Bodice Ripper

He looked across his bed and took in the sight of everything he owned laid out in front of him. It was hard to believe that there was so little of it. He'd spent four years accumulating it all, and he'd thought himself living a fairly comfortable life. Yet, the full sum of his life fit into three bags, one of them light enough to slip over his shoulder and carry in his lap.

There were other things, of course. There was a bed, that would be staying, and the sofa as well. He'd paid for the next two months in advance, so he could be reasonably certain that his landlord wouldn't throw his things out onto the curb. He would take a few days to come back, if he were employed for longer than that, and set things in order by paying or by having the rest of his things sent along.

A pair of bookshelves held a few hundred notebooks, with notes along the spines that said what he'd copied into them out of the university library. He would probably need some kind of reference, even now that he was out of school, and the notebooks would serve him until he could acquire proper copies.

Lastly, he sat down and pulled a pen out of his pocket. It was a Waterman, and he doubted that his father could have afforded to buy it for him. Yet, when he'd graduated, his father had handed him a box and inside it was the pen. He looked at it for a moment, admiring it, and then set down to make a note to the hospital.

The words didn't come to him. He knew better than most what sort of position he was in. There wasn't much to be done. He would need to pay, or his father would be turned out. Begging would do nothing to change it.

He tried to push the thoughts from his mind. After all, he had no reason to be concerned. He'd gotten a better job than he could have hoped for, and he could afford a few pounds when he had been paid. Indeed, Lord Geis had been made to sound quite a nice fellow; if James asked, certainly, he could have a small advance, and the money could be sent off in only a couple of days.

James rubbed his temples and tried to think. He'd made the best of his situation, and what problems remained were going to be dealt with soon. Still, it seemed too good to be true, and he had tried to take as few risks as possible in his life. That he needed to take one now was more than a little bit worrying, but again he set his concerns aside.

There had been other jobs, other jobs he knew he was more qualified for. A head steward, at twenty-two? It was unheard of, and it was unheard of for a good reason. Yet, the solicitor he had dealt with had seemed quite certain that he was the right man for the job, in spite of his misgivings and his youth. The wage was nearly double what he could have made at any other job, and Papa was looking worse and worse now that Mam had died.

He capped the pen and set it down, pulled his jacket on, and carefully slipped the pen back into his pocket, and left. There was nothing left for him to do tonight, and he was only going to drive himself mad by trying to stay in. He had no food in the pantry, given that he would be leaving in a matter of days, after all, and he hadn't had supper yet.

The concierge stopped him on the way out. He'd received a letter from a representative of the Geis estate, the same Raymond Greer who had hired him. He slipped it into his breast pocket, thanked the man for keeping the message, and continued on his way.

He tore the envelope gently open and eased the letter out. He skimmed it once, and then had to stop and read it again, more carefully. There must have been some sort of mistake, so he read it a third time to be certain, held it up to the sky as if the overcast sky might help him see the trick.

Lord Frances Geis was dead. He'd died three days ago, from pneumonia that had caught in his lungs. He'd left behind a daughter, Mary, and was to be succeeded by his brother. It read like a newspaper clipping, and it was possible that Mr. Greer had copied some of the text from the obituary.

The ground seemed unsteady under James's feet. He had feared that things were too good to be true, and now it seemed as if everything was coming apart at the very last moment. He choked on air and blinked. There had been other jobs, certainly. He might even be able to find another, in a week or two, but so many of the offers had come in when he had graduated.

Most of the firms had been waiting for the graduating class, and now, in August, they would have made their hires. He took a deep, heady breath and held it.

He started walking again, toward the pub on the corner. He tried to reason things out, but he could feel himself suffocating under this new strain. There was no way that anyone would keep him on as a head steward. His visions of an easy-made future under a peculiar Baron were gone, to a pneumatic fit, and now his father...

He shook his head and pushed the door of the pub open. A friendly hand clapped him on the shoulder, and he heard a laugh, but it didn't mean anything to him, through his thick haze of panicked fear.

He sat down, signaled the bartender mindlessly, and waited for his food to come. The beer went down without the usual crisp burn, the food tasted like nothing. He stared down at it, trying to figure out what could possibly be done.

Then he sat back and watched the food sit on his plate. He had a contract, and at least until the Geis household was in order, he would be able to push himself into the position, whether he would be kept or not. He could make a particularly impressive showing, he hoped, and then he would be kept on. After all, even if he were too young, if he were capable and worked for less than a more experienced steward…

It seemed like wishful thinking, but as he took another bite of the meat they'd set down in front of him, and he chewed it mechanically, he realized there was nothing else to done. No other options appeared magically before him. It was this, or nothing.

He finished his meal and counted out the bill carefully, then dropped a small gratuity on top of that and started the long walk home. He would be a long time getting to sleep, and he needed to be up early tomorrow, to make the morning train. After all, he'd already paid for the ticket.

3

Mary

Three days after her father's death, Mary was lounging in her father's library, reading whatever trash books that Davis could find for her at the chemist's. They were lurid and dramatic and had little of substance to distract from it. She looked for all the world like she was unaware of the death.

That was how she had hoped for it to look.

She laid there at awkward angles that were only possible thanks to having left off her corset. It had seemed like an intriguing notion at the time. She wanted to look disinterested and lazy, as well, so she'd gone along with it, and when Rebecca suggested that she put her corset on, Mary had told her to leave it off. The look on Rebecca's face alone had made the entire idea worth it.

Still, hours later, her dress fit poorly and she was endlessly adjusting herself to try to get a pinched bit of fabric out of her side. Suddenly she sat up with a start. What time was it?

She looked over to the clock, softly ticking at the front of the room. Past noon.

"Davis," she called out, hoping he was nearby. He was, as he always was.

"Ma'am?" He stepped through the door and waited for her to instruct him.

"Do you think it might be time for lunch?"