The Ashes of London

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.’