The King

letters, sir. But he says to me on his way out, he says, I'm to wake you, an' ask you for your key so's I can make your tea, sir?'

'Ah, right,' Alan said. 'In my waist-coat pocket'

She passed out of his sight to the foot of the bed and he heard something rustle as she picked up his clothes from the floor where he'd dropped them. Then she came back to the open side of the bed.

'This be it, sir?' she asked him. Close to, he saw that she had a dusting of freckles across the bridge of her saucy, upturned little nose.

'Aye, that's it.'

'An' what'll you be havin' this morning', sir? Tea? Coffee? Chocolate?' she asked.

'Do you-make good coffee, Abigail?' Alan asked her, sitting up higher against the pillows. 'I mean, really good coffee?'

'I reckon I can, sir,' she replied, a trifle dubious.

'Grind the beans fine as corned gunpowder. Use a heaping spoonful per cup, mind, don't scrimp,' Alan instructed. 'Water hot as the hinges of Hell, none of this tepid water. And let it steep and drip until all the water's gone down into the pot, or the cup.'

'Aye, sir, I'll do it, s'help me, though I know nothin' 'bout gunpowder, sir,' she promised earnestly. 'Toast, too, sir? Or d'you want me t' go out an' get some rolls for you?'

'What sort of a day is it, Abigail?' Alan asked.

' 'Tis that cold, sir, t'would make a stone cupid shiver,' she informed him. 'Snow up t' the bottom steps already, an' ice under. An' more comin' down, sir, like there's no tomorrow.'

'Toast, then, from the kitchens. No sense slipping and breaking your pretty young pate for my pleasure,' Alan said, grinning. 'First, I need a kettle of hot water for shaving, and then the breakfast.'

'I'll do her, sir!' Abigail said as she curtsied her way out.

Alan steeled himself, then slid out of bed and toe-walked to his stockings and slippers on the icy cold floorboards. He stripped off his nightshirt and bundled it into the armoire, donned a clean pair of white canvas slop- trousers from his sea-chest, and the heavy dressing gown.

He went to the living room window and rubbed the glass clear of fog and frost on the inside to look out. The semi-translucent view he had of the street reminded him more of the Arctic wastes he'd seen north of Halifax and Louisburg than London. The girl had stoked up the sitting room fire as well, so he sat close to it as he waited for his shaving water.

Abigail was back with a large copper kettle, using a thick rag and both hands to hold it away from her so she wouldn't sear herself on it. 'Your man Cony says t' me, he says, sir, that you likes plenty o' hot water o' the mornin's, so I brought ya a full gallon measure.'

'Topping!' Alan cried in appreciation. 'Wash-hand-stand's in the bed-chamber. Lay me out a fresh towel and I'll attend to my shaving things, Abigail. Here, let me take it. It looks heavy.'

'Yessir, it is, sir, but I can manage, sir. No bother.' She poured the bowl full, set the kettle down by the hearth, and handed him a towel on the way out. Alan hummed to himself as he unrolled his 'housewife' and stropped his razor. It wasn't too long before he'd not had to shave every morning, and that only for Sunday Divisions aboard ship, at that. But Delia Cantner appreciated the lack of stubble to irritate her more private parts. If he was to keep his tryst with her that afternoon, he wanted to please.

Once shaved, he fetched out a washcloth and began to sponge himself down from neck to ankles with hot water and a precious bar of scented Italian soap, a present from Lady Delia (one of many she'd given him over the last few months). To do so, he had to drop his slop-trousers.

Ohpe! came a small gasp from the door to the sitting room. The young maid Abigail had come back with his coffee and toast, and was standing in the doorway with the tray in her hands, ready to drop it in shock at seeing him standing there with his robe open and his trousers down around his ankles. Before he could say a word in explanation, she was gone, and he could hear the tray and the items on it rattling as she set it down on the table and began to lay them out.

Alan grinned to himself, finished swabbing himself dry and belted the robe about himself again, neglecting the slop-trousers.

'Ah, hot as the very devil,' Alan said after his first sip. 'Abigail, you simply don't know how bad coffee usually is here in London. Tepid muck, too weakly brewed, looks about the color of China tea. Worst excuse for a beverage I've ever seen.'

The girl was blushing a furious red from her startled embarrassment still, and only nodded and avoided his eyes as she finished bustling about with his breakfast things, her hands trembling a little.

'They brew it much stronger and thicker in the West Indies,' Alan went on. 'The way I'm used to it. This is good. Very good. You could show my man Cony a thing or two, I'm certain.'

'Thankee, sir,' she replied, losing her shocked color at last. 'I'm that glad you likes it. Jam for your toast, sir? Black currant's the only sort we had below-stairs this mornin', sir. Or I could fetch you up some treacle.'

'No, this black currant'll do right nice, thankee anyway, Abigail,' Alan replied. The girl had looked so abashed a moment before he suspected she'd drop dead of apoplexy, but now, she was grinning again in her shy little way, eager to please with an errand. 'Care for some toast, Abigail?'

'Ah, I couldn't go…' She blushed again. 'I've had me breakfast hours ago, sir, an' there's so much work to be doin'…'

'Do you work for another of the lodgers, or for the housekeeper, hmm?' Alan asked to keep her in the room. She was incredibly pretty in her own way. 'And how much work is there, really? Fuss and clean the lodgings after the occupants are off at work? Upstairs maid, or maid-of-all-work, are you?'

'Maid-of-all-work, sir,' she admitted. 'An' I does for that Mistress Harper on the third floor, too, but it's little enough there is to do for her, her bein' out on the town so much, you know, an' she with her own maid already.'

A bell tinkled downstairs and the girl was off like a hare, suspending any further conversation. Alan smeared butter and jam on his toast, spooned sugar into his coffee, and began to munch, missing his newspaper. Usually, he arose late, as he had that morning, had his sparse breakfast and hit the streets, making for a coffee house where he could borrow the house paper and converse with others of his sort. He could not remember the last time he'd stayed in his lodgings this late in the day with nothing to do, long after all the others had departed for their daily chores or rounds of visits.

There was a rap on the outer door, and Abigail was back once more, wiping her hands on her apron so as not to soil the letter she bore in her hands.

'Iss note come for you, sir,' she squeaked, in awe of the crest and the quality of the paper, and the liberality with which it had been sealed in blue wax. 'From a great lord, I thinks. The footman come in the downstairs parlor grand as a lord his-self, he did.'

Alan opened it and read that, due to the weather, Lady Delia Cantner would not be receiving that day. She wished his company, but not at risk to life and limb from the slippery streets, nor the risk of sickness at being exposed to such cruel cold. Besides, her previous guests were staying over because they couldn't get home, and his presence would not go down all that well. Tears, unrequited passion, etc.

'Ah, well,' Alan sighed, folding it back up and tossing it aside, thinking that he'd not had much luck lately in notes from women. 'So much for visiting friends for cards this afternoon,' he explained. 'Lord and Lady Cantner. Knew 'em in the Indies. Saved their lives a few years ago.'

'Ah, did you, indeed, sir!' the girl gushed. 'Your man Cony, he told me, he says to me, how you were a Sea Officer, an' how many adventures you've had, sir. Yorktown, an' Red Indians, too!'

'This was before I met Cony, before I joined the ship he was in. Oh, sit you down. Ever had coffee, Abigail?'

'Lord, no, sir! 'Tis dear stuff for the likes o' me back in Evesham.'

'Have a few minutes to spare from your work?' Alan cajoled. 'Have a chair, pour yourself your first cup of coffee and see if you like it. And I'll tell you all about how I made the acquaintance of Lord and Lady Cantner.'

'Well… just for a few minutes, sir,' she replied shyly, casting a glance toward the hallway door. 'The housekeeper, she'd turn me out if she thought I was shirkin'.'

'Tell her you're doing my rooms while my man Cony is off. That I asked you to do it,' Alan coaxed. 'Have a