colonel Cornish, is he a good employer? Interesting, that one. My husband is always trying to persuade him to stand for the legislature. We could do with good
Californios
there, instead of these ambitious Washington politicians like Gwin, with their snobbish little wives. What a relief to us all that he won Tresco back! What a strange name that is,
por Dios
! Is it after one of your English saints?’

Alicia shook her head laughingly. ‘I have no idea, Señora,’ she said frankly. ‘I am more acquainted with the Roman Church’s Calendar of Saints than with the English.’

‘How so?’

‘I was educated by a Jesuit.’

‘
Madre de Dios
!’ Consuela exclaimed, regarding her guest with narrowed eyes. ‘Not a greenhorn
norteamericana
at all! And now you wonder if you were wise to tell me, heh? Do not worry,
querida
,’ she said softly. ‘What you say is between us two only. But it intrigues me greatly.’

And before Alicia had time for second thoughts, she found herself telling Consuela something — but not everything — about her life in California before the Gold Rush.

‘There!’ said her hostess. ‘I knew there was a fascinating story. No, do not fear. I don’t press you to tell me more than you wish. But perhaps one day you will tell me the rest, heh?’

They went on to discuss the latest news from San Francisco until the little gilt clock on the mantelpiece struck four.

‘Now you must go,’ she announced, ‘for I am expecting another visitor, a politician.’ She wrinkled her nose. ‘Boring, but necessary. And here is Luisa with your bonnet and wrap. So, we meet again this evening at Letitia’s,
si
?’ Alicia stepped out on to the dusty main street feeling that she had made a new friend and that there was one more person in Sacramento who cared whether she lived or died. It was dangerous, she knew, to become involved, something she and Chen Kai had always avoided, but at the same time, it was comforting and today she felt strangely in need of comfort.

Chapter Twenty-One

By the time she reached the Orleans the large purse the Colonel had handed her that morning was almost empty, in contrast to the little antechamber off the front hall of the hotel, which appeared to be alarmingly full of parcels and packages for Tresco. She hoped they would all fit in the buggy!

‘Colonel’s already in the dining-room, ma’am,’ said the attendant, relieving her of her wrap.

She found Jack Cornish holding court at the centre of a constant stream of citizens who wanted to shake his hand and tell him they’d always known he would come out on top. She sat back, submitted to the endless introductions, smiled and drank far too much of the wine that Cornish kept pouring into her crystal glass.

‘It’s very pleasant to have everyone telling you they’re as pleased as you are you’ve saved Tresco,’ he said later as he handed her up into the laden buggy, ‘and I hope I’ve discretion enough to sort the genuine from the favour seekers, but I’m still very uneasy.’

She looked a question.

‘In the course of the day, I’ve seen all the big mining men or their deputies and not one of them reacted the way I expected. And I’d been so sure Lamarr was fronting for one of them.’

She wrinkled her brow. ‘For the cinnabar deposits, you mean? But surely Lamarr has his own reasons for wanting to take Tresco from you.’

‘Because of dear Belle?’ he said with a warm smile in his eyes. ‘That’s true. But I’d be surprised if he had embarked on this without having a buyer already lined up. And I was sure it was one of the big mining companies.’

‘Perhaps you’d better ask
dear Belle
,’ she snapped. ‘Señora Leon tells me the Lamarrs will be at Letitia’s this evening.’ He looked down at her as he took up the reins, amusement glinting in his eyes; she flushed scarlet from the base of her throat to the roots of her hair.

He set the horses off down the street. ‘You met Consuela today?’

‘In the milliner’s.’

‘She persuade you to buy an extravagant new bonnet?’ he enquired.

‘Certainly not! I persuaded her to buy two, both very extravagant!’

‘A pity. That drab grey does nothing for you.’

‘On the contrary!’ she snapped. ‘It makes me look what I am — a housekeeper.’ She bit her lip. ‘You don’t mince your words, do you?’

‘And you’re offended?’

‘What do you expect? No woman likes to be reminded … Anyway, Señora Leon has a position to keep up in society and the means to do it.’

‘Tresco’s flourishing,’ he argued. ‘I could run to a pretty bonnet.’

‘That
would
give them all something to gossip about!’

‘I wasn’t planning to escort you to the milliner’s!’

‘The principle would still be the same,’ she insisted. ‘The labourer, as you say, is worthy of her hire, and what she chooses to do with it is her affair!’

‘This foolish plan of yours to go back east?’

‘East or west, only a kept woman would permit a man to buy her clothes.’

‘Chen Kai bought you perfume,’ he objected.

‘Quite different!’ she snapped.

‘Only because you say so. To the casual observer the situations are identical.’

‘To me Kai is like family.’

‘Ah, yes, family. Consuela may have more pretty bonnets than you, but that’s something she’d give all her wealth for: a child like your Tamsin.’

A warm welcome awaited Cornish in the spacious drawing-room as guests surged forward to offer their congratulations. Most of them were genuine, but a few had clearly waited to see which way the wind blew before making any move.

‘Cornish!’ called McLean, a man of small stature and equal social standing usually to be found at Lamarr’s side. ‘Settle this wager I have with Wilding! He insists those maps were produced by an Army man. Now I thought I knew all the Army mapmakers in California …’

‘I’m sure you do, McLean,’ replied Cornish sarcastically. ‘And I’m sure they’re all — ah — indebted to you for the acquaintance.’ There were some sniggers, barely suppressed, at the inference, and McLean bristled. ‘But I fear neither of you will win the wager.’ With a grin he crossed to Alicia’s side and drew her forward. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you my map-maker and photographer — army-trained, I promise you.’

There were gasps of surprise from those who had not been in on the secret and now she had to take her share of the handshakes and be chaffed on her hidden talents, but when her hand was grasped by Emory Lamarr and she saw the naked fury in his eyes, she knew that she had made an enemy.

‘Clever as well as beautiful!’ cried young Henry Bryant and, to his mother’s ill-concealed annoyance, raised a toast to Alicia. She took the first opportunity to slip away from all the furore.

She and Brenchley were flicking idly through some of Letitia’s new music when she saw Hester Bryant slipping surreptitiously out on to the verandah.

She touched the lawyer’s arm. A swift glance around showed Mrs Bryant at the far end of the room. A second or two and Brenchley too had slipped away and out into the garden.

‘Love’s young dream?’ Belle Lamarr’s voice fell bittersweet on her ears. Alicia turned swiftly to see the beauty watching her from the door. ‘What disillusion awaits them,’ she went on, venom in her voice.

‘Mrs Lamarr, I didn’t see you there,’ replied Alicia. She racked her brain for small talk to detain her unwanted companion a little longer, lest she follow Brenchley.

She registered the magnificence of the rose pink crinoline the other woman wore. Its hoops wide and swaying, its voluminous pink skirts heavily trimmed with mauve ribbons and rosebuds of a darker pink, the ensemble far outshone anything anyone else was wearing.

‘What — what a magnificent dress,’ she began.

The other woman preened herself. ‘Paris, of course,’ she said languidly. ‘They make
toilettes
that no other city can come near to, certainly not in this benighted land.’ She surveyed Alicia’s dress with an insolent sneer. ‘Tell me, Mrs Owens — it is Mrs, is it?’ She looked pointedly at Alicia’s bare hands. ‘Tell me, why do you always dress so
very
drably? Did your mother never tell you how very important dress can be for a woman — particularly when she is blessed with such very
average
looks?’

A wave of irritation swept over Alicia. First Señora Leon, then the Colonel, now this unpleasant woman! If they had seen her in San Francisco, a wraith dressed in rags, they might allow her to be content with the way she looked now!

‘Indeed she did, but my father always insisted that the
content
of the parcel is so much more important than the wrapping.’

‘Oh yes,’ sneered Belle Lamarr. ‘Those mysterious parents who presumably taught you all your quite unfeminine talents — will you ever, I wonder, reveal their identity to us?’

Alicia had drunk several glasses of the Reverend Cooper’s excellent punch, pressed on her by the young men — and the not so young — who always crowded round the few unattached women at these gatherings like bees around a honeypot. Together with the wine she had taken at the Orleans, it was sufficient to imbue her with a feeling of recklessness.

‘No mystery, ma’am,’ she replied evenly. ‘They were persons of standing and discrimination. I don’t believe you were ever likely to have met them.’

Belle Lamarr let out her breath in a furious hiss and looked at her through narrowed angry eyes, searching in vain for an answer. Just then Colonel Cornish passed close by them and Belle’s face was suddenly wreathed in smiles.

‘How delightful that dear Jack is to keep Tresco,’ she cooed admiringly, fluttering her eyelashes as the Colonel passed by. Then, when he was once more out of earshot, she went on in a brittle voice: ‘You really must allow me to congratulate you on your choice.’

‘My choice?’ echoed Alicia blankly.

‘Of employer.’

Alicia’s palm itched to slap that complacent, mocking face. ‘Then you must allow me to commiserate with you, Mrs Lamarr,
on yours
.’ She looked pointedly across the room at Emory Lamarr.

Belle’s mouth twisted unpleasantly. ‘You’ll never catch him, you know!’

‘Mr Lamarr?’ Alicia’s eyes opened wide in surprise.

‘Don’t play games with me, madam!’ Belle hissed angrily. ‘You know very well who I mean! Jack Cornish!’

‘Oh, I’m sure we will, ma’am! Look, there he is … if you wave, I’m sure he’ll see us!’

‘You choose to make a jest of it,’ snarled Belle. ‘But you know full well what I mean. He’ll never offer marriage!’

Alicia smiled sweetly. ‘Oh, you’d be surprised,’ she murmured.

‘You’ll always just be a housekeeper, however
talented
,’ she said pityingly. ‘You’re destined for the shelf, my dear woman. Better get used to it.’

‘Hardly, ma’am,’ replied Alicia coolly, more coolly than she felt. ‘You forget, I am a widow. I was married ahead of you — by a good few years.’

She had struck a sensitive spot. Belle Lamarr had strung her rival lovers along for so long that the defection of Cornish had laid her open to similar sneers from other, less favoured, young ladies. She looked at Alicia with murder in her eyes, then she turned on her heel and pushed her way across to her husband’s side.

‘
Brava
!’ came an amused voice from behind Alicia. Clive Revel stood a few feet behind her, leaning against a walnut cabinet, an appreciative grin on his face. ‘I came to help you out when I saw the cat had her claws in you and I stayed on to enjoy the entertainment.’

‘I shouldn’t have said what I did,’ she exclaimed rather guiltily.

‘Nonsense! It was nothing but the truth.’

One of the clerks from the Steamship Company came up at that moment, excused himself to Alicia and whispered in Revel’s ear.

After a moment Revel nodded and dismissed the young man.

‘Mrs Owens,’ he said, ‘would you excuse me? It appears my presence is required in the garden.’

‘Oh dear. Brenchley?’

He nodded. ‘And I had such high hopes,’ he sighed.

She linked her arm in his. ‘Slowly,’ she advised. ‘Or you’ll draw attention. I’ll come with you.’

There was no one on the verandah, but they had no difficulty finding Brenchley: they simply had to track down the source of the noisy sobbing that racked the air.

In the shade of a heavily scented blossom tree, on an elegant rustic bench, drooped the tragic figure of Hester Bryant, struggling to stifle the sobs that racked her slim body. Bending anxiously over her, anger and concern warring for supremacy in his handsome face, was Augustus Brenchley. Hovering nearby was a portly figure, vaguely familiar, muttering distractedly: ‘Oh dear, oh dear! This is most unfortunate! Most! I really had no intention … Mrs Bryant was quite clear … oh dear!’

Brenchley’s face lightened when he saw Alicia. ‘Thank goodness!’ he exclaimed in a low whisper. ‘Can you calm her down while I deal with this old fool?’ he pleaded. ‘I think she’s beyond listening to me.’

‘I’ll do what I can,’ she promised.

He turned to the other man. ‘General Stokes? May I beg a moment of your time? There are some matters you and I must discuss.’

They walked away, but the General’s voice carried across the garden. ‘I assure you, young man, my suit was sanctioned by her mother! But if I have offended, I am prepared to offer satisfaction …’

Hester flung herself at Alicia and grasped her painfully by the wrists. ‘Oh no!’ she cried disjointedly. ‘What does he mean by it? “Satisfaction”, he said …!’

‘A duel, I imagine, if your honour has been impugned,’ replied Alicia drily.

‘Oh no!’ shrieked Hester. ‘No! He must not! He might be hurt!’

‘The General?’

Hester looked scathingly at her. ‘Augustus, of course!’

‘Don’t fret. I imagine Mr Brenchley will have more sense than to engage with a man old enough to be his grandfather!’

‘Don’t you care that Augustus may risk his life to protect my honour?’ demanded Hester tragically.

‘I shouldn’t think that old fool would pose a risk to anyone’s honour!’ riposted Alicia, struggling to suppress her laughter.

‘I never thought you could be so callous,’ sniffed Hester, dabbing daintily at her eyes and nose with the handkerchief Clive Revel had pressed into Alicia’s hand before retiring to a discreet distance.

‘I find it hard to see anything to worry about in the entire situation!’ chuckled Alicia. ‘Laugh at, yes, but no more than that.’

‘If you truly loved Augustus, you would do something about it!’ cried Hester. ‘You would throw yourself on your knees at the General’s feet and beg him not to take his vengeance on Augustus! Let me pass! I must stop him!’

‘Hester, you’ve been watching too many bad melodramas!’ exclaimed Alicia in lively astonishment. ‘If I let you do such a thing, Augustus would never speak to either of us again. Indeed, I would think it quite surprising if he ever showed his face in public again after such embarrassment! And that
would
grieve me, because I do care for him, you see, as a good friend. He is a sensible man, quite capable of getting himself — and you — out of far worse situations than this. I
don’t
, however, care for him in the way you suggest. If you want to listen to the Sacramento gossips, the more fool you!’ she said brutally. ‘Between them and your mother, they’re making an excellent job of running — and ruining — your life.’