The Darling Strumpet Part 12

"How many are lost?" Nell asked. "Are Bill and John killed?"

"No one knows yet," Matt said, "but the crew numbered more than three hundred, and they say but few survived."

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

"YOU SHOULD LEARN HOWEVER YOU CAN," HART SAID. "WATCH other actors. Observe what works and what does not, and why."

So today Nell sat with Beck Marshall in an upper gallery at the Duke's Playhouse, to see their rival company perform Lord Orrery's new play, Mustapha. Nell didn't think much of the play, but the day was a success anyway, because the king was there.

Barbara Palmer sat beside him, preening and fanning herself, obviously aware that she was being watched as closely as the actors. Nell thought how magnificently beautiful she looked, but there was something cold and hard about her. The flashing eyes she turned on the king were proud and triumphant. Did she love him? Nell wondered. She saw little tenderness in Lady Castlemaine's gaze.

To Nell's shock, she realized that the king was looking up at her. He smiled, and bowed his head in greeting. Thoroughly fl.u.s.tered, Nell inclined her own head. Barbara Palmer had seen, and there were thunderclouds behind her gaze.

"Brr," said Beck. "Those are icicles, not eyes! Well done, Nell. You've not only got the king's attention but put Lady Castlemaine's nose out of joint, too. Not a bad afternoon's work!"

Though all had congratulated Nell on her success in The Indian Emperor, she felt awkward in the serious part and begged Hart to let her play in another comedy.

"It's already in hand," he said. "I'm meeting with Killigrew and Mohun and Lacy tomorrow, and we'll find something for you to get your teeth into."

But when she saw the men in conversation the next afternoon, their faces were grim.

"Pray that it does not get any worse," Killigrew said, shaking his head as he walked away.

"Pray that what does not get worse?" Nell asked. Lacy glanced around and lowered his voice.

"The plague. I saw two houses closed up today. If it gets bad, the playhouses will be shut to stop it spreading."

Nell's heart sank. Not now, she pleaded to whatever power might be listening. Not when complete happiness is so close at hand.

But the plague showed no signs of abating, and before long Killigrew gathered the company and told them that the king had ordered the theaters closed until the plague should pa.s.s.

The weather grew hotter as spring turned to summer, and soon there were few streets that did not have a house shut up. Even if the playhouses had been open, there would have been no one to come, for the court had fled to Oxford, followed by much of the town. In the last week of June, Nell listened in horror as Hart told her of the week's bills of mortality.

"Two hundred and sixty-seven dead of the plague," he said. "That's ninety more than last week."

But those numbers soon paled. The plague's toll doubled the following week, doubled again the next week, and then again.

A pall of terror settled over London. The plague came upon its victims so suddenly that a person might wake feeling fine and be dead by nightfall. The grotesque black swellings in the armpits and groin bloomed quickly and agonizingly, the putrid pus within seeping into the body or oozing forth when the buboes burst. No one knew how the contagion spread, but it was impossible not to look with fear upon anyone who came near, for they might be carrying the seeds of death.

"WE'RE TAKING THE COMPANY TO OXFORD," HART TOLD HER. "WE can play there to the court. You can learn some more parts, in readiness for when the playhouse is open again."

"I can't leave Rose."

"We'll make room for her, too. We'll need a tire-woman, and Rachel's gone to her family, so Rose can take her place."

THAT NIGHT, NELL THOUGHT ABOUT HER MOTHER. SHE HAD NOT LAID eyes on Eleanor since the day she had left home, now five years ago, and when thoughts of her mother had come to mind she had pushed them down. There was no good to be had from revisiting the painful past. But tonight the memories pushed forward, jostling with the thought that her mother might die of the plague while she was gone, could already be dead.

An image from the distant past flashed into Nell's mind-her mother's face, smiling and laughing as she bounced Nell on her knee. Rose stood beside them. They were outdoors, and sunlight fell upon them through the green foliage of a tree. Nell looked up at the sound of a bird's cry and saw a flitting brown shape splashed with red.

"Robin Red Breast," Eleanor said. "Robin."

"Wobbin." Little Nell tried out the word, and Rose and Eleanor laughed in delight.

Nell found that tears were running down her face at the memory. She had forgotten the moments of love and tenderness, and the fleeting glimpse of her mother's warmth awoke intense feelings of longing. Perhaps she should go to see her mother before she and Rose left London. Or would it be a fool's errand, putting herself in the path of rejection and pain?

THE NEXT DAY, NELL AND ROSE WENT TO THE GOLDEN FLEECE. COMING in from the sunshine, it took Nell's eyes a moment to adjust to the dim light. The smell of the place, that distinct mingling of ale, food, sawdust, sweat, dirt, and urine, flooded her mind with memories, and for a moment, it felt as though she had never been away, that Hart and the playhouse and all that had happened since the day of the king's return to London were only a dream.

Eleanor was behind the bar, and turned at the sound of footsteps. From the ingratiating smile that fleeted across her lips before it died, Nell could tell that her mother had not at first recognized her daughters. But then Eleanor's mouth flattened into a hard line, and she jutted her chin at them belligerently.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in. And what might the two of you want?"

"We were worried about you, Mam," said Rose. "Because of the plague."

Eleanor snorted.

"Well, I'm aboveground, as you can see."

We shouldn't have come, Nell thought. She's just the same as ever, and would give me a kicking just the same as before. She turned to leave, but Rose laid a gentle hand on her arm and faced their mother steadily.

"We're glad you're well. We're going to Oxford, Nell and I, with the playhouse. Is there aught we can do for you?"

Eleanor had been caught off guard, and for a minute Nell saw beyond the defensive mask of her mother's face to the bottomless well of pain and self-loathing. It was not a frightening witch who stood before her, but a pathetic old woman, beaten by the world. Nell felt tears welling up and sobs choking her chest.

"Will you come with us?"

As soon as she had said the words, she knew that they were folly. She had no money to keep herself, much less her mother. And she cringed at the thought of Hart, of Killigrew, of the Marshall sisters-everyone-knowing that this creature was her mother. And then she felt ashamed at the thought, and began to cry.

Eleanor stood uncertainly. Finally she shook her head.

"Oxford has nought for me but black memories. If I'm to die, I'll do it here."

Rose handed her a knotted handkerchief containing a few shillings. Eleanor looked as if she would give it back, but then clenched it in her work-roughened hands, as if afraid that someone would s.n.a.t.c.h it away.

"Then we'll be off," Rose said. "We'll come to see you when we're back. G.o.d keep you."

Eleanor nodded slowly. "And both of you."

A FEW DAYS LATER, THE KING'S COMPANY LEFT LONDON. AS THE coach jolted toward the road to Oxford, Nell had never seen the town so empty. A few scrawny dogs stared out from the shadows, hopeless in their heat and hunger. Shops were shuttered and houses silent and watchful. And here and there that dreadful sight-a house with red letters painted stark against the boards. "G.o.d Have Mercy on Us" was what it said, Hart had told her.

At Tyburn Tree, the gallows stood empty, the dirt beneath turned to dust. No crowds gathered there this day. Death as entertainment had lost its appeal, for now death hung unseen behind every shoulder. It lay in wait, breathless, watching for its chance. This day might be your last.

On the seat opposite, Betsy Knepp gasped, and turning to see what had provoked it, Nell, too, caught her breath. A little way off the road, men were laboring at a gaping trench. The stench of rot was heavy in the heat and Nell gagged and s.n.a.t.c.hed at her skirt to cover her nose. But nothing could cover the horror of the knowledge of what lay within, and as the coach pa.s.sed, the men tipped barrows of quicklime into the pit. Friends and lovers, strangers and enemies lay all together now, all pride and dignity gone, all hopes and dreams and smiles forever lost.

Nell moved closer to Hart and put her hand in his, and his touch and solid presence made her feel safer.

The sun shone bright and as city gave way to country and fields stretched off on either side of the road, Nell breathed again and felt a lifting of the shadows covering her soul. A troop of b.u.t.terflies swooped and soared, a yellow blur against the blue of summer sky. Trees hung heavy with fruit sweetly scented the air. A village appeared in the distance, a few houses cl.u.s.tered amid the golden fields. What must it be like, Nell marveled, to live in such a place? No theaters, no shops, no court. Excitement took hold of her at the thought of what lay ahead. Performances for the king and court by night, and a new world to explore by day.

AWAY FROM THE GRIMNESS OF PLAGUE-RIDDEN LONDON AND SPENDING her time learning the part of Celia in The Humorous Lieutenant, Nell's spirits rose. She was never happier than in Hart's company, and together they strolled the town, the parks, the mossy banks of the river. She was amazed at the range of subjects on which he was knowledgeable, and he delighted in her eagerness to see and to learn. He laughed as she exclaimed in astonishment when he explained to her as they walked in the park one afternoon that it was not the sun that was rolling higher in the sky, but the earth that was moving around the sun.

" 'O brave new world!'" he exclaimed, smiling.

"What?"

"It's from The Tempest," he explained. "You're like Miranda, who has lived on a small island all her life, and is enraptured by what is new. Though now I come to think about it, it was a young man she was speaking of, as she had never seen another man besides her father. So I can only hope that the sun and earth are enough for you today."

He said it lightly, but Nell saw a shadow of sadness pa.s.s over his face. She squeezed his hand and looked anxiously up at him. In an instant, his mood turned playful, and he cried, "Come-mount and ride!"

Giggling, Nell hopped onto his back, clasped her legs around him, and held on tight as he whooped and galloped. Faster and faster he went, swooping in circles and looping around a towering oak tree as Nell shrieked with laughter. A dog's sharp bark answered her, and suddenly a small pack of yapping spaniels was converging on them.

From her bouncing perch, Nell was astonished to see that the king and Barbara Palmer stood not twenty paces away, watching her and Hart with evident interest.

"Hart! Charlie!" Nell beat on Hart's shoulders with her hands. He finally took in the royal presence and came to a halt, Nell still clinging to his back.

"Mr. Hart," said the king, inclining his head. An ironic smile twitched the corners of his mouth, and Lady Castlemaine was regarding Hart and Nell with amus.e.m.e.nt.

"Good afternoon, Your Majesty," Hart said, setting Nell on the gra.s.s beside him and bowing. "May I present Nell Gwynn? You've seen her in our performances in town."

"So we have," said the king. "How could I forget that charming face, with or without her oranges?"

THE HOT SUMMER DAYS STRETCHED ON. AT THE END OF AUGUST, Michael Mohun rode alone to London and returned with cold comfort.

"All who can flee have done so. The rest just wait. The weekly bills showed more than six thousand dead last week, but people murmur that it must be nearer ten thousand. The night is not long enough to bury the dead, so the corpses are buried by day as well, and the tolling of the bells never stops."

Nell looked at Mohun's haggard face in the flickering firelight, his eyes weary and shadowed, his mouth grim. He pa.s.sed a hand over his forehead, as if he could wipe away the lines of exhaustion and tension.

"It would be folly to return to London. It would be death."

THAT NIGHT NELL LAY AWAKE AND THOUGHT AGAIN OF HER MOTHER, alone in the gray streets of Covent Garden, where the plague raged most fiercely. If Eleanor died, no one would know to tell her. Would she at length go home to find her mother gone, buried nameless in some pit? Nell buried her face in her pillow and, trying not to wake Hart next to her, sobbed herself to sleep.

LIKE THE RIPPLES OF A PEBBLE THROWN INTO A POND, FEAR SPREAD outward in widening circles. The court moved to Salisbury. And then to Wilton, when a royal groom at Salisbury dropped dead of the plague.

With the king and his retinue gone from Oxford, Killigrew departed for France to find musicians for the court. The players tightened their belts, gave performances in college halls, and rehea.r.s.ed the plays they would present when it was safe to go back to London.

"WE OUGHT TO USE THIS TIME TO TEACH YOU TO READ," HART URGED Nell. "It will make learning lines much easier for you." He wrote the letters of the alphabet out for her and taught her the sounds that each should make. But once they were strung together into words, and the words into lines, and the lines into endless pages, the task of deciphering them seemed overwhelming to Nell.

"You know this word," Hart urged, pointing at the page. Nell stared at it. It began with one of the two letters that looked like little fat men, their bellies sticking out before them. But which one was it?

"Bog?" She looked up to him for confirmation.

"No! Dog. Dog. You just read that same word up here." He stabbed his finger at the book. Nell turned away in shame and frustration at the irritation in his voice. He sat down beside her and stroked her head.

"I'm sorry, honey. I don't mean to grow impatient with you. Remember-when the little fat man is coming onto the stage from the right, he's a 'b.' And when he's entering from the left, he's a 'd.'"

"Please can we stop for now?" Nell begged. "The letters just jumble together and make my head hurt something fierce."

BY THE END OF SEPTEMBER, IT FINALLY SEEMED THAT THE WORST WAS over, and the King's Company packed up for the trip back to town. A third of the population of London was dead of the plague.

THE COACH RUMBLED ALONG THE OXFORD ROAD AND PAST TYBURN Tree, and Nell knew she was almost home. The air was oppressive, the muggy afternoon sky clouded over and brooding. As they turned south toward Drury Lane, there was a searing bolt of lightning, and a clap of thunder exploded overhead, seeming to shake the earth itself. Rose started in shock beside Nell, and then laughed self-consciously. But Nell felt uneasy, too, and sensed from the others who rode with her that she was not alone.

Nell and Rose had given up their lodgings when they went to Oxford, as had Hart, and Nell realized that she had no home. The thought brought with it a stab of longing, a deeply animal instinct to seek someplace safe to burrow.

"We'll go to the c.o.c.k and Pie for tonight," Hart said, watching the downpour. "And then see what's what."

As it happened, they took Nell's old room. She felt somewhat comforted to be back in the same place, and the familiar cracks in the walls and the dusty bubbled windowpanes seemed like old friends. Worn out from the journey, she climbed into bed and was lulled to sleep by the gentle sound of the rain pattering on the roof.

IT WAS STILL RAINING WHEN NELL WOKE, AND FROM THE BED SHE could see the gray sky and dark clouds. She looked at Hart beside her and ran her fingers over the scratchy stubble of his cheek. He stirred and pulled her closer to him. Nell felt safe as she always did when next to him, but worries about the future crowded into her mind. They were back in London, but what now? How long would Hart continue to support her? How long could he continue? She thought about the other girls who had been in Killigrew's company. Where were the Davenport sisters, Franki and Betty? Where were Margaret Rutter and Elizabeth Weaver? Had they found a safe port in the storm, or were they on the streets whoring or begging, or were they dead?

She thought back to those heady days when she had played in The Indian Emperor, reveling in the excitement of being an actress, glorying at sharing the stage with Hart. It had been too good to be true, that brief glimpse into heaven. Ease and happiness were not to be her lot in life. Why should she be different from Rose, who would like as not have to return to whoring, different from her mother, than any other of the thousands upon thousands of women in London, who had no choice but to earn their bread how they could, like it or not? The world was a hard place, and wishing it to be otherwise was a waste of time.

Hart stirred, and turned toward Nell with drowsy eyes. He saw the worry in her face and pulled her close.

"What's amiss, little one?"

Nell hesitated. She was afraid. Afraid to be too needy, to burden him with her fears.

"Hmm?" Hart prompted her, and leaned up on an elbow. She noted the faintest spray of freckles across the bridge of his nose, how his cheeks were bronzed from spending so much time outdoors in Oxford.

"It's just-I do not know how I will keep myself if the playhouse is not open. Unless I-" She stopped, unwilling to speak out loud what she still did not know if he knew. Unable to face him, she turned away and hugged her knees to her chest. Hart gently pulled her to face him.

"You will not have to sell yourself, honey. I have yet some money put by, thank G.o.d. Wheresoever I go, you will go, too. If you wish it. You'll not lack for food or drink or a roof over your head, or shoes for your pretty little feet."

Nell burst into tears, angry at herself for the loss of control, for such transparent terror and dependence. But she was grateful. And held tight to Hart.

THE NEXT DAY, NELL AND ROSE SOUGHT OUT THEIR MOTHER. THE DAY was cold, and Nell pulled her cloak close around her as they neared the Golden Fleece. Only a few tipplers sat within, and Eleanor was nowhere in sight. Nell felt a clutch of fear at her stomach, then saw her mother ascending through the open hatch from the cellar, a keg in her arms.

"Mam!"

Eleanor turned at the sound of Nell's voice. At the sight of her daughters, her face crumpled and she began to weep, slumping to the floor.

"I thought I'd never see you more."

Nell rushed to her mother and buried her face in her skirt. Eleanor's hands stroked her hair. Five years of buried pain surged to the surface, and Nell sobbed like a small child.

"We're back," Rose said. "We're all together now."

LONDON WAS CHANGED. THE GHOSTS OF THOSE WHO WERE GONE walked the streets, hovered in the shadows, drew breath through the breaths of the living. Nell had gone to buy shoes to replace the pair she had worn since the previous year, now split and ragged. She found a used pair in fine condition at a stall, but the thought struck her that they might have belonged to some girl dead of the plague, and she left without buying them and headed back to Drury Lane.

The mounds of earth heaped over the graves and plague pits were still raw and gra.s.sless. Like new scars, Nell thought, as she hurried by the churchyard of St. Giles. This parish had been one of the hardest hit, and the ground around the church was an ugly welter of trenches and heaps, damp greeny brown stains marring the walls of the church, dirt spilling out through the churchyard fence, as though the dead had been packed in so tightly that the bounds of the churchyard could not hold them, and a hand or knee might burst through the blanket of sod.

An ancient and evil smell of rot rose from the soil, and Nell pinched her nostrils closed and covered her mouth with her hand as she hurried by. Night was coming on, and she quickened her pace, loath to be out of doors when dark engulfed the remaining light in the autumn sky.

The weather was growing colder. That was a blessing, as it seemed to lessen the effect of the plague. But Nell dreaded the darkness of winter, when the sun came up late and sank again too soon. Her spirits ebbed with the daylight, and she felt hemmed in and fearful in the gray bleakness. Christmas came, and the New Year. Nell was glad to see the back of 1665. It had begun promisingly enough, to be sure, but it had grown poor and meager soon enough. Surely next year would bring better.