LITMIR.BIZ

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what’s what.’

      ‘May I introduce Tabitha to you,’ said Phillip, lifting up one of the children. ‘Tabitha, this is Mistress Rebecca…’ he hesitated before adding ‘… Clifton—and her nieces and nephew.’

      Tabitha nodded a welcome as she seized hold of Elizabeth. ‘Pleased to meet you, Mistress Clifton.’

      ‘Thank you for your help,’ said Rebecca hastily, taking in the other woman’s appearance. She was not in the least like how she would have expected a mistress of Phillip’s to look. Beneath a man’s cap, she wore her fair hair frizzed on her forehead and about her ears. She had a fresh complexion and was clad in a garment that appeared to be a man’s shirt. The draw strings at its neck were unfastened to reveal a generous expanse of cleavage. Suddenly there came a baby’s cry from the wagon’s interior and Tabitha jerked her head in that direction. ‘There Edward goes again, but as soon as we get moving he’ll quieten down and won’t be any bother.’

      ‘You have a child?’ blurted out Rebecca. Was it possible that Phillip had fathered a son?

      ‘Aye, has Master Phillip not explained our situation?’

      ‘No, I haven’t, Tabitha,’ said Phillip, glancing at Rebecca. ‘I didn’t see any need for anyone else to know what is your private business.’

      ‘Fair enough,’ said Tabitha. ‘But Mistress Clifton might like babies and will wish to see him, and the children will certainly want to play with my manikins.’

      ‘What manikins?’ asked Elizabeth, clinging on to Tabitha’s shoulder, her eyes alight.

      ‘You’ll see soon enough,’ said Tabitha kindly. ‘Now, what about your little brother?’

      Rebecca was aware of Phillip’s eyes on her. His mention of private business had made her feel the outsider she was, but that did not make it any easier for her to accept. She glanced at the woman’s hands and saw that she wore no ring. The child must be Tabitha’s bastard, but was it Phillip’s? How could Tabitha smile so easily in such a situation and how did she cope with a baby and the travelling life? She allowed Phillip to take James and lift him up, so enabling Tabitha to seize hold of him and hoist him into the wagon.

      ‘Can’t I go in the wagon, too?’ asked Margaret wistfully.

      ‘If you don’t mind being squashed, then you’re welcome,’ said Tabitha, beaming down at her. ‘Here’s Jack and Ned now. We’ll soon be on our way.’

      Margaret stood on the rim of the wheel and was helped up into the wagon. Rebecca turned to her horse, but before she could hoist herself up on to its back Phillip had seized her by the waist and lifted her off her feet and dumped her on the saddle. She was caught unawares, so that she slipped sideways. She jumped as he placed a hand beneath her bottom and pushed her back into the saddle. She had to bite back the rebuke that hovered on the tip of her tongue, hating the thought of his being intimate with the other woman. She did not know how she managed to smile so sweetly when Phillip introduced her to the two other members of the troupe.

      They had returned with loaves of bread and something savoury smelling in a napkin. One was the youth who had passed round the hat last evening and was called Jack and he looked a little wan. The other appeared to be slightly older than Phillip and was named Ned. They nodded in way of greeting. Then Ned handed up the food to Tabitha before going to the horse’s head, whilst Jack had a low-voiced conversation with Phillip before helping Frederick up into the wagon. Phillip mounted the other horse and gave the signal to walk on. As the other two men were on foot, they kept the horses reined in.

      For a while Phillip and Rebecca had not spoken. She was pondering on the duplicity of men, when he said abruptly, ‘No doubt you have noticed that Tabitha does not wear a wedding ring, even though she has a child.’

      ‘You do not have to explain. You made it quite clear that it was no business of mine.’ Rebecca’s voice was cool and she did not look at him.

      ‘Even so, I do not wish you to draw the wrong conclusion. It isn’t at all what you might think.’

      Rebecca’s hand tightened on the reins. ‘I deem it a shameful situation for a young unmarried woman with a baby to have no proper home to raise that child. You mentioned the troupe having no winter quarters. Could you not ask your brother, Christopher, to take her and the child into his household when the weather worsens?’

      ‘I would if the father did not object to it,’ said Phillip.

      His words took her unawares and she spoke without thinking. ‘Aren’t you the father?’

      He shot her a glance and snapped, ‘You really shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Ned is Edward’s father, not me.’

      She felt her cheeks burning. ‘I do beg your pardon.’

      ‘At least I know what you think of my morals,’ said Phillip in a hard voice.

      Her colour deepened. ‘I admit I was wrong to judge you. Your private life really is none of my business.’

      ‘No, it is not.’ He felt deeply hurt that she should think ill of him. What had he ever done that she should think so badly of him? Surely that one passionate kiss he had pressed upon her earlier was not the cause? Suddenly he remembered what she had said last even about seeing him at court surrounded by ladies. Perhaps she thought he had set one or even two of them up as his flirts as well! If only she knew how he never knew what to say to them when he was just simply Pip Hurst, playwright, and not Phillip Hurst, actor. Suddenly he noticed that her hands trembled on the reins and instantly knew he had to take the sting out of their exchange and searched for the right words. He cleared his throat. ‘Yet I suppose by my offering to help you, I have invited you into my world and left myself open to your judgement. You do seem to care about Tabitha and her baby, but I am presented with a dilemma.’

      ‘Are you wondering how to bring pressure to bear on Ned to marry her and provide them with a home?’

      Phillip shook his head as if in despair. ‘You’re doing it again. Jumping to conclusions. Tabitha and Ned married once the child was on its way, but he cannot afford to buy her a wedding ring. Its lack matters to them both. I offered him the money to buy her one, but met with a refusal.’

      ‘I see,’ said Rebecca, feeling mortified. ‘Again I beg your pardon for reading the situation wrongly. I wish I could help.’

      ‘As it stands, all the money he makes goes on living expenses and putting a little by for winter. Soon he’s going to have to decide whether, with a wife and baby, he can continue the life of a travelling player. Yet I know it will break his heart to give up acting. I wonder…’ He hesitated.

      ‘What do you wonder?’ asked Rebecca.

      ‘Whether your sister-in-law has room for a serving maid and if she would hire Tabitha and be prepared to accept the baby as well? Just for a short time whilst I sort lodgings out for the winter?’ His blue eyes met hers.

      Rebecca thought that here was a way for her to make amends for misjudging him. ‘I am certainly willing to put the idea to Jane. At the moment she is not the easiest person to live with, but, as she is with child, allowances must be made. Have you spoken to Ned about it?’

      ‘I have only just thought of it.’ Phillip’s brow knitted. ‘It’s possible he will refuse to allow it, even if your sister-in-law agreed. Let us hope we make a decent sum this evening. Now the nights are drawing in, there won’t be many more performances, unless some lord asks for the troupe especially. It is different for me. Not only do I have my writing, but I can always return to shipbuilding. I am not short of ways to make money.’

      ‘You are fortunate in your brothers,’ she said earnestly. ‘And this year it has been a good year?’

      ‘For me, aye. If it were not that I was worried for Nicholas’s safety, I could almost be happy.’ He paused before adding, ‘If I receive news of him when next I visit the shipyard, then I will find a way of letting you know.’

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