The Ashes of London

‘Thunder,’ she whispered into the darkness, ‘Lion, Greedy and Bare-Arse.’

The dogs whined softly with pleasure. Cat drew a deep breath. Now the worst was over, she began to tremble. It was unlikely she would be discovered now. For most of the time, the nightwatchman stayed at the other end of the house, away from the kitchens and close to the study and the cellar that Master Alderley had adapted to be his strong room. The dogs would warn them if he was about, and his lantern and his footsteps came before him when he patrolled the other parts of the building. As for the porter, he slept in the hall, on a mattress laid across the threshold of the front door. He would not move from there until Edward returned.

The passage led to the kitchen wing. They crossed a narrow hall with a row of small, shuttered windows, descended a few steps and turned sharply to their right. Then came a spiral staircase that climbed through the thickness of the wall, lit only by the occasional unglazed openings that gave glimpses of the sullen glow above the burning city. These stairs smelled strongly of the stink of the Fire, unlike the lower regions of the house. They taxed Jem’s strength, for he was short of breath as well as lame.

Cat’s chamber was a small room facing north towards the hills of Highgate. The heavy curtains were drawn across the window, blocking the glare of the Fire, which was visible even on this side of the house.

Jem lit her candle from the flame in the lantern.

‘Why has my father come back?’ she said.

‘He does not confide in me, mistress.’

‘They will kill him if they find them. He must know that.’

He bobbed his head in acknowledgement. She wondered if he knew more than he was saying.

‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘Good night.’

Jem lingered, his face unreadable in the gloom. ‘They say in the kitchen that Sir Denzil will dine here tomorrow.’

She bit hard on her lip. This on top of everything. ‘Is it certain?’

‘Yes. Unless the Fire prevents it.’

‘Go,’ she said. ‘Leave me.’

He turned and hobbled from the room.

Once the door was closed, and she was quite alone at last, she could allow herself to cry.

CHAPTER FIVE

IT WAS A mark of Sir Denzil’s importance that Aunt Olivia sent Ann to help Cat dress for dinner. Cat did not have her own maid to attend her, a fact that underlined her anomalous status in the household.

Ann, Aunt Olivia’s own maid, spent what seemed like hours working on Cat’s appearance. Most importantly, she wound a bandage beneath Cat’s breasts with padding set in it in order to create the impression that Cat had far more of a bosom than God had at present seen fit to provide. Cat was already a woman – she would be eighteen next birthday – but sometimes it seemed to her that she and Aunt Olivia were different creatures from one another.

The maid worked in silence, frowning constantly, and tugging at laces and bandages as if Cat were an inanimate object incapable of feeling pain and discomfort. Afterwards, she showed Cat her reflection in Aunt Olivia’s Venetian mirror. Cat saw a richly dressed doll with slanting eyes and elaborately curled hair.

Ann brought her down to the best parlour. She left Cat stuffed and trussed like a goose for the oven, to wait on the pleasure of Uncle Alderley and Sir Denzil Croughton.

The parlour smelled of fresh herbs with a hint of damp. The dark wood of the floor and the furniture had been waxed to a dull sheen. A Turkey carpet glowed on the table underneath the windows. There was a small fire of logs, despite the unnatural warmth of the season, for the room was chilly even in summer.

She stood by the table and idly turned the pages of a book of airs that lay there, though she could not have sung a note to save her life.

Her mind was elsewhere, wondering whether she could slip outside again tonight, with Jem’s help, and how it might be contrived.

She heard steps on the flags outside the door and shivered with distaste. Her hand froze in the act of turning a page. She knew who was there even before she turned: she would have recognized that slow, heavy step in the middle of a crowd.

‘Catherine, my love,’ said Cousin Edward. The Alderleys never called her Cat.

She turned reluctantly and gave him the curtsy that good manners required.

He bowed in return, but with an element of mockery. ‘Well! You are quite the court beauty today.’ He sucked in his breath to show his appreciation and walked slowly towards her, watching her face. ‘How you have grown!’ He moved his hands, sketching an exaggerated version of her shape. ‘A miracle! Scratch me, my dear, I think this must be the effect of Sir Denzil. The power of his charms is acting on you from afar.’

She closed the book. She said nothing because that was usually wisest with Edward.

‘And what are you reading?’ He stretched out his hand to the book. ‘Ah – studying your music. How delightful. Shall I beg you to sing to the company after dinner? I’m sure Sir Denzil would be enchanted.’

She was tone-deaf, and Edward knew it.

He lowered his head and she smelled the wine on his breath. ‘Of course I myself am already enchanted without the need of song.’

Cat edged away from him. He followed her, penning her close to the table and blocking her retreat. She turned away and affected to stare through the window at the green geometry of the garden and the hot, heavy sky. He was a big man, nearly six foot, and growing fat, for all he was barely five-and-twenty. He looked like a pig, she thought, and had the same voracious appetites. Most of the time he ignored her, which was infinitely better than the times when he baited her instead. Lately, she had been aware of his eyes on her, watching, measuring.

‘This miracle.’ He moistened his lips. ‘This sudden change to your appearance. Why, you are all of a sudden grown so womanly. It is quite remarkable.’

He laid his hand on her shoulder. His touch was warm and slightly moist. He tightened his fingers.

‘Skin and bone, sweet cousin,’ he said. ‘Like a child still. And yet … and yet …’

She pulled away from him.

He brought his head closer to hers, and again she smelled the wine on his breath. ‘I saw you last night.’

Startled, she looked up at his flushed, familiar face.

‘Creeping back to the house,’ he said. ‘You’d been out by yourself, hadn’t you, walking the streets like any tuppenny whore. You little Puritans are all the same, primness and virtue on the outside and the filthiest wickedness within. I saw you from the window of the tavern by the gate. Slipping like a thief into the alley. Who let you in? That crippled knave of yours?’

Cat had hated Edward Alderley for some time now. She was a good hater. She hoarded the hatred as a miser hoards his gold.

The latch rattled on the door. Edward snatched away his hand and stepped back. Cat smoothed her dress and turned to the window. She was breathing rapidly and her skin prickled with sweat.

Olivia came into the room. ‘Let me look at you, child. Now turn to the side.’ She nodded. ‘Good. Your colour is much better than usual, too.’ She turned to Edward. ‘Don’t you agree? Ann has worked wonders.’

He bowed. ‘Indeed, madam. Why, my cousin is quite the little beauty today.’ He smiled at his stepmother. ‘No doubt the work was carried out under your guidance.’

Uncle Alderley came in with Sir Denzil.

The ladies curtsied, and Sir Denzil bowed elaborately, first to Olivia and then to Cat. He was a small man with a lofty periwig and unusually high heels to his shoes.

‘Ah!’ he said in a high, drawling voice, directing his remarks impartially at the space between the two women. ‘A feast of beauty!’ He turned to Master Alderley and touched his lip with his forefinger, an oddly childlike gesture. He wore a diamond ring on the finger. ‘Truly, sir, I am a veritable glutton for beauty.’ He looked directly at Cat for the first time and said without marked enthusiasm, ‘and soon I shall have the pleasure of eating my fill.’

The ungainly compliment fell like a stone in a pool. There was a moment’s silence.

‘Well, sir,’ Aunt Olivia said to her husband. ‘Shall we go in to dinner?’

Power, Cat thought, resides in small things.

If anything confirmed Uncle Alderley’s position in the world, it was the fact that, while the City was burning to ashes on his doorstep, he himself was dining at home quite as if nothing were amiss. The food was as good as ever when he entertained a guest he wished to please, and the servants just as attentive. They used the best cutlery, the two-pronged forks and the knives with rounded handles that fitted snugly in the hand; Aunt Olivia had insisted on having them; they had been imported from Paris at absurd expense.

There was a message here for Sir Denzil Croughton, and perhaps for Master Alderley’s own family as well: the Fire could not destroy Master Alderley or his wealth; he was, under God and the King, invincible.

They dined as usual at midday. There were five of them at table – Master and Mistress Alderley at either end, Cat and the honoured guest side by side, and Edward sitting opposite them. There were four servants waiting at table. To Cat’s surprise, Jem was among them, dressed in an ill-fitting suit of the Alderleys’ black-and-yellow livery.

‘What’s this?’ Master Alderley said, as Jem appeared at his shoulder.

‘Did I not tell you, sir?’ Aunt Olivia said. ‘Layne is nowhere to be found, so we must make shift the best we can with Jem.’

‘What the devil does Layne think he’s about?’

‘I’m sure I don’t know.’

‘I’ll have the fellow whipped when he returns.’

‘Just as you say, sir.’ A good hostess, Olivia noticed that Sir Denzil’s nostrils were twitching. ‘Would you care to try the carp, sir? I made the sauce myself, and I pride myself on my sauces.’

Sir Denzil looks like a fish himself, Cat thought. Quite possibly a carp.

All the dishes had been prepared in their own kitchen, for Aunt Olivia scorned to send out for food; she was far too good a housekeeper. Besides, few cook shops were still open, and the few that remained were inundated with custom.

In Sir Denzil’s honour, there were three courses. To his credit, he responded manfully to the challenge. He dug deep into a fricassee of rabbits and chickens, returned again and again to the carp, ripped chunks from the boiled leg of mutton, and swallowed slice after slice of the side of lamb. The food passed through his mouth so rapidly that he seemed hardly to chew it at all.

‘Is that a lamprey pie?’ he asked Aunt Olivia in a voice that rose almost to a trill. ‘How delightful. Yes, perhaps I will take a little.’

Two pigeons, a dish of anchovies and most of a lobster went the way of everything else. By this time Sir Denzil was slowing down, though he compensated by increasing his consumption of wine, revealing an unusual capacity for canary, of which he must have drunk close to half a gallon. By this stage, his colour was high and there was a certain glassiness in his eye that reminded Cat irresistibly of the carp as it had been when it first arrived in the kitchen.

They drank the health of the King and confusion to his enemies. Prompted delicately by Aunt Olivia, Sir Denzil proposed two toasts, first to his hostess, who smiled graciously and accepted it as her due, and then to Cat, who stared at the table and wished to God she were anywhere else but here.

Sir Denzil crooked his finger at her, and the diamond ring sparkled. ‘You see, my dear, I wear your ring. And I shall send you mine as soon as it has been reset.’

This ring, this token of love, was a polite fiction. Cat had understood from Master Alderley that he himself had provided both rings, for Sir Denzil was short of ready money and tradesmen were not enthusiastic about allowing him credit. The rings were designed to be symbols of the betrothal. Master Alderley had sent this one to Sir Denzil only yesterday.

The conversation was mainly of the Fire, of course, and of the King and the court.

‘There are grounds for hope,’ Sir Denzil informed them, his piping voice muffled by a mouthful of lobster. ‘I heard the King himself say so this morning. If the Duke of York can hold the Fire at Temple Bar, then Whitehall is saved.’

Olivia touched her throat. ‘Are we safe here?’

‘Lord Craven’s men have turned back the flames at Holborn Bridge,’ Master Alderley said.

Sir Denzil waved his fork. ‘You need not trouble yourself in the slightest, madam.’

‘I’m advised that the worst is over,’ Master Alderley said. ‘Even Bludworth has at last begun to pull down houses. Only in Cripplegate, but it’s a start.’

‘I fear the Lord Mayor is an old woman, sir,’ Edward said.

‘Very true, sir,’ Sir Denzil said. ‘Only a fool would have failed to realize that creating firebreaks was the only way to hold the fire. Bludworth’s indecision has cost us half the City.’

‘He was afraid he’d be sued by the tenants or the freeholders if he pulled down their houses,’ Master Alderley said. ‘Or both. It comes down to money. It always does.’

‘The City must thank God for the King and the court,’ Sir Denzil said. ‘Without their cool heads and brave deeds, it would have been far worse. That’s the trouble with these aldermen and merchants and so forth. In an emergency, they are no better than children. They cannot even save themselves and their ledgers.’

‘That isn’t true of all of the aldermen,’ Master Alderley said drily. ‘Fortunately.’

The change of tone put Sir Denzil in mind of the company he was in. ‘Of course, sir. And thank God for it. Now if only you, not Bludworth, had been Lord Mayor, it would have been a very different story, I’m sure.’

‘Who would be a Lord Mayor?’ Master Alderley said. ‘It’s a great deal of expense and a man has little return on his investment, as well as much risk. For Bludworth, it will mean ruin.’

‘Will you take a few anchovies, sir?’ Aunt Olivia said, judging that it was time to change the subject. ‘My niece made the sauce according to a French recipe, and I’m sure she would value your opinion.’

Sir Denzil tasted it and nodded. ‘Delicious. Did you know, madam, I have a Frenchman in my kitchen now? I hope you will all dine with me soon. I fancy you will not be disappointed. He has cooked for Monsieur d’Orleans, you know, and several gentlemen have tried to steal him since I brought him over from Paris.’

Cat stole a sideways glance at Sir Denzil. A streak of sauce ran down his chin and onto the collar beneath. He dabbed it with his napkin.

Dinner was nearly over, but no word of the business that had brought Sir Denzil here had passed between him and Master Alderley, apart from the matter of the rings. Cat suspected that the terms of the betrothal between herself and Sir Denzil had not yet been finally agreed, but of course nothing would be discussed at table before the women. But somehow it seemed tacitly accepted that the principle of the thing had been established. She tried to imagine what it would be like to see Sir Denzil consuming food and drink at table every day of their married life. Her imagination baulked.

‘You must ask my cousin Catherine to sing to you after dinner,’ Edward said, leaning over the table towards Sir Denzil.

‘Yes, indeed,’ Sir Denzil said, taking up his glass and frowning into it, as if surprised to find it empty again. ‘I shall be charmed, I’m sure.’

Jem limped forward to refill the glass.

Edward glanced at Cat, smiling, just for a second. ‘One cannot listen to my cousin’s voice and be unmoved.’

Olivia said: ‘What a pity, Sir Denzil, that the pleasure must be postponed for a little while. Master Alderley tells me that you and he must withdraw after dinner.’

Master Alderley grunted.

Olivia leaned towards Sir Denzil, affording him an agreeable prospect of her breasts. ‘And are you considered musical, sir?’

‘Indeed I am, madam. All the Croughtons are.’ He toyed with a spoonful of apple pie. ‘After all, is not music the food of love?’ At this point he realized that it was perhaps impolite of him to stare so long and so fixedly at Mistress Alderley’s bosom while talking of love. He put the spoonful of pie in his mouth and transferred his gaze to Cat.

‘How I long to hear you singing duets,’ Edward said. ‘It will be quite ravishing.’

When at last dinner was over, Master Alderley withdrew to his study with his guest leaning heavily on his arm and humming ‘Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes’. Edward made his excuses to the ladies and left the house.

‘So,’ Olivia said as she led Cat into the parlour. ‘In a while, you will be Lady Croughton.’

‘Must I be, madam?’

‘Yes.’ Olivia sank gracefully into a chair and took up her embroidery. ‘Your uncle has quite made up his mind. Sir Denzil has no money but he has the ear of the King and those about him. But you must not let it worry you. The marriage will not come to pass until the winter. Master Alderley needs a little time to make sense of Sir Denzil’s affairs and deal with the settlements. Sir Denzil is not a man to take liberties beforehand, I think.’ She smiled in a sly way that brought out her resemblance to a cat. ‘And perhaps not even afterwards. The one thing you must do when you are married to Sir Denzil is to feed him well. Take my advice, my dear – a good cook and a well-provided table will save you a world of grief.’

‘But I don’t want to marry him.’

‘You’re not so foolish as to long for love? You’re far too sensible, child. Love and marriage are two quite different things.’

‘I don’t want to marry anyone.’

Olivia stabbed the needle into the silk. ‘You must do as you’re told,’ she said. ‘You cannot stay here for ever, doing nothing but getting your fingers inky and scratching your meaningless lines on scraps of paper.’

‘But they are not meaningless, madam. They are plans – they are designs of buildings that—’

‘Fiddle-Fiddle.’ Aunt Olivia’s temper was rising. ‘It is not an occupation for a lady. Besides, your uncle has been very kind to you in making this arrangement. He wants to see you comfortably settled, as you are his poor sister-in-law’s only child, and you may be in a position to help him and your cousin once you are married. You should remember that it cannot have been easy for him to manage – after all, Sir Denzil knows who your father is. Everyone does.’

CHAPTER SIX

WHEN CAT WAS very little, the Lovetts had a dog. He was a nameless animal of no breeding but infinite patience. The dog reminded her of Jem in more ways than one. One of her earliest memories was of toddling in the garden of their house in Bow Lane, hand in hand with Jem, with the dog on the other side of her.

It was difficult to say exactly what Jem did at Barnabas Place. In the old days, he had worked for her father as a confidential clerk and manservant. When their troubles came, her father had sent him with her to her aunt in Champney. Later Jem had escorted her to Uncle Alderley’s.

Jem had been old even then, but his breathing had been better and his joints not so rusty. He was not valued at Barnabas Place. He slept in the loft above the stables, along with the man who killed rats, emptied slops and did other unpleasant necessities. He ate in the back kitchen and did what he was told to do. Apart from board and lodging he did not receive a wage, though Cat occasionally gave him a few pence or even a shilling or two.

‘It isn’t fair,’ Cat once said to him. ‘You’re always working, always doing something for someone. They should pay you.’

‘The master gives nothing for nothing.’

‘But you give him something.’

‘You don’t understand, mistress. I am nothing. To your uncle, I mean. His worship wouldn’t miss me if I were not here, so why should he pay me? If he thinks about it at all, he knows I will stay whether I’m paid or not, because he knows I have nowhere to go. He pays nothing for nothing. That’s how he’s become rich.’

Early in the evening of the day of the dinner, after Sir Denzil Croughton had been assisted to his coach, Cat went in search of Jem. She found him in the little yard behind the washhouse. He wasn’t wearing the Alderley livery any more. He was in his ordinary clothes and preparing lye, the mixture of ashes and urine that was used for soaking badly soiled laundry. It was a woman’s job usually but the washerwoman had lost the two girls who usually came in to assist her; presumably they and their families were somewhere among the flood of refugees.

The walls of the yard were high, trapping the hot air below the heavy grey sky. The grey was tinged with an orange glow. Even here, the ground was flecked with ashes. Cat watched him at work for a moment before he saw her. He was stirring the mixture in a half-barrel, stooping over his work with the sweat streaking his shirt and running down his arms. His thin grey hair hung limply to his shoulders.

When she called his name, he turned his head. His face was red with heat and exertion, shining with sweat. He stared unsmilingly at her.

Cat wrinkled her nose. ‘Come in here. I can’t talk to you there.’

She turned and went into the barn. She heard his dragging footsteps behind her. She stopped and faced him.

‘How can you bear it?’ She spoke at random, for her head was hurting and she found it hard to gather her thoughts. ‘The smell. The heat.’

He shrugged, and she realized that for him it was not a question worth answering. ‘Is there news of Layne?’ he said.

‘Not that I’ve heard. Why?’

‘Sometimes I wonder about him, mistress.’ He stared at her. ‘He likes to know where you are.’

‘Layne does? Why in God’s name?’

‘I don’t know. But I’ve heard him asking your aunt’s maid, more than once, and I’ve seen him watching you. I think he searched my box the other day, though I can’t be sure. If he did, he might have found—’

‘I can’t worry about Layne now,’ Cat interrupted. ‘I want to go out tonight. I’ll need clothes again.’

Jem shook his head.

‘An old shirt – a pair of breeches. That’s all.’

‘No, mistress.’

‘But there must be something you can find. There’s a chest of rags for the poor, isn’t there? You’ll find something in there, I’m sure. I have a cloak now – the one I found yesterday.’

‘It’s too dangerous.’

‘That’s not for you to decide. Do you need money? Would that make it easier?’

‘I won’t help you.’

‘Why not?’

He looked at her. Their eyes were on a level. ‘Because it’s not safe.’

‘What does it matter?’ she said. ‘I must see my father. They are going to make me marry Sir Denzil. I’d rather die.’

Jem ignored that. ‘I shouldn’t have let you go last night,’ he said. ‘The City is a madhouse on fire.’

She stamped her foot. ‘You’ll find me clothes. And you’ll wait at the door and let me in when I come back.’

‘No.’

‘I command you.’

‘I’m sorry, mistress.’

Cat advanced on him. ‘I can’t do this without you.’

He stood his ground. ‘You won’t know where to begin. He can’t meet you in St Paul’s now.’

‘I’ll find him. In Bow Lane, perhaps.’

‘But there’s nothing left in Bow Lane.’

For a moment she grappled with this idea, that the house where she had grown up no longer existed. ‘Nearby, then.’

‘He could be anywhere, mistress. If he’s still alive.’

‘Of course he’s alive.’ She glared at him. ‘Can you send word to him?’

‘No. He always sends word to me. Safer that way.’

‘How?’

Jem shuffled, easing the weight on his lame leg. ‘I was told not to tell you.’

She scowled at him. ‘My father hasn’t seen me for six years. He forgets I’m not a child any more. So do you, but with less reason.’

He stared at her for a long moment. ‘There’s a man,’ he said at last. ‘He brings me a letter sometimes, or sometimes just a message. And he takes them from me in return. Yesterday he told me that you should go to St Paul’s, that your father would find you there in Paul’s Walk.’