Jane Austen Mysteries 10 Jane and the Madness of Lord Byron (7 page)

Breathtaking, indeed, from the moment our curricle began its descent from the sweep of untenanted Downs, a rolling country of grassland that affords a magnificent view of the well-ordered town at its foot, and the sea beyond, dotted with shipping and pleasure-craft. The sun, just past its zenith, glinted on the stately white buildings as we approached; on a welter of Corinthian columns and Adam-esque facades, and the classical purity of the Marine Pavilion, the Regent's residence.
4
The New Road swung directly past its western lawns, so that a splendid view of the edifice--all but dwarfed by its massive new stable block, constructed in the Indian stile--was obtained directly upon entering Brighton.

We turned into Church Street, and the direction of Miss Twining's home.

She was deathly pale as the curricle pulled to a halt, and had to be lifted to the paving by my brother. We each supported her up the steps, and waited for some response to Miss Twining's pull of the bell. During the short interval from Cuckfield, she had informed me that Lord Byron took her up in his chaise at a few minutes past eleven o'clock; it was now nearly half-past four. Her poor Papa must be frantic with worry.

The heavy oak was pulled back; a bent form in livery stared impassively out at us. "Miss Cathy," it said. "You have been wanted these two hours and more."

"Oh, Suddley!" she cried, and stumbled across the threshold. "Indeed I did not mean to run away!"

"Miss Twining has met with a sad accident," I said as I followed my charge within doors, "and requires rest and refreshment. She was so good as to permit us to escort her home. My name is Austen; if Miss Twining's father should care for an explanation, we should be happy to offer it."

"That will do, Suddley," said a voice from the far end of the hall.

He was a soldierly-looking man, endowed with Miss Twining's dark hair, but scowling in a manner assured to quell a more ardent spirit than his daughter's. "Well, miss? And what have you to say for yourself? Gadding about in hoydenish pleasures--making a sport of my name throughout Brighton, I've no doubt, and not yet returned from school a month! I do not know what is to become of you--I declare that I do not! A disgrace to your name, and your sainted mother's memory--Good God, Catherine, have you no conduct? Have you no shame?"

"Sir--" Henry started forward, part anxiety and part indignation.

"Father, may I present Mr. Henry Austen, and his sister, Miss Austen, to your acquaintance? Mr. and Miss Austen, my father--General Twining."

"And who are
they
, pray?" this personage demanded, as tho' we were absent from the room entirely. "It is unusual, is it not, to force one's notice upon young ladies entirely unknown to one? And in mourning too! I cannot think it becoming."

"It was
I
who forced acquaintance upon the Austens, Papa," Miss Twining returned tremblingly. "Indeed, they have been my salvation this day, and are deserving of considerable gratitude--but I should prefer to tell you
all
in greater privacy. May we not go into the drawing-room?"

"Very well," he said grudgingly. "But I shall offer no refreshment. It is not my policy to reward impudence. Encroaching manners! Town bronze!"

He eyed my brother dubiously as he swung past Henry towards the drawing-room; a tall, spare man of advancing years--perhaps in his middle fifties--but still powerfully built, with a breadth of shoulder and a strength of limb that suggested the seasoned campaigner. His forehead jutted over deeply-set eyes of an indeterminate brown; his thin lips appeared permanently compressed, and his chin protruded pugnaciously. A man of ill-managed temper, I concluded, and frequent periods of oppression; an uneasy man to endure. He was dressed in dusky black rather than regimentals, and swung an ebony walking cane.

"It is a pleasure, sir, to meet any member of Miss Twining's family," I managed, hoping to spare our acquaintance further mortification; but her father was not inclined to tact.

"--Having assumed, no doubt, that such a forward young woman had no relations at all." He eyed her with disfavour as he ushered us through the doorway. "I understand you were taken up in Lord Byron's carriage, miss--oh, yes, you need not look so startled, the maidservant has been your Judas! Thought to elope with the Rage of the Ton, did you? And when did you discover your mistake? When the fellow achieved his object--then wanted no part of you?"

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 lordship. She was discovered by my brother and myself at the stable yard in Cuckfield--bound and gagged and imprisoned in his lordship'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 assistance. 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 shielding the spot where her parent's hand had fallen.

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

"No, damme, but I know who
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 assured, General, that we shall dismiss
every
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.

T
HIS PROVED TO BE ONE OF TWO PRINCIPAL HOSTELRIES
that Brighton affords, a modern building replete with every convenience, including an admirable Assembly 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 Classical manner. A ball is held at the Castle every Monday, as Catherine Twining had assured me, and thus Henry and I shall be treated to all the Fashionables 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 furnishings are nothing extraordinary, they are just bright and easy enough to suit a seaside holiday. The whole adventure, indeed, wants only
Eliza's
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 passed it; I shook my head impatiently, and answered some query of the chambermaid's regarding the disposition of my things.

"S
HOULD YOU CARE TO WALK
, J
ANE
?" H
ENRY ENQUIRED
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 appetite--and I have it on the best authority that even the Prince Regent dines
early
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
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
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
?"

"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
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
--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
.

"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 fishing 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."