Page 21 of Murder at Madame Chambon's
The clock chimed, and she realized that nearly an hour had passed.
“Kitty?”She blinked, startled out of her reverie, then put her head in her hands and sighed.“I want to see Mama.There hasn’t been word from her, has there?”
Kitty stopped in the midst of folding a pile of petticoats to put into Evelina’s wardrobe.“Your mama will come as soon as she is able.Would you like me to do your hair, miss?You’ll find it soothing.”
Lily nodded.It was soothing.
“Did you tell her the reason I wished her to come?”Evelina asked tightly as she dropped her head back and closed her eyes.“
“Oh, yes, Miss, and she were ever so sorry, as you can imagine!She wanted to be with you on this very shockin’ occasion.And she will be soon enough.It’s just she was…”
Evelina opened her eyes.“She was what?”
Kitty shrugged.“Otherwise engaged, miss.Oh, no, miss, what are you doing?”
“I’m going to see her.”Evelina had risen sharply.“Where’s the address?”she asked, squinting at the unfamiliar location which she’d passed on to Lady Bradden.“There’s no need to come with me, Kitty, if that’s what you think you’re doing.”
“You can’t go out alone, miss.That’s if you think this is such a good idea.”
“To see my mother?In my hour of need?”
“Then take a few minutes to calm yerself, miss.And to dress.I’ll help you.But first, give me just a moment.I … must dash out for a minute.I’ll be back.Call of nature.”
Without waiting for Evelina to respond, Kitty rushed out of the room.
Evelina sank down upon the bed.She’d felt strangely numb before.Shock, she supposed.But now she had a focus for her anger.
How could her mama not have time to see her daughter immediately in her hour of need?
Still, Kitty was right.She couldn’t go out and about in a city she did not know, much less, alone.
When, finally, Kitty did return, she was feeling a little more amenable to direction.
So, when the maid said, “I jest heard back from your mama who can’t meet you at the address you have for her as the lady wot she lives with is poorly.However, I’m to take you to where your dear mama can give you the comfort and advice that a young lady in your terrible situation must need.Here, let me help you with your bonnet.We can go directly, but we may have to wait for her when we get there.Your mama is trying as hard as she can to get to you, miss.”
Chapter10
Meanwhile, Lily, who had just received Kitty’s note regarding Miss Tarot’s determination to locate her mother, was facing Madame Chambon across the woman’s study.The very room in which Lord Dunstable had apparently met his death.
Lily had sent Archie and the nursemaid back home with the baby and now she was having a difficult time not succumbing to the skin-prickling horror she felt at once more being in this strange, oppressive house.
Madame Chambon’s House of Assignation was just as she remembered it.The swathes of rich red velvet fringed with gold, the gilded cherubs and large canvasses of women in various states of nudity, made her shudder.
It had been an awkward reunion.Lily was now a scion of respectability and her confrontation with Madame Chambon was a strange power reversal.
The fact that Lily had learned that Evelina—who had been well received in London drawing rooms and whose carefully constructed background had been believed—was Madame’s daughter had caused an initial apoplexy, but now Madame was fully recovered.
And she was defending herself in any way she could.
“How could I possibly see my daughter so soon after being falsely accused of a terrible, terrible crime?”Lady Chambon paced before the fire, her flaming hair contrasting with the glowing coals.
“Were accusations made, and if so, were they false, and do you not think your daughter is in just as much a predicament as you are, Madame?”Lily asked as calmly as she could, sinking into a chair.She’d had a hurried conversation with one of the young women who’d been questioned by the police, which had shored up her information.It was always best to have the upper hand with Madame, if possible.
“Do you have the temerity to suggest that I am actually guilty of Lord Dunstable’s murder?”Madame snapped before adding in a more conciliatory tone, “Forgive me, Lady Bradden.Sometimes it is difficult to remember you are not the street urchin who fled into this house after stealing a woman’s hat.”
“My husband’s sister’s hat, yes,” conceded Lily.“And I was a street urchin before my story was at last believed, and I was reunited with my father.I do owe you some small gratitude for housing me and feeding me without coercing me into the way of life that sustains the poor creatures who live beneath this roof—”
“Not all of themselves consider themselves poor creatures.Some have made fine arrangements, brokered by me.”
