Mad Hatter's Holiday Page 8

  ‘Not quite alone. I have Jason, my dear. And Guy and Bridget are never far away. You’re right, though. I miss Prothero more than he knows. Why am I telling you all this, Mr. Moscrop? You don’t want to listen to a woman’s nonsense.’

  He looked earnestly into the bright eyes. ‘Not nonsense at all, Ma’am. I count it a privilege to listen to you. I only wish there were some way in which I could help with the— er—crisis you spoke of.’

  ‘That? Foget about it, darling. An unspeakable thing. Unique to our family. We’ve faced the worst of it and made our arrangements. We all agreed not to speak of it during these weeks. Shall we walk on now? I’ve recovered my breath a little.’

  He took his place on the side of her nearest the kerb and they did battle again with the breeze as far as the Grand. A riding instructor passed, leading a cavalcade of black-habited, pink-cheeked girls, veils flapping against their hats. Today they held no more interest than the rest of the King’s Road traffic. He was far too occupied with what he had just heard. An unspeakable thing. What could she mean? A bereavement? Unlikely—the family were not in mourning. What was the other expression she had used? A tale more harrowing than you’ll find in any penny dreadful. Exaggeration? Even allowing generously for her flamboyant style of rhetoric, it was clear that something markedly unpleasant had happened in the Prothero family. His first thought—that the husband’s indiscretions were to blame had to be discounted when she spoke of Prothero with such undisguised affection. Either she suspected nothing, or the most generous-hearted man alive was lucky enough to be married to the most generous-hearted woman.

  ‘This is far enough for me, darling,’ she said when they reached Hobden’s baths. ‘I generally sit on the beach, but it’s too gusty today. I shall watch Guy from here.’

  He nodded. No lady would take up a position any closer to the gentlemen’s bathing station. ‘I must take my leave then, Ma’am. It’s been a pleasure walking with you. Perhaps I shall see something of you and your family in town tomorrow when the regiment returns. Are you going to watch the homecoming?’

  ‘I’m sure we shall. Jason will adore the uniforms and the brass band. Where’s the best position, do you think?’

  ‘I don’t know Brighton very well, but I think I shall try to secure a place in the Old Steine—on the Pavilion side. Shall you be attending the civic reception at the Dome tomorrow evening?’

  ‘Sweetheart, I didn’t know one had been arranged. I’m not at my best in the evenings, which is a shame, because that’s the only time I see Prothero, apart from breakfast.’

  ‘You get tired, I expect. The sea-air is very exhausting.’

  ‘Not really. Almost the reverse, darling. My brain is overactive, Gregory says. He must be right, because I can’t sleep without the preparation he gives me. Isn’t it convenient being married to a doctor?’

  ‘He gives you a sleeping-draught?’

  ‘Something like that. Oh look! There’s Guy going down to the water. I wonder if he’ll look round and wave. He likes to be noticed. They do at his age. Have you seen him with his tin of snuff? For all the world like a man of forty.’

  ‘Do you take this potion every night, Ma’am?’

  ‘Without fail, darling, ever since the trouble I mentioned. You see, since then I get into a nervous state about nothing at all. Simply sitting in a room with Prothero and Guy is enough to start my hands shaking. Isn’t it ridiculous? There he goes, straight in, without hesitating. That boy loves the water. Oh God! The button’s come off my jacket. It’s all right. I can sew it on again. Nothing to be concerned about.’

  ‘So you take the potion to alleviate your nervous manifestations?’

  ‘Exactly, darling. It’s miraculous. I lose consciousness in no time at all. Prothero usually suggests I take it immediately after dinner. By eight I’m insensible. I swear that sometimes I’m asleep before Jason! You don’t think it’s dangerous, do you?’

  Moscrop looked across the beach, evading the question. ‘Your stepson is certainly a strong swimmer. How do you feel when you wake up?’

  ‘Like a print gown after five washings, darling. It takes half-a-dozen sniffs at my sal volatile to make me believe I’m alive.’

  ‘What kind of sleeping draught is it?’

  Her eyes opened wide, like a child’s. ‘That’s what bothers me, my dear. I don’t know. Prothero doesn’t tell me, and I don’t like to enquire. I believe he prepares it from white crystals that he keeps in a jar, but I’ve never enquired too closely what they are. I shouldn’t want him to think I don’t trust him.’

  ‘Perhaps someone else could help.’

  ‘Darling, I’d quite forgotten that you were a medical man. But how charming! It will so relieve my mind.’

  What had he volunteered for? ‘Medicine isn’t quite my field, Ma’am. Optics, you understand.’

  ‘But of course you know about these things! How marvellous of you to go to so much trouble.’

  ‘I dare say that if you could obtain a small sample of the solution I could get it analysed somewhere in the town,’ he conceded. ‘Though I’m sure your husband can be depended upon.’

  ‘So am I, Mr. Moscrop, so am I. But if your chemist found that the medicine were a trifle strong, perhaps I could prepare a weaker solution without offending Prothero. It’s just a little unnerving being insensible for thirteen hours at a time, you understand.’

  ‘Quite so, Ma’am. When would you be able to obtain this sample for me? It would have to be done unobtrusively, would it not?’

  ‘Darling, you’re so perspicacious! If you came to the croquet lawn at the Albemarle at two this afternoon, I could leave Bridget dressing Jason. Prothero will be in the billiards-room with Guy. How droll—we shall feel like two conspirators!’

  CHAPTER

  8

  THE HEROES OF TEL-EL-KEBIR marched down the Grand Parade in ranks of eight to the tune of Slap Bang, Here We Are Again and all Brighton lined the pavements to welcome them. The war in Egypt had been a daily topic of conversation for months past, quite as compelling as the scares about the town’s drainage system. The local newspapers carried long dispatches from Cairo, and in the aquarium entrance hall a huge canvas map of the seat of war was mounted among the weighing-machines, with flags to indicate the latest positions of the English and Egyptian armies. When the return of the Royal Irish was announced, a full civic reception was arranged at once, but the spontaneous tribute of almost the entire population quite stole the Corporation’s thunder. Flags appeared everywhere, even draped over the lichen on the walls of the poorest houses. Humble cab-horses trotted through the town with trimmings of red, white and blue; children appeared in miniature tropical helmets, brandishing tin swords; the minstrel bands played little else but See the Conquering Hero Comes and When Johnny Comes Marching Home.

  As soon as Moscrop reached the Old Steine he saw that there was small chance of picking out the Protheros, even if Zena had managed to persuade her husband that this was the best vantage-point. It was like The Mall on Coronation Day. Crowds nine or ten deep lined the route from the Pavilion to St. Peter’s. Latecomers were improvising periscopes with hand mirrors, or resorting to the trees. The police, massively reinforced, had linked arms to preserve a passage for the regiment.

  ‘Was you wishing you had your spy-glass?’

  He turned in surprise, stung by the pertinence of the question. It was exactly what he had been wishing. Bridget stood there, smiling mysteriously. ‘You wouldn’t spot the doctor and his wife in this mob, sir. Neither of ’em’s over-tall, and they started out late, long after the crowds began to collect.’

  ‘You! How strange! I had no idea—‘

  ‘Not so strange as you think, sir.’ She tilted her hat so that two of its imitation cherries lolled coquettishly over the brim. ‘I’ve been following you for ten minutes or more.’

  ‘Following me?’ Whatever was the girl saying?

  ‘You ain’t the only one that plays follow my leader. I waited for you
at the top of North Street, near the Penitents’ Home. I knew you’d come that way because your diggings are in Montpelier Parade. That’s given you food for thought, hasn’t it?’

  ‘I don’t understand.’ For the first time he looked at Bridget without regard to status. Her manner verged on impertinence and he would certainly have silenced the girl if she had not caught him unprepared. In the most presumptuous way she was demanding a conversation on equal terms. There was a positive hint of archness in the set of her mouth, as if she had caught him prowling below stairs. A neat little face, too, for all its pertness. Until now he had not noticed. ‘What possible reason do you have for following me?’

  She stepped closer and, as if it were the most natural thing to do, tucked her hand behind his right arm. ‘If you was to buy me a glass of white satin you might find out.’

  He stiffened. Into a public house to drink gin with a domestic? The very idea!

  He treated the suggestion with contemptuous silence. But he did not remove the offending hand from his arm.

  ‘You won’t see much of the military from here,’ she persisted. ‘Just the tops of their hats. We could have a much more profitable half-hour together. The Seven Stars is just around the corner.’

  And this was to have been the year when he made his debut in the Brighton season!

  ‘There won’t be a soul in the bar. They’ve all come on the streets for the march-past. Don’t let’s lose time. You want to find out some more about Mrs. P., don’t you?’

  Put like that, it sounded appallingly crude, but he had to admit that the girl had the native gift of shrewdness one sometimes found among females of the lower orders. She was right. If there was anything to be learned of Zena, then he was enslaved. Feeling much as he had when he abandoned Bernhardt for his night at the Canterbury, he permitted Bridget to guide him towards Ship Street by way of Bartholomews. The salute was going to be taken from the Town Hall steps, so the pavement opposite bristled with people determined not to budge from hard-won positions. She steered him determinedly through the crush, at times surprising him with pressures he could not recall having experienced among the crowds in Oxford Street or at Waterloo Station.

  A pink awning had been erected in front of the Town Hall, and the civic dignitaries and some of the senior officers of the regiment and their ladies were ranged under it in tiers. They made a brave show, a suitable focus of attention, medallions, civic regalia, ermine, gold braid, bright red Eton jackets. But the limelight was stolen by the milliners; you could hardly see a face for the hats, and you could hardly see the hats for the trimmings, ostrich feathers, swansdown, fruit, flowers and humming birds.

  ‘Gorgeous, don’t you think?’ demanded Bridget, cherries bobbing aggressively.

  ‘Unparalleled.’

  ‘She’s there, of course.’

  ‘She is? Where?’

  ‘In the second row, third from the right, wearing white lilac and convulvulus. They’re artificial.’

  He stared between shifting parasols, expecting to be rewarded with a glimpse of Zena’s haunting features. ‘The second row, you say. I don’t see her. That isn’t your mistress, Bridget. She doesn’t have copper hair. Good Lord!’

  ‘Not my mistress,’ said Bridget, with emphasis. They were looking at the young woman from Lewes Crescent, Dr. Prothero’s riding-companion.

  ‘What is she doing up there?’

  ‘Don’t you know who she is? That’s Miss Samantha Floyd-Whittingham, the daughter of the Colonel. She’s very well known in Brighton. Her father has set her up in a big house on the front. They say it’s because he won’t trust her in the officer’s quarters with so many men about. Instead she has the run of Brighton, and the Colonel thinks she sits indoors counting seagulls from her window.’

  Five minutes later they were seated in an almost deserted tap-room.

  ‘You know who that was, don’t you?’ said Bridget.

  ‘Miss Floyd-Whittingham, you mean? A friend of Dr. Prothero’s I believe.’

  ‘Friend! You’ve got a fine sense of humour, sir.’

  They sipped at their drinks, watching each other.

  ‘How did the doctor meet this young woman?’ asked Moscrop.

  ‘I couldn’t tell you. He’s a ladies’ man, as you must have seen for yourself. It’s obvious to everyone but his wife. I’ve had to remind him of his position once or twice myself, I might say. I think it must have been last year he was introduced to her, at one of them musical evenings. We come to Brighton each year, you know. He’s always been one for going out and about, and the mistress thinks nothing of it. She believes everything he tells her. Has she told you about the patients he’s supposed to be visiting every afternoon? Patients! I ask you!’

  ‘Such an unlikely woman to be deceived,’ observed Moscrop, almost to himself. ‘Who would credit it? One has only to hear her speak—that sparkling conversation. An emancipated woman in every syllable she utters.’

  Bridget smirked. ‘That shows how much you know about the fair sex. It ain’t the quiet ones that lose their husbands, Mr. Moscrop, it’s Mrs. Prothero and her kind, bubbling over so passionate they don’t notice their men creeping out the back door. Or won’t admit to it.’

  ‘You know what is going on between the doctor and this person, then?’

  ‘Everyone does—except my mistress. I don’t think she’d see it if they was sitting on her own sofa holding hands, poor woman. You’ve taken a fancy to her, haven’t you?’

  ‘Never mind,’ said Moscrop. There were limits to plain speaking.

  Bridget was not so easily deflected. ‘I’ve seen you with the glasses to your eyes, Mr. Moscrop, and I’ve watched you on the beach and outside the hotel when the mistress hasn’t known you were there. I take you for a man that goes to a great deal of trouble to get what he wants. I saw you talking to the bathing-machine woman the other day when I was in the water with Guy. Oh, don’t concern yourself. It don’t bother me what you’ve seen or what she told you. I wouldn’t be the first of my sort to give a little tuition to the gentry—not that Guy needs much. Takes after his father, I can tell you, and that’s why I’ve no fears from that quarter. But you’re different, aren’t you? You wouldn’t make a pass at me if I invited you. Single-minded, that’s you.’

  Was this meant for provocation, or was the girl trying to make a point? Either way, the conversation had taken a personal turn he was determined to correct.

  ‘If you know that Mrs. Prothero is being deceived by her husband, why don’t you tell her?’

  ‘I’ve got my character to consider,’ said Bridget, her voice pitched high in protest. ‘I can’t afford to cross the doctor. I’d never obtain another position if he gave me a bad character. That’s what I was coming to, anyway. What’s to be gained if she does find out about him? Nothing. It’ll send her mad or break her heart. She’s so blind to his doings that he don’t even bother to brush the red hairs off his jacket collar.’

  ‘But if her husband is unfaithful—‘ ‘You think the knowledge of it might throw her into another’s arms? Don’t believe it, sir. Oh, I know you’ve watched her by the hour. You’re a patient man, I don’t deny it, and you deserve something for your persistence. I’ve followed each stage of it, the binocular-work, the day you brought back Jason, the meeting at the toy-shop and yesterday I watched from the window as she took some of her sleeping-draught to you at the croquet-lawn. Do you expect to find there’s arsenic in it, Mr. Moscrop? Do you think he’s killing her? Of course he ain’t! He’s perfectly content with things the way they are.’

  ‘I had no such thought. I was simply doing a lady a good turn.’ Really, Bridget was altogether too uppish. A chit of a servant-wench addressing him like this! He should have walked out at once. If the subject of their conversation were not so riveting he would certainly have done so.

  ‘Take my word for it,’ she continued. ‘She’s the same with everyone—generous, warm-hearted and open in her speech. It don’t mean a thing, Mr. Moscrop. Ther
e’s only one man for her and that’s my master, with all his faults. If you tell her about them she won’t thank you for it. Take as many walks as you like with her, try all your charms on her—who am I to say you haven’t no chance at all? But one thing I do ask of you—and this is why I had to find you this morning—don’t tell her the truth about her husband, sir. God knows what will happen if you do.’

  He was glad he chose to walk along the front that evening in preference to the route through the town. The sound of the waves on the shingle was infinitely clearer by night. It synchronised with some small pulse in his brain, calming his mood and stabilizing his thoughts, like the tick of the grandfather clock downstairs when he was alone at night as a child. He could begin to feel in control again. He was so unused to being involved in people’s lives, least of all in the secrets of man and wife. Oh, he had seen infidelities enough through his glasses—anyone with sharp observation and a good memory for faces could pick out three or four in a fortnight by the sea—but he had always remained quite detached from the parties involved. In the present case he had deliberately eschewed the glasses, and—he admitted it—surrendered his objectivity. Complications were inevitable in the circumstances. Now it was necessary to resolve them in as calm and business-like a manner as possible. He had started this and he would see it through.

  Ahead, a shaft of moonlight bisected the sea, to form a continuous line with the lantern-reflections under the Chain Pier. The chill of autumn had kept all but a handful of stalwarts off the front. Most were soldiers in town on a pass, a girl on one arm, swagger-stick under the other, pork-pie hat rakishly askew, spurs jingling long after they passed.

  Near the aquarium he fancied he could hear voices coming from the beach. The glow of gas-lamps on the promenade made it difficult to see much below, and in the usual way he would not have tried to distinguish who was down there. By all accounts the nocturnal activities on the pebbles were not intended to be overseen. Nor did they usually involve much conversation. But he was sure, as he came nearer, that several men were down there tonight, engaging in animated talk. And hammering. There were no boats so far along for them to be working on. He drew level with the clock-tower and approached the promenade-railing, shading his eyes with both hands.