"Well?"
Pru turned her attention back to Eleanore at her friend's impatient prompting and shrugged. "It was a kiss, Eleanore. Just a kiss."
"Uh-huh. Just a kiss that distracted you enough that you did not even notice you were losing your trousers."
Prudence felt her face flush with remembered embarrass-ment, then shifted impatiently and got up to pace again. "Can we not concentrate on my problem? What am I to do now? Plunkett will not let women in and would not be fooled by my being disguised as a man again. I must find another way to get inside."
"Can you not just confront your father at home, Pru? Surely that would be easier than-"
"Nay. He leaves the moment he arises."
"Catch him on his way out then."
"I have attempted to do so, but he continually evades me. Yesterday I waited outside his door for two hours. I left to visit the privy-for just a minute, mind-and he slipped out while I was gone. I think he must have been watching out his keyhole and waited for me to leave."
"Hmm." They both fell silent as Eleanore pondered this news; then she murmured, "Perhaps you should try a different approach."
"What do you mean?" Prudence stopped her pacing and turned to eye her friend with interest.
"Well, you have said that he drinks first, then gambles?" When she nodded at that, Ellie suggested, "Well, if you could prevent his drinking, he might stop gambling."
Prudence considered that briefly. "Think you that would really work?"
"Well, the one does seem to follow the other. Does it not?"
"Aye."
The other girl shrugged. "So if you stop him from drinking, mayhap the gambling will seem less appealing."
A smile slowly blossomed on Pru's face at her friend's logic. It seemed sound to her. "Eleanore, you are brilliant!" she pronounced at last, making the other girl flush with pleasure. "But how?"
"How?"
"How am I to prevent his drinking? He does most of his imbibing out of the house."
"Oh." Eleanore fretted over the problem briefly, then suddenly got to her feet and hurried from the salon. Prudence watched her go with confusion and even stood, uncertain whether to follow her friend or not. But before she could reach the door, Ellie was rushing back into the room, a book in hand.
"What is that?" Prudence asked.
"One of my mother's books of general advice. It includes a medical dictionary. I thought to see what it advises regarding imbibing intoxicants." Leading Prudence back to the settee, Eleanore settled there, waited until Prudence had arranged herself beside her, then held the book between them and began riffling through the pages, muttering under her breath. "Intoxicants, intoxicants, intoxi- No intoxicants, but they do have intoxication," she said with quiet excitement, and lifted the book closer to her face to read. "'Although literally meaning "poisoning of the blood by alco-'"
"Skip over that part, Ellie, and find what they suggest to rectify the problem," Prudence urged impatiently.
"Suggestions." Eleanore scanned the long paragraph, reading various words aloud as she went. "'Imagination is excited'… 'symptoms'… 'delirium-'" She scowled impatiently. "Nay, all they say is that 'in cases of poisoning, vomiting should be induced by a subcutaneous injection of apomorphine."'
"Apomorphine?"
"An emetic," she explained.
"Oh."
"But your father hardly drinks to the point of poisoning himself."
Prudence snorted. "Nay. Not himself, just our lives." She was silent for a moment, misery making her slump; then her head slowly lifted, scheming obvious on her face.
Eleanore eyed her warily. "I know that look. It usually precedes trouble. Prudence, what are you thinking?"
"Think you that there are such things as oral emetics?"
Ellie slammed the book closed, alarm clear on her face. "Prudence!"
"It is perfect!" she cried excitedly. "A bout or two of drinking that leaves him hanging over the chamber pot ere he gets too sotted might cure him of any desire to drink and thereby end his gambling!"
"Pru!"
"Oh, do not look at me like that, Ellie," she snapped with irritation. "I am desperate. I no more wish to end up in debtor's prison than you would. He will ruin us with his drinking and gambling. He has been doing both steadily since John died. I am sure that if we could but keep him sober for a day or two, he would regain enough of his wits to realize what he is doing to our family."
"But-"
"How would you feel if it were your father?"
Eleanore fell silent. Prudence watched several expressions flit across her friend's face until resignation settled there. Placing the book on the settee between them, the girl stood and silently left the room.
Prudence promptly picked up the book she had left behind and leafed through it, looking for gambling, betting, and excesses, but none of those terms were to be found. It seemed such was an ailment of the soul, not the body. Sighing, she had just set the book aside when Eleanore hurried back into the room, a large bottle gripped tightly in her hands.
"What is it?" Prudence asked curiously as her friend handed it to her, her lower lip caught between her teeth.
"Do you recall when Bessy had a sour stomach?"
"Bessy?" Prudence shook her head with confusion. "Your horse?"
Eleanore nodded. "At the time the stablemaster was sure she had eaten something she shouldn't have. He procured this to help her remove it." When Prudence stared at her blankly, she sighed and elucidated. "This concoction encouraged her to bring it back up. It is an emetic."
Prudence's eyes widened incredulously. "You think I should give my father a horse emetic?"
The other girl hesitated, looking uncertain. "Perhaps it is a bad idea."
"Nay!" Prudence stood and moved swiftly out of reach when Ellie tried to grab the bottle back. Crossing the room, she peered at it with fascination. "A horse emetic."
"Prudence, I do not think…" Eleanore trailed her across the room anxiously.
"But it is perfect. It should have the same results with Papa, do you not think? How much did your stablemaster give Bessy? And how long before it took effect?"
Ellie grimaced. "A couple of spoonfuls. It took effect immediately, but a man is much smaller than Bessy. I do not think more than a drop or so should be used. I- Oh, Prudence, I do not think it should be used at all. This was a terrible idea. Please just give it to me and let us forget this."
"And shall you visit me in debtor's prison?" Prudence asked quietly, turning to face her friend. Eleanore paused, a struggle taking place on her face, until she gave in with a sigh-
"How will you administer it? For your plan to work, if it is going to work at all," she added dryly, "he must receive it while he is drinking. He does that at the club, for the most part. You just finished regaling me with your last foray into Ballard's. After tonight Plunkett will be on the lookout for you. Disguising yourself as a man will not work."
"Aye," Prudence murmured thoughtfully, then slowly smiled. "Plunkett will never again let me through Ballard's front door."
Turning away from the ale barrel, Prudence took a few steps, then paused to scowl down at her chest. Muttering under her breath, she balanced the tray with the single mug of ale in one hand, using the other to tug uselessly at the neckline of the white top she wore. Honestly, it was as indecent as could be, she thought impatiently, and wasted a moment wishing she had worn one of her own gowns. Of course, that was impossible. She had seen for herself that all the girls wore the same costume: the red skirt and rather blousy white top with a scoop neck. But this one seemed extremely scooped to Prudence. Her nipples were nearly showing!