Chapter 123

The stairs smelled musty. Dampness coiled around her nostrils the instant she maneuvered Topaz through the door. Mrs. Ferret rushed to shut it behind them. Too many treads on tired feet from dawn till dusk. The business of opening a window to let in the midnight air, another task it was easier to forget. How could she remember so much when this could be a trap? And at the very least they would take Topaz from her? Many a slip indeed. And yet, relief had washed at these words. His Grace is difficult. These ones too.
"Let me help you, me lady. Meanin' no affront, but you won't get her down there otherwise."
Splendor nodded. Too many things were caving in around her like temple pillars for her to refuse help. Down. Down. The pillars and the steps. Stillmore wasn't likely to return from the ball this cobwebby way, if he returned at all. She'd seen him with Babs Langley. Babs Langley, she could fight. But him?
Now they turned along a narrow flagstoned, whitewashed passageway that led to the basement door. With a click Mrs. Ferret drew back the bolt. Then she fished in her dressing gown pocket for the key to the lock itself. As she stuck it in the lock, coach wheels rumbled somewhere overhead, outside in the street itself. Splendor's breath dried in her throat. Dried to a screech.
The coach clattered to a stop. What if it was the one she'd had to send back to Lady Kertouche's? So now, when every step had taken her away from him, he was going to come into the house, to stomp in and find her cowering with Ferret at the tradesman's door, the one that led into the courtyard just below the roadway. What if it wasn't him at all but the bailiffs Ferret was waiting for?
Mrs. Ferret shoved the key back in her pocket. "The other door's better, me lady. It's the one I use. You'll get a cab if you turn right at the top of the alley. Hurry. This way."
She led the way along another narrow passageway, past gleaming coals that lay in blackened heaps and laundry baskets that frothed with cotton sheets, the very bowels of the servants' quarters. Then she dragged aside a thick brown curtain. A turn of another key and a gust of midnight air blew in. Cold. Starlit. Somewhere close at hand a church bell began to chime the hours. She had thought it might be one o'clock. She was wrong. Twelve chimes clanged through her senses. She had always wanted to be Cinderella. Just not like this.
Mrs. Ferret stuck her head out of the door, sniffed, then drew back in. "The coast's clear. Like I say, you head up there, turn right, and it will take you to the square. You'll get a cab there. It should take you wherever it is you're going to. Well, if it's in London anyways."
"Thank you."
She wished there was something else she could say, but there wasn't. Mrs. Ferret nodded.
"What about your things?"
"My things?"
"Only you don't have no bags."
"Mrs. Ferret-"
"And it's a cold night out there."
A cold night? It was a cold world.
She drew a deep breath from it. "I shall be fine. We shall be fine. Please don't worry about us."
"Well, I'm sure you will be, me lady. It's just ..."
"I really don't need anything and if this is a ploy to stop us--"
"Just a minute ..."
"But I don't have a min-"
"I'll be right back. He won't come down here. He never does."
Mrs. Ferret headed back along the dimly lit passageway and disappeared into one of the rooms. A drawer opened. A knocking sound said a floorboard was being pried up.
"Splen, what's she doin'? Only yer don't want Kenny comin' in. If that's even 'im? Let's go while we can. I can nick fer us," Topaz whispered.
"You can't stand."
"But-"
"Shh! She's coming."
Mrs. Ferret avoided Splendor's eyes as she came back. Avoided them in favor of her stomach. Heat flooded at the same time as it drained.
"Mrs. Ferret, I-"
"This is just so unexpected, me lady. I mean I could see you and him weren't what you'd call close ... "
"Oh, you have no idea."
"But just the same, if you won't reconsider-"
"I can't reconsider. I can't tell you what this is about. Please don't ask me."
"Well, you can't go off into cold night wi' nowt. Here ... It's just a little bit I've been puttin' by. If ye were able to return it to me, that would be nice, but there will be no hard feelin's if you can't."
Shock raked Splendor's scalp. Please don't tell her Mrs. Ferret also helped herself to the family silver? That Topaz was right? She handed over a brown pouch, too small to put a spoon in. A pouch that clinked. Splendor's heart contracted, her scalp shriveled. The kindness of virtual strangers. A woman she had never been entirely certain of. Not even here tonight.How was she meant to cope with that?
"I can't. I just ca-"
Ferret's fingers closed on her own. "Yes, you can. Go on. Unless you have something put by? You may need it."
"Splen ... Take it. We got ter go."
Perhaps Mrs. Ferret was right? Why make it even harder for herself? The sharp rat-a-tat of the door knocker sounded through the quiet house.
"All right. I just don't know how to-"
"That's all right. A good servant always recognizes another, me lady."
"You mean-"
"Well, she recognizes someone who wasn't one of his usual women, shall we just say? I'm sorry, and meanin' no affront, if one of his usuals was what I thought you were to begin with, instead of seein' you was so much more than that."
"But how? How long have you known?"
"For a while. Just call it intuition." Mrs. Ferret tapped her nose. "Now, that's himself just come in. Chasens is lyin' drunk, me lady. His Grace will stop waitin' for someone to open the front door eventually and do it himself. But he won't think anythin' of comin' down here when no one answers the bell."
"But you just said ..."
"I lied, me lady."
Splendor swallowed. If he did come here, she might rethink this, and she couldn't rethink it. How he could have chosen this moment to come home, when there were a dozen others he could have picked, she'd no idea. Only that this could not be like the last time he'd come after her.
"Thank you," she whispered. She walked out into the night praying he'd do just that and not knowing how to stop him if he did.