Page 1 of One Perfect Dance
Chapter One
London, April 1802
Elijah Ashby waspolishing his stepbrother’s boots. Choosing this task first was a calculated risk. Dilly was more likely to find a sneaky way to cause him pain if the boots did not shine to his exacting standards. Compared to his older stepbrother, who would just clout Elijah if he was late cleaning the grate in his room.
While Elijah polished, he entertained himself with visions of their reaction the day of his birthday, when he would tell them their skivvy and whipping boy was leaving.
Elijah had started as valet to his stepbrothers when he was fifteen, not long after his mother married Major Deffew. “Good training for the boy,” the major told Elijah’s mother. “You know he will have to earn his own living one day, my dear. Not as a valet, perhaps, but hard work will be the making of him. If you will excuse my saying so, Mrs. Deffew, if his father had not lived the wastrel life of a younger son, you and he would be much better off.”
Elijah’s mother could have pointed out that the major’s sons, both older than Elijah, had never done a day’s work in their lives. However, she said nothing, a habit that came from years of not criticizing Elijah’s father, who was inclined to be nasty in his cups, which was most of the time.
Elijah became valet to his stepbrothers.
From the day he cleaned out his first grate, the Deffew men had mangled his surname to Ash Boy, though not when his mother was around to hear. Elijah retaliated by silently renaming them, in his turn.
Matthew was the older of the two, ten years Elijah’s senior, with pretensions to excellence in all gentlemanly sports. He was happy to give his opinion on any topic and expected Elijah to take his frequently erroneous facts as gospel truth. Elijah’s private name for him, Mouth Almighty, fitted him perfectly.
David was two years younger than Matthew, and fancied himself as a connoisseur of fashion, a veritable Tulip. Nothing was more important to him than his clothes, many of which he had designed himself, but none of his creations quite hit the mark. Elijah thought of him as Daffadowndilly, the country name for a daffodil.
The work had not been so bad at first. Many of the tasks were obvious, which was just as well, for he was offered no training. He had been punished for every mistake, but Elijah had always learned quickly. He was also not too proud to take advice from his stepfather’s valet and others in the neighboring houses.
Mouth and Dilly were careful not to give their stepmother cause to complain to their father. Whatever his faults, the major—Major Defect, as Elijah thought of him—demanded that his sons show respect to his wife.
Elijah examined the shine on the leather.Yes. Good enough.He placed the boots carefully back on their custom-made stand and left the dressing room by the door into the servants’ passage to complete another couple of tasks before Dilly rang for him again when he was ready to dress for his ride. The man had his coats and boots made so tight he could not get into them without help. In any case, Dilly was of the opinion that being dressed by a valet added to his consequence.
Elijah went down the narrow servant stairs slowly, pausing on each step. Long ago, Dilly had tripped him on these very stairs. His own clumsiness, the brothers had claimed, giving each other an alibi for being elsewhere at the time.
Elijah’s head injury and badly broken leg lost them a valet for several months and annoyed their father by distracting their stepmother’s attention from the man. After that, they confined themselves to the occasional buffet, sly trip, and near-constant disparaging remarks.
The leg healed shorter than the other and ached when Elijah was on his feet for too long or when he hurried up or down stairs. Far too often, these days. As if being valet for two men was not enough, he took over the work of managing the house and maids when his mother fell ill and Matthew Deffew’s wife ran home to her father, a wealthy merchant who refused to hand her back.
Not that Mouth tried over much to retrieve her. He had been forced into the marriage after being caught with the girl in his bed, and he now had the benefit of her dowry without the inconvenience of her tears and sulks. He occasionally made noises about seeking custody of the boy child she produced a few months later.No chance of that. Her father can afford better lawyers.
Elijah had been forced to give up his studies. He was doing lessons with the local vicar to prepare him to pass the entrance exam for Oxford, but the extra work left him no time.
When his mother died, a little over a year ago, things got worse, so much so that he’d run away. But Major Defect set the constables on him, and he was dragged back to the Deffew house and beaten for his attempt at freedom.
After that, they’d heaped more tasks on him, until he was doing the work of three servants. For six more days.
Elijah reached the bottom of the stairs and hurried to Major Defect’s study. He had just time enough to clean the fireplace and reset the fire before the major finished his second coffee of the morning and moved to his desk to read the newspaper and his correspondence.
Elijah slipped the ash into the bucket and laid a new fire. He carried the bucket over to draw one of the curtains. Then he stood by the desk to catch up with the headlines on the front page of the newspaper. If the major came in, Elijah would pull back the other curtain, as if that had been his purpose on this side of the room.
TheMorning Chroniclewas on top, which was disappointing. The front page was mostly given over to advertisements. He preferred theMorning Herald, which generally gave news from the European newspapers on its front page.
He did not dare pick the newspaper up. It would be hard to touch the freshly ironed paper without leaving marks that would alert Major Defect to his visual larceny. He scanned quickly down the page. No point in reading the theater news. He had never been—though he had read and enjoyedThe School for Scandal, which was on at the Theater Royal. Someone was offering a reward for the recovery of a lost watch. They must really want it back, for the reward was more money than Elijah had ever seen at once. He wished he had found it. He could do with five guineas.
Nothing of interest. He might as well move on and do the fireplace in the parlor.
The morning correspondence also sat on the desk, and as Elijah was about to leave, his eye was caught by his own name on an envelope.Mr. Elijah Ashby.
He snatched it up and put it inside his coat. He did not recognize the hand—neat, almost delicate, writing. He had no idea who might send him a letter. But he was confident that, if he left it for Major Defect, he would never hear of it again.
He managed to snatch a moment to hide it in his little attic room before the three Deffew men left the breakfast room.
Dilly called him to wrestle the popinjay into jacket and boots. Mouth came in while Elijah was buffing the left toe, which Dilly was certain had been dimmed by Elijah’s hand on it during the struggle.
“You should have worn gloves, you fool,” Dilly was complaining.
