“Oh? I hadn’t noticed.” Her voice trembled.
“I think, dear friend, you are lying. The air in this room stifles me.”
“Resolute, you shock me.” Margaret blushed and went to a window where she appeared to be watching August walk down the road. “Any woman would be flattered by the attention of so vigorous, so dangerous a man.”
I stared into the bottom of my glass of wine, looking at my fingers through the glass below a filter of red where they appeared as if they were washed in blood. I wondered if anyone could see that I was closer to August in spirit than to any good church woman. Perhaps I was as dangerous as Margaret. I wished I were at home.
Margaret said, “Let us go immediately and call on the harridan of whom you spoke so highly. Imagine, consorting with Lucifer himself, and still whole? She must be unbelievable. If we arrive at two rather than three, we may find out all sorts of delicious things. I know it is just a few houses down, across the street, but I prefer to arrive in style.” As the coachman drove us around the block, I fanned myself and turned my thoughts to preparing to see Serenity. If Margaret longed to search out trouble, she would surely find it there.
Their butler admitted us and showed us to a well-laid sitting room. He scuttled off to find his mistress with a concern on his face that brought a flush to Margaret’s cheeks. She wandered about the room, pausing before large, life-sized portraits of Wallace and Serenity. “He’s quite smart. What say you, Ressie? Are these good likenesses?”
“Good? I would recognize both of them but the artist has been kind,” I said.
“Ah. I do so like a kind painter rather than an honest one. Are they recent?”
“I do not see that it is long past. Perhaps a handful of years.”
The butler arrived with a tea service. “The housekeeper wishes you to refresh yourselves. Madam is delayed a moment more.”
“Thank you,” Margaret said. “We shall pour; you needn’t wait.”
“Yes, madam,” he said, and left.
We drank the tea. We waited. We took a spin around the room, looking at the vases and portraits, the sculpted figurines, the furniture. A clock in a case taller than Cullah sat at one end of the room. It chimed three. Margaret studied it. “Do you think it is correct?” she mused. “Even if we had arrived on time, she has kept us waiting. I say, this one is more than a little trouble. Let’s see the house. Perhaps she is asleep in her ale somewhere.”
I was shocked to see Margaret open one door after another, surprising the cooks in the kitchen, a maid dusting books in a library. I could do naught but follow her, for I had rather be found with her than alone in the sitting room. At the end of the great hall, Margaret opened yet another door, her tiny, gloved fingers still upon the latch when we saw through that breach Serenity, a riding crop in her hand, standing above a young African woman in neat maid’s livery, cringing on the floor. Wallace stood beside Serenity, her arm caught in his hand, the riding crop still poised to come down upon the woman beneath them. Margaret stepped into the room, pulling my skirt so that I followed her, and we watched the scene before us as if it were acted on a stage.
Serenity said, “No more. I will not have it. I will not have her! Do you hear me? No more!”
“What is it to you?” he said, with a low growl in his voice that chilled me. “Mind your business, woman, and leave her to me.”
“After I catch you in the act? My God! In the very act in my private salon! Leave her to you? I would sooner burn her at the stake!”
In all of this, the African showed nothing on her face. Margaret elbowed me and arched her brows.
Serenity struggled against Wallace’s hand, and finding she could not free her arm, kicked the woman with her foot. “I have guests coming in a few minutes and I will have to entertain all the while knowing what you are about. You make my skin creep! Get her out of my house. Out of my house, now!”
Wallace said, “I paid for her. I’ll keep her.”
“Either get the slut out of this house or get yourself out! Sell her for nothing, the worthless sack!”
“I’ll buy her,” I said.
The two of them turned, red-faced, as Margaret gave a squeal of glee and clasped her hands upon her mouth. I said, “I will take her. How much is her price?”
“I paid twenty pounds,” Wallace said.
Serenity said, “Sixpence!”
I reached through the slot in my gown to the pocket and pulled out a sixpence. “Here,” I said, holding it forth.
Serenity looked from me to Margaret and back to me. “What are you doing here?”
“Mistress Gage asked me to accompany her, to make your introductions.”
“But you are not expected until three.” She shook her arm from Wallace’s hand.
“It is quarter of four,” Margaret said. “We waited to be received by you, but apparently you and your husband had household matters to discuss.”