They both stood absolutely still. The noise and bustle of the crowded room faded, so that May could hear only the drumming of her heartbeats in her ears. Then a large, satin-clad bosom came to claim Lord Hindlesham, and at his murmured farewells May unfroze, and managed a smile in his direction, before turning back to the tall, immaculately-tailored figure before her.
She held out her hand. ‘How do you do, Mr Lisle?’
Archie’s voice was surprised. ‘You don’t know each other already, do you?’
May said, ‘We have never been formally introduced – is that not correct, Mr Lisle?’
Walter Lisle finally found his voice. ‘No, no we haven’t, Miss Winton.’ At last he took her hand, grasping it firmly as he shook it.
May felt a wave of acute embarrassment wash over her. She remembered that parting scene in the vicarage hall, and Mrs Tranter’s words seemed to echo round the elegant drawing room. It was clear from her companion’s expression that his thoughts were very similar. His face, which had drained of colour when he first saw her was now a fiery red, and May felt a matching tide rise into her cheeks. Archie, obviously totally bemused by their extreme reactions to each other, and realising there was a problem, moved in helpfully.
‘’Fraid you’ll not get much social chit-chat from May tonight, Tate old boy, she’s only come for the food, you know. My grandmother had to bait the trap with quenelles and soufflés and well-hung game, otherwise we’d never get her west of Aldgate pump.’
Walter Lisle picked up the cue gratefully. ‘I must admit, Miss Winton, that the memory of Chef’s luneheons has been a powerful inducement to me – I didn’t know you would be here.’ He realised what he had said, and stopped abruptly.
May saw Archie raise his eyebrows behind Mr Lisle’s shoulder, and jerk his head towards the door. The procession for dinner was forming, and Lady Andover was trying to catch their eye. She began to move. Walter Lisle remembered himself and extended his arm to May and she placed the silken fingertips of her gloved left hand on the fine black cloth of his sleeve. They walked slowly towards the dining room. One by one the escorting gentlemen pulled back their partners’ chairs, and, all too soon for May’s peace of mind, she was sitting at the white damask with its gleaming expanse of silver and glassware; with Walter Lisle beside her and not one single conversational gambit in her head. What did you say to a young man whom you scarcely knew but whom on your previous meeting you had been loudly accused of seducing – and by a Bishop’s relict, no less? Mrs Tranter’s ‘shameless hussy’ rang in the air between them, and settled like lead on Chefs fragrant consommé. May picked up her spoon and with the first mouthful transferred the lead weight to her stomach. This couldn’t go on; she must say something. She put down the spoon, turned to her companion and spoke.
‘Mr Lisle, I am deeply sorry for what took place at our last meeting,’ she faltered, then gathered her courage again. ‘For seizing hold of you, and shaking you like that – and putting your visitor under such a terrible misapprehension.’ The final words came out in a rush.
It was obvious that Walter Lisle wasn’t enjoying his soup either. He said, in a tone that was almost desperate, ‘Miss Winton, I feel responsible for the appalling manners of that dreadful woman.’ His voice shook. ‘She had no right to make those comments, and besides, it was all my fault. You had every justification for giving me a good shaking. I fully deserved it – however could I have let myself make such an indelicate remark to a young lady!’ He gave an involuntary glance at the swelling chiffon folds of May’s décolleté, then said loudly, ‘I was totally mistaken.’
May, whose confidence had been rising at the undoubted sincerity of Walter Lisle’s words, blinked at his final statement, and must have looked slightly hurt, because he suddenly dropped his spoon with a splash and said, ‘Dammit, I mean it was a mistake to say it!’
May turned and looked directly at him. His face expressed such bafflement and confusion that she felt the beginnings of a schoolgirl giggle well up inside her. He looked back desperately, seeming to sense her amusement. May controlled herself, put her hand on his arm and said, smiling up at him, ‘Mr Lisle, if you were indelicate, then I was immodest – I should never have seized hold of you in the way I did. Let’s forget all about it.’
Walter Lisle slowly relaxed. He looked at her searchingly for a moment, then smiled back. He put down his napkin and held out his right hand to May.
‘Is it “pax”, then, Miss Winton?’
May nodded, and they shook hands solemnly.
When May looked round she saw that they had managed to miss the whole of the first course with their peace negotiations: the footmen were deftly removing the plates. She gazed in horror at her untouched soup, then leant towards Walter and under cover of his shoulder whispered to Robert behind her.
‘Oh, don’t tell Chef, please.’
A flicker of acknowledgement passed across Robert’s well-trained face and May breathed a sigh of relief. She looked into Walter’s amused eyes and explained.
‘He takes such a pride in his creations – whatever will I say? We usually discuss the entire meal, course by course, before I leave: he has an exaggerated respect for my palate.’
Walter smiled, then nodded across the table. ‘You’ll have to ask George Hindlesham, he’s the expert.’
‘Of course, you’re right, I will. I couldn’t bear to upset Chef, not after all the food hampers he’s sent us at St Katharine’s.’
Walter Lisle grinned. ‘I envy you. Mrs Lewis is a good plain cook, but plain is the operative word, I’m afraid.’ He leant towards her. ‘I went to see Hetty again, but she said you’d been transferred.’
‘Yes,’ May replied lightly. ‘I’m on Elizabeth, the children’s ward. Temporary Acting Staff Nurse, no less – but only until Jameson’s recovered from the measles.’
‘I’m so pleased.’ Walter’s approval was warm and so obviously genuine that she blushed with pleasure. He went on, earnestly, ‘Tell me, with your experience in the hospital you must be in a position to make a judgment: what are your views on the Drink Question? Are you a supporter of Prohibition, or do you believe in more liberal methods of persuasion?’
Unfortunately, at this interesting point in the conversation the Society Beauty on the other side of Walter, who had been eyeing his elegant profile in a predatory manner since the dinner began, finally pounced, and his attention was diverted. May in her turn found herself the object of the determined advances of the middle-aged bon viveur on her left, whose tactical manoeuvres she had been carefully ignoring up to this time. Still, at least she could give her full attention to the entrées now, since her neighbour only really wanted a pretty audience. What had the fish course been? She did hope Lord Hindlesham had been concentrating, or she would never be able to look Chef in the face the next morning.
The iced asparagus arrived while May’s righthand neighbour was in full bore. However Walter had detached himself and he nudged May’s elbow – deliberately? – so that her plate slipped slightly and in the ensuing apologies she was able to make her escape in turn.
Over the game course they thrashed out the Drink Question to their mutual satisfaction – they were in general agreement against Prohibition, but there were enough points of difference between them to add spice to their discussion.
Their respective neighbours claimed their attentions for most of the sweet course, but this time May cut her bore short with a swift, ‘I think Lady Canning wishes to speak to you. Sir,’ and turned back and smartly rapped Walter’s wine glass so that it rocked dangerously and he had to steady it. The Society Beauty retreated, rebuffed. May had a quick glimpse of Lord Hindlesham’s simian face creased up in amusement across the table as he watched the little pantomime, and she felt herself blushing. He winked at her as he raised his spoon to the ramekins, and she began to feel it might be rather embarrassing to have to ask him for details of the finer points of the dishes she’d failed to savour. Still, it had to be done: she could never let Chef down – with his Latin temperament he was easily upset. As these thoughts were flashing through her mind she was smiling into Walter Lisle’s dark eyes.
He said, ‘You know, I can’t get over the amazing coincidence of meeting you here tonight.’
‘Well, Archie and I do share a surname.’
‘But I still had no idea. The wretch quite deceived me – he kept burbling on about “my cousin May”,’ he looked self-conscious as he spoke her Christian name, but repeated it firmly, “‘My cousin May, the Frears’ heiress” – and talking about the shipyards. Why on earth did he call you that?’
May looked down at her plate. She said in a small voice, ‘My mother was Mary Frears.’ She felt Walter Lisle’s eyes on the back of her neck.
He said slowly, ‘And you still went to do the work of a general servant in the East End – because that’s what it is, certainly for the first year, they work you like drudges. I admire you, Miss Winton.’ His voice was warm and respectful, and May felt she had to put him right. She spoke quickly.
‘Nursing is much more than mere drudgery, even at the beginning – there are the patients, you see. Besides, I was no Florence Nightingale. I was bored, totally bored – I’m not a good dancer, and my father won’t let me hunt. There was nothing heroic about it: I went on an impulse.’
Walter said softly, ‘But you stayed, didn’t you?’
May, embarrassed, hit back. ‘What of you, then? There are plenty of delightful country livings I’m sure you could have been introduced to.’
Walter looked back at her, and suddenly grinned. ‘I’d be bored, Miss Winton, totally bored.’ They both began to laugh.
They had to do their duty to their neighbours over the ices; then, all too soon it seemed to May, Lady Andover caught the ladies’ eyes. At their anticipatory rustle the gentlemen sprang to their feet and drew back the chairs. As he did so Walter Lisle said, quite clearly, ‘I’ll see you later, Miss Winton,’ and out of the corner of her eye May saw the Society Beauty direct at her a glare of pure envy. It struck May that Mr Lisle was undoubtedly the best looking man in the room. Feeling pleasantly smug she followed the Beauty’s gleaming white shoulders from the dining table. Unfortunately she found herself standing beside her at the coffee cups, where her grandmother presided. The Beauty, gesturing towards May said with an adder’s tongue to Lady Andover, ‘I see your granddaughter has still not made some lucky fellow happy, Melicent?’
Melicent Andover handed the cup in a manner which subtly suggested its contents were pure cyanide. Her smile was brilliant.
‘Why no, Mrs Farquhar. Darling May has risen above the fashionable world, she has a vocation; she nurses the sick and suffering poor of the East End.’ Then, with a deft twist of the knife, ‘That’s why I was so anxious for her to meet young Mr Lisle; I knew they’d have so much in common.’
Mrs Farquhar retreated, and went to sharpen her talons on poor Louise Canfield.
May asked suspiciously, ‘Did you really bring Mr Lisle here tonight just to meet me?’
‘Goodness me no, my dear.’ Lady Andover’s face was surprised and ingenuous. ‘It was Archie’s idea; you know they’ve been friends since Oxford. And I knew his father well at one time – such an attractive man.’ Her lips curved in a reminiscent smile. ‘Unfortunately his son is just a little too high-minded – but I knew you could cope with him, dear.’
May began to suspect that her grandmother had intended to display her to Walter Lisle as a frivolous Society butterfly, let him indulge in his prejudices, and then spring her profession on him unawares. How typical of Grandmamma! May felt quite indignant on Mr Lisle’s behalf; then it struck her that, unintentionally, that was exactly what she herself had done. She repressed a smile.
Her grandmother murmured, ‘George looks very well, doesn’t he, dear, but I would be much happier if Della were safely remarried. I wonder sometimes if he pines for her, you know.’
May was horrified. ‘Surely he wouldn’t be so stupid!’
‘My dear May, men are stupid, and they were married for a long time. So quixotical of him to acknowledge Harry’s bastard as his own.’ Melicent Andover moved away, leaving May gasping – really, the outspokenness of the older generation!
May was at the far end of the drawing room when Walter arrived in the first wave of the gentlemen. He paused in the doorway and looked round, but before he could move, a flutter of befrilled débutantes settled on him and drew him off to their sofa. May, deciding it was time she changed her position, rose from the sofa where she had been talking to Louise, and was immediately waylaid by a beaming Jonny Yoxford. He was such an old friend that it was impossible to evade him, and May was pleased to see him. It was a full fifteen minutes before she could pass him on to a limpid-eyed nymph in a mass of cream and pink rosebuds. Then suddenly James Carson, an old admirer, was in front of her, and she found herself edged into the window embrasure almost before she had had time to see that Walter had broken cover from the frills, only to be ambushed by Mrs Farquhar, who had brought up reinforcements in the shape of the malicious Lady Canning. May noticed, as James Carson shifted slightly, that Walter was indeed looking down his nose, as Archie had predicted, and she smiled to herself.
Mrs Farquhar bequeathed Walter to old Lady Benham, and May found herself sitting on the sofa where Walter had first started, under siege to a couple of young guardsmen who had never met May before, but seemed determined to remedy this omission as rapidly as possible.
‘I say, Miss Winton, where has Archie been hiding you all this time? Chained up in a tower, what?’
The other interspersed, with ready wit, ‘No, no, Ames old boy, Miss Winton would never be kept prisoner – she’d just let down her long golden tresses and Rumplestiltskin would climb up and rescue her!’
May laughed politely, though pretty certain they’d confused their fairy tales. She said firmly, ‘I live and work in Poplar: the slum, you know.’
‘Do you, by Jove – what fascinating things you young women get up to!’ But it was all too clear that what they really wanted to discuss was the fascinating things young guardsmen got up to; she listened to their tales of Ascot, Henley and Hurlingham with the best patience she could muster.
She was beginning to think that she never would be able to finish the debate on the finer points of the teetotal movement when a deus ex machina appeared in the shape of Lord Hindlesham, with Walter Lisle in tow. Lord Hindlesham dispatched the two guardsmen in double quick time. May was not sure how he did it, but was very grateful – she felt if she heard one more tale of the horse that was just pipped at the post she would scream. The two men sat down on either side of her.
Lord Hindlesham said, ‘Walter here tells me you need a résumé of tonight’s menu – really, May, I don’t know what you were thinking of, it’s not like you to be so careless of your food.’ His eyes twinkled and May found herself blushing, but he took pity on her and actually did give her a résumé, succinct and comprehensive. May asked a few pertinent questions which were quickly answered and then stored the information away in her memory for the following day. When he had finished Lord Hindlesham jumped up, made his farewells, murmured, ‘Please give my best wishes to Miss Carter, May,’ and then deftly intercepted a hovering Mrs Farquhar as she was about to swoop down on Walter.
‘He’s got a first class brain,’ said Walter as May carefully shook out her skirts to conceal the vacant seat – this heavy silk was much less effective than débutante muslin, but it would have to do – ‘But I do wonder whether he’s in the wrong party.’
May felt she’d had this conversation before; perhaps Walter and Ellen should start a ‘Friends of George Hindlesham Society’, to steer him into different political channels. Thinking of Ellen she said abruptly, ‘That wasn’t my maid with me in Chrisp Street, it was a friend of mine, a fellow nurse.’
‘Yes, I’d worked that out. But Miss Winton, I’ve been so puzzled – you must have had a reason – why were you cheering on that wretched woman with the knife?’
May was indignant. ‘She wasn’t a wretched woman, she’s Mrs Jones.’ Then she proceeded to spill out the whole sorry tale: Dolly Hills’ unfortunate scalping; Billy’s obsession with her hair; Big Liza on the ward – ‘Honestly I was terrified’; the gin bottle; and Mrs Jones’ plucky attempt to exact revenge.
Walter listened in silence.Then he said, ‘I see, well, I think I do.’
May burst out, ‘It was all that wretched Billy’s fault – getting into such a state about her hair.’
Walter said slowly, ‘I agree, he behaved unpardonably to his wife.’ May thought wildly – did I mention Big Liza in Billy’s bed? I think I did – and he’s a clergyman. But Walter Lisle was continuing. ‘Yet I think I can understand his being so upset by the loss of her hair – even if it were only one tenth as lovely as yours.’ He leant forward, raised his hand and very gently touched May’s hair with his fingertips. They both sat quite still.
‘Have you two been exchanging stories of the good old days in the filthy slum, then?’ Archie’s voice broke the spell.
May turned round, startled, then they burst out together: ‘It’s not a filthy slum!’ Walter stopped, May went on, ‘Well, it is, but it’s a very nice slum, too.’ The men laughed. May was firm. ‘Poplar has a park, and a pier, and a Town Hall – and there’s the Docks. Docks can’t be slums – the masts look so beautiful above the walls.’
Walter said quickly, ‘Have you never been inside the East India Dock, Miss Winton?’
‘No, I haven’t, there’s always a policeman on the gate. I suppose I could have asked my father, he’s bound to know someone. It is silly, when St Katharine’s looks straight over it, and so many of our patients are dock injuries.’
‘Would you like to go inside?’ Walter’s voice was eager. ‘My father has connections with the East and West India Dock Company; I can soon get a pass. He often took me round as a child, I used to find it very exciting.’
‘Yes, yes, I would very much like to.’ Then May glanced at him, and hesitated – would Ellen or Ada be free to come as well? Archie, knowing Lady Clarence, understood her uncertainty. He said reassuringly, ‘Don’t worry, May, I’ll come too, and chaperone you for the afternoon. I’d like to see some yachts.’
‘Oh would you, Archie?’ May was delighted.
Walter Lisle looked pleased. ‘That’s settled then. We’ll have to let Miss Winton fix the day, since her time off is so limited. But Archie, old man, I don’t think you’ll see any yachts in the East India Dock!’
Archie made a face of comical dismay. ‘Never mind, for the sake of clear cousin May, and in view of our ancient friendship, Tate, I shall be there.’
May turned back to Walter Lisle, and asked without thinking, ‘Why does Archie call you Tate? I had no idea he meant you.’
Walter grinned. ‘They all do.’ He reached across to the tea tray, picked up a silver teaspoon and tapped it against the sugar bowl with a tiny ‘ping’.
May said, ‘Of course, I didn’t think.’ She laughed.
Walter said, ‘It’s not even spelt the same way, but once a nickname gets around it sticks.’
Archie leant over the back of the sofa and whispered in May’s ear, ‘And you know the syrup tins? “Out of the strong came forth sweetness”? He’s very biblical, our Tate.’
May was conscious of Walter’s simultaneous blush.
The party broke up soon after. Lady Andover had wanted to take May on to Lady Towcester’s Ball, but May had been adamant. ‘I haven’t the energy, Grandmamma – we youngsters just don’t have your stamina!’ Lady Andover, aware of the long hours May worked, had let her off. May knew she could easily have coped, but she still wasn’t over-fond of dancing. Now, however, she wondered if Walter Lisle were going to move on with the rest of the party. But he shook his head to Archie’s question.
‘No, early service in the morning. I’ve indulged myself enough for one day. Miss Winton, may I escort you back to Poplar?’
‘Thank you, but I’d have been locked out already, Mr Lisle. It’s my day off tomorrow, so I’m spending the night in Arlington Street. I shall have a lazy day.’
Archie interrupted. ‘May’s idea of a lazy day, Tate, is to go and turn double somersaults at the Bath Club – still, each to his own. At least she’ll be able to fish you out of the Dock if you fall in, she’s like a salmon in the water.’
May was not sure she liked this comparison, but Walter Lisle was taking his leave, so she promised him she would communicate with Archie as soon as she had a free half-day in the week. He shook her hand vigorously and left.
May said goodnight to her grandmother and went upstairs, where Collins was waiting for her. She almost regretted the ball – she felt full of energy, and not at all ready for bed.