“She’s with him . . . Miss Welles, I mean,” said the slender Charmian, in her excitement about to forget her station entirely by tugging on Caliban’s sleeve. Realizing she had nearly touched his bare skin instead, Mary drew away in horror and wrinkled her nose. “You’re so dirty, your lordship,” she whispered.
“Caliban’s not dirty . . . he’s misunderstood,” replied Darlington. “Besides, this horse is a bit long in the tooth to play Romeo.”
“Good heavens, I hope Romeo’s not your favorite Shakespearean character. One should never die for love,” Lady Dalrymple exclaimed. “Particularly a man of your parts and years. One must live for it.”
“We are wasting time on airy persiflage,” proclaimed the formidable Queen of the Fairies, brandishing her gemstone-encrusted wand as though it were a mace. “We must go after them!”
“First we must learn how to recognize him, Augusta. What is my brother attired as?” asked Lady Dalrymple, subduing her slithering armlet with a gentle stroking gesture.
Mimsy dissolved into peals of laughter. By way of explanation, as she was too overcome with mirth to form a proper sentence, she began to pantomime the configuration of Manwaring’s elaborate headdress. “An ass!” she finally replied, convulsed with giggles.
“How appropriate,” remarked Lady Oliver tartly, dismissing the maid with her wand. With great haste, the foursome donned their black domino masks and returned to Darlington’s coach for the ride to Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Containing the stunning denouement of our adventure and a revelation beyond anyone’s wildest imagination.
THE ONLY PERSONS not in Shakespearean costume were the liveried staff, and even they were all attired like servants of the Sun King, Louis XIV, in powdered periwigs and pale blue coats embroidered in gold.
C.J. was helped from the small swan-shaped boat at the bankside and stepped into a fragrant fantasyland. Even the illumination was magical. Paper lanterns were suspended from the tall trees that were planted in neat rows, forming an arboreal arcade open to the clear night sky above.
“Some prefer the newer Ranelagh Gardens,” Manwaring told her, “but I’m still partial to Vauxhall.” He gestured toward the pavilion, drawing C.J.’s attention away from the laid-out walks paved with tiny pebbles of golden-colored gravel and the marble statues and tableaux cleverly tucked into lush groves.
“You must first meet our hostess,” he said, leading C.J. into the pavilion, designed to look like the enchanted palace of a genie. In the center of a 150-foot rotunda sat an orchestra of perhaps a hundred chairs engaged to play minuets and mazurkas, polkas and pavanes throughout the night, while guests danced or chatted away in the tiers of boxes that ringed the room.
The murals on the walls took C.J.’s breath away.
“Oh yes, those are Hogarth’s work,” Manwaring said, admiring the paintings. “Best man for the job, if I do say so myself.”
“I imagine he got paid handsomely to satirize what we do here,” C.J. mused. “And thoroughly enjoyed himself in the process.”
“Ahh, our hostess.” They approached a blond woman, delicate and diminutive, dressed fittingly as Titania, Queen of the Fairies. “Welcome, players all,” said Lady Chatterton, bestowing a kiss on each hairy jowl of the beast that stood before her.
“Greetings, your ladyship,” boomed the marquess through Bottom’s heavy headdress.
“Manwaring! How delightful!” replied Lady Chatterton in her silvery voice. “I would recognize thee anywhere.”
“And this is my daughter, Cassandra.”
C.J. doffed her velvet cap and made a leg. “The pleasure is all mine, Lady Chatterton.”
“Is she an actress?” inquired the hostess of the marquess. “Verily, your daughter has the legs for the trouser roles. Is it Rosalind or Viola?” Lady Chatterton asked C.J., waving her beribboned wand, cleverly configured to serve a double duty as her mask.
C.J. thought for a moment, then answered, “‘Believe then, if you please, that I can do strange things. I have, since I was three years old, convers’d with a magician, most profound in his art, and yet not damnable.’ ”
“Rosalind it is then!” Lady Chatterton exclaimed, delighted. “How clever you are! And ’tis indeed since you were about three years old that you last saw your father, isn’t that so?”
Uncomprehendingly, C.J. smiled politely, pretending to take Lady Chatterton’s meaning.
“Dance, drink, and be merry, my friends, for tomorrow the servants will clear away the traces of tonight’s revelry,” their hostess exhorted. “A pleasure, my dear, to see you reunited with your father,” she added, as she was whisked away by Mark Antony.
The marquess watched the retreating figures and wondered if the Roman general was a rival for the attentions of his love. “I go in search of some punch, my child. Feel free to stroll about at leisure,” he told C.J., leaving her side for the allure of intoxicating elixirs.
“OH YES INDEED, Lady Dalrymple. I conversed with your brother not several minutes ago. And what unalloyed joy to see you again in London,” Lady Chatterton told the dowager countess. “And Lady Oliver, of course.” The two Titanias regarded each other with masked hostility. “Why, Darlington, how . . . brave!” the hostess exclaimed when the earl removed his mask to greet her.
“How fortunate it is that we are having warm weather,” the nearly naked nobleman remarked airily.
“Albert is Bottom the Weaver tonight,” Lady Chatterton informed them. “And quite a fine Bottom too,” she added with a wink at her old bosom friend Lady Dalrymple.
“The ass is far too burdened for my taste,” said Lady Oliver sourly.
“We must find them,” Darlington said, ill disposed to waste precious time in pleasantries. “I believe it will be best if we all pursue different directions.” Like a general, he dispatched his troops. “Lady Dalrymple and Mary, go that way to seek his lordship. Aunt Augusta, you search the pavilion for him. He is no doubt to be found not far from the punch bowl. I shall look for Miss Welles out here among the groves.”
It proved a daunting task indeed to find the Marquess of Manwaring. Just as there was more than one Titania in attendance, Bottom proved to
