Sick of Shadows.

by M. C. Beaton.

ONE.

"I am half sick of shadows," said The Lady of Shalott.

-ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON

The aristocracy lived in a closed world protected by a sh.e.l.l of wealth and t.i.tle, as hard and as glittering as a Faberge egg. The vast outside world of England where people could die of starvation barely caused a ripple in their complacency.

Then, horror upon horrors, the unthinkable happened. A Liberal government was elected, proposing old-age pensions and health insurance and other benefits for the lower cla.s.ses. They further proposed eight-hour days, workers' compensation, free school meals and free medical services. Even that aristocrat, young Churchill, had turned Liberal and was saying, "We want to draw the line below which we will not allow persons to live and labour."

With a few exceptions, the aristocracy closed ranks as never before. The old idea that the House of Commons was an a.s.sembly of gentlemen had pa.s.sed.

Admittedly these winds of change were at first regarded as irritating draughts, such as were caused when a lazy footman had left the door of the drawing-room open. But with the newspapers heralding the reforms every morning, high cultured voices could be heard exclaiming over the grilled kidneys at breakfast tables. "Who is going to pay for all this? Us, of course."

Many blamed the fact that free elementary education had been introduced in 1870. The lower cla.s.ses should not have been taught to think for themselves.

So the aristocracy hung grimly onto the sn.o.bberies and rules of society which kept the hoi polloi outside.

But the Earl and Countess of Hadfield felt that the enemy was within the gates in the form of their daughter, Lady Rose Summer, who had cheered the result of the election. At first they thought she had reformed. She had become engaged to Captain Harry Cathcart. Admittedly it could be said that the captain was in trade because he ran his own detective agency, but he came from a good family and had enough money to support their daughter in the style to which she was accustomed.

Nonetheless the couple showed no sign of setting a date for the wedding, nor, for that matter, did they see much of each other.

Rose's parents did not know that her engagement was one of convenience, thought up by the captain to prevent Rose being shipped off to India with the other failed debutantes.

Then Rose had made a companion out of Daisy Levine, a former chorus girl whom she had first elevated to the position of maid and then to that of companion.

Rose, with her thick brown hair, delicate complexion and large blue eyes, was still considered a great beauty, but she repelled men with her encyclopaedic knowledge and radical ideas.

Her parents would have been amazed, however, if they had guessed that Rose went to considerable pains to please them. She suffered seemingly endless days of parties and teas and calls and b.a.l.l.s, all of which bored her, but she felt she owed her parents some dutiful behaviour for having failed at her first Season and cost them a great deal of money.

One evening in late spring, Rose and Daisy were preparing to attend yet another ball. Rose was relieved because on this one rare occasion the captain had promised to escort her. This would be at least one evening free from the pitying looks and sn.i.g.g.e.rs of the debutantes who kept asking slyly where her fiance was.

It was an even more boring life for her companion, Daisy. Daisy, like Rose, was barely twenty, and yet she was not expected to dance and was condemned to sit and watch with the other companions.

And then, half an hour before they were all due to depart for the Duke of Freemount's ball, Harry Cathcart telephoned to say that an urgent case had come up and he could not be there. Folding her lips into a thin line, Lady Polly, Rose's mother, asked the earl's secretary to telephone Sir Peter Petrey to come immediately and escort Rose. Peter was a willowy effete young man who specialized in filling in at dinner parties when someone had cancelled at the last minute and escorting ladies to b.a.l.l.s whose escorts had failed to turn up. He was handsome with thick fair hair and a lightly tanned face.

Lady Polly suppressed a sigh when she saw him. Why couldn't Rose have picked someone like that? The unworldly Lady Polly did not know that Peter had no s.e.xual interest in women at all, her lack of knowledge in s.e.xual matters being hardly surprising in this Edwardian era where an eminent surgeon had declared that no lady should ever enjoy s.e.x-only s.l.u.ts did that.

"Where is the wretched man?" asked Peter as he led Rose up the grand staircase at the Freemounts' town house.

"Working, I suppose," said Rose.

"My dear, a beauty like you should never have involved yourself with a chap in trade. There, now. That was too, too wicked of me. But were you mine, I would never leave your side."

Rose's companion had put her mistress wise to Sir Peter and so Rose smiled amiably and accepted the compliment. She often toyed with the idea of marrying Peter. It would be an arranged marriage, of course, but that way she would have her own household and be spared the labour of producing a child every year.

Rose curtsied to her hosts and entered the ballroom. "With Peter again," she heard the d.u.c.h.ess say loudly. "Too sad."

Her voice carried. With so many of the aristocracy hard of hearing because of blasting away at birds and beasts with their shotguns, the d.u.c.h.ess, like so many, spoke in a high clipped staccato voice which carried right cross the ballroom.

Rose usually derived some comfort from being the most beautiful lady in the ballroom. But that evening, she was eclipsed.

A new arrival to society was pirouetting around the floor on the arm of a besotted guardsman. She had ma.s.ses of thick blonde hair woven with tiny white roses. Unlike Rose's slim figure, hers was of the fashionable hourgla.s.s variety, with a generous white bosom displayed by the low cut of her evening gown. Her eyes were enormous in her heart-shaped face and of a deep brown, which contrasted seductively with her fair hair and perfect skin.

Daisy, sitting next to an elderly dowager, Countess Slerely, whispered, "Who's the new beauty?"

The countess raised her lorgnette and then lowered it. "Oh, that. That is Miss Dolly Tremaine. Her father is only a rector. She really has nothing more than her looks to recommend her. I'm afraid she'll have to marry someone very old. All the young men want money. Where is Lady Rose's fiance?"

"Coming later," lied Daisy.

"Most odd. For her sake he should really stop being a tradesman."

"Being a detective isn't really trade," said Daisy defensively.

"The only trades that are acceptable," declaimed the countess, "are tea and beer. Nothing else."

Daisy sighed. Her stays were digging into her and the ballroom was too hot.

She rose and curtsied to the countess and made her way to the long windows which overlooked Green Park, slid behind the curtains, opened the window and let herself out onto the terrace and took a deep breath of sooty air. She wondered if she and Rose would ever have any adventures again.

Rose was making her way to the cloakroom. One of her partners had trodden on her train and ripped the edge of it. The maid on duty in the cloakroom set to work to repair the train. The door opened and Dolly Tremaine came in, tears pouring from her eyes.

"My dear," exclaimed Rose. "May I help you? What is the matter?"

"Nothing," sobbed Dolly, sitting down on a chair next to Rose. "I'm tired, that's all. So many b.a.l.l.s and parties. I never seem to get any rest. The Season begins next week and things will be worse."

"If I can be of any help ..."

"I need a friend," said Dolly, scrubbing at her eyes with a lace handkerchief. Rose noticed with surprise that her beautiful face now bore no mark of tears.

"Perhaps I may be your friend. I am Rose Summer."

"I'm Dolly Tremaine. You see, I'm a country girl and everything in London is so big and noisy and frightening."

"I get away from it in the mornings," said Rose. "I go out early and cycle in Hyde Park."

"I would love to do that," said Dolly, "but I don't think my parents-"

She broke off as the door opened and a squat woman entered. She was wearing a purple silk gown trimmed with purple fringe. Rose thought she looked like a sofa.

"Dolly, what are you doing here?" she demanded.

"My train was torn and this lady came with me to see if she could help," said Rose quickly.

"Why? That's what maids are for. Who are you?"

"I am Lady Rose Summer," said Rose haughtily.

The change in the woman was almost ridiculous. "How kind of you to look after my little Dolly," she gushed. "I am Dolly's mother."

"I was just inviting your daughter to go cycling with me in Hyde Park tomorrow morning," said Rose.

"Oh, I'm sure she would love that but, alas, she does not have a bicycle."

"I will supply one," said Rose grandly. "Furnish me with your direction and I will send a carriage for your daughter-at nine o'clock, say?"

"You are so very kind. Here is my card. Come, Dolly. Lord Berrow is waiting for you."

She turned away. Dolly meekly followed.

"But that's my bicycle!" protested Daisy when she and Rose were being made ready for bed. "The captain gave it to me!"

"It's only one morning, Daisy," said Rose. "I would like to do something for that poor girl. I think she is being bullied by her mother."

"You're bleedin' jealous cos she's prettier than you," said Daisy, "and you're trying to cover it up by being nice to her."

"Go to bed, now!" commanded Rose. "Let me hear no more about it."

Ever since Rose had fallen from grace by attending a suffragette movement rally and had been banned from going anywhere near that organization, she had longed to do something for somebody, and so she set out for Hyde Park the following morning on her bicycle followed by two footmen, one of them wheeling Daisy's bicycle. She was determined to find out what had made the beautiful Dolly so sad. Deep down inside her she was motivated by the petty thought that she'd better show society she was above jealousy, but that thought did not even reach as far as her brain.

Nine o'clock was considered an early hour of the day to members of society. Rose would have gone to the park earlier, say six o'clock, had she been allowed to do so. There was something exciting about being up at dawn in a great city and feeling it coming alive with the restless clatter of traffic, the whinnying of horses, and the air briefly fresher before the thousands of London's coal fires put a thin haze over the sun, even on a fine spring day, and streaked the buildings with soot.

As she approached the Serpentine, one of the earl's carriages drove up. A footman jumped down from the backstrap and let down the steps. Dolly tripped prettily down them. She was wearing a white lace gown with a high-boned collar and a round straw hat covered in white flowers. Worn open over her gown was a fur-trimmed coat. On her feet were little white patent leather boots.

"Oh, my dear Miss Tremaine," exclaimed Rose. "You should have worn a divided skirt. You cannot cycle in such clothes."

Dolly burst into tears. "I-I'm always doing something wrong," she sobbed.

"There, there," said Rose, patting her awkwardly on the back. "Do dry your eyes. We shall walk instead." She surrendered her bicycle to one of the footmen. "Now, do try to be cheery. It is too fine a morning to be sad."

Dolly complied and took Rose's arm, a gesture Rose felt was a trifle over-familiar. She drew her arm away. Dolly began to cry again. "I've offended you!"

"No, no. Please sit down on this bench. Do compose yourself. Why are you so distressed?"

"I don't know the rules," sniffed Dolly. "So many rules. We were taking tea yesterday at Mrs. Barrington-Bruce's place in Kensington. Such a splendid tea and I have a healthy appet.i.te. I ate an awful lot and then I found the other ladies were looking at me in horror. Worse than that, I'd taken off my gloves. I did not know one was supposed to eat with gloves on."

"Usually the form is to eat only a little thin bread and b.u.t.ter," said Rose. "It is rolled, you see, so that one does not get b.u.t.ter on one's gloves."

"I talk an awful lot about the country because I do miss it so," said Dolly, "and Mother says they are all laughing at me and calling me the Milkmaid."

"I think it would be a good ploy if you were to say as little as possible. Just look enigmatic."

"What does that mean?"

"Mysterious. Hidden depths."

"But the gentlemen can sometimes make very warm remarks and I am fearful of offending them."

"Let me see. You rap the offender lightly on the arm with your fan and lower your eyes and say something like, 'Oh, sir, I fear you are too wicked for me. But perhaps I am naive. I shall tell Mama exactly what you have just said.' Believe me, that will cool their ardour."

"You are so, so clever! Tell me more."

Flattered and feeling she was finally being of use to someone, Rose went on to help her pupil further.

But the morning was rather spoilt for her when, just before she left, Dolly said, "I would like to meet your fiance. He seems to be a most fascinating man. But people do say he is never at your side."

"People talk a lot of nonsense," retorted Rose angrily.

Daisy was waiting for Rose when she returned. "You look cross," commented Daisy. "What did she do to upset you?"

"Nothing. She is a delightful and charming innocent. I was able to give her some tips as to how to go on in society. We shall meet again. She does cry a lot. She is very sensitive."

"Probably acting," sniffed the jealous Daisy. "Well, if she didn't make you cross, who did?"

"It's just that people are constantly harping on about my supposed fiance and wondering why he is never with me. I really did think the captain would keep up some sort of pretence."

"Then let's go and see him," said Daisy eagerly. "There's no harm in calling on a fellow in his office."

"I would not lower lower myself to go and beg him." myself to go and beg him."

"But-"

"No more, Daisy."

I'm supposed to be her companion and friend, thought Daisy sulkily, but she still talks down to me. Then her face brightened. She had a soft spot for the captain's manservant, Becket. She would call on Becket. He would know what to do.

"Do you need me for anything?" asked Daisy.

"I don't know. What appointments do we have for today?"

"This afternoon you've to make calls with your mother. You won't need me."

"I suppose not. What will you do?"