The Lost Sisters

by Lindsey Hutchinson

  Orpha and Peg walked back through the streets and chatted excitedly about the new venture. So intent on their conversation were they, they didn’t notice the woman walking towards them until she spoke.

  ‘Well now, what do we have here?’

  Looking at the woman standing in front of her, Orpha gasped. ‘Mother!’

  Chapter 39

  Edna Lucas spoke quietly to her son. ‘Ezzie, I feel too old to be working the boats and now I have my own room at Buchanan Mansion, I think it’s time to quit.’ Ezzie had expected this; he had been aware his mother wanted to spend more time on the land and less on the canals. Edna suggested maybe Ezzie should consider giving up the ‘cut-rat’ life. He had thought about her words but didn’t know what work he could do on land, he was a ‘cut-rat’ at heart and it was all he knew. Edna said, ‘Why don’t you talk to Zachariah about it as you have become as close as brothers… he might be able to help.’

  Ezzie agreed and as there was no time like the present he strode to the stables, asking Jago to saddle him a horse.

  There were always a few ragged urchins hanging around in Birmingham and Ezzie asked one to hold his horse while he went into the office to meet with Zachariah Buchanan. The promise of a few pennies secured the young boy’s employment for half an hour.

  Ezzie explained about Edna wanting to give up the boat, but he could not work it alone.

  ‘Have you thought what you will do with the money Peg received from Father from the selling of the emeralds?’ Zachariah asked.

  ‘Well no,’ Ezzie answered, ‘it’s her money, so it’s up to her what she does with it.’

  ‘By law it belongs to you,’ Zachariah said.

  ‘No,’ Ezzie contested, ‘I don’t believe in that law, Zach, it’s Peg’s money as I see it.’

  ‘I can make a suggestion, but you would have to discuss it with Peg first.’ Zachariah emphasised his words.

  ‘Let me hear it,’ Ezzie smiled as his interest piqued.

  ‘Right. If you bought another boat with some of Peg’s money from Father, you could hire two men to work each boat. You would be their boss and they would work for you. If you pay them a wage and you also hired a manager on a wage, he could arrange the loads and backloads. This manager could ensure the boats were always working, and all you would have to do is broker the deals and reap the profits.’ Zachariah sat back in his chair eyeing the man who’d asked for his advice.

  Ezzie asked, ‘Do you think Peg would go for it?’

  Nodding, Zachariah answered, ‘I do if she knows you’ll be home more. Edna could stay home also, so she’ll be happy too.’

  ‘Nothing ventured, nothing gained,’ Ezzie said and shaking hands he left the office in much higher spirits than when he had arrived, so much so he paid the boy minding his horse sixpence for his trouble. Ezzie laughed as the boy took off whooping his delight at being able to afford to help feed his family for one more day.

  *

  Orpha stared into the eyes of the woman who had cast her out.

  ‘You’re doing well for yourself, I see,’ Hortense Buchanan ran her eyes over Orpha’s tailor-made clothes. ‘And you… got yourself a husband to go with that child have you?’ she said spitefully as she looked pointedly at Peg’s swollen stomach.

  ‘That’s none of your business!’ Peg snapped. ‘But as it happens, yes I have!’

  ‘Well horse before cart is always a good thing!’ Hortense said sarcastically.

  ‘What do you want with us, Mother?’ Orpha asked quietly.

  Hortense saw that the fear her daughter had once held had vanished being replaced by a confidence which held her head high as she spoke.

  ‘Want? What do I want? I’ll tell you what I want! I want what’s owing to me!’ Hortense rasped and felt her anger rising as she went on. ‘Your father threw me out! Did you know that? Yes, of course you did… all of you living in that big house… and I’m reduced to living in a fleapit of a hotel!’

  ‘It’s known as comeuppance, Mother,’ Orpha replied, her voice steady. ‘You abandoned Peg then you threw me out, what you sow you will reap.’

  ‘Insolent girl!’ Hortense’s eyes flashed black anger as she rasped again through clenched teeth. ‘Don’t you dare speak to me that way, I am your mother!’

  ‘Yes you are,’ Orpha said quietly, ‘more’s the pity. Neither of us considers you fit to hold that title, so if you will move aside, we have business to attend to.’ Orpha pulled Peg’s arm and they walked around and away from the woman standing gazing after them, her mouth clamped into a thin line, anger shaking her body.

  The girls walked briskly down the street and Peg muttered, ‘Bloody hell! Bloody hell!’

  ‘Keep walking and don’t look back,’ Orpha said as she urged her sister to move faster. Seeing her sister look at her from the corner of her eye, Orpha went on, ‘‘I suggest we tell Father and Ezzie – they really should be advised,’ Orpha said as they walked home, although she didn’t know how she would find the words.

  *

  Orpha, after visiting Mr Belcher at the estate agents, then went to visit a property in Bath Street which ran across the bottom of Oxford Street. If it was suitable for a factory, it wouldn’t be too far from the shop.

  The massive brick building had arched windows along the front and all were shuttered from the inside. Standing on the corner at the intersection of both streets Orpha was able to walk around to the back. Here again shuttered windows lined the building. At the one end were huge wooden doors which would be ideal for loading up the carts on delivery days. The door opened with a creak and she stepped into the shaded building. She was surprised to see this was a fairly big room with a door connecting it to the rest of the building. Orpha shivered, it was cold – it would be an ideal cold room for the setting chocolate.

  Stepping through the connecting door Orpha stood in an incredibly large rectangular space with high ceilings. Moving to each window in turn she threw back the shutters and light flooded in. Walking the length of the building a plan formulated in her mind. Watching dust motes dance in the light she saw her plan come together in her mind’s eye. Closing the shutters once more and locking the door behind her, Orpha was delighted with it and set off happily to return the key and endeavour to strike a deal with Mr Belcher.

  Chapter 40

  Ashley Rochester joined them all for dinner that evening and Ezzie explained Zachariah’s idea about the boats. As predicted, Edna and Peg were delighted with the proposal when Ashley asked if there was anything he could do to help.

  ‘Not unless you can drive a boat!’ Ezzie said with a friendly laugh.

  ‘Well I can’t drive a boat, Ezzie, but I have many contacts who might be useful to you,’ he replied, smiling back.

  ‘What will you call your new business?’ Orpha asked. ‘You have to have a name that people will remember.’

  Ideas went back and forth across the table, ‘Lucas Loads’… ‘Lucas Cargo Boats’… on and on the ideas came until Ezzie said, ‘If it’s all the same to everyone I’d like to call it the Buchanan Boating Line… after all, I hope to expand too if I can.’

  They all toasted the new venture and Orpha suggested he spoke with Jonathon Peasbody her accountant to help set it all up.

  Peg had been quiet and Ezzie noticed, thinking she was not so happy with the idea. Asking her outright if she preferred he didn’t set up the business, she stated adamantly she was all for it.

  Watching her sister, Orpha spoke up, ‘We met Mother in the town today.’

  Shocked looks passed from face to face as Orpha went on to disclose what was said.

  ‘We need to inform the staff downstairs to be extra careful too, especially Jago. I think Mother is still gunning for him after he denounced her to the police for arson.’

  A quick explanation later for Ashley’s benefit saw them discuss safety measures around the family and staff. Who knew what Hortense might do?

  The conversation turned to Ashley. He explained his father had di
ed many years before, leaving him a wealthy man. ‘I never knew my mother, and was raised by a nanny who I still live with over by East Park. My father owned a string of warehouses in St. Matthew’s Street which he hired out to wealthy businessmen to house their stock. The rent from these warehouses more than covers my living expenses and my inheritance is kept safely in the bank. This will provide for and be passed down to any future Rochesters.’ Orpha blushed scarlet as he aimed this last comment directly at her. It was not lost on the family around the dining table.

  ‘It would make sense for me to have a warehouse when I eventually get the chocolate factory running,’ Orpha said shyly, her glance going to Ashley.

  ‘Well if you had your factory somewhere near St. Matthew’s Street, I could provide you with a large dry warehouse for storage, and being close… transporting your stock to the factory wouldn’t be a problem. After all, you can only keep so much stock at the factory at any one time.’

  Orpha beamed her delight at this unexpected turn of events.

  As conversation continued, Orpha reflected. Her father and brother’s consultancy business was going well in Birmingham; Ezzie was to set up the boating line, and she was drawing up plans to have her own factory… and now maybe a warehouse too! Peg was married and happy with Ezzie and a baby on the way, and Orpha had met the man of her dreams. Ashley Rochester was everything she wanted in a man, even if he was as poor as a church mouse she would still feel the same. Orpha Buchanan was in love… properly in love for the first time in her life. She realised her feelings towards Ezzie when she first met him had been an infatuation, but her feelings for Ashley were so much stronger. He stalked her dreams at night and her days were spent mooning over him.

  Orpha looked up at the young man sat across the table from her, and her green eyes sparkled brighter than ever as he smiled at her. God, she loved this man to distraction!

  *

  Hortense Buchanan sat in the tea shop in Portland Place overlooking the General Hospital. That girl had been so rude to her! Glancing at the hospital, she wished she could put her daughter in there… never to come out!

  The age-old question sounded in her mind. How? How could she get her hands on their fortune and see them all penniless? She determined to keep watch and hopefully a solution to her problem would present itself. Nothing she had tried so far had worked, but she felt sure something would happen to see her either a rich widow or at the very least exact her revenge on the loathsome family in Buchanan Mansion.

  *

  Time marched on as Hortense watched the comings and goings of the family. With her money dwindling fast, she had had to downgrade the hotels she stayed in, much to her chagrin. She had spent the autumn watching and learning. She saw Orpha open a factory in Bath Street which ran parallel to St. Matthew’s Street and close to Oxford Street. She eyed the supplies being delivered to the factory. She stalked Orpha carefully as new workers were set on in the factory. She learned of Peg’s husband starting up his own business with the boats, and now she knew where Abel and Zachariah had their office in Birmingham. The office that now employed two burly watchmen at night.

  The family had appeared to cover every eventuality, but Hortense would yet see her day. One or the other of them would slip up and then they would experience her wrath.

  The onset of winter curtailed her following the family somewhat and as the first snow fell, Hortense felt it more than time to face Abel once more.

  Walking into the office in Birmingham, she told the secretary she needed to see Mr Buchanan senior. Watching the girl consult her appointment book, Hortense tapped her foot in frustration at being kept waiting.

  Looking up, the woman said, ‘He can see you next week, Tuesday at 11.30 a.m.’

  Hortense silently fumed and snapped, ‘He will see me NOW!’

  ‘I’m afraid that’s impossible,’ the woman returned as she glanced at Abel’s office door.

  Catching the look, Hortense strode past the woman into the inner office, the woman trailing behind her full of apologies to the man sat behind the desk.

  Dismissing the secretary with assurance all was well, he looked at his wife standing by the door.

  ‘Well now, this is a surprise,’ Abel said, his voice laced with sarcasm. ‘I wondered how long it would take for your money to run out and you’d be here begging cap in hand for more.’

  Hortense snorted then said, ‘I am not here to beg, Abel, I am here for what is rightfully mine!’

  ‘Rightfully yours!’ Abel laughed. ‘Woman, you have no rights!’

  ‘Abel Buchanan, you owe me! You threw me out onto the streets with nothing! Now you have to pay me for that wrongdoing!’ Hortense plumped up her bosom in defiance.

  ‘Hortense, sit down, there is something I have to explain to you.’

  Watching his wife sit stiffly in the chair by his desk, Abel leaned back in his chair, placing his fountain pen on the desk carefully.

  ‘Now firstly, and let me make this perfectly clear, I owe you nothing. Yes…’ his hands went up to prevent her speaking, ‘yes, I threw you out, but it was not without just cause, and it was not with “nothing” as you put it. You stole and sold my emeralds for five hundred pounds each.’ Seeing her surprise, he went on, ‘Oh yes I know how much you were paid for the little gems, and I tell you now… with very much pleasure… you were robbed.’

  Hortense’s puzzled expression made Abel smile.

  ‘The emeralds were worth so much more than what you were paid, my dear.’

  His wife gasped as her thoughts went to the man who had bought the emeralds and she felt like wringing his neck.

  ‘Also you tried to murder my son and myself in a fire at my house, as well as my daughters in their cottage.’ Abel kept his temper under control as he watched his wife squirm in her seat. ‘Added to that, you kidnapped Orpha and held her for ransom… but the worst of it all is… you murdered the love of my life. You killed Mahula, Zachariah’s mother, my mistress!’ Although not certain of all these facts, Abel had pushed in the hope she would admit to some, if not all, of what he had accused her of.

  Hortense’s eyes dropped to her lap for the briefest moment. ‘Abel, you must understand… Mahula… it was an accident!’

  ‘A fortuitous one for you though, eh?’ Abel’s smile was malicious.

  ‘I never meant…’ Hortense began.

  ‘Stow it, Hortense!’ Abel snapped, his patience all but gone as he automatically slipped into the vernacular of his days on the ocean sailing to Colombia. ‘I really don’t care to know the details! What I will say though is you have balls bigger than any man I know!’

  Hortense closed her eyes for a moment at his crude expression. ‘Abel, I have come here for money, I admit. Surely you would not see me in the workhouse! Even you would not be so cruel!’

  ‘My dear, what you have to come to terms with is this. I don’t give a shit what happens to you!’ Abel’s grin split his face as he saw the horror on Hortense’s face before he added, ‘And if you come near me or mine again I will have you disappear from the face of the earth!’

  ‘But Abel… I have nothing left, I am destitute!’ Hortense railed. She kept her counsel at having to spend what money she’d gained from selling the stolen emeralds on constantly moving from one hotel to another to avoid capture by the police.

  ‘But Hortense… I don’t bloody care!’ Abel mimicked.

  Hortense forced the tears from her eyes as she looked at her husband. Would he soften at her crying?

  ‘Don’t play that game with me, woman, it won’t wash!’ Abel snapped, seeing the tears.

  ‘If you don’t give me what I want… I will expose you as a wife beater!’ Hortense shot back venomously.

  Abel pulled his mouth down at the sides as he shook his head. ‘Do what you like, Hortense, but remember… beating your wife is not a crime, and if you think I’m concerned about scandal… believe me, I am not!’

  Temper getting the better of her, Hortense stood and jabbed a finger
in his direction. ‘You won’t get away with this! I’ll see you all in hell for what you’ve done to me!’

  ‘Not if I see you there first!’ Abel said. Then picking up the telephone he said, ‘Please put me through to the police station.’ He grinned as he saw Hortense flee his office. He repeated his conversation with Hortense to the police sergeant.

  Chapter 41

  Orpha sat in the open carriage wrapped in fur against the winter chill, Ashley by her side. Gloved hands shoved in a fur muff hanging around her neck and a fur hat on, Orpha laughed as the snowflakes landed on her face. Ashley had organised the winter ride around East Park for her pleasure and laughed at her childish delight. The trees were laden with snow and the whole landscape was draped with Mother Nature’s white cloak. The weak sunshine made everything sparkle like tiny diamonds and Orpha thought she was the happiest she’d ever been.

  ‘Orpha,’ Ashley said, ‘there’s something I wish to discuss with you.’ At her nod, he continued, ‘Now that you have your factory and your shops are doing so well, I wondered if you had considered settling down.’

  Orpha looked him in the eye. What was he saying? Was he alluding to her being married and having children? Was he about to propose to her? The blush that rose in her warmed her cheeks. ‘I… I hadn’t thought…’ she faltered, not quite knowing how to answer.

  ‘Orpha, what I’m trying to say is… will you marry me?’ Ashley said all in a rush.

  The carriage driver smiled to himself as he heard the question, at least the lad had style.

  ‘Oh Ashley! This is such a surprise! You see, I have so many plans for the business!’