Elizabeth pulled the hat she’d found in her uncle’s closet down her forehead and stood straight in an effort to appear taller.
The docks were alive with men staggering here and there and women with bright splotches of color on their cheeks laughing and pushing the men away.
It was a world wholly unfamiliar to Elizabeth and she regretted having come here without the knowledge of her father or Mr. Darcy. She had told her aunt and Jane that she had eaten dinner at Darcy House. When they had left her to go in to dinner, Elizabeth had gone upstairs.
Her uncle’s breeches and coat she had tied up in a sack with the hat and tucked it under her arm as she pulled a cloak from her aunt’s closet. The cloak would hide the sack if someone in her aunt’s household saw her leaving the townhome.
Once outside and on the street, she had walked quite a way before hiring a hackney to take her to the docks. She worried when the man would not wait for her once they were near her destination but he had assured Elizabeth she might find another hackney when she wished to return to Cheapside.
Now, as a light rain began to fall, she gathered her courage and walked down the street wondering how she might find her sister amongst the sea of people and the darkness that seemed deeper for the lack of very many lighted street lamps.
As she turned a corner, a heavy hand knocked the hat from her head. Elizabeth’s hair fell from the knot she had hastily made in the hackney. Had she time to assemble her disguise before she left the Gardiner townhome, her hair might have been more secure. As it was, she struggled to brush it away as a pair of strong hands took hold of her shoulders.
She winced in pain but bit her tongue, for she did not wish to call out and reveal her sex. It mattered not for the man who had caught her was drunk and stumbling about.
Elizabeth felt herself falling to the street with him when arms encircled her waist and pulled her free from his grasp. She gasped and whirled to find herself face to face with a woman quite a bit older, and stronger, than herself.
Her face was not unkind but there was a dangerous wisdom in her eyes. “What have we here, lass? How would a lady such as yourself find your way here? ’Tis a dangerous place for one so fair of face and figure.”
The woman pulled her against the door of a ramshackle building and pushed Elizabeth inside. She was not dressed raggedly nor did she smell of spirits. Her face was not painted in the same manner as the other women Elizabeth had seen on the street.
Lively music greeted them as the woman led Elizabeth up a set of stairs and down a hallway to a dimly lit salon. The laughter of women surprised her and Elizabeth squinted to make out the features of the room.
There were several soldiers seated on sofas throughout but there were far more women and their manner of dress was scandalous! Corsets, cotton drawers, and chemises seemed to be their uniforms and not a few were draped in the red coats the soldiers had discarded. The ladies, were you to call them such, leaned against the men in pairs or fought to sit upon their laps and tease them.
Elizabeth’s face burned but she could not look away. The woman who had saved her from the drunken man in the street pulled her along behind a screen on the far side of the salon.
“You must allow me to arrange a hackney for you, Miss. The docks are not a place you should wander unaccompanied and certainly not after dark.”
“What is your name?” Elizabeth asked, all thought of polite manners gone from her mind.
A loud screeching laugh from one of the girls on the other side of the screen caused Elizabeth to jump. She covered her heart noting its wild pace.
“The ladies and gentlemen here call me Lady Sherston. You may use that name if it pleases you,” the woman said as she waved a young boy over.
Elizabeth got the distinct impression that Lady Sherston was not the woman’s true name but that matter was of little importance. She must at least ask whether the woman had seen her sister or Mr. Wickham before she left the docks.
“Please, Lady Sherston, I cannot go without finding my sister. She ran off with a soldier and I believe she may have a room somewhere here near the docks.”
Lady Sherston’s brows rose and she tapped a finger to her lips before sending the boy to fetch a hackney. “A pair like that, a young gentlewoman with a dashing redcoat, would turn heads in this neighborhood. A proper gentleman would never bring the likes of your sister here.”
Elizabeth knew if this woman had not seen Lydia or Wickham, they had likely not come this way. She did not seem to be one left out of the gossip regarding comings and goings this close to the Thames.
“I see a few soldiers amongst the ladies. Perhaps they may have seen the man who took my sister?”
Lady Sherston shrugged and peeked around the corner of the screen. She called to one of the girls who sat on a soldier’s lap. “Lillibet, bring that chap here would you? And make haste!”
The girl rose slowly and took the soldier’s hand. He stood and followed her across the room. When the pair approached the screen, Lady Sherston shooed the girl away. Lingering, Lillibet looked Elizabeth up and down and gave a sneer. “She is far too innocent for my Denny.”
Lady Sherston hit the girl on her shoulder with the edge of her unopened fan and Lillibet stepped quickly away. Elizabeth inched closer to the soldier and peered at him thinking he seemed familiar.
“Captain Denny!” she exclaimed forgetting herself for a moment.
“Miss Elizabeth, what are you doing in such a place as this?” he said as he looked over his shoulder.
“The same as you I suspect. I must find my sister and Lieutenant Wickham. Have you seen either of them here?”
Captain Denny’s cheeks flamed brightly. It seemed he was embarrassed to have met Elizabeth in the brothel and in such a state as he was with Lillibet. “I was sent to find Lieutenant Wickham. I believe he has a room here but I was…err…distracted, you might say.”
Elizabeth would not remark upon his business in such a place for she had been told by her mother that men frequented such places. It was the least of her concerns at the moment. “You must see whether he has and if my sister is here. If I find her this night and take her home with me, all is not lost. Please help me Captain.”
Taking the time to button his shirt, Captain Denny seemed to hesitate but at last he warned Elizabeth. “You must not linger here. It is not the place for a young lady of your circle. I cannot protect you and search for Lieutenant Wickham.”
“Then I shall search alone, sir. Do you not understand my position? My sister will bring shame upon my family if she is not found. If my father finds her with Lieutenant Wickham, she will be made to marry him. I cannot think, with all I know of the man, that it would be a good match.”
Captain Denny blew out an exasperated breath. “Let me retrieve my coat and we shall search together.”
Lady Sherston took Elizabeth by the arm. “A piece of advice lass, not that I believe you will take it, but you best have the captain see you and your sister home should you find her. Leave that Wickham scoundrel for your father to deal with, you understand?”
Elizabeth brushed the woman’s hand from her arm. “I do Lady Sherston, I understand perfectly. Thank you for the assistance you gave me earlier in the street. Desperation often leads to terrible consequences and I am most desperate.”
Lady Sherston sighed. “You will do what you like but the hackney I sent for will wait outside for you for the driver is my own brother. Otherwise, no hired chaise would wait in these streets.”
Elizabeth softened toward the woman. “I thank you milady,” she said sincerely and gave a small bow.
Lady Sherston smiled at this gesture and nodded to Elizabeth. “Go now with the captain. These fellows here have caught sight of you. I wager they would rather pay their attentions to you than my girls. Perhaps I should have the lasses dress as you have, pretending to be a man?”
Captain Denny came and escorted Elizabeth from the rowdy salon before she might answer Lady Sherston’s outlandish suggestion. She knew she would never forget the woman or this night.