Page 84 of The Pirate and the Pagan
“Exactly!” said Charles, appreciating the witticism. “Are you staying at Whitehall tonight?”
Ruark nodded then bethought himself to tell Charles something others might keep from him. “I’m afraid plague has been brought to London and it’s spreading. There’ve been many reports of sickness among ships’ crews.”
“Damnation! I’d heard rumors, but nothing confirmed. Let’s hope it confines itself to the dock area. I’ll speak to Sandwich; the Navy Office should put a quarantine on any ships suspected of carrying plague.”
“Good night, Sire.” Ruark bowed.
“Hold on. I’ll walk with you. Your room’s down by the bowling green, isn’t it?”
Ruark nodded, aware that Charles was on his way to Barbara’s even though it was past midnight.
Summer awoke at dawn with nausea once again. Finally she faced the indisputable fact that she was probably going to have a baby. She had been intimate with Ruark and also with her husband’s brother Rory and she had no way whatsoever of knowing who had fathered the child. This truth was so shocking she simply hadn’t been able to accept it. Now that she was trying to face up to it, she was deeply ashamed of herself. It was too appalling to share with Auntie Lil. She would let her assume it was Lord Helford’s child, as of course would everyone else. Summer, however, was less sure about what she should disclose to Ruark, or for that matter to Rory. For the present she would keep her mouth shut.
If she was to be a mother, it was time to take practical steps for her own welfare and the well-being of the child. The first practical thing she must do is put her money where it was safe and where it would earn interest. Solomon Storm was the only person who came to mind. She dressed in her richest walking suit with matching hat and gloves and asked if she could use the carriage.
Since she was carrying a fortune of twenty thousand pounds, she took along two of Lil Richwood’s six-foot servants. She was ushered in with deference and served refreshments before they began their business. Solomon Storm called her Lady Helford so many times she began to realize just how impressive the name was in London.
“Lord Helford wished to surprise you by discharging the mortgage on Roseland.” He nodded, pleased he’d had a hand in it.
“Oh, he surprised me all right,” replied Summer, wondering why everyone assumed Ruark intended it as a gift for her. But to be fair, she was the one who had sprung the bigger surprise regarding Roseland and its heavy mortgage. When she left, she had deposited her money with him at six-percent interest. He had offered five, but Summer wasn’t quite the green girl she had been on her first trip to London.
Lord Helford visited the house in Cockspur Street with very mixed feelings. He hoped his wife would not shut the door in his face, yet he knew he would risk more than the sharp edge of Summer’s tongue to keep her from the King’s lusty advances.
“Oh, my lord, you have just missed her,” said Lil Richwood, bursting to ask him a dozen questions. “Do come and have a drink, darling, and satisfy my insatiable curiosity.”
“What has she told you?” he asked bluntly.
“Ah, I can’t begin to catalog all your faults, Ruark my dear, but I’ve been playing devil’s advocate. I told her it was all a silly misunderstanding … that you would never in a million years kick her out without a penny … especially not in her condition—” Lil’s drawling voice halted as if she had revealed something she shouldn’t have.
“Condition?” he questioned quickly. “Is she …?”
Lil held up her hands. “She swears she is not.”
His mouth hardened. “Where has she gone?”
“She took the carriage up into the city. I really don’t think she’ll be back for hours and hours, my lord.”
“I’ll write her a note,” he said with decisiveness. “Perhaps it’s best we don’t meet face-to-face today. We have this unfortunate knack of exacerbating each other’s tempers the moment we are in the same room together.” He emptied his glass and refused to let her refill it. “I’ve seen the King and Shaftsbury about young Spencer. I’ve arranged to have him released, so there’s no need for her to petition His Majesty about this.”
Lil brought him paper and quill and he wrote that under no circumstances was it necessary to meet with the King to beg his favors. “When she learns what you have done for her brother, I’m sure she’ll be ready to forgive everything, darling,” assured Lil.
“I do have to beg her pardon for a few things I said to her,” he explained, “then perhaps we can begin again.” He handed Lady Richwood the letter and after he left she took it up to Summer’s chamber and laid it on the pretty French desk.
After Summer left Solomon Storm she went on a shopping spree in the Exchange. All she bought for herself were some pretty hair ornaments and a pair of delicious, dangling earrings which caught her fancy, but for Spider she bought soap, towels, a razor, underclothing, shirts, breeches, doublets, waistcoats, and vests, the very latest fashion from Paris. She knew the hours would stretch interminably until she must be at the gateway of the privy garden, so she lingered in the vast arcade, enjoying the display of articles from around the world.
There were wig shops, tobacconists with their strange masculine aromas, French glove shops, lace vendors, goldsmiths, rainbow displays of Venetian glass and Moroccan leather. By the time she returned to Cockspur Street, Lil’s escort for the evening had already called to take her to Lady Somerset’s ball.
Summer took a bath while she mulled over what would be the right outfit to wear tonight. She chose her gown for her meeting with the King very carefully. Red was out, it was far too provocative and bold. Black was very regal, but with her dark coloring it was not her best color. In white or pastel she would stick out like a sore thumb, and when one had a secret, midnight meeting through the privy garden and up the backstairs, one did not wish to advertise the fact. She finally settled on an apricot silk with a taffeta cape of amber.
She had a light supper of cold meat and fruit and decided against taking any wine. She would need all her wits about her for tonight’s encounter. Finally at the hour of ten o’clock she bade a footman call her a linkboy to light her way to Whitehall. It lay just across Pall Mall and along through the Holbein Gateway. She hadn’t even noticed the letter from her husband lying on the desk.
Lord Helford at this fashionable hour was about to take a shortcut through St. James Park over to the palace, where he had business with Chancellor Hyde. He couldn’t believe his eyes as he saw Edward Progers speaking with a fashionably dressed young woman who looked suspiciously like his wife. He was furious. Obviously she had completely ignored his letter telling her not to ask the King for favors, but what was most damning was the method she had chosen for the meeting.
It was nothing but a rendezvous arranged through Charles’s pimp, Progers! By the time he reached the privy garden, Summer had disappeared inside. He went all the way up to the King’s apartments, encountering none but red-coated yeomen of the guard who stood at the main archways. He decided to wait for her, even if it took all night.
He slipped into a shadowed alcove near Charles’s apartments and propped himself against the wall.
Progers took Summer through no less than three salons before he knocked discreetly upon a door, bowed, and withdrew, leaving her to her fate. Almost immediately the door was opened wide by Charles, who was dressed quite informally in shirt sleeves topped by a brocaded vest. His eyes kindled warmly as he drew her inside and kissed her hand in the most breathtaking manner. Without doubt, Charles was the most charming cavalier in the whole nation.
