Friday's Child Read online

  ‘No!’ Sherry interjected, in a strangled voice.

  ‘I must say, I never thought you cared a button for the Incomparable,’ agreed Mr Ringwood. ‘Thought maybe you cared more for your Kitten than you knew.’

  Sherry had gone over to the window, and was standing with his back to his friend. He said curtly over his shoulder: ‘I did.’

  ‘That’s why I brought Kitten down to my grandmother, and made Ferdy and George keep it from you they knew where she was. Thought if you felt you had lost her, it might make you think a trifle.’ He paused, and glanced across at the Viscount. ‘Wouldn’t have betrayed her in any event, you know. At one time I’d a strong notion it was all going to be for the best. Haven’t been so sure of it lately. Don’t know why you’re setting Sheringham House in order, for one thing.’

  Sherry wheeled round.‘You fool, for Kitten, if ever I should find her! Do you suppose I have not had time to think as well as you? I see now what I ought to have done! I thought I could continue in the same way, even though I was married: had no notion of settling down! Well, I know now that it’s not possible, and, damn it, I don’t desire it to be! I thought, if I could find Kitten, we would start afresh: try to be more the thing! If I had not thought she might return there, I would have got rid of that curst house in Half Moon Street long since! God knows I have grown to hate it! But how could I do so? Suppose she had come back, only to find the shutters closed, or even strangers living there? I had to stay, though it has been like a tomb to me!’

  ‘I see,’ said Mr Ringwood. ‘Shan’t deny your setting Sheringham House in order looked to me as though you had different ideas in your head. When Severn fell out of the running – Well, couldn’t help wondering a trifle, Sherry!’

  ‘If you mention Bella’s name to me again, Gil, I am likely to do you a mischief !’ Sherry warned him.‘I never cared the snap of my fingers for that wretched girl, and if you are not assured of that, ask her! Why, God save the mark, she may be a beauty, but give me my Kitten! Bella, with her airs and her graces, and her miffs, and her curst sharp tongue! No, I thank you! What’s more, no man who had lived with Kitten would look twice at the Beauty!’

  ‘Then why the devil did you come to Bath, which we all know you can’t abide, only to be near her?’ demanded Mr Ringwood, exasperated.

  ‘To be near her? My God, is that what you think? You must be crazy! Nothing would have induced me to have come here, but one circumstance! When my mother asked me to go with her, I would not listen. Yes, and I told Bella if she thought she had the power to persuade me she was mightily mistaken! But something she said – or I said: I don’t recall precisely what it was – made me remember that it was to Bath that Bagshot woman had the intention of sending Kitten, to become a governess. I made sure I should find her here, in some seminary in Queen’s Square, and that is all the reason I had for coming to a place I never mean to set foot in again if I live to be a hundred!’

  Mr Ringwood sat staring at him. ‘So that is how it was!’

  ‘Of course that is how it was! And I saw Kitten with George almost the very instant I entered the town, and if I could have come up with him then, I’d have murdered him in cold blood! I have been trying ever since to get two words with Kitten alone, but she will not receive me in Camden Place, nor do more than accord me the civility of a stranger when we meet in public!’

  ‘Upon my soul, Sherry, if ever there was a born fool, you are he!’ exclaimed Mr Ringwood. ‘How the deuce was Kitten to know you had come here to search for her? Depend upon it, she believes you came only to be near Miss Milborne, and had not the least expectation of seeing her! I do not wonder that she will not speak to you!’

  ‘But she could not think – she could not think – !’ stammered Sherry.

  ‘She!’ said Mr Ringwood witheringly. ‘Seems to me it’s you who can’t think, Sherry. Damme if ever I knew such a fellow! It’s a very good thing I came down here, for a rare pucker you have got yourself into! What’s more, I’m not sure it ain’t too late to get you out of it.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Sherry said quickly, fixing his eyes on his face.

  Mr Ringwood met that look squarely. ‘Said I’d be frank with you, dear boy, didn’t I? Well, I’ve been hearing lately from my grandmother that there’s some fellow or other paying Kitten attentions.’

  ‘There is!’ Sherry said grimly.

  ‘The old lady didn’t seem to think there was much to it yet, but she gave me a hint you’d do well to step in before it was too late. Matter of fact, I was about to write to Kitten to tell her I thought it was time she gave me leave to tell you the truth, when you went off in your mother’s train. From what I can make out, he’s a very tolerable sort of a fellow, with a nice little property, easy address, and that kind of thing. Devilish taken with Kitten, ready to do anything in his power to please her.’

  Sherry was just about to favour him with his own impression of Mr Tarleton when the justice of this description struck that innate honesty at the bottom of his nature.‘Yes, damn him!’ he said bitterly. ‘I suppose he is a tolerable sort of fellow. Dare say he’d be a dashed sight kinder to Kitten than ever I was.’

  Mr Ringwood rose from his chair. ‘Best thing for me to do now is to go round to Camden Place and see Kitten,’ he said. ‘Do what I may to unravel this curst tangle you’ve made!’

  Sherry grasped his hand. ‘Gil, you’re the best friend a man ever had!’ he declared. ‘You’ll tell her it was to find her I came here,won’t you? Tell her I’ve been fit to blow my brains out any time since she left me! Beg her only to see me! Tell her –’

  ‘Don’t put yourself about! I’ll tell her everything!’ promised Mr Ringwood.

  But when he arrived in Camden Place, Hero had dropped into a sleep of exhaustion, from which Lady Saltash refused point-blank to rouse her. Mr Ringwood had to deliver his messages to her instead, which, however, she assured him,would answer quite as well. When he had told her the whole, she nodded, and remarked that she would have expected Sheringham to behave in just such a stupid fashion.

  ‘He deserves to be kept on tenterhooks, and if I had my way he should be,’ she said severely. ‘However, it is high time this nonsensical situation was put an end to, for if I do not mistake the matter, my friend, Jasper Tarleton, has lost his heart more entirely than I was prepared for.’ She considered for a moment, drumming her fingers on the table under her hand. ‘You may tell Sheringham, from me, that if he chooses to dine in my house to-night, he will not find me at home. I am dining with some friends in Laura Place, and it is not the sort of party to amuse his wife. He may come round at seven o’clock precisely. I shall keep the child in bed for the rest of the day, for I have not the least notion of letting her show Sheringham a wan face, I can tell you!’

  ‘But will she consent to his coming, ma’am? Are you positive of that?’ Mr Ringwood asked anxiously.

  She gave a dry chuckle.‘Oh, she will consent, never fear!’

  ‘Beg pardon, ma’am, but you’ll not fail to deliver Sherry’s messages to her, will you? Can’t but see that he has given her a great deal of cause not to be wishful of seeing him!’

  ‘Tell him so!’ recommended her ladyship.‘And you need not tell him that she is ready to fall upon his neck, Gilbert! Let him come in a humble frame of mind! I dare say it will be for the first, and very likely the last, time in his life!’

  Mr Ringwood promised that he would say nothing to Sherry that would puff him up in his self-esteem, left his compliments for Hero, and went back to the Royal Crescent.

  This time, the dowager having returned from the Cross Bath, Sherry took him into the dining-parlour on the ground-floor and eagerly demanded to know how he had sped. His face fell when he heard that Mr Ringwood had not had speech with Hero herself, but his spirits rose mercurially when he learned that he would find her alone that evening, and he wrung Mr Ringwood’s hand fervently, quite forgetting that there had ever been a moment when he had not been in perfect charity with him.