The Emperor (20 page)

*

Cuthbert Collingwood wrote a letter of condolence to
Charles.

‘
Lieutenant Morland was at his station on the lower gun
deck at the height of the engagement with the
Santisma
Trinidad,
when an enemy shot entered through a gun-port,
killing him instantly, along with the midshipman of his
division who was standing beside him, and the seaman gun-
layer.

‘
Although Mr Morland had been with us only a few
weeks, he had already proved his worth as an active and
efficient officer. He was trusted and respected by the men,
and his open and cheerful temper made him a favourite in
the wardroom. He is a great loss to the Service.’

Charles read the letter out loud to Héloïse and Roberta,
and then stared at it in silence for a long time, before
looking up to encounter their grave eyes.

‘I shall have to write to Harry,' he said.

They nodded, imagining the difficulty of the task, and
what Harry would feel on receipt of such a letter.

Charles tried, unsuccessfully, to smile for them. 'Since
time began, young men have been dying in battle. It is a
universal, perennial tragedy.'

‘
One knows that,' Héloïse said, 'but it does not seem to
make any difference. Each death is the only one.’

He nodded gratefully, and looked down at the paper
again. 'A letter of condolence: not much to shew for the
whole of his life.' And it seemed just then that Flora was a
little more lost to him.

*

’The Countess of Aylesbury, my lady,' Hawkins announced,
stepping aside as the whirlwind that was Lucy dashed past
him into the blue saloon where Héloïse and Roberta were
sitting working one bright spring morning. Lucy was
wearing a cream-coloured box-coat of felted wool, with four
shoulder capes, just like a man's, and carrying large driving-
gauntlets and a whip.

‘From which I conclude that you are driving yourself this morning,' Roberta observed.

‘
Yes, in my curricle; and I must ask your indulgence, Lady Chelmsford, and steal cousin Héloïse from you, to come shopping with me to Bond Street. I have to go and interview my mantuamaker, that odious woman, and she
always bullies me if I go alone. I would have taken Mary,
but she will not step outside the house.'

‘
She is not ill?' Roberta asked in alarm. Lucy grinned
impishly .

‘
Not the least bit – unless you count being love-sick! The
truth of it is she is expecting every moment to hear from
Captain Haworth that he is come in to Portsmouth, and she
does not want to leave the house in case the message comes
when she is out. Lord! I never thought to see my sister
acting so foolish, and all over her husband, too!'

‘
The
Cressy's
commission is ended, I collect?' Roberta
enquired.

‘
Some months ago, I believe, but it was not possible for
her to leave her station until now,' Lucy replied. 'Polly will
be hoping Captain Haworth does not get another ship for
months, and he will be hoping quite the opposite! It's a
foolish thing indeed to fall in love with a sailor! But will you
come, Héloïse? I know how fierce you are with drapers and
silk-merchants, and I absolutely must have your protection
against Madame Genoux. If you will only speak to her in
French she will melt away and be as nice as sugar-plums,
but if I go alone she will make me buy something hideous.
And you shall have a turn in the park afterwards, by way of
a reward.'

‘
Of course I will come,' said Héloïse, jumping up at once.
'If you will wait while I put on my hat.'

‘
I would never have thought to see you so meek,'
Roberta laughed. 'I was always told how strong-minded and care-for-nothing you were.’

Lucy made a face. 'Not where Madame Genoux is
concerned. And I shall have to tell her about my expec
tations, and that will make her completely overpowering,
unless I have Héloïse there to distract her.'

‘
Your expectations?' Roberta asked at once, with
interest, Lucy raised her eyebrows.

‘
Oh, did you not know? I made sure Chetwyn would
have told Charles. Yes, it is quite certain now – I expect to
be confined in October.'

‘
You take it so calmly,' Roberta said. 'Are you not
pleased?’

Lucy shrugged. 'Oh, there is nothing to it. If I get a boy
this time I shall be pleased, that's all.’

Roberta shook her head wonderingly. 'You are so
strange,' she said. Lucy laughed.

‘
I think the same about you, cousin. Ah, here she is! Now
we can go. Can I do anything for you in Bond Street?'

‘
How well you drive,' Héloïse remarked as Lucy swung
the curricle round the end of St James's Square, sliding it
between a parked removers' dray and an oncoming hackney.

Lucy grinned. ‘Do you think so? I'm glad. Mary says my driving makes her sick, and Docwra says it's improper while
I'm in a delicate condition. By which I suppose she means
it's dangerous. I can never bring anyone to understand that
there isn't the least likelihood of my overturning my rig –
anyone but Parslow, that is. He trusts me implicitly, which
ought to be recommendation enough for anyone,' she
added, throwing a glance over her shoulder at her wooden-
faced groom, who was perched on his little seat between the rear wheels as impassively as Hawkins standing in the great
hall of Chelmsford House.

‘
Indeed, I feel perfectly safe,' Héloïse declared. 'I
suppose you had a good teacher at Morland Place – I mean,
your Mama?'

‘
Oh, everyone had a hand in teaching me,' Lucy said
lightly. 'Ned and Mother taught me the basic skills, and Jamie
taught me the refinements; but I have outstripped them all.
By the by,' she added, quite unconscious of any effect she
might be having, 'I still have your ponies, you know.'

‘My ponies?' Héloïse repeated, genuinely puzzled.

‘
Your cream ponies, that Jamie gave you, to go with the
phaeton.
He
has that, at Morland Place, put away some
where I believe; but he was going to turn the ponies out, and
I said it would be a shocking thing to waste them, when we
had put so much work into their schooling. So he gave them
to me; but of course they are yours, really, and as soon as
you are settled, I will have them sent back to you.’

Héloïse was distressed, and could not speak; but after a
moment she regained control of herself, and said, 'I thank
you, cousin; but I do not think my establishment will run to
the setting up of a stable. I shall have to live quite simply,
you know. It will be better for you to keep them.'

‘
Oh, you will change your mind,' Lucy said, frowning
with concentration as she edged her pair past a costermonger's cart and a barrel-organ. 'Sure you must have
some means of getting about, and it don't cost much to keep
a pair of ponies.’

Héloïse said no more, though she was perfectly sure that
Lucy knew far less about the cost of keeping horses even
than she did.

While Parslow held the chestnuts outside the shop in
Bond Street, and Lucy conducted her business inside,
Héloïse performed her task of deflecting the attention of
Madame Genoux with conversation in her native language,
and remembered the way she had similarly served her friend
Lotti by occupying the nurse while Lotti played with her baby Mathilde. Lucy reminded her a little of Lotti, in her
high spirits and rejection of convention; though Lucy was
much cleverer than Lotti had ever been, and had also a
vein of seriousness that had been lacking in the girl from
Leipzig.

Héloïse wondered again, as she had wondered many
times, what had become of Lotti's children, Mathilde and
Karellie, and whether she would ever see them again. She
had promised Lotti she would take care of them if anything
happened to her: how poorly she had kept that promise!
When the war was over, she must ask Charles's help to
travel to Germany and find the children, and make sure
they were all right.

They emerged again into Bond Street, and before they
had time to exchange a word, a gentleman just that moment
passing stopped at the sight of them, lifted his hat, and
bowed. Héloïse did not know him, and looked at Lucy, to
discover to her surprise that Lucy's cheeks had taken on a
warm glow, and her eyes an unusual brightness.

‘
Why, Weston, what a pleasant surprise. What do you
here?'

‘
What does anyone do in Bond Street, but waste their
time in an agreeable manner?' the gentleman replied with a
charming smile, and a graceful gesture towards the other
loungers who filled the street. 'I might ask your ladyship the
same question.'

‘
Indeed, I have been properly employed ordering gowns,
and not enjoying myself at all,' Lucy said. 'But I must make you known to my cousin. Héloïse, let me present Lieutenant
Weston — Weston, my cousin Lady Henrietta Stuart.’

Héloïse made her curtsey, scanned Weston's face rapidly,
and came to a number of rather puzzling conclusions.

‘
But where do you go now, ladies? May I have the
honour of escorting you somewhere?' Weston asked as he
straightened up.

‘
I was just going to take Héloïse for a drive in the park, to
make up for having to talk to my mantuamaker for almost
an hour,' Lucy said, her voice rich with a regret she was
quite unconscious of revealing.

Héloïse touched her arm. 'But I was just about to say,
when Mr Weston spoke to you, that my conversation with
your Madame Genoux reminds me I have not yet visited my
old friend, Madame Chouflon. It is a visit I ought to pay at
once, without delay, and I was on the point of asking you to
excuse me from accompanying you to the park, so that I
may drive out to Chelsea before dinner.'

‘
Oh, then I must drive you home again,' Lucy said at
once, and Héloïse, carefully not looking at Weston said,
‘But no, that is not at all necessary: I can so easily take a
chair to Chelmsford House. I am sure you wish to exercise
your horses, and it is not worth changing your plan only for
that.'

‘
If you're sure,' Lucy said doubtfully, but her eyes went
irresistibly to Weston's. 'It would be a shame not to take
them round a time or two, on such a fine day.’

*

The arrival of a smart town chariot with the Chelmsford
arms on its side panels caused a considerable stir in Sydney
 
Street when it drew up in front of the house of Madame
Chouflon, and those wise in the ways of the rich expressed
surprise that a lady should visit her mantuamaker rather
than send for her. When the footman let down the steps and a daintily-shod foot appeared, two urchins struggled briefly
for the right to lay a meagre body over the wheel to protect
her skirts from its muddy contamination, and Héloïse felt all the pleasure of being able to bestow a coin where it was sure
of doing good.

Madame Chouflon's upper servant opened the door with
a promptness that suggested she had been lurking behind it,
but the sight of a lady in a hat decorated with wax cherries
and a smart cherry-coloured pelisse, rendered her speech
less. Héloïse smiled and urged her gently backwards so as to
gain admittance into the hall.

‘
Come now, Elise, close your mouth and find your wits.
Don't you know me?' she said in French. Elise gaped a
moment longer, and then her face cleared and she dropped
a series of rapid curtsies and exclaimed, 'Oh, Madame
Vendenoir, I beg your pardon. I did not recognize you; and
seeing the coach, I thought you must be the doctor'