Page 54 of To Dare the Devil

“See that?”

She looked at Burt, who was holding out his hand to show her a deep scar on his thumb. “Is that—?”

“A bite? Aye, ’tis. Pike did that, little sod. First time I came across him he tried to rob me. I held him off and the little blighter bit me and kicked me in the shin. Wasn’t none too pleased with that, I can tell ye.”

“I should think not!” Kathy replied, appalled.

“But his da—miserable excuse for a man that he was—had taught him to do that, to rob and to fight, to lash out and to take what he wanted. When his father died and I got my hands on him, it took me an age to show him there was a better way.”

Kathy nodded, impressed that Burt had persevered. “I see.”

“Do ye? Because who was there to teach Max how to be kind, how to think of other people and not just take what he wanted? Servants weren’t people, they were no more to him than a piece of furniture, because that’s what he’d been taught to think. All that money and the fine life he had, and yet he stayed here for months after he was stabbed. Did you know that? He didn’t want to go back to his life because he was so damned unhappy. Imagine that, a rich, handsome young fellow wantin’ to stay in the Dials because he’s happier here!” Burt shook his head in wonder.

Kathy looked about her and could not understand it at all.

“Good people do bad things sometimes, and bad people can change, given the right circumstances. Max has changed. He’s learned how to be kind, learned what’s important and what ain’t. He did a wicked thing, but the child and the mother are safe and happy. He’s trying as hard as he can to be a good man, and I don’t think he ought to be punished for the rest of his life for a mistake he made when he was little more than an ignorant boy himself.”

“You don’t?” Kathy asked, realising this was what she had wanted to hear. Someone else, besides herself, who wanted to forgive him when she could not trust her own judgement, because she was in love with him. Grace might never forgive her, she realised, but she would have to live with that and hope that one day she might understand.

“I don’t, and that’s a fact. He’s in love with you, you know.”

Kathy gasped, almost dropping the mug she held. “W-What?”

Burt laughed, shaking his head. “Ah, young people. You’re all dicked in the nob. As if it ain’t plain as a pikestaff.”

“Is it?” she demanded, her heart suddenly beating madly in her chest.

“It is,” Burt said, hauling himself to his feet. “And even if it weren’t, he told me so. Right. I’ll go fetch Pike and get him to bring those two big bruisers to escort you home, or perhaps… somewhere else, eh?”

He’d told him? He’d told Burt he loved her!

“Somewhere else,” Kathy agreed, breathless now. “Somewhere else I’m not supposed to go.”

Chapter 18

Dearest Ozzie,

I hope this letter finds you well. I know we shall see each other at the weekend but I did not think this could wait. Nic tells me he overheard gossip in the card room at last night’s rout party. There is some speculation over your friendship with Lord Hargreaves, for it seems you have spent a deal of time in his company of late. I am so sorry, darling, to bring it to your attention but people will talk and make something out of nothing. I know he is a lovely man, but you must have a care for your reputation, and for his wife. She is the vindictive type, and I would not want her to cause you any distress. I am not suggesting you ignore your new friend, but perhaps try to give equal attention to all the other eager, unmarried men who would so dearly love to be the focus of your regard.

Your loving sister. E x.

―Excerpt of a letter from Lady Elizabeth Demarteau to her younger sister, Lady Rosamund Adolphus (daughters of their Graces, Robert and Prunella Adolphus, The Duke and Duchess of Bedwin).

19th June 1842, Albany Gardens, Piccadilly, London

“Drat it, where is the thing?” Grace demanded as poor Betty wailed in misery. The staff were tearing apart her parent’s town house for the sole purpose of finding her much beloved toy, the worn little rag doll she took everywhere with her.

“I reckon I’ve not seen it since you came back from visiting Mrs de Beauvoir,” the nursemaid insisted, though she searched under the child’s bed just in case.

“Oh, no.” Grace’s stomach dropped, finally having to accept the inevitable. Betty definitely had it in the carriage on the way to Vane Hall, unless…. “Have someone check the carriage,” she ordered, though she already knew fate would not be that kind.

Fifteen minutes later, the nursemaid was back, with the unwelcome but not unexpected news that Betty’s cloth dolly had not been seen anywhere. Not in the house, not in the garden, or in the carriage.

Grace swallowed a sigh, but she would not have Betty unhappy for any reason, and probably she would only need to speak to a footman or the butler at the door. Not him.

“Have the carriage readied for me,” she asked the nursemaid. “I’m going out.”

19th June 1842, Vane Hall, Chiswick, London.