26. Chapter 26
Steam, soot, burning coal and hot grease—the air at London Bridge Station hung across the platform, almost as thick as the crowds making their way to or from carriages. Cassius jumped to dodge a man with a large case, then skated around a woman’s skirt and a line of boys hauling trunks.
‘Excuse me. Let me through.’
‘Wait!’ The thrum of the crowd instantly swallowed Cassius’s voice. ‘I’ve made a terrible mistake. My train!’ He staggered to a stop as the train, with one loud whistle of farewell, steamed out of the station and trundled away, disappearing into the bright day.
‘My train…’ he said again.
‘Miss your train?’
Cassius looked down at the stranger beside him and held back a snarl.
‘Yes. Well, no. It’s complicated,’ he snapped.
‘My clothes, my books. My things. I had everything booked through to Vienna. And then I decided not to go.’ Everything else he owned had already been sent ahead in boxes and crates.
He could no longer even see the train, just catch a burst of its whistle.
Damn it.
‘Stranded in London with nothing but the coat on your back…’ another voice joined in, as Daniel ground to a halt beside Cassius.
He’d hailed the cab and offered to help try and intercept his luggage, but now his flat tone and the smug, satisfied twist to his lips hardly spoke of a man with completely altruistic motives.
He spun Cassius’s hat between his hands, then held it out.
Cassius heaved a sigh. ‘She’s not going to let me forget it, is she?’ He reached into his pocket, found his wallet. Until the bank opened, he had two shillings to his name.
Daniel did manage a smirk then. ‘No. No she won’t.’
Cassius took his hat and tugged it on. ‘Better find a newspaper. Reviews will be in.’
Cassius followed Daniel down the hallway to the room where Odette took her breakfast every morning—or so he’d been told. He’d have to learn the layout of the hallways and rooms soon, but for today, he was happy to go as directed.
‘I told you that you wouldn’t get there in time.’ Odette lifted a pot from the tray. She poured a stream of hot chocolate into a cup that sat waiting on the table beside her. ‘I have caught that train many times. But Zadora knows best.’
Cassius sank into the seat. ‘I had to try,’ he said.
‘You could have stayed in bed with me a little longer,’ she teased. ‘Just as much exertion, but far more fun.’
‘I wish I had.’ He took a sip and allowed the rich warmth to thaw him. ‘But the day is still ours. We have no rehearsals. No obligations. Nothing but each other.’ Cassius chanced a hand on her knee and leant forwards to steal a slow kiss. ‘You taste delicious.’
‘What did you have in mind?’ she asked, nipping his lip.
‘Nora and Daniel could take the day. You could give me a private tour. Help me learn the layout. We could… test the acoustics in every room. Starting with this one.’
A cough came from the doorway.
‘Miss Vaughn has arrived,’ Nora announced, stiff and prim. ‘She’s taking her bags to her room. Once she’s refreshed, she’ll come for her introduction.’
‘Thank you,’ Odette said with a nod to Nora, who slipped away once more.
‘Who?’ Cassius asked.
‘Miss Vaughn. She came highly recommended. She is going to be the perfect governess for Emma.’
Cassius nodded as he took a sip. ‘Emma. Who is Emma?’
‘A little girl who lost her mother. She’s going to be living here.’
‘For how long?’ he asked.
‘Forever.’
A knock came from down the hall. Nora, skirt held clear of her feet, raced past the door.
‘Don’t slouch. Check your face. And your shoes.’ Whispers and murmurs in high, young voices grew louder and louder until two thin children stood in the doorway.
‘Anton?’ Cassius asked. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘Anton!’ Odette clapped her hands. ‘And you brought your sister. What is your name, my darling?’
‘Charlotte,’ the small girl said. Anton nudged her, and she inched closer. With an encouraging murmur from Anton, she dropped into an uneven curtsy.
‘I am so happy you’re both here. Miss Vaughn has just arrived. She is going to teach you your numbers, letters, and how to talk with your hands. She’s going to teach all of us. Nora?’
The indefatigable lady’s maid stepped into the room.
‘Will you take the children to their rooms? Anton and Charlotte, you can put your things away for now. Then, if you are hungry, you can come back for chocolate and croissants. Nora may find you some oranges. Would you like that?’
Another knock at the door, another hasty scuff of feet, but this time, it was Daniel who appeared in the doorway.
‘A Miss Sheppard has arrived,’ Daniel announced, stiff and formal but with a slight flush to his cheeks. ‘Would you like me to—’
A patter of steps echoed down the hall, and with a flurry of skirts and a squeak, the little soprano Freya launched into the room.
‘Miss Delaney, please, do you have a moment? I need to talk to someone. I need to talk to someone who might understand, and I couldn’t think of anyone else.
Last night, there were people outside the theatre waiting for me when I tried to go home.
Just waiting. So many people! Everyone wanted to talk, and it took hours to walk down the alley and to hail a cab.
And this morning, people were outside my boarding house.
The matron was so cross. There were flowers at the door.
I tried to go to the theatre, but there were journalists waiting there, too!
I didn’t know where else to go. Who I could talk to.
I thought you might know. What do I do? I don’t want to be rude, but I can’t spend my days just talking…
’ Freya froze. She eyed the newspaper, folded on the table beside Cassius’s plate. ‘Are reviews in? What do they say?’
Cassius slipped his thumbs between the creases of the paper, ready to open it, but Odette placed her hand over the print.
‘Have you eaten?’ she asked.
Freya shook her head.
Odette placed a plate of toast and a curved pastry before the young soprano, then poured another cup of chocolate. ‘Never read reviews on an empty stomach.’
Freya eyed the paper.
‘Eat,’ Odette demanded. ‘Both of you. No headlines until you are done.’
Freya sat down and took a bite, chewing methodically. Cassius slid a piece of toast onto his plate.
‘Better?’ Odette asked.
Freya nodded and took another bite.
‘Where are you staying?’
‘At a boarding house south of the river.’
‘You need to find somewhere new to live. You need somewhere safe, somewhere where you can be yourself. Where you can relax and not worry about the public. Daniel?’
Daniel, who had been lingering in the doorway, stepped into the room. ‘Miss Delaney?’
‘Accompany Freya so she can collect her things. She can stay here until she finds more suitable accommodation.’
Another knock at the door.
‘I wonder who that might be,’ Odette said. ‘I am not expecting anyone.’
The knock came again.
‘I’ll go,’ Cassius said.
But without anyone announcing this latest intruder, a burst of indignation filled the entrance and bounced into the breakfast room. The hairs along the back of Cassius’s neck bristled as the outraged voice of the patron crashed over them all.
Odette sat bolt upright and turned in her seat. ‘This is too much.’
‘I had specific requirements!’ Mrs Crofts admonished from the doorway to the breakfast room.
‘I stated, with the utmost clarity, that Odette Delaney should perform in this opera. I was assured this would happen, and yet, what do I hear? That some upstart nobody from the countryside has taken over the role, and that the conductor and soprano were most indecent onstage!’
‘Mrs Crofts. How dare you!’ Odette rose so swiftly the table wobbled.
She ripped her napkin off her lap, flung it onto her plate, then spun to face her neighbour.
‘You comment on me in the street. Lambast me in front of your society. Then, you come into my theatre and try to make me perform for you. And all the time, I am polite. I am patient. But I will not be lectured to in my own home! Certainly not by some bossy, condescending woman who has no right to judge others. If you do not like opera and its singers, then you should not go to the theatre!’
‘I had a contract that said you would perform the lead!’
‘Take it to von Miller! Besides, why would you even request me? To make me behave? To mould me into a model for your society, to make an example of me in front of those poor girls you drag along, filling their heads with nonsense? You should have known I would not obey. So why me?’
Mrs Crofts ummed and ahhed. Cassius almost felt bad for her as she wilted under Odette’s hard stare, retreating step by gradual step.
‘Mrs Crofts?’ Odette pressed, pushing her advantage. ‘Why me?’
‘Because you are the best! The most well-known! And I thought that might help Ezra with his writing and give him a future.’
‘As a flagship for your lessons? For your morals, your ridiculous standards?’ Odette’s voice rose even higher. ‘What do you care if some small composer becomes famous or not!’
‘Because he is my son!’
Freya’s cup slipped from her hands, and chocolate slopped into her dish. Nora gasped audibly from the doorway, and even Daniel muttered, ‘Well, I’ll be…’
Mrs Crofts bowed her head, wringing her hands before her.
‘I was young. Foolish. I gave up my chastity, convinced my feelings were returned. But they weren’t, and after he left I found that I was...
My parents helped me find a family to raise the baby, and I gave him up.
When I married Mr Crofts, I confessed all to him, asked if I could find him and tell him I was his mother.
But he said no… that our own children would come.
But then they never did, and every day, I always thought of him.
’ She swallowed, hard, closing her eyes for a moment.
‘That’s why I started my society. To help protect other women from what I had been through.
He doesn’t even know who I am. Please don’t tell him. Not yet.’
A lesser woman would have marched Mrs Crofts straight to the door.
And Odette had always been strong, but alongside her strength, she was also exceedingly kind.
The way she melded courage and compassion, help and protection, was one of the things Cassius loved about her—that everyone loved about her.
The mood in the room softened as Anton and Charlotte came in, bringing with them the lightness of children whose primary concerns were now food and play. Anton helped his sister onto her chair.
‘Mrs Crofts. Would you like to join us?’ Odette said, gesturing at the table. ‘We have hot chocolate and pastries, if that is not too decadent for you. We were just about to read the reviews.’
‘What do they say about him?’ Mrs Crofts’s eyes flicked towards the paper as she found a place beside Freya and lowered herself into the seat.
‘And me?’ asked Freya.
‘And us?’ asked Odette. ‘What do they make of your playing, Cassius?’
Cassius opened the paper, his arms stretching to the full width of the broadsheet. He scanned the headlines for reports of the show, then burst into laughter the moment he found one. He folded the paper to display the article and dropped it to the table.
‘It’s about all of us. And none of us. I am sorry, ladies, but someone else has stolen the headlines.’
He motioned to the paper, which proudly declared:
Von Miller has done it again!