The Forgotten Children

by Anita Davison

  ‘I’m afraid I didn’t notice. I expect one of the policeman has retrieved it.’

  ‘Hold onto me, would you?’ Water trickled from Bunny’s trousers as he walked. ‘It’s quite slippery underfoot.’

  ‘As long as we don’t try to run, I shall be fine. You don’t have to worry.’

  ‘Actually, it’s not you I’m worried about.’ He dropped his voice an octave. ‘I can’t see more than six feet in front of me. Could you lean into me a little so everyone will think you’re the one who needs assistance?’

  ‘Like this?’ She supressed a near hysterical giggle, dropped her shoulder and dragged one foot. Though it occurred to her that by the morning she wouldn’t have to exaggerate anything. Her hip was stiffening with each step.

  ‘Perfect.’

  Chapter 30

  Bunny made himself known to the policeman in charge of a pile of blankets, and availed himself of a hip flask Inspector Maddox had produced. ‘Purely medicinal, Mrs Harrington,’ he called to her as she passed. Flora smiled in response and limped to the open rear of the police van. Sally huddled in a corner beneath a blanket, Abel’s arm slung around her shoulders, an expertly stark white bandage wound around his forehead.

  ‘How are you, Sally?’

  ‘Me ‘ead still hurts. You, madam?’

  ‘I’ll mend. How much of the last few days do you remember?’ Flora braced a hand on the door frame to take the weight from her sore hip.

  ‘I recall seeing that bloke in the Lamb and Flag.’ Sally tilted her head back to look at Abel. ‘I shouldn’t have left you in the pub that night, but when I saw that Martell all togged up in a Sally Anne uniform, I knew he was up to no good. I followed him as far as the next alley when some bruiser came at me out of a doorway. The next thing I knew, I was in that tunnel with those nippers.’ She looked up at Flora, her eyes wide. ‘Did you find them? Are they all right?’

  ‘We did indeed, and they are all safe and on their way to the hospital, which is where you should go too.’ She was about to suggest they could find room in the hackney for them both instead of a police van, but by the way Sally gazed adoringly up at Abel they would probably appreciate the privacy.

  ‘I ain’t going to no ’ospital,’ Sally sniffed. ‘I’ve felt worse after a Pond family wedding.’

  ‘Sally. You were drugged, shoved in a cupboard and dropped on your head. You should see a doctor,’ Flora insisted. ‘Oh, and Inspector Maddox will need to speak to you as well.’

  ‘I’ll think about it, though I ain’t happy about talking to coppers. Not in my nature you might say.’ She appeared to think of something and lifted her head. ‘What about that bloke Swifty and his bint? Right bitch she was – er – begging your pardon.’

  ‘Ruth Lazarus has also been apprehended.’ Flora debated whether to tell her about Swifty, but without knowing if he would be pulled alive from the river or not, she would leave that for another time. ‘If you’re adamant about the hospital, I’ll see you at home, but I’m going to summon a doctor to take a look at you.’ Without giving her a chance to object, Flora signalled to the officer to close the van door.

  *

  Flora relaxed against the padded upholstery of the hackney, supplied courtesy of Inspector Maddox, her head against Bunny’s shoulder. A thick, if scratchy blanket had been draped around her shoulders, her chilled feet resting on the cloth-wrapped hot brick someone had thoughtfully placed on the floor.

  A movement at the door revealed Alice, her head and shoulders shrouded in an identical blanket, her hair hanging in rat’s tails on either side of her face.

  ‘I just wanted to say goodnight before I left.’ She clutched the edges of the blanket together beneath her chin. ‘That was brave of you, staying behind to save your maid. It could all have turned out so differently.’

  ‘Indeed it could have.’ Bunny’s voice was muffled through the towel as he scrubbed roughly at his wet hair.

  ‘I wouldn’t say brave, as I was terrified at one point.’ The moment when Alice had gone into the water, had been a moment she would never wish to repeat. seconded only by her sending Bunny after her. She patted the seat on the other side of her. ‘Don’t stand out there in the cold. Come inside and get comfortable. It’s not perfect, but certainly warmer than out there.’

  ‘Yes, do, Miss Finch.’ Bunny jumped down onto the quay, one hand extended to help her up the step. ‘I’ll have a scout round and see if I can locate my coat.’ He turned and strode off along the quayside, hailing a policeman as he went.

  ‘He’s very tactful, your husband.’ Alice climbed inside and took the seat opposite, taking a moment to rearrange the blanket around her. Her hair hung in dark and straggly rat’s tails round her face, but somehow made her look young and vulnerable.

  ‘Isn’t he.’ Flora fidgeted, unsure of exactly what to say. She debated whether or not to ask about what Alice had said back on the pier, but refrained in case it only served to embarrass them both.

  ‘Your delightful Miss Grey has gone to St Philomena’s with the children,’ Alice said after a pause. ‘They appear quite well, if tired. Some are more shocked than others, of course. Isobel appears to have suffered the worst. It must have been quite a harrowing experience for her.’

  ‘Is that where you intend to go now, the hospital?’ Flora asked. ‘If so, we could take you when Bunny comes back.’

  ‘That’s not necessary. It isn’t far, and Inspector Maddox has offered to take me in his own cab.’ She glanced down at herself and shrugged, a hand drifting to her hair . ‘Fortunately I have a change of clothes in my office. It’s a shame about my hat, but I’m certainly not going back to look for it.’ She straightened, her hands arranged in her lap as if about to deliver a speech. ‘Now, the Inspector has informed me that this all started with a simple fraud. Mr Martell and Sister Lazarus posed as Salvation Army officers to trawl the London pubs with collection boxes. Naturally they kept their spoils.’

  ‘I imagine that must have been quite lucrative,’ Flora said. ‘Most people give the Army money out of guilt and to make them go away. I’ve heard they can be quite intimidating. Had they not decided to expand their operation to child abduction, we might never have found them out.’

  ‘Oh, I think they would have been discovered eventually.’ Alice caught Flora’s eye but glanced away quickly. Tension hovered between them, as if she had something more important to say, but instead, she smothered it beneath an uneasy smile and stared out across the water. An uneven line of policemen were strung along the pier, their lanterns held out over the edge, presumably in search of any signs of life.

  ‘Swifty’s gone, hasn’t he?’ Sympathy rose in her throat, though when she recalled what he had planned for Sally as well as herself, her heart hardened.

  ‘I doubt he survived.’ Alice sighed. ‘His body will probably wash up somewhere downriver.’

  ‘Alice, I—’ Flora blurted, then hesitated.

  ‘Yes?’ Alice’s eyes slowly roved her face.

  She lost her nerve, and instead, voiced a thought she had struggled with since Alice had first told her about the children. ‘Do you believe they were going to be adopted by childless couples?’

  ‘Do you?’ Alice’s smile wilted around the edges, confirming Flora’s own fears. ‘What distresses me the most, is that they preyed on youngsters who had been foisted on family members, all of whom could ill afford another mouth to feed thus were relieved to part with them. It was so brutal and calculated.’

  ‘Alice,’ Flora said, keeping her voice low, ‘when you fell into the river, you—’ she broke off as the solid bulk of Inspector Maddox loomed into the open carriage door, his face wreathed in smiles.

  ‘Well that’s that, Mrs Harrington.’ His smile was one of self-congratulation. ‘It’s been quite an eventful afternoon, don’t you agree?’ He tipped his hat back on his head, revealing an impressive lump the size of a quail’s egg on his temple.

  ‘That’s one way of describing it, Inspector.’ She exchange
d a wry look with Alice.

  ‘Your statements can wait, but I wanted to let you know that it was your persistence that finally broke this case.’ He adjusted his bowler hat and jammed both hands in his pockets, rocking gently back and forth on his heels. ‘Getting Buchanan to reveal his part in the whole mess was a bold move.’

  ‘You’ll have to thank Bunny for that, Inspector,’ Flora said. ‘What happens now?’

  ‘My priority tonight is to get these characters to the police station.’ He gestured to where a Black Maria stood, the profiles of Claude Martel and a sobbing Ruth Lazarus visible through the metal grille in the rear door.

  As they watched, the vehicle pulled away from the kerb and drew level with their carriage. At the last second before it moved on, Martell’s eyes settled on Flora and narrowed, holding hers for a chilling second before the van moved past them.

  Refusing to be cowed, she told herself the Frenchman could always get a job making madeleines in the prison kitchens.

  ‘Something amusing you, Mrs Harrington?’ Inspector Maddox’s voice broke into her thoughts.

  ‘No, nothing. I was just thinking about cakes. Tea and cakes.’ The thought was quickly followed by who would run his charming little tea shop now.

  ‘Ah, well goodnight then, ladies, and thank you again.’ Maddox slapped the side of the cab and turned to leave.

  ‘Inspector,’ Flora summoned him back, ‘Ruth Lazarus intimated she didn’t kill Lizzie Prentice. Though who else could it have been?’

  ‘That doesn’t surprise me.’ His upper lip curled. ‘She’s not likely to admit to something that would be guaranteed to get her the rope. We had to tell her that Swifty is probably dead and she went into a fit of hysterics so we’ll get nothing out of her tonight.’ He tutted in annoyance and moved away.

  ‘Are you sure we cannot take you to the hospital, Miss Finch?’ Bunny asked brightly. He had found his coat, but despite the two blankets wrapped around his shoulders he was shivering.

  ‘Thank you all the same, but no.’ Alice eased forward to the edge of the seat and pulled herself onto the step, then turned back and patted Flora’s hand, whispering, ‘I’ll see you soon.’

  ‘Goodnight then, Miss Finch,’ Bunny said. ‘Thank you for everything.’

  ‘Not at all, Mr Harrington.’ She stood in the road, gathered the edges of the blanket round her with one hand, and pushed strands of damp hair from her face with the other. ‘It’s you I wish to thank for pulling me out of the river. You were quite the hero.’

  The shadowy figures of policemen leapt from barge to barge along the pier, their lamps bobbing like fireflies as the search for Swifty Ellis’ body continued, while the hackney rumbled off the quay, the mournful wail of fog horns on the river in the background.

  A combination of pain, relief and weariness overwhelmed her as the hackney trundled back through Tooley Street, across London Bridge and alongside the remains of the old London Wall and Thames Street.

  ‘Bunny?’ She began as they passed the northern end of Blackfriars Bridge, partly to distract herself from the pain that went through her ribs at every bump in the road. ‘Why would Ruth deny killing Lizzie Prentice at this stage when they have all been—?’

  ‘Hush.’ Bunny placed a finger on her lips. ‘Forget them. It’s over now and all I want to do is to have a bath, eat a delicious dinner and spend the rest of evening in front of the fire with you.’

  ‘The first thing I shall do when I get home is to hug Arthur,’ she whispered, comforted when he squeezed her hand beneath the rough and musty smelling blanket.

  Fear and shock gave way to weariness and she imagined how things might have turned out differently on that barge. How could she have been so reckless? Not only had she almost thrown away her own life, but she had risked never seeing Bunny or Arthur again. The thought that her son might have grown up, as she had, without a mother, made her hands shake.

  What had she done? Had she saved those children from Martell, only to condemn them to life in the slums of London with little future and scant hope? What if Martell was right and they would have had better, healthier and more loving lives somewhere across the Atlantic?

  Her throat felt scratchy and tears welled, dripping silently onto her cheek. She blinked and swiped them away before Bunny saw.

  *

  ‘I’m sure I spotted several curtains twitch when we arrived home.’ Flora stood in front of the sitting room mirror and rubbed at a soot smut beside her eye.

  ‘Which is hardly surprising,’ Bunny said. ‘The simultaneous arrival of a hackney cab and a police van is a notable occurrence in Eaton Place.’

  ‘I suppose we’ll be the topic of conversation over the teacups tomorrow.’ The smut persisted and she gave up. ‘I’ve asked Nell to run me a bath as I look such a wreck. I daren’t go up and see Arthur like this as I’ll likely frighten the poor child.’

  Her hair had lost half its pins and hung in untidy ringlets down her back. Her dress was torn at the hem after her struggle on the barge, the wool damp to the touch. It also smelled of the river; a mixture of mud, silt and sulphur.

  Apart from a ruined suit that gave off a lingering earthy smell, and a clump of seaweed clinging to the front of his shirt, Bunny had escaped with little more than a deep scratch on the back of his hand from a stray nail. His still damp hair promised to dry soft and straight with no unflattering kinks to the wheat-coloured locks.

  ‘Of course he wouldn’t. Besides, I quite like it when you look all tousled and less than your usual immaculate self.’ Bunny grinned at her reflection.

  ‘You worry me sometimes.’ Flora cocked her head, frowning. ‘Is that the doorbell?’

  The sound of male voices reached them from the hall, one of which Flora didn’t recognize. Seconds later, Stokes appeared at the sitting room door.

  ‘A Dr Reid is here, sir, who insists on seeing you, sir, madam. I tried to explain it was not a convenient time, but he would not be dissuaded.’

  ‘Here?’ Flora directed the question at Bunny. ‘How does he know where we live?’

  ‘I’ve no idea.’ Bunny replied just as Reid strode into the room and grasped Bunny’s hand in both of his.

  ‘My dear Mr Harrington, Mrs Harrington. I do apologize for turning up like this, but when I heard about what had happened I simply had to reassure myself you were both all right.’

  Informally dressed in a tweed jacket with leather patches at the elbows, he was also hatless, his sandy hair blown about by the wind, as if impulse rather than intention had brought him there.

  Reminded of how she must look, Flora raised a hand to her own hair, realized she would only make it worse and abandoned the idea.

  ‘Indeed, it’s been quite a day.’ Bunny retrieved his hand from the doctor’s enthusiastic handshake. ‘May I offer you a sherry? Flora and I could do with some, couldn’t we, my dear?’ He caught her eye briefly, his eyebrow raised as he crossed to the sideboard.

  ‘Talk at the hospital is all about how Miss Finch and yourself helped the police round up the villains who had kidnapped those children.’

  ‘You say you heard all this at the hospital?’ Bunny spoke over one shoulder, the decanter poised over a trio of crystal glasses. ‘I’m surprised news reached there so quickly.’

  ‘Why from Miss Finch, she told me the whole story herself.’ He accepted the glass Bunny held out without looking at it.

  ‘She told you what had happened?’ Flora frowned, puzzled. He must have come straight here within minutes of Alice arriving at the hospital.

  ‘Indeed, and what a dreadful experience it must have been for her. And you, of course, Mrs Harrington,’ he added, ignoring Flora’s dishevelment. ‘You were quite the heroine, I’m told. She also said that Mr Buchanan was at the police station and that this dreadful affair had something to do with his Stanhope collection.’

  ‘You know about those?’ Bunny lifted an eyebrow.

  ‘I’ve had the privilege of dining at Birdcage walk on occasion and
admired them greatly. He has some very interesting ones.’

  ‘Is that why you are here?’ Flora gestured him into a chair, but he remained standing, ‘because you’re concerned for Mr Buchanan?’

  Or was he more worried about what Raymond might be telling the police?

  ‘Only in that I cannot believe he could possibly be involved in anything like child abduction. However, there are all sorts of rumours flying around the hospital about Sister Lazarus and Lizzie Prentice. Something about a Stanhope being found among Nurse Prentice’s belongings being used in blackmail. Miss Finch said it was now in your possession, although she didn’t go into all the details.’ Reid’s hand shook slightly as he brought his glass to his lips.

  ‘That’s quite correct, Doctor. And yet the strangest thing,’ Flora began, ignoring Bunny’s warning frown, ‘is that no one has any idea how poor Lizzie Prentice came to have it. In fact, Mr Buchanan claimed never to have seen it before.’

  ‘He did? How odd.’ Reid’s glass halted halfway to his lips. ‘I expect he was confused. He has quite a large collection. Perhaps it’s difficult to keep track of them all. He’s also been under a great deal of strain lately.’ He took a sip of the sherry, his throat constricting as he swallowed. ‘If I might be of service, what with all you have been through today. I could return it to Mr Buchanan on your behalf.’

  ‘That’s a kind offer, Doctor, but won’t be necessary,’ Bunny said. ‘Inspector Maddox has asked us to meet him at the police station in the morning. I expect they’ll need the Stanhope as evidence.’

  ‘Surely that isn’t necessary?’ A trickle of sweat ran down the side of his temple, though the room was barely warm from the newly laid fire. ‘After all, they have the culprits in custody.’

  ‘They’re still investigating,’ Flora lied, surprised at how convincing she sounded. ‘It appears there are more elements to this affair than anyone imagined.’ You being one of them.

  ‘Would you like more sherry, Dr Reid?’ Bunny headed back to the sideboard, and murmured, ‘I know what you’re doing,’ to Flora as he passed, then louder. ‘Oh dear, it’s almost empty, I’ll have it refilled. Won’t be a moment.’ Shielding the object with his arm, he summoned the butler.