Never Land the First Fish

Chapter Eleven, Part 2

Gills should not have gone raving to Maddox, of course. The man was coming round to seeing Julia as more sinned against than sinning, but he still tended to judge her harshly. Still, Gills had to tell someone how distressed he was that Julia would rather sell her body to someone else than to owe money to him.

He didn't expect Maddox to laugh, choking out between guffaws, "You didn't let Mrs. Marloughe know you thought she'd been whoring herself, did you?"

Gills narrowed his eyes. "Perhaps. I don't see what's funny about the situation, Mad. Julia could be putting herself in danger. She could be..." His throat choked on putting into words the nightmare situations that unrolled in his brain. He certainly wasn't going to disclose his hurt at Julia preferring someone else to him.

Maddox wiped his eyes and straightened the grin from his face. "You really do like her, don't you?"

"I want to marry her," Gills exploded. "I've told you that."

"You clearly haven't convinced her of that," Maddox scoffed.

The arse. Gills attacked back. "You would be an expert on courtship."

Maddox stiffened, all the humour draining from his face. "I, at least, never insulted the morals of the woman I hoped to make my wife. Lady Julia approached me for a loan, you idiot. She said, and I quote, 'Lord Joseph is spending money on my upkeep as though I were his mistress. It cannot continue.'"

Gills protested. "I want to marry her," he said again.

Maddox was unperturbed. "Yes, I told her that. She insists it is merely a matter of honour and convenience, and that—since she will be neither your wife nor your mistress—she does not want to be beholden to you."

Gills couldn't understand it. "She would rather be beholden to you?"

Maddox heaved a frustrated sigh. "She doesn't care about owing me, because I don't flirt with her. I don't take every opportunity to try to seduce her. Think about how she feels, Gills."

"I don't understand," Gills said again, though with less conviction.

Maddox wouldn't leave it alone. "How easy was it for you to say 'no' to the females who paid your rent and your tailor's bill?"

Gills flushed. "That's different." The excuse sounded feeble even to himself.

Maddox just raised his ridiculously expressive eyebrows.

"I owe her an apology, don't I," Gills muttered.

One eyebrow lofted another fraction of an inch before Maddox turned back to the paper he had been working on when Gills burst into the room.

Gills hurried downstairs, but Julia had already left for the boarding house.

***

Julia managed to avoid Gills for several days, all the better to drive the lesson home. She saw Maddox, who was dancing attendance on Miss Kilbrierry, and he assured her that Gills now knew the truth and was feeling humbled. "Jealousy makes a man stupid," he told Julia, and Miss Kilbrierry agreed.

Julia supposed she would have to forgive him, but she was in no hurry to do so. Except that she found she missed him. Of course, she had not had a friend in a long time. Perhaps forever. It wasn't that she had romantic feelings for him. She just missed her friend, and wondered how he was doing, and fretted that he might be unhappy.

Tonight, she intended to put them both out of their misery. She had asked Maddox to let Gills know that Miss Kilbrierry would be performing at the home of one of New York's society ladies, and that Julia would be waiting in the dressing room set aside for the violinist.

After Miss Kilbrierry left for the room where she was to perform, Julia tidied up the dressing table and set out what she would need for the next change, all the time wondering if Gills was here, and if so, whether he would wait for the intermission to come to find her, when she was too busy to speak with him.

Silly man, if so. But no. There was a knock.

Julia was grinning. She composed her face, lifted her chin in the air, and opened the door. A pair of strange gentlemen in evening dress stood leering at her.

"Well, aren't you a pretty thing?" said one of them. "Didi was right, Tommy. The maid is a nice little armful. I wonder if the English lord is diddling them both?"

The other pushed through the door, brushing Julia to one side the way Athol would if he saw someone more interesting than she. "We'll just come in and wait for the mulatto fiddle player," he said.

"The maid will do to pass the time until she gets here," said his friend, crowding in behind him, wrapping both arms around Julia, and ducking his head to steal a kiss.

Julia reacted without thinking, twisting her head and lifting her knee in a sharp jerk that broke his hold immediately as he collapsed into a ball, curled around his bruised intimate flesh.

She cowered away from the man addressed as Tommy as he charged towards her with his fist raised, but the blow never fell. Gills was suddenly between them, forcing Tommy's hand back and twisting it until the room resounded with a sharp crack and Tommy's high-pitched scream.

A couple of footmen burst into the room. "He broke my arm," Tommy complained. "Fetch a constable! Arrest him!"

Gills drew himself up and spoke in his most aristocratic tones. "These two scum attacked Miss Kilbrierry's maid. Please see them out."

The footmen were looking from one to another when Mr Vanderberg looked around the door. "What's going on? Oh, hello there, Lord Joseph." He gave a short nod to the two would-be assailants. "Cleminson. Whitehart."

Gills repeated his story of attack, while Cleminson tried to shout him down and Whitehart whimpered.

Vanderberg shook his head. "Naughty, naughty. Do I have to have a little conversation with your fathers, boys? Do you want me to have them arrested, miss?"

"You think anyone will listen to a maid?" Cleminson sneered. "Or her fancy man? Anyway, Didi said..."

Julia eyed Whitehart and smiled. "Thank you, Mr Vanderberg. Nothing more is required at this point, I think. As long as they have the message that I wish nothing to do with either of them." She made no effort to modulate her own English upper class accent, and Mr Vanderberg's eyes widened.

"Right, then, missie. I'll just see them off the premises," he said.

In moments, Julia was alone with Gills. "Are you sure you are unhurt?" he asked.

"I am. Thanks to you, Gills. You saved me again."

For once, his smile was sheer warmth, with none of the edge of desire that so bothered her. "It is becoming a habit."

Julia decided he had not been punished enough, and frowned. "I am surprised you rescued me, given that you think I was willing to sell my body to pay the rent."

He flushed. "I owe you an apology, Julia. I jumped to an unwarranted conclusion."

Julia sniffed. "I was a faithful wife, Lord Joseph Gildeforte, and am a respectable widow, outstanding legal issues notwithstanding. That you should jump to such a conclusion is proof positive that you lack respect for me, and that I am right to refuse your importunities."

Gills groaned. "On the contrary, Mrs. Marloughe. All it proves is that you have driven me to the brink of madness with jealousy. Can we not be friends again?"

"No flirting," Julia demanded.

"No flirting," he agreed.

"No asking me to marry you."

He hesitated, and gave Julia enough time to wonder if she really wanted him to stop. "A moratorium," he suggested. "One month?"

Julia felt a smile tug at the corner of her lips. "Six weeks." Beyond the walls, she could hear the applause rise. "Now go away, friend, and let me do my job."