‘Here, you can clean yourself up with this,’ she said, passing me a linen towel.
It was worse somehow with her standing there watching me. I went hot with embarrassment, feeling common and dirty. A girl like me should not be sullying her bedchamber with my presence. I was distressed to find a tear had trickled out of the corner of my eye and dripped in the bowl in front of me.
‘What’s the matter, Cat?’ Lady Elizabeth asked, coming to kneel beside me.
‘I’m not fit to be here,’ I said despairingly, dropping the linen cloth into the now grey water. ‘I should go.’
‘Nonsense,’ she said, getting up and going to a closet on the far side of the room. ‘You won’t feel like that when you’ve put this on tomorrow. I’ve grown out of it but it should fit you.’ On the bed she laid the loveliest emerald silk dress that I had ever seen. ‘Green never was my colour, but it will suit you.’
‘I can’t take it,’ I protested.
‘Of course you can,’ she said, smiling. ‘Now, you get yourself into bed. You must be exhausted.’
‘Bed?’
I looked round the room. The only bed I could see was Lady Elizabeth’s four-poster, hung with muslin curtains and covered with a white satin counterpane.
‘My bed, of course,’ said Lady Elizabeth. ‘There’s plenty of room for both of us. You get in; I’ll just go and check on the boys to see they have arrived safely.’
She left, closing the door softly behind her. I stood irresolute for a moment in the middle of the carpet and then made my decision. I was used to sleeping on the unyielding surface of the old couch in the Sparrow’s Nest. I had no need of the luxuries Lady Elizabeth had so kindly offered me. Finding a spare blanket in the chest under the window, I curled up on the floor behind the screen and, despite my determination to stay awake to hear her news when she returned, I must have dropped off to sleep.
I was woken the next morning by hushed voices at the door to the chamber.
‘No, Mary, I really do not require your assistance to dress this morning, but I would like you to prepare a bath for me next door.’
The door clicked to and a bare foot appeared around the corner of the screen.
‘I am sorry to have woken you, Cat. I had to send her away or she would have discovered you. Did you sleep well?’
I nodded, noticing for the first time that my cheek was cushioned on a feather pillow. I sat up and stretched.
‘I thought you had gone when I came back,’ laughed Lady Elizabeth. ‘You did give me a fright.’
‘Johnny and Pedro . . . are they safe?’ I asked anxiously, throwing off my blanket.
‘Yes, quite safe. Pedro went back to his master’s house once Johnny was smuggled into Francis’s room. He wanted to find out how it all ended at the theatre last night. He said he’d come back and tell us this morning.’
That was good. There would be uproar when Caleb was discovered and Johnny and I were found to be gone. I hoped the old man was all right but I dreaded to think what construction would be put on the whole affair. Would they be worried for me or blame me? Probably the latter if Mrs Reid had anything to do with it.
‘I did wonder if you would like a bath,’ Lady Elizabeth asked delicately. ‘I’ve arranged for one to be put in the dressing room next door and will propose that Lord Jonathan take a dip, but I thought I’d give you first refusal.’
A bath? What a luxury! I could not remember the last time I had had one, as normally I had to make do with a basin of hot water once a day.
‘That would be wonderful.’
‘Good. Then would you be so kind as to help me into my clothes and I will go and tell Francis what I’ve planned.’
Dressing a lady was a far more complicated affair than I had imagined. I did my job as lady’s maid very inexpertly, buttoning garments and lacing stays. Not surprisingly, Lady Elizabeth would not let me near her hair but dressed it herself in the mirror. She took a final look, straightening her rumpled skirt.
‘That’ll have to do. When you’re ready, go through there.’ She pointed to a door in the corner of the room. ‘The bath should be waiting for you. I’ll make sure Mary is out of the way, but remember to lock yourself in.’
I gave her a few minutes to fulfil her promise about the maid then quietly opened the door into the dressing room. The window was veiled with a curtain, filtering the morning light. In the centre of the wooden floor stood the very same bath I had seen down in the scullery only a few days ago. It was now filled to the brim with steaming water. A pile of linen towels stood waiting on an ebony rack. To me, so unused to such an excess of comforts, it was like stepping into the heart of a temple dedicated to cleanliness, the steam rising like incense to the gods of soap and water. I locked both doors as instructed and stripped to my skin. I knew it was immodest of me to take a bath without keeping on my shift but I had only one and besides, who was there to note my behaviour? Then the wonderful moment of truth came: I stepped in and submerged myself completely under the water.
I allowed myself some fifteen minutes of indulgence and then towelled off quickly. The bath water looked far less enticing now it was filled with soap bubbles, but Johnny would just have to put up with it. As a lord, I assumed he had the frequent pleasure of taking a plunge so today it was just his hard luck that I got there first.
Lady Elizabeth was waiting for me when I came back into her bedroom wrapped in a large white towel, clutching my pitiful bundle of clothes.