I didn’t want him to find me so unrefined as not to be able to appreciate nature. ‘It’s very . . . green.’
‘True . . . honest and true, just like you,’ he laughed. ‘I’m so pleased you didn’t come out with any of that tired old poetic stuff. Yes, the countryside is green, undeniably green.’ He offered me a chicken leg from the hamper stowed under his seat. ‘You must let me show you Boxton one day. It’s very green too, but there’s loads to do – riding, hunting, fishing, walking.’
‘Frank, can you really see me on a horse?’ I asked, wrinkling my nose.
‘I can see you excelling at anything you turn your hand to, Cat, horse riding included,’ he replied loyally.
‘I didn’t excel at looking after myself, did I?’ The bleak mood settled on me again as I remembered the humiliation of my time at Mr Tweadle’s.
Frank rubbed the bridge of his nose. ‘Why didn’t you tell us, Cat? I thought you knew you could ask us to do anything for you. Any of us would.’
‘I thought I had to make my own way.’ I stared at my hands, still coarse after weeks of scrubbing and peeling.
‘But why? None of us do. Lizzie and I – we have our parents. Syd’s got his family, his manager, and his boys around him. Pedro has Signor Angelini looking out for him. Why should you be on your own?’
How could he understand what it was like to be me?
‘I always have been, Frank. On my own, I mean. Ever since I can remember, my place in the world has been precarious, bound up with Drury Lane. When that went, I felt as if I too no longer existed.’
‘But you’re far more than a theatre, Cat. Don’t you see that?’
‘Thank you, Frank. I’m trying to.’
‘We all think highly of you – and not just your friends. Lord, Cat, even Billy Shepherd compliments you by thinking you worth his attention.’
His comment took me back to Billy’s collection and the empty cushion. I wondered if I should tell Frank about the deal I had made. It would be good to share the burden with someone – and he was as good as inviting me to rely on him.
‘There’s something you should know about me and Billy Shepherd, Frank,’ I began awkwardly.
Frank threw his chicken bone out of the window. ‘Oh, yes? Don’t tell me you’re engaged?’ he joked.
‘Not exactly . . .’ I then told him about the promise I had given and how Billy wished me to repay him. When he heard that Billy had asked for the Crown jewels, Frank gave a bark of laughter which turned abruptly into a growl when he learned of the alternative I had been offered.
‘You don’t think you have to do anything that that cockroach asks, do you?’
I should have realized that he wouldn’t understand. If I’d told the same story to Syd, Jo or Nick they would have got it at once. ‘It’s street honour, Frank.’
‘Street honour!’
His aristocratic assumption that the people of the lower classes were less men and women of their word than the nobility rankled with me.
‘If you gave your solemn promise to someone you’d keep, it wouldn’t you, Frank, or expect to be shamed in your circle?’
‘Of course, but . . .’
‘If I don’t keep my word, I can’t go back. You wouldn’t want me to take the second choice Billy gave me, would you?’
‘Heavens no, Cat.’ He looked shocked at the idea.
‘Don’t worry, Frank. I may have made a mess of the last few weeks but I can handle Billy Shepherd. I’ll come up with something – or I’ll hitch a lift to America with Lizzie and Johnny. Exile is better than putting myself under Billy’s tender loving care.’
Frank shook his head and looked out at a windmill revolving slowly on the horizon. ‘I’m pleased Lizzie never gives me any cause for concern, Cat, for with you as my honorary sister, I have more than enough worries.’
I felt a lump in my throat. That he looked on me like a sister was the most wonderful thing I had ever heard. I had an adopted family of the very best. How could I have ever thought I was abandoned and let myself get into such a fix?
‘Thank you, Frank. I’ll try not to disgrace you.’
‘Though I advise you to take some fashion tips from Lizzie,’ he added with a significant look at my frills, ‘I don’t think I can cope with a younger sister who looks like she’s wearing the entire contents of my maiden aunt’s workbasket.’
My chicken bone sailed through the air and struck Frank on the forehead.
‘Now I know the old Cat’s back!’ he said, rubbing the spot with a rueful smile.
SCENE 2 – NOTRE DAME BY STARLIGHT
Reader, if you have not yet had to endure a sea crossing, take advice from me and keep your feet firmly on dry ground. I have discovered that I am not what one would call a natural sailor.
The wind began to pick up as we descended into Dover at nightfall. Frank made light of it, telling me it was only a summer squall, and I, not yet knowing my own weakness, followed him innocently on board the little vessel that was to transport us across the water.
‘Quickly, quickly, girls,’ Madame Beaufort trilled to her troupe. ‘Get below.’ She cast a disapproving look at the sailors who were leering at her charges.
‘Show us a bit of ankle, love,’ shouted one tar to the prettiest of the chorus. ‘Give us a twirl, will you?’