Pistols for Two Read online

  ‘But what is this?’ demanded Lady Albinia, greatly bewildered.

  ‘You may well ask!’ he replied. ‘I hope you mean to enlighten us, Letty: who is the Nobody your fancy has marked down as my bride?’

  ‘You know very well that I mean the girl who was knocked down in Bond Street, that day you and I were going to Hookham’s Library! You may try to hoax me, but I know why you have been so obliging as to escort me to Almack’s three times this month, and why you have taken to driving your phaeton in the Park every afternoon! You are trying to find her, because you were so much struck by the sweetest face you ever beheld that you lost your wits, and never even discovered what was her name!’

  Lady Albinia turned astonished eyes towards her son. He uttered a short laugh. ‘One of Letty’s high flights, ma’am! The truth is merely that some girl had the misfortune to be knocked down by a curricle and pair, and I rendered her such assistance as lay within my power. Had she come by her deserts, she must have suffered serious injury. Happily, she was merely stunned for a minute. I trust that the incident has served to convince her of the folly of stepping into the road before ascertaining that no vehicle is at that moment approaching.’

  Letty, who had listened to this speech with growing indignation, exclaimed: ‘How can you, Giles? When you carried her into the Library, and sent me running to a chemist’s shop, and told the man in the curricle, in the rudest way, that he was unfit even to drive a donkey! Yes, and if the girl would have permitted it you would have conveyed her to her home, and abandoned me in the middle of Bond Street!’

  ‘Had the girl not been accompanied by a servant, I dare say I should have done so,’ he replied coolly. ‘I collect that this rodomontade is designed to divert my attention from your evident purpose. Understand me, Letty, I will not permit you to go to a Pantheon masquerade under any circumstances whatsoever, least of all in the company of an unknown officer of Foot!’ He glanced down at his parent, and added: ‘I must say, ma’am, I am amazed that you could sanction so improper a scheme!’

  Lady Albinia had recourse to her vinaigrette. ‘But, indeed, Giles, you do not perfectly understand how it was to be! The thing is that Mr Ledbury’s married sister was to have escorted Letty. She was so civil as to write a letter to me, just as she ought, assuring me that she would take every care of her. There is to be a little party, and Letty is invited to dine at this Mrs Crewe’s house before going to the Pantheon. But, of course, if you do not quite like it, I am persuaded she will give up the project!’

  ‘No! No!’ said Letty hotly.

  ‘If you have a grain of common-sense, you will!’ said her brother. ‘Recollect that for two years to come you are in my wardship! Banish this new swain of yours from your thoughts, for if you do not I give you fair warning I shall find the means to compel you!’ He paused, looking rather grimly at the stormy countenance upraised to his. After a moment, his own face softened, and he said: ‘Come, Letty, don’t be a goosecap! Indeed, these masquerades are not at all the thing! Be a good girl, and I will take you instead to the play!’

  3

  Mr Wrexham, withdrawing, left his sister mutinous, and his mother in a flutter of apprehension. To Letty’s diatribe she could find nothing better to say than: ‘Yes, indeed, my love, but you know how it is with Giles! I told you how it would be! He will never suffer you to marry a Nobody!’

  ‘I will not be browbeaten by Giles!’ said Letty. ‘I know very well he means me to marry to oblige him – Rothbury, I daresay! – but I won’t do it! I know that I shall never love anyone but Edwin!’

  Lady Albinia uttered distressful sounds. ‘My love, do not say so! He will never let you throw yourself away like that! And I must say I think it was most imprudent of you, Letty, to set up his back with that nonsensical story!’

  ‘Mama, I vow to you that he was so much struck by the girl that I scarce knew him for my own brother! And he did say that she had the sweetest face he ever beheld!’

  ‘Very likely, my love, but you must know that such fancies are common amongst gentlemen, and they do not lead to marriage! If you imagine that was in his head, you are a great goose! He has more pride even than his sainted papa, and he, you know – Well, never mind that! But the Wrexhams always make good marriages. It has grown to be quite a habit with them!’

  Letty said no more, but went away, carrying the domino over her arm.

  Mr Wrexham, meanwhile, had left the house. He did not return to it until shortly before seven o’clock, when he was greeted by the staggering tidings that Miss Letty, so far from being in her dressing-room, had driven away in a hackney a few minutes earlier.

  ‘To what address?’ asked Mr Wrexham, in a voice of dangerous calm.

  Never had the butler been more thankful to be able to disclaim all responsibility for his young mistress’s actions. None of the servants had been employed to summon the hackney; and but for the accident of one of the abigails looking out of a window just as Miss Letty was stepping up into the vehicle, no one would have known that she had gone out.

  Mr Wrexham went up to Lady Albinia’s dressing-room two steps at a time. He found her resting upon a sofa, and, with a total disregard for her nerves, demanded to be told whether she was aware that her daughter had left the house in a manner which he did not scruple to call clandestine.

  Her face of shocked dismay was answer enough. Curbing a strong inclination to animadvert severely upon the negligence that had made it possible for Letty to steal from the house, Mr Wrexham curtly requested his parent to furnish him with Mrs Crewe’s direction.

  ‘Giles!’ protested her ladyship. ‘You cannot wrest your sister away from a dinner-party!’

  ‘Oh, yes, I can!’ retorted Mr Wrexham.

  Lady Albinia, perceiving that he was in a towering rage, sank back against her cushions, and said in a dying voice: ‘I can feel a spasm coming on!’

  ‘Furnish me with Mrs Crewe’s direction, ma’am, and I will leave you to enjoy it in private!’

  ‘But I don’t know it!’ wailed her ladyship, almost beyond human aid. ‘I never kept her letter, for why should I? And I don’t recall the direction, though I am sure it was perfectly respectable, for if it had not been I must have noticed it!’

  Controlling himself with a visible effort, Mr Wrexham strode from the room.

  He dined alone, the butler informing him that her ladyship had bespoken a bowl of broth in her dressing-room. Since this was his mother’s invariable custom, whenever she was confronted by a disagreeable situation, Mr Wrexham was neither surprised nor alarmed. He ate his dinner in frowning silence, and then went upstairs to his room, and rang for his valet. Less than an hour later, clad in the satin knee-breeches and black coat that betokened a gentleman of fashion on his way to an evening party, he left the house, a half-mask in his pocket, and an old black domino, unearthed from the recesses of his wardrobe, over his arm.

  4

  The Pantheon, which was on the south side of Oxford Street, was a magnificent structure, decorated in a style which rendered it obnoxious to the eye of the fastidious. It comprised a large suite of saloons, and a ballroom, which was a huge rectangular hall, with a painted ceiling, a raised platform for the musicians, and numerous boxes and alcoves. Crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling, and from every Gothic arch which lined the room; all was gilding and glitter. Originally, it had been patronized by members of the haut ton, but when the first building was burnt to the ground, and a new structure erected, the company became so far from select that Mr Wrexham had every excuse for forbidding his sister to be seen there.

  Although the hour was early when he arrived there, the ballroom was already full of a motley crowd of persons, some in dominoes, some in historical costume, all masked, and many behaving with the license encouraged by the wearing of disguises. After watching a quadrille for a few minutes, Mr Wrexham decided that his sister had not yet arrived,