The Seven Dials Affair, page 39
Judith smiled at Kitty and set Serena down to run and join the other children. Jeremy got to his feet. "Thank you for agreeing to see me. I realize I have no right to be here."
Judith moved to one of the chairs by the fire. "Berkeley Square isn't a colony breaking away from its colonizer."
"You know what I mean." Jeremy returned to the settee, a little stiffly. "There's no reason to think you'd receive me. By rights, you shouldn't."
"What was between us was never so formal. And I hope I'll always have time for a friend."
"Is that what we are? Friends?"
"I'm not sure what we are." Judith clasped her hands, holding herself in check. If she let go, she was quite sure she'd do something embarrassing. Like fling herself into his arms.
"To say I'm sorry seems entirely inadequate. But I'm sorrier than I can say that I pulled you into this."
"I'm not," Judith said. "If it weren't for Allegra and Esquivel and Bobby, you'd never have crossed the room to talk to me. And for all the tangle that caused, I'm inestimably glad you did. Because even when it hurt the most, I somehow knew someday I'd be grateful for the memories."
"I'm relieved to hear that. It's far more than I deserve."
"Do you want something?" She gestured towards the decanters.
"I don't want to—"
"Please. If we're going to talk more, I need something." She went to the decanters and poured two glasses of Malcolm and Mélanie's excellent sherry. "I'm not the woman I was that day you came over to talk to me." She put one of the glasses in his hand. "For that, I owe you my thanks."
"A bitter lesson."
"No. Or not entirely. For you it may have been the side effect of a mission. For me it was more."
"You can't think—can you really still think that's all it was to me?"
"I'm not sure." She took a sip of sherry, deeper than she intended. "Sometimes I think there was more. That I couldn't have been so deceived. Others, I think I was too in love to see anything clearly. I saw what I wanted because I wanted it so much." She watched him for a moment in the soft glow of the firelight. Light could hide as much as it revealed. "Is that how it was for you with Allegra?"
"I don't think I was ever properly in love with Allegra. I was fond of her. I desired her. I cared for her. But it wasn't ever—I don't think I understood what love could be until us."
"That sounds very gallant."
"I've never been gallant in my life."
She took a sip of sherry. "You're back at work."
"Yes. A bit awkward, but I've always been something of an outsider at Bow Street. All in all, most of my colleagues are treating me very decently."
"How are the boys?"
"They're—as well as possible, I suppose. Though I'm honestly not sure what possible means."
"I miss them. Even though you never really wanted me round them much."
"Don't talk rubbish, Judith."
"It's true. You almost never talk about them, and once we were together you were careful not to bring them round me much."
"I could hardly have brought them on an assignation."
"But when we were in Berkeley Square and they'd come running over to me like they used to, you seemed to want to hurry them away. Don't deny it."
Jeremy hesitated. "I suppose I was afraid of giving something away in front of them. I'm not always the best at containing my feelings. And they've been through a lot. They're fond of you. Very fond. I didn't want them to get even fonder and lose someone else."
"Because you assumed we were going to end. And then I wouldn't want to see you again? I suppose that makes sense, given that our affair was a mission. Missions come to an end. At least that seems to be the case from what my spy relatives tell me."
"Our affair was a lot of things, Judith. But it wasn't a mission."
"All right." Judith scanned his face. She didn't know whether it was his insistence or her own wishful thinking, or just possibly the first glimmerings of understanding, but she was willing to entertain the possibility that that was true. "If that's the case, then what? You were convinced what was between us had to end?"
He looked into her eyes. His own were dark and steady. Opaque and yet somehow she had the sense they could be smashed with a word. "Where else was it going to go?"
"It was quite delightful. And it wouldn't be the only permanent relationship we know of that began with a spy mission. Laura told me some quite illuminating things about her and Raoul. And while I've never quite been able to work out all the particulars, I'm fairly certain Mélanie and Malcolm began as a mission. I remember when Malcolm first brought her to England. You could feel what was between them. It was almost palpable in the air. But it was as if they were holding it in check. In any case, if spy missions didn't stand in their way—"
"Judith, I was in no position—"
"You were married. But that didn't stop Raoul and Laura. I mean, I think they're very happy they're married, but I'm quite sure they'd have stayed together regardless. Did you really think Fanny Dacre-Hammond's daughter would have objected to living in sin?"
"You can't seriously think I'd have asked you—"
"You were willing to bed me in secret but not to let the world know?"
"Isn't that the way love affairs are carried out in the beau monde? It doesn't matter whom one sleeps with as long as one doesn't flaunt it publicly?"
"Well, not precisely. It's all right for the public to know—like they do about Emily Cowper and Palmerston, like they did about Mama and goodness knows who—so long as one doesn't make a public display of it like Caro Lamb. But that assumes we care about the beau monde, which I know you don't. I suppose now that you're free you're going to refuse to marry me as well."
Jeremy's glass tilted in his fingers. "Who said anything about marriage?"
"You certainly didn't. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised you don't want to compromise your principles."
"Compromise my what?"
"Jeremy, you can't deny you despise the world I come from."
"I never said—"
"No, you have better manners than that. But you can't deny you have complete contempt for the beau monde."
"I wouldn't say that."
"But you'd think it?"
"I'll admit I was quick to judgment in the beginning."
"It took you forever to even be comfortable coming to Berkeley Square as a guest."
"Because it's not my world."
"And you think we're shallow and selfish and out of touch with ordinary people. You aren't far wrong, if you think of the beau monde in a lump. But I think you've learned some of us are different."
"Of course I have. I'll admit to prejudices. And I'll always feel a bit awkward. But the Rannochs and their friends are now some of my best friends."
"So I think you could learn to live in that world, against your principles. Look at Raoul. He's a revolutionary—"
"Who was born to aristocrats. It's different."
"Since when have you cared what anyone thinks of you? You're gloriously free of worrying about such things. So it shouldn't bother you if anyone thinks you've married me for my money. I wouldn't force you to be part of this world. But I do insist we use my fortune. It would be very foolish not to. And you're far too pragmatic for that. I'm sure there's a great deal I don't understand about poverty, and a great deal I can learn to do, but I don't think our and our children's living in poverty will help anything."
Jeremy shook his head. His mouth curved with a tenderness that brought a lump to her throat. "My darling. I don't doubt that you could do anything you put your mind to. And I know your family's capacity for breaking rules. But some lines can't be crossed."
"Jeremy." Judith stared at him. "Are you, of all people, going to say you're bound by class lines?"
"No. But I can imagine how you will likely feel in a few months or a few years—"
"My family won't cast us off. And you already like them. I think."
"Of course I do."
"Well, then."
"Judith. I'm not going to pull you into something you'll regret."
Judith moved to the settee and put her hands on his chest. Not long ago she had thought she'd never touch him again. But now it felt natural. "Don't you think I should be able to say what I might regret? And you aren't pulling me into anything. I'm attempting to drag you by your fingernails."
"My darling, in a few years—"
"I hope to goodness we'll be happily married and beyond this." Judith put her mouth to his. "Stop being an idiot, Jeremy. And marry me."
CHAPTER 50
"Do you think it will get easier?" Manon asked.
"I'm not sure," Brandon said. "But I don't think it will ever be dull." He held out his hands and Manon stepped into his arms.
Watching from the table to the side, for the first time Mélanie felt the last scene was working. She lifted her teacup in a silent toast and caught a stir of movement in the wings. Jessica darted out of the shadows and ran to her, followed by Malcolm.
"Mummy!" Jessica threw her arms round Mélanie. "Daddy said I could come if I was quiet."
Mélanie hugged her daughter and smiled at Malcolm. "How long have you been here?"
"For the last scene. It's good."
"That's the first time I've felt that scene landed right." Mélanie pulled Jessica onto her lap. "Did you and Julien talk to Hubert?" she asked, as Jessica picked up her pencil and began drawing on a blank sheet of paper.
"Yes. As usual, he didn't admit much. Then we looked in at Brooks's. Beardsley found us there. He and Cressida Caldwell are betrothed."
"I'm so glad she was sensible about it. I thought he'd be sensible after seeing them together."
"Yes, so did I. He said it was quite a challenge to persuade her. Then I went back to Berkeley Square. I found Roth there."
"Judith said they'd arranged to talk. How did it go?"
Jessica, who had seemed totally absorbed in drawing, set down the pencil. "They're getting married."
This time Mélanie started. She put her arms round Jessica so her daughter wouldn't slip off her lap. "I hoped—but I didn't think anything would happen so quickly."
"Nor did I," Malcolm said. "Nor did Roth, apparently. He was still looking rather thunderstruck when Jessica and I left. I gather Judith had as hard a time persuading him as Beardsley did Miss Caldwell. She was always determined."
"Judith says I can be a bridesmaid." Jessica was drawing again. "But it won't be for a while. He has to talk to Samuel and Dorian." She looked across the room where the company were gathered round the refreshment table. "May I talk to Roxane and Clarisse? And get some biscuits?"
"Bring some back for us."
Jessica grinned and ran over to Manon's daughters. Malcolm smiled as he watched her. "Another case concluded."
"I missed too much of it."
"If you hadn't been at the theatre, we wouldn't have learned about Warkworth and Eliza Bentley." He looked down at Jessica's drawing. "She's drawing a stage."
"She's writing a play in pictures. I've promised to put them all together for her."
"Like her mother." Malcolm tugged the picture into the light of the lamp on the table to study it better. "She couldn't wait to come when I said I was going to the Tavistock. She's at home here. Like you."
Mélanie reached for her tea and forced down a sip. "It has to bother you sometimes, Malcolm."
"What?"
No way to say it but bluntly. "That we don't share everything we used to."
He hitched himself up on the edge of the table. "Are there moments I miss you? Of course. Are there moments I'm a selfish idiot and wish you were always there when I looked round? Guilty. Am I immeasurably proud of you?" He touched her hand. "I can't say how much."
Mélanie smiled up at him and felt a prickle behind her eyes. "How do you always know just what to say, darling? Perhaps I should have turned to you for my last scene."
"Hardly. But you might ask me for help, if you ever need it. I'm not a playwright. But I did grow up on plays. And we've always done quite well collaborating. There's no reason that should mean just your helping me."
She squeezed his hand. "You're amazing, Malcolm."
He turned his hand to twine his fingers round hers. "I'm married to an amazing playwright."
"I feel for them," Julien said, looking across the Berkeley Square library at Jeremy and Judith, who were talking to Sandy and Bet and Justine and Gerry. "I keenly remember the horror of everyone offering congratulations and looking smugly satisfied that we'd discovered connubial bliss."
Kitty tucked her hand through his arm. "Poor darling."
"You were more horrified than I was. I was too busy worrying you'd back out of it."
Mélanie undid the wire cap on a bottle of champagne. "It feels rather like being on stage without a role to hide behind."
Julien's gaze took in Mélanie, Malcolm, Laura, Raoul, Harry, and Cordy, who were gathered round the drinks table. "Of course, as Roth and Judith will discover, the really annoying thing about the smug satisfaction you all showed is that you were right."
"I categorically deny ever looking smug." Malcolm handed Mélanie a towel as she wrestled with the champagne cork.
"It seems an oddly appropriate conclusion to the case." Cordelia slid her arm round Harry. "This case was about marriage."
"Was it?" Harry said. "I thought it was about revolutions and colonization."
"There could be said to be parallels between the two," Raoul said. "I once heard Fanny say exclusive rights were the province of colonial powers, not consenting adults. Though that was before Archie."
"Are you comparing marriage to being colonized?" Laura asked.
"Not with the right person." Raoul kissed her hand.
Mélanie popped open the champagne and refilled glasses.
"It's funny," Cordelia said. "It seems quite clear now that Jeremy's and Allegra's marrying wasn't a good idea. And it seems equally clear to all of us that this is different."
"The cast of characters does make a difference," Mélanie said.
"And the timing," Kitty added.
A shout of laughter came from the children, who were organizing another puppet show. Manon and her husband Crispin, Blanca and Addison, and Harriet Roth were with them, along with and Cressida Caldwell and William Beardsley. Cressida's son Vincent looked perfectly at home with the other children. Laura smiled at them, then glanced towards the fireplace. "Ralph and Mandy look happy. And a bit less overwhelmed."
Mélanie set down the champagne bottle followed the direction of Laura's gaze. Allam and Mandy were talking to Frances and Archie and David and Simon. "Fanny's good at putting people at ease. Well, they all are, really."
Julien took a drink of champagne. "It occurs to me that it may actually be good preparation for surviving the House of Lords."
"What?" Mélanie asked.
Julien lifted his champagne glass towards Allam and Mandy in a silent toast. "Growing up in Seven Dials."
HISTORICAL NOTES
Marco Esquivel is fictional, but Carlos María de Alvear and José de San Martín were very real and both involved in the Sociedad de los Caballeros Racionales/The Lodge of the Rational Knights. They were both in London in 1811 and attended lodge meetings at the home of Venezuelan revolutionary leader Francisco de Miranda, who was then in London as well. Shortly after, Alvear, San Martín, and others sailed to Buenos Aires on the British ship George Canning. Some historians have theorized that San Martín may have been a British agent, though others disagree. The Argentine revolutionary government received a loan from British merchants in 1821.
The term La Argentina was used for what is now Argentina going back to the seventeenth century, though officially the Spanish called it the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata and then it was called the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata by the revolutionary government. The term Argentine Republic was first used in the 1826 constitution. The term the Argentine was commonly used by the British.
The Portuguese royal family and court did escape to Brazil in 1807, just ahead of the French. Lord Strangford was involved in their flight, though Henry Brougham (who appears elsewhere in the Rannoch Fraser Mysteries) did indeed claim Strangford had exaggerated his role.
George Thomas Love's A Five Year Residence in Buenos Ayres, During the Years 1820 – 1825 (London: G. Herbert, 1825), provides a fascinating glimpse in Buenos Aires at the time through the eyes of a British expat. Patrick Wilcken's Empire Adrift: The Portuguese Court in Rio de Janeiro 1808-1821 (London: Bloomsbury, 2004) is not only a wonderful account of the Portuguese court's time in Brazil but of many of the issues and conflicts in that part of South America at the time.
A READING GROUP GUIDE
The Seven Dials Affair
About This Guide
The suggested questions are included
to enhance your group's reading of
Tracy Grant's The Seven Dials Affair
.
Allegra Roth and Marco Esquivel both left their children to pursue their work in the Argentine. How do you feel about their actions? Are you more sympathetic to one of them than the other? How do their actions compare to Raoul's being away from Malcolm and now at times Emily and Clara?
What do you think drove Allegra/Alejandra? Do you think she loved Esquivel?
Roth confronts his past in the book, but Kitty, Malcolm, and Raoul also confront issues from their pasts. Do you think each of them is more or less at peace with the past by the end of the investigation?
Mélanie continues to juggle being a playwright, an investigator, a mother, and a wife. How does her juggling compare with that of modern parents? Why do you think she was reluctant to let Malcolm see the play?
What do you think lies ahead for Judith and Roth?
Allegra struggled with the options available for a woman in her era. How do her struggles and choices compare with Mélanie's, Kitty's, Cordelia's, Laura's, Cressida Caldwell's?
