Read Online Babe by Joan Smith - Free Book Online Page B

into suggesting your own wishes.”
    “I suppose you mean to use this as an excuse to forbid me my carriage.”
    “You have heard where the carriage is going. You may be sure no note from Lady Graham will see it removed to Mecklenberg Square. I use it as well as a reason to cancel this evening’s play, as you were at pains to let Gentz know where he might find you.”
    “That’s not why I said it! I was only trying to lend a semblance of normality to the very embarrassing scene you created.”
    “The scene was not of my making.”
    “Don’t think you’re going to run my life, Clivedon. I shall see whom I want. I shall go where I want, and I’d like to see you stop me.”
    “Keep your eyes open. You’ll see it right enough.”
    At Lady Graham’s, he told the dame that Lady Barbara was feeling unwell after a little accident in the park, which had caused the sending of her carriage to a wheeler. He said as well that her guest had decided to remain home this evening, to recuperate her nerves.
    “She does look flushed,” Mabel ventured, with a worried glance to her sister.
    “Flushed? She is pale as a ghost. Certainly she shall have a lie-down,” the chief mandarin decreed.
    “A little broth and some bread and butter later on,” Clivedon added.
    Lady Barbara stood mute, but directed such a penetrating stare on Clivedon, from a pair of eyes blazing with fury, that he felt a little trepidation. What if all this suppressed indignation should discover an outlet? Before the other ladies, he could say very little, however. “As you enjoy driving in the park so much, I shall call on you tomorrow,” he said. “A pity you must miss the play tonight, but there will be other plays. I shall bring you an account of it tomorrow.”
    To these overtures she did no more than look, unsmiling.
    “She’s had a shock. Best let her get to bed,” Lady Graham said.
    She was taken at once to her room, while her chaperone asked a dozen questions about the accident, and commiserated with her on the misfortune of a broken wheel. No one knew how to make a wheel or anything else nowadays. It was all due to moral laxity, and would not be changed till the world got religion. Any answers received were quite at random. There was only one thought in Barbara’s head. She must attend the play at Drury Lane that night, by hook or by crook, and she wished, as well, to do it in Colonel Gentz’s company. She would show that man once and for all who was in charge.
    She had no ally in her plan. Even Harper would not assist her. They were not close enough for that. She must evade the ladies, and get from the edge of Somers Town to the heart of the city, without a carriage and without much money. How was it to be done? Her first move must be to allay suspicion. She would ask for a little laudanum to allow her a good night’s sleep. She would close her door carefully, make her own toilette—unfortunately not so daring a gown as she would like to wear, thanks to Clivedon’s interference—and she would get a note to Gentz. How she regretted not having given him her direction. She had several hours in which to make and revise her plans, but during that time, no idea occurred to her how to get a note to Gentz. At five o’clock, she saw the stage from Islington to London bowling past, and looked at it with rising interest. There would be another at seven. She would take it, and hire a cab from the hostelry to go to Gentz. No, impossible to call at a gentleman's home unescorted. She’d go to Fannie’s. There was still a small staff on, and she had a key if they were not there.
    She followed her plan, finding less difficulty than she had feared. Lady Graham, as it happened, approved of laudanum, and had a bottle on hand to treat an ailing tooth of Mabel’s. This medication was poured into the pitcher by the bed and the toilette was begun. The hair was a long and laborious job, and her gown too, buttoned down the back, took an age to fasten. Getting