Page 11

Corinna and Eliza watched the meeting of these two opposing masculinities; both were fully aware of their own good fortune and elevated position in the world, beneficiaries of inherited wealth, one from the New World and one from the old.

They were both tall, one dark and elegantly dressed with a sardonic cast to his handsome features, the other more brawny, his reddish hair dishevelled, his face beaming.

Everyone turned as Ferdinand Shilton walked into the room, benign and exquisite in his azure coat and pale yellow pantaloons, his blond good looks bright and eager as the day.

‘Did I hear the immortal words “breeding horses”?’ he asked.

Alick came towards him and took his arm to introduce him too to Mr Flynn.

Ferdy Shilton enquired in his cheerful way, ‘So you too have an eye for a good prancer? Pity you have none of your bloodstock here. The Owners’ Race at Epsom is the one event in the calendar no one misses.

’ He turned to his friend. ‘Rav, here, usually wins it. Has the best horses in the country and is a mighty fine rider too.’

Zadoc Flynn laughed. ‘I’m afraid I’m rather too big for the fleetest animal to carry.

’ With a cheerful grin he glanced at Eliza and said, ‘I suppose lady riders are not allowed? I must say I approve of the fine habits worn by Englishwomen. What we’d call fine and dandy.

’ Lord Purfoy winced at these words then, catching sight of Flynn’s appraising glance lingering on Eliza’s form, he frowned.

Eliza’s response surprised them all. With sparkling eyes she declared, ‘I would very much like to ride in a horse race.’

Raven cast her a dark glance and asked in his droll way, ‘I wonder what this might reveal of your mysterious past, Miss Eliza? I presume you are an accomplished horsewoman? Why would that be, do you think?’

Eliza felt a tremor of anxiety. If Taz and Lord Davenport had recognised her, she felt increasingly sure Lord Purfoy had not been fooled by her ruse.

She turned from his all-seeing gaze. Corinna broke into the conversation.

‘Gentlemen, help yourself to breakfast, you can continue your equine conversations then. I have to concern myself with the event of the Season, Lady Bassett’s ball.

I presume I must request two more invitations? You will join our party, Mr Flynn?’

Her new guest looked delighted. ‘I’m here for the experience and am grateful to join you in any enterprise, Mrs Wolfe.’

As Corinna turned to go, Eliza followed her and said, ‘I have something I must tell you.’

Corinna had a distracted expression on her face. ‘You have yet to have something to eat, my dear. I must drop a note to Lady Bassett and then see little Emma. You’ll find me in the studio in an hour.’

Eliza realised how famished she was after her early morning ride. In the circus she had become used to being hungry and had learned not to notice but now, with the smell of warm bread and coffee wafting through the house, she was overwhelmed with a desire to eat.

The men were laughing as Mr Flynn regaled them with his first impressions of English womanhood.

‘Your Falmouth lassies are such comfortable armfuls.’ He had a mouthful of toast when he continued, ‘And the fashions here! So much more daring than at home. These ladies are barely dressed, with just a bit of muslin between the world’s gaze and what God gave them! ’

Alick laughed but when Ferdy noticed Eliza had returned he remonstrated, ‘Mind your language, sir!’

The men got to their feet and offered Eliza a chair while Lord Purfoy poured her a cup of coffee, glancing with some disdain at the newcomer in their midst who was still talking with little care for Ferdy’s social niceties.

‘These rosy-cheeked goddesses had useful footwear in that seaside town of steep, muddy lanes. They all clatter over the cobbles in their wooden pattens, as agile as mountain goats, turning a pretty ankle too.’

Eliza had helped herself to a cinnamon bun and noticed Polly enter the room and sit in the window seat with some sewing; it was obvious she had been asked by Corinna to act as chaperone.

Eliza found herself taking the chair next to Raven Purfoy.

He had been watching her and said quietly, ‘I recognise that when we met you were fleeing from somewhere, from something. If there is anything I can do to help, don’t hesitate to ask.

’ His intense eyes slid from her face as he turned his gaze to the window.

‘I too know what it is to be alone. To be without kin.’

There was a guffaw of laughter from the other side of the room where Zadoc Flynn was holding forth on the wonders of English posting inns and their accommodating staff.

Eliza was not sure she had heard Lord Purfoy’s words right.

He was so satirical and coolly constrained that she knew it was a rare emotional revelation she could not ask him to repeat.

Instead, she said, ‘You could not have brought me to a kinder place.’

He looked at her again and his face softened. ‘The Wolfes are my dearest friends.’ He finished his ale in one draught then added, ‘I know you are a horsewoman of some skill. You should ask my tiger, Taz, to select a mount for you while you’re here.’

‘I went riding with him early this morning. He saddled up Clio for me.’

A look of irritation crossed his face as he said in clipped tones, ‘Taz treats my horses as his own, to do with as he will.’

Eliza was sorry to have been so frank and attempted to smooth the waters. ‘Not so, my lord, Taz is very particular. He would not let me ride Horatio, who is the most magnificent horse I have ever seen.’

This elicited a volcanic response. Lord Purfoy’s eyes flashed and although he’d lowered his voice, it was full of suppressed anger. ‘You are never to even think of riding my horse. If he bolted or threw you, it could kill you. Only I ride him. And occasionally Taz when the steed needs exercising.’

Eliza’s eyes were also fiery, but with indignation. ‘No horse has ever thrown me, sir! But I promise I will not speak of riding Horatio again; I will not even look at him if you’d prefer!’

Suddenly the atmosphere between them lightened into amusement and Lord Purfoy, his colour heightened, turned to her. ‘Apologies for my excessive reaction. I’ve seen too much death from a rider mismatched to the horse.’

‘You don’t have to worry about me, my lord.’

‘Well, it’s obvious that I do, since you threw yourself under my horses’ hooves.

’ He spoke with some exasperation then regained his usual composure.

‘Anyway, in this case it’s not you I’m concerned for,’ he drawled, once more cool and detached.

‘It’s Horatio.’ He stood up, offered his hand and in a low voice said, ‘I think I’ve heard enough enthusiastic travellers’ tales for my taste. I’m off to my club.’

Eliza knew Corinna would be in her studio.

She took her leave of the men and Polly folded up her sewing and followed her out of the room.

Eliza knocked and entered. The mistress of the house was working on a drawing she had done of her daughter Emma, her small bright face full of sweetness and mischief.

For a moment Eliza watched Corinna, thinking her the most attractive of women with her thick russet hair coiled loosely on her head and her body swelling like a goddess with her coming baby.

Corinna turned and smiled. ‘Now, at last I have some time for you. I apologise for the early arrival of Mr Flynn, but he seems charming enough.’

Eliza sat down and took a deep breath. So long pent-up, the words tumbled out without preamble.

‘I am ashamed to have to tell you that I have deceived you and all your friends. I did not lose my memory when Lord Purfoy’s horses ran me down.

’ Corinna’s eyes were on her face as she continued, ‘I was so afraid that if I admitted who I was and from where I’d come, that Lord Purfoy would return me to the life I’d left. ’

‘So who are you and where did you come from?’ Corinna’s voice was quiet.

‘I’m not certain about who exactly I am but the night I was brought here I had been running away from Prebbles Flying Circus. I was one of their performers, Clorinda the Winged Venus.’

Corinna’s initial expression of astonishment changed to one of suppressed amusement. ‘That’s quite a name to live up to.’

Eliza smiled with relief. ‘I know. Perhaps you can understand why I’ve grown tired of it and wish for a normal life?’

‘So how did you come to this extreme?’

‘I was lost in Bath when I was seven years old and Mrs Prebble found me and took me back to the circus who were performing in Henrietta Gardens. They trained me as a dancer on horseback.’

‘What a shock that must have been for you. To lose your family like that. What do you recall of them?’

‘We did not live in Bath but were visiting, I think. I have a vague memory of my mother and as I’ve said, I don’t think I had any siblings.

But the one thing that kept me hopeful through all the loneliness and toil of my childhood was the certainty that my mother was looking for me, and that she is somewhere still.

And I must find her.’ Tears had sprung to both women’s eyes.

Then with a stronger voice, Eliza continued, ‘My most vivid memory was walking with my nurse over a pretty bridge of shops in the centre of Bath. The rush of water below was thrilling and alarming.’ She shivered at the memory.

‘Then suddenly a troupe of acrobats and jugglers emerged and I was swept along with them. When they had gone I was alone. That was when Mrs Prebble found me crying on the street. I could not remember the address where we were staying so she took me back with her.’

Corinna knew that newspapers published advertisements begging for news or sightings of lost children; if they were very young the chances of being reunited with their original families were slight.

Her maternal heart was touched to the core and she put out her hand to take Eliza’s in hers. ‘Do you know your full name?’

‘I’ve always been called Eliza; perhaps I was once an Elizabeth? My surname is Gray, but I had a favourite pony who was a grey and have wondered if I just assumed she and I were siblings.’

‘As a lonely child myself, I can appreciate how that could happen. But do you have any memories of where you lived?’

‘Just that it seemed a huge rather empty space; I was a small child and so many places seemed vast. It was in the country because I remember a garden with woods and a stream beyond. I enjoyed mimicking the speech of the chimney sweep and our servants which amused them and made them treat me as one of them. I realised very young that there were different ways of speaking for different occasions.’

Corinna nodded. ‘It’s a useful knack. Hence your ability to speak in ways befitting both Society and the circus people with whom you grew up.’

Eliza felt such relief at having told Corinna the truth as far as she knew it, but was anxious about what came next.

She looked up and met Corinna’s concerned gaze.

‘I so regret my dishonesty, when you and your friends have been more than kind to me. But I wonder if you could help me one more time, to find work as a maid, perhaps in the house of one of your friends? I don’t want to have to go back to Prebbles Circus. ’

Corinna was reminded poignantly of her own search for belonging and the deceits that this involved. She stood up to embrace Eliza. ‘My dear, the most important task is to find your family and your true home. I too was like you. Finding my father and understanding my past meant everything to me.’

Eliza was taken by surprise, her heart touched by Corinna’s reaction. With a break in her voice she said, ‘But I am a stranger to you. Why be so kind to someone who has deceived you?’

Corinna continued with her explanation. ‘I was helped by these three friends, Alick, Ferdy and Raven, who took me in when I had nothing, thinking me just a lad from the country, in need of help. They made all the difference to my life, and it makes me happy to repay some of their generosity by helping you.’

The burden of lies, the relief after days of anxiety and guilt overcame Eliza; in the face of such kindness, she put her hands to her face and cried.

Corinna placed an arm round her shoulder and through gulping sobs, Eliza managed to say, ‘Thank you, thank you. But I feel I must do something to repay you in return.’

‘You are going to sit for your portrait. That is a treat for me. And I very much look forward to your accompanying us to the Bassett ball. Everyone who is anyone will be there, and who knows what strange things may come our way?’

* * *

That evening Eliza sat down to write to Rose Bowman, her only friend, and tell her she was safe. She ended with a greeting for Percy. ‘Hug his neck for me and whisper in his ear that I will never forget him.’