The Darling Strumpet Part 6

"I'd have been better," said Kynaston. "And prettier, too." The lads laughed, but Marmaduke shook his head and winked at Nell.

"Can you not keep playing women's roles, too?" she asked. Kynaston stared into his tankard and didn't answer.

"No," said Harry. "Neddie's good, but when you put him next to the real thing, they're as different as chalk and cheese. Actresses. That's the future."

Another question was on Nell's lips, but the words froze unspoken. Madam Ross's man Jack was making his way toward the table, scowling, his eyes fixed on her. She couldn't stand the thought of him bullying her before the actors, and she mumbled something to them as she scrambled off the bench and toward another table of men. Jack's big hand closed hard on her upper arm, and he yanked her to face him.

"You're not paid to take your ease," he growled.

"I was just talking," she answered, her throat constricted by fear and shame, knowing that the actors were surely watching.

"Less talking, and more time on your back or your knees." Jack's fingers tightened around her arm. Obviously enjoying her discomfort, he reached his other hand under her skirt, and shoved his fingers hard inside her.

"That's your worth," he said, his breath hot on her face, thrusting deeper into her. "That and only that. Don't get above yourself, or I'll teach you a lesson you'll not forget."

He gave a last vicious twist of his hand before letting Nell go, and she ran from the room, too mortified to face Harry and the other lads and too terrified to remain in Jack's presence.

AFTER THAT, NELL NO LONGER SAT WITH THE ACTORS UNLESS JACK was absent. When he was present, she kept quiet and out of his way, anxious not to give him any excuse to shame her further. She thought with longing of the theater and begged Jane to tell her any news of the actors, but Jane had little interest in what the players did when they were not at Madam Ross's.

In late December, Jack disappeared without explanation. Madam Ross made herself scarce as well, disappearing into her rooms on the top floor of the house, and the girls whispered their conjectures about what had happened. On the second day of Jack's absence, Nell dared to hope that he had gone for good. The establishment was a much happier place with only Ned there to mind the shop.

Nell was overjoyed when Harry Killigrew came into the taproom one quiet afternoon a few days before Christmas. He ambled over to the table where Ned sat with Rose, and Nell joined them, happy at her unaccustomed freedom and the holiday mood that prevailed. Christmas under Cromwell had been kept as a day of fasting and atonement, but this year was different. Harry had been at court, where preparations for the festivities had been going on for days.

"You should see the palace," Harry said. "Holly and ivy everywhere, and a great Yule log. The king's mother and two sisters are visiting, and the king will keep the twelve days of Christmas as in old times, with masques, mummers, and banquets every day. We gave a show at the c.o.c.kpit last night, and the wine was flowing like water."

Nell thought of what she had been doing the previous night. It had been a particularly unpleasant evening. The fat and revolting Mr. Cooper had fumbled with his limp p.r.i.c.k, and struck her when even her sucking failed to rouse him. And then there had been a party of soldiers who were drunk and brutal. She had cried herself to sleep, despairing at the thought that she had no way out.

"Tell me more about the king and the court," she begged.

"It's like a fairy land," Harry said. "There's music and dancing every night. The king has a consort of twenty-four violins, and musicians of every other kind as well. He outdances all the court and sings when he can dance no more."

In her room alone that night, Nell wondered what the music of twenty-four violins would sound like, and tried to picture the king and his courtiers dancing, their finery sparkling in the gleam of a thousand candles. She thought of the king's mistress Barbara Palmer, radiant at his side. She drew herself up straight, trying to feel the weight of a gown heavy with jewels, and danced, imagining herself partnered by the king, and watched by a host of onlookers at a great Christmas feast.

But on Christmas Eve, Nell heard that the king's sister Mary had died of the smallpox, and instead of revelry, Whitehall was somber and still, the court dressed in purple mourning clothes instead of jeweled finery. Nell felt herself in mourning, too, as Jack returned to Lewkenor's Lane and resumed his rule.

The New Year of 1661 dawned cold and icy. The Thames froze, and Nell and Rose delighted in the frost fair that sprang up, with booths selling food and drink, and entertainments presented to joyous crowds. They ran and slid on the snow-covered ice, enjoying the novel view of London from the middle of the frozen river, then warmed themselves with hot wa.s.sail.

In February, coins bearing the king's face were minted and began to replace the old currency. The king's likeness was noted elsewhere, too, as Barbara Palmer bore a daughter that was rumored to be Charles's child.

On St. George's Day, the twenty-third of April, the king's coronation brought celebratory throngs to the streets once more. The royal barge sailed down the river from Whitehall to the Tower, followed by a flotilla of craft bearing dignitaries, and then a flood of sightseers crammed onto any vessel that would float. The night sky blazed with fireworks, and London reveled until dawn.

ONE EVENING IN EARLY JULY NELL ENTERED THE TAPROOM TO FIND Harry, Marmaduke, and young Theo Bird slumped around a corner table, uncharacteristically subdued and glum.

"What's amiss?" she asked.

"We've been playing to scant houses all the week, and each day it gets worse," Theo said. "Davenant has opened his new playhouse, and everyone and his wife is going to see his opera."

"Even the king has been," added Marmaduke.

"But why?" Nell asked.

"Because he's built a much grander theater," Marmaduke said. "It's got painted scenery that moves, and machines-angels and G.o.ds coming down from the heavens and so on. Pageantry. Singing."

"Don't forget Hester Davenport," Theo said.

"Who's she?" Nell asked.

"One of Davenant's actresses," Harry said. "Toothsome. Bonnie and buxom. She's taken the fancy of everyone from the tom t.u.r.d men to the Earl of Oxford."

"And there are two parts to the poxed thing," Marmaduke lamented. "So everyone has to go twice."

"The Siege of Rhodes," Harry snorted. "More like the siege of Lincoln's Inn Fields."

"But things are bound to get better," said Nell. "People tire of a new thing soon enough, is what Rose always says."

"Not this," said Harry. "We'll have to keep up with the Duke's Company or we're sunk."

Not long after, Nell heard from the lads that Tom Killigrew had leased a plot of land off Drury Lane and would build a fine new theater that would accommodate the new fas.h.i.+on for moving scenery and machinery and would outs.h.i.+ne Davenant's playhouse in style and grandeur. It was to be called the Theatre Royal.

SOON AFTER NELL LEARNED OF KILLIGREW'S PLANS FOR A NEW THEATER, Harry became a page of honor to the king, as his father had been to the previous King Charles, and took up residence at Whitehall. He still came to see Rose, but not as frequently. Marmaduke Watson, Ned Kynaston, and the other younger actors of the King's Company continued to drink in the taproom, but when Jack was around, Nell avoided their company. She still ached with shame at their having witnessed Jack's humiliation of her, and wanted to be sure she gave him no reason to repeat the performance.

She longed to take part in the players' banter and jokes, but disciplined herself instead to cultivate regular customers and keep them happy. The more of them she had, the less she would be available for just any brute who might come in the door. One of her favorites was a young man by the name of Robbie Duncan, who seemed to seek her out for her company as much as for pleasure in bed. He worked with his brothers in their father's cloth exporting business, and on only his third visit he had brought her a length of soft brown wool that would serve to make a new cloak for the winter. And Jimmy Cade visited her frequently, always tipping her a few coins.

WHEN HARRY KILLIGREW DID VISIT LEWKENOR'S LANE, HE BROUGHT word of each story and scandal at Whitehall. In Nell's second autumn at Madam Ross's, London buzzed with the news that King Charles had enn.o.bled Roger Palmer, the husband of his mistress, bestowing on him the t.i.tles of Baron Limerick and Earl of Castlemaine-with the shocking provision that the t.i.tles were to pa.s.s only to any children born by Barbara Palmer.

"In other words," Harry explained, "the king is granting t.i.tles to any b.a.s.t.a.r.ds he should father on Mistress Palmer, and Roger Palmer is to stand by without complaint."

THE FOLLOWING SPRING, NELL SAW PEOPLE PUs.h.i.+NG CLOSE TO THE ballad singer near the Maypole in the Strand, shoving to buy his broadsheets.

"What's the news?" she asked a tired-looking woman with a small child in tow.

"The king is to marry! A princess from Portugal."

Catherine of Braganza arrived in May, and Nell and Rose listened as Harry related the latest news from court.

"Barbara Palmer is seven months gone with child, and she'll not be budged from Hampton Court, queen or no queen, and has even been made a lady of the queen's bedchamber. I'm glad I won't be in the king's shoes when those two ladies meet."

In August, Nell joined the throngs watching the water pageant in honor of the royal marriage. Standing on a barrel, she craned her neck to catch a glimpse of the new queen and wondered what she must think about sharing her residence with the king's mistress and children.

The taproom was busy that night, and the patrons were more drunk and disorderly than usual. Jack broke up a fight, cudgeling the instigator into b.l.o.o.d.y insensibility before throwing him into the street. The tables were packed with drinkers and the girls didn't even bother to leave their rooms when they had done with one man, but took the next from the lines outside their doors.

It was well into the wee hours when the last man left Nell's room and no other appeared. She was exhausted, but put her head out the door of her room to be sure that no one was waiting. Jack was coming down the hallway, steady on his feet despite the half-empty bottle in his hand. His face was flushed and his eyes glinted dangerously as he bore down on Nell.

She ducked backward but he blocked the door as she tried to close it. She retreated as he entered the room, kicking the door shut behind him. He reached her in two strides and pulled her by her hair onto her knees in front of him as he sat on the edge of the bed. He took a long pull from his bottle, set it on the floor, unb.u.t.toned his breeches, and shoved himself into her mouth.

He smelled of p.i.s.s and sweat and brandy, and Nell gagged as his flesh hit the back of her throat. She struggled against him, but he yanked her head up and down, his c.o.c.k choking her. She pushed at him, desperate to draw a breath, but his iron grip would not release. She felt that she would faint or die unless she could free herself. Without thinking, she clamped her teeth down.

Jack gave a roar of rage and pain and let go of her. She scrabbled away from him, but he lifted her by her hair and smashed her across the face so hard she went sprawling face-first onto the bed, and he was on her before she could move, kneeing her legs apart. Nell heard him spit, and screamed as he forced himself into her a.r.s.e. A filthy hand smelling of brandy was clamped over her mouth, stifling her cries. Another hand clutched her throat, fingers digging into her flesh.

It seemed to go on forever. Nell had never felt such searing pain. She sobbed into Jack's hand, her tears running down to mingle with snot as he slammed into her. At last he spent, giving a final deep thrust that Nell thought would split her. He left without a word, and Nell lay s.h.i.+vering and whimpering. After a time she crept into Rose's room, and Rose started awake at the sound of Nell's sobbing.

"Lord, what's happened?"

"Jack," Nell whispered. "He came for me and I didn't mean to, but I bit him. So he hurt me."

"He hit you?" Rose pulled Nell into her arms.

"More than that. He-" Nell couldn't make herself say the words, but Rose understood her gesture.

"Let me see, honey." Rose gently examined Nell. "You're not bleeding, that's a mercy. Here, this will help." Tears streaked Rose's face as she applied salve to Nell's battered flesh.

"Oh, Nell," she whispered, "truly I don't know what to do. It will do you no good to speak to the missus. And if you try to say him nay, it will only make him more determined to have what he wants. Let me see can I think of something."

THE NEXT DAY WHEN NELL WENT INTO THE TAPROOM, JACK RAKED her with a look of triumph that made her sick to her stomach. She was powerless to stop him, and he knew it. That night he again forced his way into her room and brutalized her, enjoying her fear and pain.

Over the next weeks Nell avoided being on her own and tried not to cross Jack's path, but there were times when he appeared seemingly from thin air, and she had nowhere to run.

WITH THE CELEBRATIONS OF THE KING'S BIRTHDAY ON THE TWENTY-NINTH of May, Nell was amazed to realize that it had been two years since she had run away and embarked on her new life. She had gained freedom from her mother, as she had set out to do. She was better fed and clothed and she had several regulars whose money she could count on. But she did not like having to submit herself to the use of strangers, and Jack's visits were now almost nightly. She was always frightened, and despaired of finding a way out of the h.e.l.l her days and nights had become.

As it happened, an escape presented itself that Nell could not have antic.i.p.ated. Robbie Duncan noticed the bruises on her arms and throat and the livid blue-yellow patches on the insides of her thighs.

"What happened there?" he asked, his face darkening. "Come, tell me," he said gently when she didn't answer.

"It's Jack," she whispered, clutching the sheet around her. "Madam's man. He-he comes to me sometimes, and . . ." She could not finish the sentence, and could not bring herself to look at him. He squatted on his haunches before her.

"He hurts you? He means to hurt you?"

She nodded.

"He cannot do this to you. I will not allow it," Robbie exclaimed, springing to his feet, but Nell knew that his slender frame was no match for Jack's sinewy muscularity.

She shrugged. "But he can. There is nought I can do to stop him."

Robbie paced and seethed, and finally stood before Nell.

"Come and live with me. He cannot come to you there. I will take care of you."

Nell was astonished at the proposal, but Robbie was likable enough and, given the choice, she would rather bed one man than many.

So, with a payment from Robbie to Madam Ross for the loss of one of her stable, Nell became his. She packed her few belongings in a sack and moved to Robbie's room at the c.o.c.k and Pie Tavern, at the top of Maypole Alley, only a few streets from the only homes she had known.

CHAPTER SIX.

LIVING WITH ROBBIE, NELL FELT AS IF SHE WERE PLAYING AT BEING a wife. While he was at work at his father's business in the City during the day, she tidied their room and fetched food from a cookhouse so that she had supper ready for him when he came home, and Robbie told her of his day and any news.

"The king is to have bearbaiting at Hampton Court for Whitsun-tide, as he did last year. Savagery. That's one old custom that would have been better left in the past. The playhouses are bad enough. Oh, and Lady Castlemaine is brought to bed of a boy. He's to be called Charles Palmer and Lord Limerick, as though he were the son of her husband, but no one believes that."

"Barbara Palmer's husband had her son christened in the Popish church," Robbie told Nell a week later over dinner. "But today the king took the child and had him rechristened in the Church of England. He'll not have his son raised a Papist, b.a.s.t.a.r.d or no."

"And how did Palmer take that?" Nell wondered.

"Not well," said Robbie, chewing on a beef bone. "He's broken from his wife at last and gone to France."

That night, to Nell's surprise, Robbie went to sleep without touching her. She scarcely knew what to think and lay worrying. Was he tiring of her? Would he cast her out? But in the morning he seemed as usual, and she grew used to the novel idea that a man might not always want to couple.

Being free from Jack's attentions and serving the needs of many men was a welcome change. Nell's body healed, and Robbie was gentle with her in bed. But before long, she found that the sameness of her days grew tedious. She missed the companions.h.i.+p of Rose and the other girls, but because she wanted to keep out of Jack's way and because Robbie did not like her going there, she stayed away from Lewkenor's Lane.

Rose joined her sometimes for little outings, to watch the river traffic from the bridge, or to walk as far abroad as the countryside of Moorfields or Islington. There was usually something of interest to be seen at Covent Garden-rope dancers, jugglers, or occasionally a display of prize fighting.

One brilliant summer day Nell and Rose set out on a pilgrimage to St. James's Park, near the palace.

"I hope we'll see the king," Nell said.

"Perhaps we will," Rose said. "Harry says the king has laid out a mint of money making the park fine again and walks out most days." Harry Killigrew had recently become groom of the bedchamber to the Duke of York.

The park, with its blooming flowers and trees, seemed a paradise to Nell, and a world away from the dark land of nightmare where she had last been with Nick and the other boys on the night of the king's return.

"Look!" cried Rose, clutching Nell's arm.

Not fifty paces from where they stood, King Charles strode along in earnest conversation with some puffing minister who struggled to match his pace, the royal retinue straggling along behind. Nell watched, entranced.

"He's even more handsome than I remembered him."

"He is that," Rose agreed. A bevy of ladies strolled in the king's wake, decked in summer finery. The breeze caught their gowns and made Nell think of s.h.i.+ps in full sail.

"Look, it's Lady Castlemaine!" cried Nell. "I wonder where's her baby?"

"Why, ladies like that don't care for their own kinchins, but leave them to nurses. That's why she can look so fine so soon after birthing."

"Look at that blue gown," Nell sighed. "Why, now it appears gold!"

"Changeable silk," Rose said. "You'd have to lay out a month's earnings to pay for that. But look at the patches now-those are cunning and would be easy enough to fas.h.i.+on." Many of the ladies' faces were adorned with small black patches in the shapes of stars, moons, suns, and animals.

"That's the high kick, that is," Rose said.

"I think it looks silly," said Nell. "Besides, they're like to itch most fearsome. I'd scratch them off in a minute." She looked with longing at the pretty gloves, though, in a rainbow of shades of soft leather, and at the ladies' full-brimmed hats with ribbons rippling from them.

The weather was so fine and Nell's spirits so high, she didn't want the rare day of pleasure to end.

"Let's not go back yet," she pleaded. "I've heard tell there's an Italian puppet show at Covent Garden that would make a dog laugh. And I've a month's mind for some cherries."

So it was evening before she climbed the stairs to Robbie's room, with the guilty recollection that the tuppence he had given her to buy candles had been spent during the day's outing.