We alighted from the boat and began the walk to the house. I realized it must be nearly three o’clock. I felt faintly irritated, frustrated. I had forgotten how anxious they would be about me, so completely absorbed had I been.
We came out into Piccadilly. I must have increased my pace a little, and he said: “You are anxious to get on.”
“I didn’t realize it was so late.”
“Let’s take this street. It’s a short cut.”
That was how I saw her. Recognition was instantaneous—after all she had made a great impression on me. It was the girl who had pretended to be blind.
How different she looked now! There was no doubt that she could see. She was fashionably dressed in rather a gaudy manner; her cheeks were startlingly red, the rest of her face very white; those eyes which had seemed so pathetically sightless were rimmed with kohl. She had crossed the road and gone into a building.
I said: “What place is that?”
Jake said: “It’s Frinton’s Club.”
“Frinton’s! I’ve heard of that. That was where Jonathan lost so much money. What sort of place is it?”
“It has rather a shady reputation, I believe.”
It was very strange. What was that girl doing in Frinton’s Club? Something should be done. I did not know what.
“Do you know who owns it?”
“It is said to be a Madame Delarge.”
“I’ve heard of her.”
“There are a chain of clubs like Frinton’s. I’ve heard all sorts of things go on in them. Not gambling only. They are the haunts of prostitutes and idle young men—and perhaps older ones—who have more money than sense.”
“I see.”
“There are a number of them in London. Madame Delarge is the accepted owner, but I have heard that she is just a name, and there is some big organization behind her. Frinton’s is just one of a chain of such clubs. Madame Delarge is the one behind whom the real owners cower. At least so I’ve heard.”
“Why should there be this need for anonymity?”
“It is rather an unsavoury business. It wouldn’t surprise me if the real owners are posing as pillars of society.”
I felt shaken. After my idyllic experience I had seen that young woman who for some time had haunted my dreams. To say the least, it was disconcerting.
When I told my parents I had seen the girl who had pretended to be blind and that she had gone into Frinton’s Club, my father said: “She’s obviously a loose woman. Many of them frequent those clubs. There’s nothing much we could do even if we approached the girl. It’s too long ago.”
“There is a woman who is said to own the place. A Madame Delarge.”
“Oh yes. She’s just a figurehead, I believe.”
“It was a great shock to see that girl. I should have known her anywhere although she was so dressed up and quite different. And her face …”
“Let’s hope she sticks to her trade,” said my father, “and doesn’t attempt any more to kidnap young innocent girls.”
“I think something ought to be done,” said my mother.
My father said to me: “Don’t you attempt to follow her if you see her again. Don’t do anything like that.”
“As if I should!”
My mother was more concerned about my going out with Jake Cadorson.
“I wondered where you were,” she said, mildly reproving.
“I came to tell you I was going but you were out. He wants to come down to see Tamarisk. I am not sure how Tamarisk will feel having a father suddenly presented to her.”
“She’s an unpredictable girl,” said my mother.
“I think,” I mused, “it will be best to break it to her gently. Then when she knows, I’ll ask him to come down.”
“We’ll have him at Eversleigh.”
“Why should you? Tamarisk is at Grasslands.”
My mother looked faintly embarrassed.
“I wondered …” she said.
She betrayed to me that she, who was very perceptive where I was concerned, had guessed that my feelings for this man were perhaps a little more intense than was desirable.
I said calmly: “I will ask him in due course.”
He called next day and my father asked him to dine with us. He accepted with alacrity. It was quite clear that my parents liked him. He had a special gratitude towards my father and quite openly they discussed the trial and the state of the country after this most devastating and prolonged war which had been going on.
“Twenty years one might say,” said my father. “The people are in a merry mood at the moment… singing the praises of the great Duke, but wait till the taxes are enforced. It will be a different story then.”
“You expect trouble?” asked Jonathan.
“I know there’ll be murmuring.” He turned to Jake. “I don’t know how things are in Cornwall.”
“Very much the same as in the rest of the country, I fear,” replied Jake. “And of course the people there are considerably poorer to start with.”
“We’ve had an example of what the mob can do,” said my mother. “Jessica’s husband has been a victim of that.”
“Yes, so I heard.”
“We are better off on our estates,” put in my father. “We manage to weather these storms. It’s townsfolk who suffer most.”
“In addition to the poverty engendered by the war, the people have another complaint,” said Jake. “They are demanding representation. They want universal suffrage.”
“It will be some time before we get that,” said my father. “Do we want every Tom, Dick and Harry who can’t read or write making the laws of this country?”
“They are not asking to make the laws,” I pointed out. “They are merely asking to have a voice in which man they send to Parliament to represent them.”
“Nonsense,” said my father. “The people have to learn. They have to accept what is. They have to march with the times.”
“I would say that is just what they are attempting to do,” I said.
“My daughter is a very contentious woman,” my father remarked to Jake. “Raise a point and she is bound to come up with the very opposite.”
“It makes life interesting,” said Jake.
I was glad they liked him. I was glad he fitted in so well.
After he had gone my father said: “Interesting fellow. Fancy entertaining an ex-convict at your table, Lottie. I’m surprised at you.”
“I found him better company than quite a number I could name.”
“Such experiences are bound to leave their mark. I’m glad things worked out the way they did. It would have been a tragedy to hang a man like that. He was only in that position because he’d saved a young girl from a drunken bully. Silly young idiot.”
“Why silly?” I said. “It was just the sort of thing you would have done in your youth.”
“My dear daughter, you flatter me. I never did much which was not going to bring me good.”
“Why do you always make yourself out to be so much worse than you are? You’re bad enough without that.”
We grinned at each other. I felt so happy because they all liked Jake Cadorson.
I did not think it could happen so soon.
We should be leaving London at the end of the week and it was a Wednesday. It was arranged that Jake should visit Grasslands one week after our return. That would give me time to break the news to Tamarisk that she had a father.
He had said there was so much he wanted to know about Tamarisk, and he confessed that he was a little nervous about meeting her.
It was afternoon. I wanted to go out and make a few purchases and when I left the house I met him. I believe he had been waiting for me.
“It seems so long since we have met,” he said.
I looked at him in astonishment. “It was yesterday.”
“I said it seemed a long time … not that it was.” He went on: “I want to talk to you. I have so much to say to you.”
“Still? I thought we had talked a lot.”
“Not enough. Let’s find somewhere quiet. I know. You have not seen my house yet. It isn’t very far.”
“I was going shopping.”
“Couldn’t that wait?”