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By Root 541 0

such adventuresses as classical heroines, hands on their waists, booted feet resting on the fallen bodies of the British enemy, the rolling plains of the New World in the background. Patriots to the Americans, harridans to the English. Scarlette herself was English, naturally, but contemporary descriptions of her make use of the same imagery She would always wear dresses in red, but apart from (rather dandyish) ruffles at her collar there would be few concessions to femininity. The dress would end at least two inches above the floor, and those who dared look at her feet couldn’t help noticing that under the dress, and the white underskirts just visible beneath, she seemed to permanently wear a pair of riding boots. Whether this was a fashion statement, or the mark of a woman of action, is hard to say. Her bearing was such that even those who knew her well felt as if she could, at a moment’s notice, pull a pair of muskets from her belt and fire them both simultaneously. A noted swordswoman, from the descriptions one could believe that if her figure weren’t quite so athletic she would have kept her sabre in her decolletage.

Despite the mask, Lisa-Beth would have recognised Scarlette immediately, not just from the clothes but from the dark and all-too‐long hair which had been tied into a single strand behind her head. On the other hand, her masked opponent was a man Lisa-Beth couldn’t possibly have known, though she describes his clothes as ‘overly simple… none of the expected vanities and appendages, not even a hem on his jacket or ankle-socks to keep his trousers to his legs.’

This man was to become vitally important to the history of the House – indeed, the axis around which it revolved – but Lisa-Beth couldn’t have guessed his significance at the time. By March he’d been residing at the House for nearly a month, in which time he’d absorbed more of the local custom and lore than could have been expected of anyone: he was the one, for example, to whom Rebecca gave what’s thought to be her only account of her last days in the Americas (now sadly lost), and he was the one who convinced Scarlette to take Lisa-Beth into her ‘inner circle’ despite Scarlette’s reservations.

Lisa-Beth seems to have been fascinated by the swordplay despite herself. Though she clearly had no knowledge of the art of swordsman/womanship, in her account she vividly describes how Scarlette bested the man with the tip of her blade, penetrating his defences and wilfully making a bloody cut on his right hand (to make a point, one supposes, and no doubt the man would have done the same to her). Then – using a move Lisa-Beth seems unable to properly describe – the man somehow let his blade fly, sending it through the air with such unexpected verve that Scarlette had no option but to drop her own weapon, leaving both of them disarmed. It’s interesting to note that Lisa-Beth describes the sword as ‘hanging in the air’, suggesting a frozen ‘private time’ much like that described by tantrists in the state sometimes called Shaktyanda. Once both combatants had considered the fallen blades, and it had become clear that neither was prepared to dive to the floor to re-arm themselves, a conversation passed between them which Lisa-Beth records in detail. It’s worth quoting it in full, not only because it says something about the teasing relationship between Scarlette and the man but also because it demonstrates the somewhat startling wit for which Scarlette was famous among demi-reps:

SCARLETTE: Predictable. You really must be sick.

THE MAN [evidently with some surprise]: You expected me to do that?

SCARLETTE: I expected you to do something remarkable. You really couldn’t have done anything else. That’s why you’re so predictable.

THE MAN: Ah. Yes, you may have a point.

SCARLETTE: Now. As we’ve lost our weapons, I suggest we continue this practice unarmed. We’ll try wrestling on the floor next. And as this is supposed to be a precise simulation of genuine combat, I suggest we do it naked.

The man’s response to this isn’t recorded. But it was only now that Lisa-Beth