The Prince and the Quakeress - Plaidy Jean - Страница 19

‘She never would,’ cried Jane. ‘It is against everything she has been taught.’

‘You could explain to her...’

‘She wouldn’t listen. There’d be terrible trouble if they found out. Suppose Hannah told her uncle? He might consider it his duty to speak to my husband...’

‘Your husband is an apprentice, is he not?’

‘Yes.’

‘Suppose your husband had a chance of setting up his own business.’

‘What?’

‘I can see you are a sensible girl. The young gentleman involved is of very high nobility. If you would help me and if together we were able to bring about the desired result I can see no reason why there should not be big rewards in this for you. Not just a pretty gown or two...which your beauty deserves and which you shall have in any case...but I see no reason why, if we are successful in this affair your husband might not be in business on his own.’

Jane’s eyes were sparkling. No longer to be a servant! To be mistress in her own house, ordering her own servants...and all for helping her dear friend Hannah to escape from that dreary linen-draper’s shop.

‘I’ll do it,’ she said.

‘Then it’s a bargain. But you do understand the need for secrecy, don’t you? Not a word to anyone. And you must be discreet. First find out how Hannah feels about this young man. She will know to whom you refer, because although they have not spoken he has made his interest clear.’

‘She never told me.’

‘So you will have to tread carefully. Remember what is at stake.’

Jane nodded; and after having made an arrangement to call on Mr. Ems at an early date, bemused, she went into the glass-cutter’s.

• • •

Hannah was astounded. The Prince of Wales wished to speak to her! No one had mentioned the Prince of Wales, but she knew. He was the young man...the boy who bad looked at her so earnestly as he had passed in his chair. He had been so moved by the sight of her that he had wanted to talk to her.

‘Thou art making it up,’ she accused Jane.

Jane swore that she was not. ‘There can be no harm in it. Why shouldn’t you meet him? You only have to talk to him.’

‘But where...how...?’

‘You don’t have to worry. You only have to go out with me...we’re supposed to be shopping...In Jermyn Street a dosed carriage is waiting for us...We get into it and together we go to this address. There you will speak to this young nobleman and together we come back to Jermyn Street. What harm can there be in that?’

‘There could be great harm.’

‘Really, Hannah, you are a coward. Are you going to stay in your uncle’s shop all your life, or possibly marry Grocer Axford and go on and on through life never having any fun.’

‘Isaac Axford would be a good husband.’

‘I’ve no doubt but you owe it to this young gentleman to see him.’

‘How can I know what will happen when I get to this house?’

‘You have seen the gentleman. You could trust him.’

Yes, thought Hannah. I have seen him—an innocent young boy. Of course she could trust him. He was no lecherous roue out for a new sensation with a prudish Quaker girl. She knew she could trust him. So since he so desired to see her, she must go to him.

‘I will come,’ she said.

Jane was jubilant. She could scarcely wait to call on Mr. Jack Ems to tell him that the first step had been taken.

• • •

George left the Palace for the Hay market where Miss Chudleigh had engaged a suite of rooms for him. As his chair was carried to its destination no one glanced at him as he was travelling incognito, just an ordinary gentleman with his private chair, his chairmen and his footman.

He was very excited. He had been daring. It was the first time he had acted without the approval of his mother or Lord Bute, and he did wonder very much what they would say if they knew what he was doing. Miss Chudleigh had warned him not to betray his actions, for his mother and Lord Bute would surely try to stop him if he did.

‘I should not really go against their wishes,’ said George. ‘Everything they do is for my own good.’

‘And for their own,’ retorted Miss Chudleigh. ‘But mine is the same as theirs,’ replied George. How well they have trained their little tame pet, thought Miss Chudleigh. Well, there were going to be some surprises in Court circles when it was discovered that little George had suddenly become a man.

‘Everything,’ Miss Chudleigh said quickly, ‘will depend on Miss Lightfoot.’

‘Oh yes, everything must depend on her,’ George’s heart was beating wildly as he opened the door of the suite. A man was waiting to bow him into a room which was pleasantly though not luxuriously furnished. With him was a young woman, obviously Hannah’s servant.

‘My lord, the young lady will stay for half an hour and then she must be gone.’

‘It...it shall be as she desires,’ stammered George. ‘If your lordship will excuse me...the lady will be here immediately.’

For a few seconds George was alone in the room; his throat constricted, his sight blurred. Nothing like this had ever happened to him before; it was like something he had dreamed. And it was all due to clever Miss Chudleigh.

The door opened and she stood there—the beautiful vision from the linen-draper’s window. He gasped and she came towards him, serene—she would always be serene—and only the faint colour in her cheeks betraying the fact that she was excited.

‘I...I trust you are not displeased,’ he stammered.

She curtsied. ‘Your Highness must forgive me. I have never been taught how to behave with royalty.’

What simply charming words! How graciously spoken.

Some impulse made him kneel before her.

‘Oh no,’ she said. ‘Thou must not.’

Thou must not. What a delightful manner of expression. It suited her. He wanted to kiss her hand, but be felt that he should not touch her yet. She might object and he did not want her to go away before he had had a chance to speak to her.

He rose to his feet rather clumsily. ‘You are more beautiful close than in the window.’

‘Your Highness is very kind to me.’

‘I want to be. I wish I knew how.’

‘Shall we sit down and talk?’

Everything she said seemed to him so wonderful, so wise.

They sat side by side on a sofa; he was careful not to sit close for fear she should object. ‘I have never talked much to ladies,’ he said.

She was moved by his sincerity and honesty. Nothing could have charmed her more. He was incapable of pretence; he was charmingly innocent. And he was the Prince of Wales!

She said: ‘I know thou art the Prince of Wales.’

‘I hope that does not displease you.’

‘No, but it makes it difficult for us to be friends.’

He was alarmed. ‘I feared so. But Miss...er...a friend of mine has told me that it is possible for us to meet.’

‘As we have now.’

‘I hope that this will be the first of many meetings.’

‘Is that what thou wishest?’

‘I wish for it more than anything on earth. I have never seen anyone as beautiful as you are. I would be happy if I could look at you for the rest of my life.’

She smiled gently. She was almost as inexperienced of the life as he was; and it was pleasant to sit beside him and talk.

She talked more than he did for he was so fearful of offending her. She told him of how she had come to the linen-draper’s shop and of her life there. He listened avidly as though it was a tale of great adventure. They could not believe that the half-hour was over when Mr. Ems scratched discreetly on the door.

George seized her hands; he could not leave her without her assurance that they would meet here again...within the next few days.

If it could be arranged, Hannah said, she would be there.

Jane looked at her curiously as they jolted back to Jermyn Street in their closed carriage. She seemed more excited than Hannah; but Hannah had changed; there was a quiet radiance about her. She knew she was loved, devotedly and unselfishly by no less a person than the Prince of Wales.