The Miser of Mayfair.

A Novel of Regency England.

M. C. Beaton.

Prologue.

Mr. Glowry used to say that his house was no better than a s.p.a.cious kennel, for every one in it led the life of a dog.

-Thomas Love Peac.o.c.k, Nightmare Abbey.

It had been a long winter, and the spring of 1807 seemed an unconscionable time in coming. The days were bl.u.s.tery and cold, the skies leaden and dismal.

But in the heart of London's Mayfair there were already signs that spring was struggling through the gloom. Daffodils were blowing in the tussocky gra.s.s of Hyde Park, and a cherry tree at the corner of South Audley Street raised its weighted branches of pink blossom to the lowering sky.

Outside the town houses, from Grosvenor Square to St. James's Square, bra.s.s was being energetically polished, window frames painted, and steps scrubbed in preparation for the Season.

In fact, despite the chill, there was noise and bustle everywhere, from the blackbirds carolling on the rooftops to the hurrying servants in their new liveries in the streets below who were looking forward to the Season with all its promise of abundant food and extra money.

Everywhere, that is, except Number 67 Clarges Street.

The house at Number 67 seemed at first glance to be in mourning. The shutters were closed and its black, thin frontage stared down on the fashionable street like a gloomy undertaker. There were two iron hounds chained on the wide doorstep, gazing down at their paws as if they had long ago given up any hope of freedom. Although it was the fashion during each London Season to hire a house in Mayfair at a disproportionally high rent for sometimes very inferior accommodation, Number 67 stood empty and appeared likely to remain so, despite the fact that the rent was reasonable and the building in good repair.

The sad fact was that in an age when gambling fever ran high and everyone from a lord to a scullery maid was superst.i.tious, Number 67 had been d.a.m.ned as "unlucky." And no mama hopeful of finding a good marriage for her daughter was going to risk incurring the wrath of those pagan G.o.ds who look down on the exclusive world of the top ten thousand.

The house was owned by the tenth Duke of Pelham, a young man, the ninth duke having hanged himself in the house in Clarges Street. The suicide of the ninth duke was not the only reason why the house had remained vacant for two Seasons and seemed likely to remain so for a third. One family, who had taken the house the Season after the duke's death, had lost all their money through their son's gambling. The family following that had suffered a worse fate. Their young and beautiful daughter, Clara, had been found dead in the middle of Green Park without a mark on her or anything to explain the cause of her death.

Although the present duke's agent advertised the town house at an increasingly modest rent, it stayed empty. The young duke was at Oxford University and did not appear over-concerned about the house, since it was only one of his many properties and he had a mansion of his own in Grosvenor Square.

The staff had been hired at very low wages during the old duke's time, and nothing had been done to alter this state of affairs as the young duke, who left the handling of everything to his agent, was not even aware that Number 67 had a permanent staff. Although the servants could barely eat on their wages, they had, when the house was first let, been able to supplement their diet and income by the many parties held there. The servants' table had groaned with leftover food, and livery and ap.r.o.n pockets had jingled with tips from the rich dinner guests. But without a tenant, their could be no alleviation of their sad state. So the servants of Number 67 gloomily looked on as their more fortunate rivals in the neighbouring houses prepared for yet another lucrative few months.

The agent responsible for the hiring of the staff was a brute of a man called Mr. Jonas Palmer. Palmer entered the servants' wages in his master's books at a high rate while paying them next to nothing. So far, the young duke had not asked to see the books, but Palmer knew that day would soon come and was prepared for it.

And not one of the servants could leave and find another position. For Palmer had a hold over all of them and wanted to keep them all exactly as they were, so that he could continue to cheat his master. In his many sets of books, locked carefully away where his young master would never find them, he had neatly recorded the actual wages he paid the staff and the details of their backgrounds, which he had carefully collected before hiring each one.

Mr. John Rainbird, the butler, had been first footman in Lord Trumpington's household. He had been found in Lady Trumpington's bed and dismissed. Despite the fact that her ladyship seemed to be enjoying herself immensely when she was discovered, Rainbird had been discharged and sent out into the world with a bad reference. When Palmer had offered him the job of butler it had seemed too good to be true. The wages were very low and the old duke was a skinflint, but there were good pickings to be made during the Season and the Little Season, the old duke staying at Grosvenor Square but using the house in Clarges Street to entertain. Because he had a morbid feeling that all his guests were thieves, he preferred to invite them to a house where the furniture and objets d'art were not very valuable. After the duke's death, Rainbird had found his wages cut to the bone. He had gone to Palmer to announce the termination of his employ. Palmer had said that if he did leave, then he, Palmer, would put a notice in the newspapers, warning all future employers of Rainbird's womanising character. So Rainbird stayed. He was a slim, well-built man of forty with a clever comedian's face, sallow and mobile, a long chin, and a pair of sparkling grey eyes.

The cook, Angus MacGregor, who had been a souschef in a n.o.ble milord's house in Paris just as the French Revolution broke out, had fled to England after watching his master beheaded. When it came to cooking, he was a genius, but his hot-headed Celtic temper had lost him one post after the other. He knew he would never get another post, much as he longed to take a cleaver to Palmer's fat neck. In his last job, he had thrown a leg of mutton at Lady Blessop after she had sent word down to the kitchens that the leg was badly cooked and that the chef was cheating her.

Housekeeper, Mrs. Middleton-the "Mrs." being a courtesy t.i.tle-was a curate's daughter, genteel, educated, and fallen on hard times. Forced out into the world upon the death of her father, she had despaired of finding a ladylike post and thought the job as housekeeper at Number 67 had been heaven-sent. Now, much as she wanted to leave, she knew that no one would employ her without a reference.

Footman, Joseph, tall and good-looking, had been dismissed from the Bishop of Burnham's palace for stealing, and although everyone knew privately the stealing was the result of the bishop's wife's penchant for lifting anything that took her fancy from the palace guests, her reputation had to be protected and so Joseph was told by the bishop that he might consider himself very lucky that he had not been sent to prison. Joseph was effeminate and adored the livery that first came with the job in Clarges Street. He could have left and taken a labouring job, but he was inordinately proud of his white hands and declared he would "rather starve," which was what he was now almost doing.

Jenny, the chambermaid, small, quick, and dark, had found her first job at the tall house and could not possibly find another without a good reference. The same went for Alice, the tall, Junoesque housemaid, and the little drab of a between-stairs-c.u.m-scullery-maid, Lizzie.

The pot boy, Dave, was a recent addition. He had run away from his master, a chimney sweep. He received no wages at all because it was Rainbird who had taken pity on the shivering waif when he had found him begging; Palmer did not know of Dave's existence. The staff at Clarges Street had become Dave's subst.i.tute family, and he never dreamt of leaving them.

On a cold spring night, they were all sitting in the servants' hall, eating a modest meal of thin soup and stale bread. In palmier days, Rainbird and Mrs. Middleton would retire to the housekeeper's little parlour halfway up the back stairs to take wine. Now they ate what was available with the other servants. Above their heads, the house crouched silent and empty, the rooms full of shrouded furniture.

Usually the servants were a united group-united in their burning resentment against the agent, Palmer. b.u.t.that evening, the trouble started when the footman, Joseph, minced in from the street and threw himself sulkily down at the table.

"A pox on these street Arabs," he said, holding up one shapely leg in its white silk stocking with the black clock.

"What did they do?" asked the Highland cook, MacGregor, spooning watery soup into a bowl.

"They stuck a pin in meh calves to see if they was real." It was the custom of many footmen to wear wooden calves if Nature had not endowed them with the proper muscular legs considered de rigueur in a footman.

"And are they? Real, I mean," said the cook, thumping the bowl of soup in front of Joseph.

"Course they're real, you great hairy thing. It's as well you aren't a footman. You would hehv to wear whole oak trees to make up for those spindle shanks of yours," t.i.ttered Joseph. He picked up his spoon. "Faugh! Whatever is this muck?"

"Mr. MacGregor found a cat in the area," giggled Jenny, the chambermaid.

"I'm no' takin' any mair insults," said the Scotch cook. He picked up a roasting spit and advanced on Joseph.

"That's enough," said Rainbird sharply. "Go and put your head under the pump, Angus. As for you, Joseph, any more of your spite and we'll put you in skirts."

"Jessamy," sneered MacGregor.

"Just because eh hehv a certain elegance, a certain je ne sais quoi, there is no need to mock me." Joseph took out a bottle of musk and held it delicately under his nose.

Mrs. Middleton seized it. It spilled on the table and the pungent smell of musk mixed with the strong smell of old mutton from the soup.

"Where did you get this?" demanded Mrs. Middleton. "We are supposed to share our pennies for food."

Dave, the pot boy, put a grubby finger in the spilled pool of scent, dabbed it behind his ears, and began to mince up and down. "Look at me," he said, one little hand on his bony hip. "I'm Harriette Wilson." Harriette Wilson was London's leading courtesan, dubbed by one and all The Queen of Tarts.

"Sit down," said Alice, with a toss of her head. "I'll take the birch to you, Dave, see if I don't."

"There's to be no spending money on anything but food," said Rainbird sternly.

"I couldn't 'elp it," wailed Joseph, a c.o.c.kney whine creeping into his voice. "I 'ad to 'ave somethink to keep me spirits up. There's that footman, Luke, next door. They've got Lord and Lady Charteris coming and that means routs and parties an' lots o' vails. New livery 'e 'ad, too. Looks like a Bond Street Fribble, and so I told 'im. I 'ates this. Dingy kitchen, dingy food, no fun. You don't understand."

"You're always whining," said MacGregor, who had still not forgiven the insult to his legs. "Prettifying yourself is all you do while I go out and scrounge to try to find us something to eat. What of my art? I am the best chef in London and I cannae prove it. I hate all of ye ... " He changed into Gaelic and, although no one else could understand what he was saying, it sounded even nastier than it might have in English.

Little Lizzie burst into tears and threw her ap.r.o.n over her head. Rainbird sighed. Lizzie was such a sc.r.a.p of a thing. They all looked down on her, and yet they were fond of her in their different ways.

MacGregor stopped his cursing and removed his white linen skull cap, where he had hidden a piece of meat, and silently pushed it across the table to the sobbing Lizzie.

Joseph jammed the stopper back in the musk bottle. "Have this, Liz," he pleaded. "Don't cry."

"Stop that row," said Rainbird sharply. "We are all feeling out of sorts," he said in a gentler tone of voice, as Lizzie hiccupped dolefully and lowered her ap.r.o.n.

"We never said things like that to each other before," sobbed Lizzie. "Will our luck never change?"

"Not likely to," said Jenny, the chambermaid.

"We could pray," said Lizzie.

"Silly child," sighed Rainbird. "I'm sure we've all prayed."

"But proper-like," said Lizzie, drying her eyes with her ap.r.o.n. "I mean, in a real church."

"If you mean the Roman Catholic church," said Joseph stiffly, "you are the only one of that faith here. The rest of us is too genteel."

But Lizzie had got hold of the idea of prayer in church and somehow it seemed to cheer her. She clasped her hands together. "Oh, Mr. Rainbird, could I go to church this evening?"

"What! And leave me with the dishes?" demanded MacGregor.

"Please, Mr. Rainbird."

"There are only a few bowls to wash, Angus," said Rainbird. "You'd best take Joseph with you, Lizzie. It doesn't do for a female to be out in the streets alone."

"Not me," said Joseph hurriedly. "I ain't a papist. What if some of the other footmen should see me going in?"

"I'll go myself," said Lizzie. "I'll pray proper. Our luck will change. You'll see." She scampered out of the servants' hall, her wooden clogs making a tremendous racket.

Mrs. Middleton shook her head. "Poor deluded child," she said. "My dear father, G.o.d rest his soul, always told me we must accept what G.o.d sends us."

"Well, it's a pity He sent us Palmer," snapped Rainbird.

With her shawl thrown over her head, Lizzie hurried through the dark streets, her flying shadow dancing first before her and then behind in the feeble light of the parish lamps. Soon fashionable London was left behind and the streets became meaner and darker. Pausing only to crouch in the shadow of a doorway when she heard any drunken bloods approaching, Lizzie flew along, her clogs clattering on the pavement. She turned into Soho Square, giving a little sigh of relief as she saw the welcoming bulk of St. Patrick's Church. In her hand, she clutched one treasured penny, enough to buy a candle.

Although she longed with all her heart to pray to G.o.d that Joseph might notice her, Lizzie thought of all the servants in Clarges Street and decided she must pray for their future welfare without thinking of anything for herself.

The church was quiet, apart from a few French emigres. Walking slowly so that her clogs would not make too much of a noise, Lizzie paid a penny for a candle and then went to a statue of the Virgin Mary that was near the altar. Lighting the candle, she placed it before the Virgin, sank to her knees, and prayed with all her heart that the curse would be removed from Number 67 Clarges Street and that they would have a tenant for the Season. She prayed for an hour, steadfastly thrusting all thoughts of Joseph away as soon as the tall figure of the footman crept into her mind.

At last she arose, crossed herself, and made her way out into the cold, bl.u.s.tery wind whipping down the narrow streets. Far above the sooty chimneys one tiny little star p.r.i.c.ked the sky. Lizzie felt suddenly happy. She knew it was an omen. G.o.d had heard her prayers. Now all she had to do was wait.

She walked straight back to Clarges Street, her head held high. No longer did she hide in doorways. Little Lizzie felt an exaltation she had never known before.

When she walked down the dark area steps to the bas.e.m.e.nt, she thought for one heart-stopping moment that her prayers had been answered immediately. There were wild sounds of merriment coming from the servants' hall. She pushed open the door and went in.

The servants all had gla.s.ses of brandy in their hands. They were wildly applauding the cook, who had placed two crossed skewers on the table and, with his long ap.r.o.n hitched up, was performing some weird Highland dance, demonstrating how his buckled shoes never touched either skewer, no matter how much he leapt or pranced.

"Come in, girl," called Rainbird. "Angus here was searching in the back of the cellars and found loose bricks in the wall, and behind them he found two bottles of good French brandy. Take a gla.s.s and join us. Your prayers have been answered."

"I wouldn't pray for anything like brandy," said Lizzie, much shocked. "But don't worry, Mr. Rainbird. Me and G.o.d have taken care of everything."

Rainbird winked at Mrs. Middleton and touched his forehead. Mrs. Middleton smiled and nodded, her great white cap bobbing back and forth. "Poor child," she whispered. "She really believes it."

"Let her believe it," said Rainbird. "One of us may as well nourish a little hope. But it's going to be another long, empty, dreary Season. Nothing will change."

CHAPTER.

One.

An unforgiving eye, and a d.a.m.ned disinheriting countenance.

-Sheridan, School for Scandal.

Far away in another part of the British Isles, however, events were taking place that would change the fortunes of Number 67 Clarges Street.

It had all started at the end of February when Mr. Roderick Sinclair, a retired Scottish lawyer, learned the glad tidings of the death of his brother, Jamie.

At first, Mr. Sinclair could hardly believe his luck. He was a fat, jovial, slovenly man, a bachelor, who had retired five years before to enjoy the remainder of his days in drinking away his savings. Mr. Sinclair fully expected to die before he reached the age of sixty. But his sixtieth birthday had come and gone, leaving him in a small apartment in the Royal Mile in Edinburgh with very little money left and the prospect of the workhouse before him. His brother, Jamie, a wine merchant, had saved all his life, only grudgingly parting with any penny. In this way he had ama.s.sed a great fortune and was as rich as Roderick Sinclair was now poor. Jamie had been tottering on the brink of death for years. Mr. Sinclair had waited so long for Jamie to cross over into the undiscover'd country from whose bourn no traveller returns that he had quite given up hope.

But that very day he was on his road to see Jamie's lawyer, nursing a pounding head-for he had celebrated his brother's death up and down every tavern in the Old Town the previous night-determined to celebrate further with a restorative "meridian"-the traditional gill of ale that was drunk every morning in the taverns when the bells of St. Giles played out the half-past eleven. In fact, most of the citizens of Edinburgh drank from the gill bell to the drum that was sounded by the town guard at ten in the evening to warn all citizens to clear the streets and taverns and go to bed. The very fact that Mr. Sinclair still lived in the Royal Mile was a sign that he was slowly sinking towards the River Tick.

For the New Town, which had sprung up on the other side of the North Bridge, had gradually drawn all the gentry and aristocrats out of their crumbling, noisy tenements and set them up in stately mansions far from the bustle of the Mile or High Street, which ran from the medieval castle squatting on top of its fourteen-hundred-foot pile of rocks down to the Palace of Holyrood a mile away at the east end-hence the name, the Royal Mile. On either side of the Mile stood gloomy tenements, built as far back as the sixteenth century and compressing between them a dark maze of sloping alleys and courtyards as dreary as dungeons.

Mr. Sinclair could remember the days when the Mile would be crowded at this early hour with n.o.blemen lurching homewards after a night's drinking at one of the Old Town's many clubs. But now only a few die-hard aristocrats remained. Most had learned to despise the democratic ways of sharing the same building with tailors and washerwomen, preferring to live on the other side of the green gulf that lay at the bottom of the castle rock where the New Town had sprung up.

How much had Jamie left? Mr. Sinclair picked his way through the filth of the pavement muttering sums of thousands and thousands of guineas over and over.

It was as he was pa.s.sing St. Giles Church that his conscience smote him. His brother was dead, and he, Roderick Sinclair, had so far not shed one single tear. He tried to conjure up some fond thoughts of Jamie, and found he could not. Jamie, the elder, had always tormented him as a child. Jamie had married the only woman that Roderick Sinclair had ever loved by buying up the mortgage on her mother's house and threatening to evict her if she did not marry him. Her name had been Catherine Campbell, and Roderick knew to this day that Jamie had never loved her, but had wanted her only out of spite. Well, poor Catherine had died young and left Jamie childless. Bad cess to the man. He was better off dead.

Mr. Sinclair felt a sinister itching in his big toe. Gout! Ah well, with Jamie's money he would be able to afford the best of wines. Gout was surely caused by twopenny ale.

The lawyer's office was situated at the bottom of the Mile. Only when he was turning into the dark close that led into the building did Mr. Sinclair realise he should have changed his clothes. He had fallen asleep in a chair in the early hours of the morning, still wearing his old-fashioned chintz coat and knee breeches. A splash of ale marred his left stocking and his cravat was covered with snuff stains-somewhere during the merry roistering he had mistaken it for his handkerchief. He could only hope the lawyer would consider his dress a sign of extreme grief.

Patting his wig and settling his bicorne more firmly on his head, he climbed the noisome stairs, stepping over two peacefully snoring drunks.

The lawyer's name was Mr. Kneebone. Mr. Sinclair thought it a prodigious funny sort of name and considered cracking a joke until he saw the lawyer's ancient, funereal face.

"Come in, Mr. Sinclair," said Mr. Kneebone in sepulchral tones. "Aye, it's a sad day. Mr. Jamie was a kenspeckle figure in this town."

"To be sure, to be sure," said Mr. Sinclair, rubbing his hands and looking hopefully at the pile of parchment on the lawyer's desk. "You won't be wanting to prolong my grief, Mr. Kneebone, so I humbly suggest you begin reading the will right away."

Mr. Kneebone looked disapprovingly at Mr. Sinclair over the tops of his spectacles, gave a dry cough, and walked with maddening, creaking slowness round the other side of the desk and sat down.

Mr. Sinclair settled himself in a battered armchair by the fireplace and waited to hear the good news.

At first, he could not really take in what the lawyer was saying. It appeared Jamie had left such and such a sum to one obscure charity, and such and such a sum to another. Mr. Sinclair shook his heavy head like a bull plagued by flies as the reading of the will went on and on listing sums left to charities and no sound of his own name.

The sudden shadow of the workhouse seemed to loom over him. He interrupted the lawyer. "Ahem, Mr. Kneebone, does Jamie say naethin' about me?"