Lady Star (10 page)

“I am saddled with a madman for a friend,”
Vern said closing his eyes. “Do be quiet now and let me think.”

“Shouldn’t, if I were you. That’s what
started your problems in the first place. You--thinking you could
take them on alone, is why you are now in trouble,” Miles said with
a lecturing finger.

Vern controlled the impulse to make the
attempt to get out of bed and strangle his dearest friend. “Are
you, or are you not, interested in how I may
now
handle the
matter of Farley
?”

A heated discussion ensued for some minutes
and so occupied them that they did not hear Dilly’s soft footsteps
as she arrived. She was in fact, put to the trouble of raising her
voice above theirs in order to be heard.

“Oi am sorry, m’lord…”

“Dilly, come in, do…” Miles said
flirtatiously.

Vern sent him a hard look of disapproval.
Dilly was a pretty young maid, but shy. He didn’t want her
distressed any further by his womanizing friend.

She wrung her hands and bobbed her head,
“’Tis the gentlemen—so insistent they be about visiting with ye.
They wouldn’t wait below…and they be wishful of seeing ye right
now,” she said and waved her hand to indicate the two men who had
followed in her wake.

* * *

Star considered Georgie thoughtfully as they
trotted their horses down the deer path, taking a shortcut to
Berkley. Her friend looked lovely and fashionable in her riding
ensemble of dark blue. One would never think Georgina was a
modern-day crusader. She was though and insisted that all women
should be. The notion of Georgie marching in London and holding a
sign demanding that women be considered equal to men made her smile
proudly as well as giggle. While Star was in theory for all that
Georgie stood for, she wasn’t the marching and waving sign sort of
woman. She sighed and silently berated herself as lazy.

At the moment, however, Georgie rode her
horse quietly and sedately. Star eyed her and said, “What, nothing
in politics to go on and on about?”

Georgie eyed her and laughed, “There is
always something about men’s politics to go on and on about, but
for now, I shall content myself with flaunting them all by riding
astride.”

Star laughed, “Well, there is nothing new in
that as I do it as well. I will not allow it to be your usual
radical self. What has you so quiet, my Georgie?”

“I don’t know. I feel…just a bit confused
this morning,” Georgie answered.

“No, impossible. You are never confused,”
Star returned half teasingly and slightly in earnest. “Never say
you are mellowing with age?”

Georgie shot her a challenging look, “Age?
Mellow? Careful my friend.” She sighed then and said, “I have a
problem to sort out in my head.”

 “Hmm, so do I, but I fancy yours is far
more altruistic than mine.”

“Whatever do you mean?” Georgie asked
surprised.

 “Let me ask you this. Last week you
said you look for the day when women would have the same rights as
man. You said that you think women should be able to take lovers
just as men do, without censure. Do you really believe that it is
acceptable for a woman to bed a man whether she means to marry him
or not?”

“Ah, a simple question, with a very
complicated answer,” Georgie scrunched up her face. “What I believe
Star, is that we live in an age where men, even married men, can
bed whomever they choose even the household maid right under his
poor wife’s nose, for example. You and I even know of such men—Lord
Sefton for instance, whose ball we shan’t get to attend tonight. We
are not supposed to know, but we hear the rumors and gossip, don’t
we? These men, can without impunity go about their business and
enjoy romance—lust, where they choose. Very few are held to censure
or any consequence that I can see. I believe that it is the
consequences of doing the same that
women
should be freed
from. After all, from what I overheard Mama’s friend yesterday,
Lady Sefton is carrying on a discreet affair with some young man,
much younger than she.”

“Georgie!” Star exclaimed. “I would never
have thought so.”

“Precisely, but your reaction to Lady
Sefton’s behavior was shock while it was not with regard to his
lordship.
That
is what I object to. I
am not
saying a
lady
should
bed the butler simply because she has the right.
I am saying
she should
have
the right—the same right as a
man
. Does that make sense to you?”

“Yes, it does, but you know Georgie, that
will never happen,” Star answered.

“Ah, perhaps not while we are young…but who
knows. I mean honestly, what is wrong—is wrong. We should not be
held to a different standard than a man. After all, I think women
have the same…romantic desires and needs as men and yet we are
trained to control them. Why should
we
have to control those
needs if a man does not?”

Star sighed, “It is different
though…somehow.”

“Only because you have been brainwashed into
thinking it so. If women like us stand up and demand our
rights…well then, who is to say what the future will hold.”

“What about…what about being with a man
before one is married…?”

“
La
, Star…look at Sarah! Did she not
run off with that cit last month? They weren’t married for weeks
and not until her father found them and forced them to it. Did she
not write us that she was happy before she was forced to marry? I
think that life has many facets and directions and that one day we
will rise above the constraints placed on us
by men
. One
day, we will have the right to conduct business, to vote…to take a
lover!” Georgie said and laughed. “I think that a woman shouldn’t
abstain from a passion simply because society dictates that she
should. Unfortunately, we live in a time where we don’t have the
luxury that men enjoy. Thus, if we engage in such a clandestine
affair, it must be discreet. We have so much more to lose than a
man.”

“Have you ever thought about…being with a man
you found…attractive?”

Georgie looked at her sharply, “As a matter
of fact,
I have
. But this isn’t about
me,
is it? You
want the dashing Sir Edward? Is that where these questions come
from?”

Star laughed, “You think you know me so
well.”

“I do,
she-devil
, I do.”

Star sighed and detoured her friend’s mind,
“You know that Vern thinks you are the air he breathes, right?”

Georgie sighed, “Your brother and I would
not
suit.”

“Why?” Star asked curiously. “You and Vern
get along so well.”

“It isn’t that,” Georgie said. “Of course we
get along. His nature is easy and it would be hard to find someone
who wouldn’t get along with Vern. The thing is that my heart
doesn’t flutter, my body doesn’t quake when I think of Vern.”

“Ah, yes,
love.
Loving someone is so
very different than being in love, isn’t it?” Star said on a heavy
sigh. “So then, we are still constrained, are we not? I mean, we
think we should be with a man, only if we love him—
we constrain
ourselves.”

“Well it is an improvement on only being with
him if we are married,” Georgie giggled.

Star smiled and then sighed audibly,
“Georgie, we are getting older and neither one of us has ever truly
been in love.”

“Well, we did think that handsome professor
held the stars in his hands…do you remember how we used to watch
him and swoon over everything he did?”

Star laughed, “Yes, and what about Mr.
Hoolihan’s son, Tommy…we used to go with Papa all the time to pick
up supplies just to bat our lashes at him.”

“Ah, but you were the one who caught his eye
and his kisses,” Georgie said and laughed.

“That is because you preferred his older
brother as I recall. While Tommy was kissing me in the back of the
store, you were busy doing I don’t know what, with his
brother.”

“Ah Douglas! Yes, handsome older Douglas and
I have never had a better kiss,” Georgie sighed.

“
Tarts
, that is what we are,” Star
said and laughed.

“Ah, tarts do have so much more fun. I
haven’t been kissed in an age…” Georgie said wistfully.

“You are right. I should like to be kissed by
the dashing Sir Edward,” Star said suddenly.

“Indeed,
I noticed
, but Star,
honestly, I must say he is most definitely a man who would leave
you broken-hearted. You realize that, don’t you?”

Star nodded and beamed wistfully, “Yes, but
it might be worth it!”

“You are wrong.
I do know
you, and
that would never do for you.” Georgie declared and grimaced. “Well,
here we are.” She pulled her horse up at the barn and swung her leg
over and jumped lightly to earth. Smoothing the jacket and riding
skirt of her dark blue riding ensemble, she patted her hair in
place and adjusted her brown top hat in a jaunty manner.

“You look wonderful Georgie, but who are you
preening for? Have you already changed your mind about my
brother?”

Georgie snapped a look at her,
“No
,
did you not notice that you have guests at Berkley? They must
already be up at the house.” She indicated the two horses occupying
the training paddock and Star’s brow went up and her heart began
racing.

Chapter
Eight

MILES AND VERN looked toward the open door of
the bedroom and Vern’s countenance took on a genuinely pleased
smile as he greeted the newcomers. “Jules…” he said and looked past
him to the striking man at Jules’ side.

Dilly appeared to be about to bolt so his
lordship called after her, “Dilly, hold there, just a moment if you
would.”

“Indeed, no need for you to rush off child,”
Miles said with a soft smile directed toward her.

“Shut up, Miles,” Vern admonished.

“What? What did I say?”

“Dilly, would you bring up a fresh pot of…”
Vern started.

“No, no,” Jules interrupted. “No need for
tea, not staying that long.”

Vern nodded and with a lift of his finger
allowed Dilly to hurry off, but Miles stalled this by saying, “Hold
on Dilly. Just to be certain we don’t need anything?”

Vern pulled a face at him but turned to call
merrily to the two men hovering still at his open doorway, “Come
in,
come in
. The doctor tells me I am not infectious.”

Jules went forward and glanced toward Miles,
as Vern offered, “You know Miles don’t you?”

Jules smiled and nodded, “Miles, yes of
course.”

Sir Edward saw the wary look that passed
between the two and thought, aha! Rivals for the fair Star. It
irked and amused him at the same time, though he wondered why it
should annoy him. It was nothing to him how many suitors she had in
the wings. He shrugged this off immediately.

Edward took a position quietly standing in
the background as he surveyed the scene before him and noted that
Star’s brother looked enough like her to be her twin. The same
cornsilk colored hair, as Jules had dubbed it. He was a handsome
young man, though his face looked white and drawn from his days no
doubt, in bed. He thought immediately of the young boy—boy indeed,
but someone who did in fact, look like Vern and the Lady Star. Was
his suspicion fancy?

Vern regarded Jules with some amusement and
said, “If you came to call on m’sister, you are out of luck, Jules.
She is off visiting Georgina.”

Jules clasped his hands behind his back and
said, “Ah, I am sorry that we have missed her, but we are not here
to visit her. You see, we have a solution to the problem, so in a
manner of speaking
it is
she
that brings us
here.”

“A solution to the problem? What problem?”
Vern frowned.

“Indeed, your meaning, sir?” Miles asked as
he stepped forward. He was not smiling.

Vern saw this at once and snorted. He turned
and waved Sir Edward closer, “I am sorry to greet you from my bed,
sir. While these two battle over m’sister, may I introduce myself
as I see Jules is too excited over some other matter to attend to
the oversight. I am Vern.”

“Indeed, so I gathered, I am…”

Jules remembered his manners at that moment
and hurriedly interrupted with an unintelligible sound and then
with a wave of his hand as he offered the necessary
introductions.

Dilly had been stalled in the door frame,
waiting for the outcome of this. Did his lordship wish her to bring
up a tray or not? He finally saw her hovering nervously about and
said, “Oh, Dilly, I am sorry. It appears we won’t be having
tea.”

She nodded and made good her escape down the
hall and then hurriedly down the main staircase. She flew for she
had any number of things that needed taking care of and not enough
minutes in the day, so she grumbled to herself as she made her way.
“I don’t have time to wait on swells and bloods,” she told no one
in particular as she went past a collection of Berkley portraits.
She was highly flustered and in something of a state when her
mistress and Miss Madison came through the front door and nearly
bumped into her.

“Why Dilly, whatever has you so flushed?”
Star’s brow was up high as her eyes scanned the hall for a
clue.

“Naught, but Oi will say this to ye, Miss
Star. Oi cares fer ye and the young lord. That’s why Oi stays on,
otherwise Oi would go to Mrs. Quigly, who thinks Oi would do as ‘er
own personal maid.”

“But Dilly, I don’t understand. Do you wish
to leave us? Have we burdened you with too much work?” Star stole a
quick glance at her friend, but if Miss Madison had an answer, it
wasn’t written on her face.

“No, don’t be thinking that. Why ye and the
young lord ‘ave been good to me, ye ‘ave. ‘Taint that, but it makes
me uneasy to serve ‘imself and ‘is friends abovestairs, it does. It
would be more fittin’ if there was a serving boy to do that.”