The Magnificent Masquerade (27 page)

Toby could hardly believe his ears.
"Doxy?"

"Don't bother to act the innocent, you
libertine! I suppose she's the notorious Lolly Matchin I've been hearing
about."

She put a shaking hand to her forehead and
turned in agitation to her husband. "There, you see the sort of place to
which you've sent your daughter? Lord only knows what depravity she's witnessed
in this house!"

"Has your wife taken leave of her
senses?" Lady Edith asked in amazement.

"I might ask the same of all of you!"
Birkinshaw retorted, putting a protective arm about his wife's shoulder.
"If you can all stand about and witness this shocking scene, you're all
either demented or depraved!" He looked around until he spotted Lord
Edgerton in the far corner. "I never would have believed it of you,
Edgerton. Would've sworn you were complete to a shade. Well, this bibble-babble
won't do any good. Just send for my daughter and let us go."

"Send for her?" Alicia gawked.
"But there she is, right in front of you."

"Where?" Birkinshaw asked in
bewilderment. "Right there, of course," the doctor said, pointing.

 "That one?" Birkinshaw asked,
his eyes popping. "You mean... Miss Matchin?" his wife gasped. Emily
gave a heartrending moan and buried her face in Toby's neck.

"Oh, my God!" Lady Birkinshaw
muttered. "It's not Miss Matchin."

"Perhaps it ain't," Birkinshaw
growled, "but it ain't my daughter either. I've never laid eyes on that
female in my life! See here, Edgerton, what's going on here? Who is that
imposter? And where are you hiding my Kitty?"

Chapter
Twenty-Five

Kitty, completely oblivious of the goings-on in
the breakfast room, left her task of polishing the brass doorknobs on the upper
floor (one of the few tasks Mrs. Prowne had decided   she was fit to do,
the housekeeper having been ordered by his lordship to keep the abigail from
irritating her wounded hand) and stole down to peep in on Emily. To her
surprise, she found the bed unoccupied and the room strangely deserted. She was
about to leave and return to her doorknobs when she saw the note near the
mirror. Closer inspection revealed her own name scrawled across the front. She
tore it open with a feeling of foreboding.

Dearest Kitty
, Emily had written in
the neat, precise hand so carefully cultivated by the instructors at the
Marchmont Academy.
Please don't be angry with me for what I have done, but
I must take myself away from here before my heart actually breaks in two. I do
love him so, in spite of his rowdyish ways and despicable deeds, and I could
not bear to watch his love for me turn to scorn when he learns that I've lied
to him all this time. I intend to borrow a curricle from the stable and make my
way back to school. I've thought this scheme over very carefully; it is
precisely the sort of thing you would do in my place. Before I go, I wish to
apologize for blaming you for my misfortune. You were not at fault. You
promised me an adventure, and I have had one. Even if it has left a painful and
permanent scar on my soul, I think, in a way, I will always be glad I have had
it. I suppose it is unlikely that our paths will cross again, but please
believe that in my heart you will always be my friend. Yours, forever, Emily.

Kitty read the note with a sinking heart. The
thought of Emily driving a stolen curricle through the snow all the way to
London made her sick with fear. If the girl had never learned to ride, she had
probably never learned to drive, either. What if she overturned the equipage in
the snow?

She dropped down on the bed to think. There was
nothing to do but go after her. If she could contrive to get some sort of
carriage from the stable, she could surely catch up with a driver of Emily's
inexperience.

As soon as she'd worked out in her mind all the
details, she leaped up from the bed and rummaged through the clothes chest
until she found her reticule containing the pin money that her father had sent
to her. Slipping it into her apron pocket, she flew down the hall to the back
stairs. Once in her room, she began to breath easier. She was halfway to
escape. Quickly she pulled from beneath her bed the wooden chest in which her
clothing was stored. She took out Emily's shabby cloak and threw it over her
bombazine. She searched in vain through all the pockets for a pair of gloves,
but there were none. With a shrug, she took one last look at the tiny room,
sighed, and closed the door behind her.

On stealthy feet she made her way to the main
stairway where two footmen stood at their posts. Keeping to the shadows, she
went around to the side where Jemmy stood. "Psst! Jemmy!" she hissed.
"Over here!"

The footman looked around. "Here!"
she whispered. "Behind the stairs."

With a suspicious frown, the footman approached
her. "What're ye doin', ye jingle-brain?" he asked, looking at her
cloak in amusement. "Goin' fer a ride in a sleigh?"

"Hush! Do you want someone to hear? I need
your help."

 "Well, y' ain't goin''t' get it. You
been nothin' but trouble't' me, an' trouble's what I don't need."

"Do you need ten guineas?" she asked,
showing him the coins.

"Ten-? Say, where'd ye get those? I'd go
bail ye've stole 'em."

"Then you'd lose. Miss Jessup gave them to
me. Do you want them or not? If you don't, I'll ask Charlie to-"

"Never mind Charlie. What do ye want me't'
do?"

"I want you to get me a light carriage and
two horses from the stable and bring them to the kitchen door."

"Oh, right-o!" the footman sneered. "I
suppose old Reeves'll let me 'ave 'em, just like that."

"There's ten guineas for him, too."

"Even so. A carriage and two horses ...
they ain't trifles. Ye can't tuck 'em in yer pocket. An' they very likely'll be
missed."

"Just tell Reeves I'll see that they're
returned in two days' time. Word of honor."

Jemmy rubbed his chin. "Are ye sure you
know what y're doin', Emily? There's more'n a foot o' snow out there, an' it's
still comin' down. This could mean a good deal o' woe."

"Don't worry, Jemmy," she assured him
with a confidence she was far from feeling. "I mean to take very good care
of myself."

Chapter
Twenty-Six

"Well, Edgerton, I asked you a question!
Where is she?"

 Lord Edgerton sighed, shrugged, and came
forward. "I suppose it's time to straighten out this tangle," he
said, half regretful that the masquerade was about to come to an end.

"Find Naismith, will you, Randolph? And
tell him to send Emily Pratt to me at once."

Dr. Randolph nodded and left the room.

"Emily Pratt? Who the devil is Emily Pratt?"
Birkinshaw asked irritably.

Lord Edgerton looked at Emily, still being held
in Toby's arms. "Put the girl down, Toby," he ordered. Toby, shaken
and confused, did as he was told.

 "Well, my dear," Edgerton asked
her gently as soon as she was on her feet, "do you want to tell him
yourself ?"

"You know?" she asked, wide-eyed.

"Yes. For quite some time. But I believe
everyone else is still in ignorance. Don't you think you ought to say something
to them?"

She lowered her eyes and twisted her fingers
behind her back. "Yes, I suppose I must." She turned and faced Toby.
"My name, as you've surmised by this time, is not Kitty Jessup. I'm Emily
Pratt."

"Yes, yes," Birkinshaw put in
impatiently. "We've surmised that, too. But who are you?"

She kept her eyes fixed on Toby's face.
"I'm Kitty Jessup's abigail."

There was an immediate hubbub. Everyone spoke
at once. Alicia and Lady Edith exclaimed loudly that they didn't believe it.
Lady Birkinshaw looked at her husband with dismay and muttered that this must
be Kitty's doing and that she should have known the girl would play some sort
of prank.

Lord Birkinshaw roared that if this was Kitty's
doing he'd wring her neck. Only Toby remained silent, staring at Emily as if
he'd never seen her before. Finally silence fell. Everyone turned to observe
the couple standing in the center of the room as motionless as if they'd been
turned to pillars of salt. "Is that it?" Toby asked her at last.
"Is that the whole of it?"

She licked her dry lips. "Isn't it
enough?"

"Idiot girl! Did you think it was your
name I loved?" Her wide, dark eyes became enormous and filled with tears.
"Toby," she breathed, "you can't-!"

He held out his arms, and after a moment's
hesitation she gave a choked little cry and fell into them. "Yes, I
can," he murmured into her hair.

"But ... there's your brother's promise to
Kitty," she reminded him, nuzzling her head into his shoulder. "And
the settlement ..."

"I never promised. And I don't need a
settlement. I can find a post somewhere.”

"No, please," she murmured into his
shoulder. "I'm nobody. I'm merely a maid-of-all-work at Miss Marchmont's
school."

"Not such a nobody, I believe,"
Edgerton put in. "You're a trained teacher, I've been told. And a most
talented musician. And never have I seen anyone exert so benign an influence
upon this family."

Emily lifted her head and gaped at him.
"Are you saying you approve, my lord?"

"Yes, I am. Although it seems that my
brother doesn't care whether I approve or not. I've never before heard him
offer to look for a post. I think, Miss Pratt, that your benign influence on
him is the most remarkable thing of all."

Two vertical dimples appeared on Emily's
cheeks. "I think so, too, my lord," she said.

"Now that it's agreed by all and sundry
that you're going to make a new man of me," Toby said, lifting her up in
his arms again, "I'm taking you up to bed." He carried her to the
door and over the threshold with tender care. As they disappeared from sight,
the others in the room heard him laugh. "If anyone had told me a week ago
that I'd fall in love with a teacher," he chortled, "I'd have told
him to put his head under the pump!"

Lord Birkinshaw watched them go and then turned
to his wife in irritation. "Is that your lecher?" he demanded.
"He didn't seem so to me."

Lady Birkinshaw sank down upon a chair. "I
seem to have made a hideous mistake," she said, humiliated. "I hope,
Lady Edith, that you will find it in you to forgive me for the dreadful things
I said about your son. I seem to have been terribly misinformed."

"Think no more of it," Lady Edith
said graciously. "You were no more misinformed than I. To tell you the
truth, I don't understand anything that's passed here this morning. Alicia, I
hope you will sit down and explain things to me."

"There's nothing much to explain,
Mama," Alicia said. "The only thing that's important is that Toby
will be happy."

"Hmmmph!" Lord Birkinshaw grunted.
"He'll be happy at the expense of my daughter. It seems to me, Edgerton,
that you haven't played fair. We had an agreement, did we not? Confound it, we
shook hands!"

"I know we did, old fellow, but the fates
were against us. I don't think your Kitty wanted him."

"That remains for Kitty to say,"
Birkinshaw declared. "That is, if the minx ever puts in an
appearance."

But Kitty did not put in an appearance. Dr.
Randolph returned after more than a quarter hour had passed to report that
Naismith had not been able to find the girl anywhere. Lord Edgerton decided to
search for her himself. He combed the house from the kitchen to the attic. More
than an hour passed before he gave up. He returned to the breakfast room, where
the Birkinshaws were being served a makeshift luncheon, and glowered at Kitty's
father in disgust.

"Damnation, Birkinshaw," he exploded,
"what do you think your blasted daughter is up to now?"

"Easy, old fellow," the doting father
responded, calmly chewing away on a buttered muffin, "I ain't blaming you
for her disappearance. Kitty's harder to keep hold of than an eel. But she'll
turn up."

"Turn up? Is that all you have to say?"

"What else can I say? She's undoubtedly up
to some mischief, but there's no use making a to-do about it. You won't find
her “til she wants to be found”

This fatherly response made Edgerton sputter in
fury. Birkinshaw might take this latest calamity with equanimity, but Edgerton
could not. What if the girl had had an accident'? What if she'd fallen down a
secret stair that he knew nothing of and was lying senseless in a pool of her
own blood? What if she'd slipped down the coal chute? What if she'd learned
that her parents had come and was hiding somewhere in a dark corner of the
house with rats gnawing at her feet? He was going out of his mind with worry,
and he didn't know what to do about it.

But before he completely lost his head, Toby
appeared. "I say, Greg," he said, his brow knit with concern, "I
may have a clue here." He held out, a crumpled piece of paper. "Kitty
... I mean Emily ... says that you should look at this. We just noticed it on
the floor of Emily's bedchamber. Emily wrote it early this morning, meaning to
run off herself. She thinks that Kitty found it and may have decided to rescue
her."

 Lord Edgerton ran his eye rapidly over
the note. "Of course that's it! It would be just like her, the maddening
wench! I'm sorry, Birkinshaw, to describe your daughter with these insulting
epithets, but she does set my blood to boil!"

"Oh, don't apologize, old man,"
Birkinshaw said cheerfully. "I've used worse, myself."

"I'll go after her, naturally. I assume
you'll want to come along with me. If so, you'd better ask Naismith to fix you
up with a thick pair of boots."

"Come along with you? Through all that
snow? You must be touched in your upper works, old fellow. You may go chasing
after her if you wish, but I'll be content to wait right here at a nice fire
with a glass of your good madeira in hand." Edgerton blinked at him, shook
his head in disgust, and went off to quiz the staff. Someone must have seen
her, he reasoned, and could provide him with information to make his search
easier. It didn't take long for the information to come. As soon as the news
spread among the staff that his lordship was making inquiries about the
abigail, Jemmy came forward and confessed. Troubled about her safety, his
conscience would not permit him to keep silent. He revealed which carriage and
horses he'd provided for the girl and the direction he'd seen her take. The
only thing he did not reveal was the existence of the ten guineas he'd hidden
in his mattress. Naismith wanted to sack the fellow on the spot, but Edgerton, both
frustrated at and grateful to the fellow, postponed devising a punishment until
he'd brought the missing abigail back home.