‘What do I think?’ I tried to keep my voice steady.
He leant over a candelabra standing ready on a table and lit it with a taper. ‘You think I’m like some wicked Italian count in one of Mrs Radcliffe’s books, waiting to lock up the heroine in a dungeon.’
‘Congratulations, Billy! You’ve learnt to read at long last. I hadn’t realized you had such feminine tastes.’
‘I was just pitchin’ my conversation to your level, as a gentleman should.’
His repartee had improved. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was taking lessons in that too, to pass himself off as a gent in any society stupid enough to give him houseroom.
‘Generosus nascitur non fit,’* I quipped, knowing full well he wouldn’t understand.
‘Don’t come over all clever with me, Cat. Just because you spent a couple of weeks in breeches learnin’ fancy languages, don’t mean you can outwit me.’
‘Course not, Billy,’ I said with a great show of humility. ‘What, I, a poor little ignorant maid, dare to rival the great, the learned William Shepherd?’
‘You know wot, Cat?’ he retorted, his accent on the slide. ‘I wish I’d ’ad the beatin’ of you when you were at that school. I ’ear you were quite the favourite punchbag for a while there. ’Ad I known, I’d’ve enrolled and whipped some of that cheek out of you.’
‘You’re a true gentleman, Billy, do you know that? One would never guess you were raised in the gutter and made your way through thieving and thuggery.’
I truly was insane. Here I was in his house, with his servants waiting on his call, and I was insulting him as freely as ever. But Billy had had enough. ‘Shut yer mouth and get in there.’ He gave me a shove in the small of the back.
I gasped. I had stumbled into Aladdin’s cave. It wasn’t a dungeon but a display cabinet for Billy’s collection of –
‘Jools, Cat, that’s wot I like. See a bit of work that catches me eye and I ’as to ’ave it.’
The shelves were laden with cameos set with pearls, ruby-encrusted snuffboxes, diamond tiepins. A sapphire necklace was spreadeagled on a red velvet cushion, just begging for a fine white neck to wear it. An emerald ring glistened in an ebony box like a winking eye.
‘Where did you pinch all these from?’ I asked, aghast.
‘Pinch? You think I stole these, do you, Cat?’ He leant against the door, blocking my exit.
‘Course I do.’
‘I won’t deny that some came to me strangely cheap from irregular sources, but I buy them above board, all fair and square.’
I raised an eyebrow.
He grinned. ‘Well, perhaps I don’t ask enough questions, but I never stole none of these, I swear, your worship.’ He saw where my eyes were resting. ‘Try it on.’
Before I could refuse, he put the sapphire necklace around my throat and held up a mirror so I could inspect it. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, though the stones felt cold against my skin. I shivered.
‘Look, it suits you, Cat. You were born to wear fine stuff, anyone can see that. Your father must ’ave ’ad blue blood, even if your mother was a harlot.’
I pulled it off my neck, feeling sullied that I’d half fallen for the lure of all these garish treasures.
‘Easy with that!’ Billy chided, taking the necklace from me and laying it reverently back on its pillow.
‘So, you’ve got a lot of rocks, Billy. What’s that to do with me?’
He rubbed his chin, gazing around him like a painter trying to decide where next to place his brush. ‘It’s a fine collection, I grant you, but I feel it lacks something.’
‘What?’
‘I want the Crown jewels.’
‘Oh yeah, pull the other one, it’s got bells on,’ I laughed hollowly.
‘Nah, I’m deadly serious, Cat. I want you to get me the Crown jewels. I’m a reasonable man – I don’t ask for all of ’em, just something to put in that space . . . there!’ He pointed to a gap in the middle shelf occupied by an empty cushion.
‘You are joking?’
He shook his head. ‘You gave your word, Cat. You said you’d do anything to ’elp your African friend.’
I gulped. He was purposely setting me an impossible task. He had to have a reason.
‘Isn’t there something else I could do?’
‘I like collectin’, Cat: jewels, money, people . . .’
‘You really should get out more, Billy –’
‘If you don’t get me wot I want, you’ll ’ave to take its place.’ He placed the lock of hair on the cushion.
‘You’re a sick man, Billy, very sick.’ My knees were trembling. I wasn’t sure if he meant he wanted a bit of me carved off and put up there like a fetish belonging to some savage tribe of Captain Cook’s, or whether he meant he wanted me as a permanent guest in his house. A possession. Knowing Billy, both were possible and I didn’t want to find out the answer.
He just smiled.
I looked down at my skirts. I’d forgotten to keep the raspberry stain hidden – the blot taunted me, reminding me of my failings. ‘All right, damn you! I’ll get you your Crown jewel even if I have to rob the king myself. How long do I have?’
Billy picked up the candelabra. ‘’Ow long do you think you’ll need before you decide?’
He meant before I decided if I was going to join his little collection.
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ I said irritably, hating him for this. He loved humiliating me. ‘Till the end of the summer, I s’pose.’
‘Fair enough. Your cushion will be waitin’ by my fireside for the autumn then, Kitten.’
‘Don’t call me Kitten.’
He ushered me out and pulled the bell cord. ‘You know, I always wanted a pet,’ he said in a conversational tone. ‘Somethink to come ’ome to.’
‘Something to kick when you get angry, you mean.’
‘That too.’ His hand darted out and stroked my hair before I had time to duck. ‘Looks better now it’s grown again. You’re turnin’ out all right after all.’