Page 9 of Murder at Madame Chambon's
“I shall certainly encourage Lord Dunstable as I shall encourage equally suitable suitors.Lady Perry said there were many more to whom I would be introduced.”
“Indeed, there are.Yes, Lord Dunstable is only one of many.Perhaps I am being hasty.I would simply hate for you to risk losing such a prime catch.”
“And what does Papa think?”
A spasm of something indefinable crossed her mother’s face.Then she leaned back, a smile upon her thin lips.“What do you mean, my love?”Her tone was like syrup.“He has no real interest in you, if that’s what you’re asking.He wanted a son.However, he has done what any good father must do, and he has provided you with a fine dowry.You are a lucky girl.”
Evelina didn’t feel lucky.She suddenly felt friendless and something of a commodity.She’d hoped that her reunion with her mother would feel less transactional.When she’d been fourteen, her mother had been more concerned with her education and her deportment and elocution lessons.The two of them had visited the couturier, Madame Lemarche, who had created a magnificent collection of clothes that Evelina wore whenever she was not required to wear the drab sack-like convent dresses.Her clothes were far finer than those worn by the other girls, which had set up resentment, though there’d been nothing Evelina could do about that.
She’d always been an outsider.
“And you are in London to make a fine marriage.That was agreed before you came.You are English and you will marry an Englishman.”
“Yes, Mama, it is what I want.”
“And you like Lord Dunstable?”
“Yes, Mama, though I like Captain Blackheath equally.”
She thought she heard her mother gasp and asked with a frown, “Do you know Captain Blackheath?”
“I have met the gentleman.Not that I would call him a gentleman.No, Evelina, he is not the man for you.For a start, he has no title.He is also looking for a rich wife so he can restore his crumbling house and fortunes.”
Evelina studied Lady Durham while they waited for the maid to bring in the tea tray.“You are kind to have allowed Mama and me to meet here, Lady Durham.”
“Your mother has been good to me over the years.It was the least I could have done.”
Evelina opened her mouth to ask what form this kindness had taken and then changed her mind.The look the pair had exchanged sent a charge of foreboding through her, and she suddenly didn’t want to know the specifics.
A portrait of Lady Durham hung upon the wall opposite Evelina.Full length, it dominated the room, a testament to a husband’s love for his wife.
“I sat for Henry Scott Tuke,” Lady Faith said, following her gaze.“My husband commissioned it the year we married.He is a friend of Lord Dunstable’s,” she added.
“A fine catch,” her mama said again.She turned to Evelina.“I should be well satisfied if you made a match with Lord Dunstable.Then I need worry no more about anything.”
“Except losing good staff,” Lady Durham said with a smile, causing Mrs.Tarot to harrumph.“What have I done wrong, Lady Durham?”she demanded.“I have lost three girls these past four weeks.And now my best worker has joined them.Where is loyalty when I rescued them from the gutter and gave them everything they needed?”
“They are still grateful.They just are looking for different opportunities,” Lady Durham murmured.“Please don’t chide yourself when there’s nothing you can do.”
“I can stop this woman from poaching my girls.In fact, I’ve a mind to go over there this afternoon.She should be grateful too since I housed her under my roof for six months before she herself made a fine match herself.”
“Hush, now, Mrs.Tarot, there’s no need for that,” said Lady Durham, sending a look of mild anxiety at Evelina.“Would you like more tea, my dear?”
Chapter5
Athroaty sigh prefaced the arrival into Lily’s office of the woman she expected would soon visit her.
“Madame Chambon.”Lily rose with a smile, though her heart was racing for Madame would not take kindly to Lily having poached Kitty.
Madame Chambon had a particularly soft spot for Kitty, whom she used like a galley slave, but to whom she was also surprisingly indulgent on occasion.Kitty would never graduate to become one of Madame Chambon’s girls.Not without the lush sensuality, culture or beauty that was required.But she was earnest and conscientious and also very kind.Lily remembered her kindness—a stark contract with Celeste’s — just as she remembered Madame Chambon’s ruthlessness which was, admittedly, interspersed with unexpected acts of compassion for Madame had her favorites amongst the girls and to these young women she would bend over backwards to ensure they got their happily-ever-after outside the brothel.
“You had no right to take Kitty, Lady Bradden.”Madame Chambon came right to the point before she’d even sat down.“Kitty has been with me since I rescued her from the gutter—literally—as a six-year-old.”
“And after more than ten years, she has exercised her free will to make a change.I’m sure she’s more than grateful to you, Madame, and will always be.”
“Kitty is the fifth girl you have enticed away from me.And not because you can offer them any more than I can.Why, Victoria could have married a prince if she’d been allowed to develop as I had planned.Instead, you now have her working for a pittance as a companion to some dreary old woman in Park Lane.”
“With all due respect, Madame Chambon, you cannot make the girls’ choices for them,” Lily objected mildly.“I am simply offering them an alternative.None of your girls chose the life they live under your roof.You do recall that I, too, lived for years denied the ability to make choices—first in a lunatic asylum near Brussels, and then as Mr.Montpelier’s so-called spiritualist.Now I can make decisions of my own.It’s a liberating feeling.Tea, Madame?”
