She was on the floor with Alfie on top of her, a leering smile on his face. Suddenly a figure burst into the room from the stairway! It was Davy Brown!
Davy saw the situation, and with a howl of rage hurled himself at Alfie. The surprised dandy tried to get up to defend himself, but Davy was too quick for him. He seized the startled Alfie by his vest front and dragged him away from her. Then as she crawled over against the wall he began to hit Alfie with a series of punishing blows!
Alfie’s face was smeared with blood now, and he crouched in a position of attack as Davy prepared to deliver a second set of punches to his slender body. It was then that Becky saw the gleam of a knife blade in Alfie’s right hand and called out a warning to Davy.
In the same instant Alfie plunged forward to bury the knife in Davy’s chest. But having been warned by her, Davy was ready for him. He managed to get hold of the dandy’s wrist and twist it until he dropped the knife with a moan! Then Davy proceeded to deliver another series of battering punches to his face and body. Alfie fell to his knees in a pleading position, his face a gory pulp!
“Please!” he begged. No more!”
Davy stood over him grimly. “Get out of my sight, you scum!” he ordered him. And Alfie needed no second command. He struggled to his feet and made a weaving exit to the stairway and vanished in its dark depths.
Becky had rearranged her dress to cover her for the moment. With the aid of some pins she would be able to manage until she had time to repair it. She was on her feet now, still trembling from the shock of it all.
She said, “He followed me up here! I couldn’t believe it!”
Davy nodded. “I didn’t notice until Mrs. Crown told me. Then I came up on the double!”
“Not a moment too soon!”
“Are you all right?”
She said, “Yes. My dress is torn, but I can get pins from Mrs. Crown and fix it.”
Davy shook his head. “I didn’t think he’d have the nerve.”
“He probably thought he could so as he liked with me, and I’d be afraid to tell on him!”
“Well he knows better now,” the young seaman said.
“I’m sorry it happened,” she said unhappily. “I’m afraid you’ve made a bad enemy.”
“I can protect myself from the likes of that!”
“I hope so,” she said. “You proved tonight you can—in a fair fight. But a villain like that is apt to use all sorts of mean tricks to settle a score.”
Davy said, “Let him try! Are you ready to go back downstairs?”
“In a minute, she said. “I’ll have to put some more glasses on the tray. Most of the others were broken when he came at me.”
They went downstairs with Davy leading the way and carrying the candle while she came after him with the tray of glasses. There was an air of excitement in the tavern, which told them that Alfie Bard had created a sensation when he’d come downstairs in his bloodied and dishevelled state. There was no sign of him and his girls now. The familiar table was empty!
Mrs. Crown was waiting for them, and when Becky delivered the trays, the older woman said angrily, “That’s the end of Alfie Bard as far as this place is concerned! I’ve told Luther neither Alfie nor his girls are to be allowed back in here. Not after what he tried tonight. Did he hurt you?”
“No,” she said, “just my dress. Davy rescued me.”
Mrs. Crown looked at the rips in her dress front and let out a cry of exasperation. Then she fetched some pins and carefully fixed the dress temporarily. Becky at once went back to work again, leaving Davy at the bar talking to Mrs. Crown.
Becky met Peg on the floor of the tavern coming back from delivering an order. Peg looked pale. “What happened up there?” she wanted to know.
She felt she had best put it bluntly, “Alfie tried to rape me.”
Peg gasped. “And Davy Brown beat him up for it?”
“Yes.”
“Everyone is talking about it,” Peg said nervously. “I think you must have imagined it. Alfie was probably just teasing you!”
“Look at my dress!” she said grimly, showing here where she’d had to pin it. “What kind of fun would you call that?”
The frightened looking Peg said nothing but went back to the bar to get another order. Soon the place returned to normal. By closing time everyone but the principals in the melee had forgotten it happened. Davy saw the girls next door safely, and Becky warned him to be careful as he walked the dark streets to his own lodging place.
“I can look after myself,” the young seaman assured her.
Still she worried. And she would continue to worry for many more nights. Peg’s behaviour also caused her concern. The redhead suddenly had little to say to her and avoided her as much as she could. Becky didn’t like this in her younger sister and tried to break down her reserve without any success.
A few nights later Davy came to the tavern with news for Becky. He said, “I’ve done a lot of thinking. And I’ve decided I don’t want to go to sea. I’m taking a job here in London.”
“Where?” she asked, delighted at the news.
“Gregg and Kerr’s Shipyards,” Davy said. “They’re finishing a fine new ship, the Orient Queen, and they’re taking on extra help. I’m hired as a ship’s carpenter.”
Some of her joy vanished. She reminded him. “That is where my father lost his life. Be careful!”
“I’m used to dangerous work,” the handsome Davy told her. “You needn’t be concerned about me.”
“You’re almost my old friend, my only friend, I can’t afford to lose you,” Becky said facing him at the bar.
He smiled. “It’s to be near you I’m taking the job.”
“I hope it works out well for you.”
“It will do for now,” Davy said. “And while I was at the yards today I met a little man who claims to know you and your sister.”
“Jimmy Davis the dwarf?”
“That’s the one! Jolly little man and much liked, I’d say.”
“Jimmy is a fine person,” Becky said. “Did you tell him where Peg and I were working?”
“Yes,” Davy said. “He was a mite startled, but I told him you were managing well enough. There was no danger.”
“Not since Alfie Bard has been banished from the tavern,” she said. “Have you seen or heard of him?”
Davy smiled grimly. “I met one of his girls on the corner. From what she told me he won’t be around for a week or so. I broke his nose and made a few other dents in that pretty face of his. She says he is furious!”
“I’m worried about what he may try to do!”
“He’s a coward,” Davy said with derision. “He can bully those poor girls he’s seduced. But he can’t fight a man. He’ll keep away from us. You’ll see!”
“I hope so,” she said.
Davy went to work at the shipyards, and she and Peg continued on at the tavern. There were no more unpleasant happenings with Alfie out of the way. But Peg continued to be sullen and resentful of almost everything she said or did. It was an unhappy situation between the two sisters and Becky tried hard to placate the younger girl without much success.
Mrs. Crown noticed Peg’s odd behaviour and told Becky, “I can’t for the life of me think what is wrong with her. You’ve been more like a mother to her than a sister and she shows no thanks.”
Becky sighed, “I think she’s very mixed up and unhappy. I think I should try to find other employment for her. Perhaps a domestic in some fine mansion.”
“She won’t make the money she is making here.”
“But she would be in a more protected position,” Becky said. “She’s so immature to be exposed to the wild clientele of a place like this.”
“We’ve had no tarts or pimps since I made Luther rid the place of Alfie Bard and his girls,” the big woman with the warty face said with annoyance.
“That’s one of the reasons I’ve stayed on,” Becky said. “And we have been able to save a little money.” Th
is was true. Each week she had put away a good share of their earnings in a tin box with a lock which she kept hidden in the closet of her room. She had paid the undertaker, and already they’d been able to save several pounds. She felt this would give them some security when they went looking for better positions.
A fortnight went by and Becky was singing, “London Lass” by the bar when she saw the door open and the familiar figure of Jimmy Davis enter in the company of Davy. They stayed back until she completed the song and received a generous applause. Then they came forward to congratulate her.
The dwarf said, “I always felt your sweet voice should be heard beyond your own hearth and tonight you proved it! You’re a born entertainer.”
She smiled wanly. “You’re far too generous, Jimmy. And this is not a discerning audience.”
The dwarf shook his big head. “I can’t agree. The rough lot of men you get here are not easy to hold with any sort of entertainment. You keep them quiet and interested!”
Davy smiled. “True. And I suggest we wash down that truth with a couple of whiskies.” He and the little man made a quaint couple as they stood together at the bar, Davy looming up over the dwarf.
Becky paused to tell Peg, “Jimmy Davis is here? Go say hello to him.”
Peg looked impatient. “I’m busy! I have three orders to fill!”
“Then speak to him later before he goes.”
“All right,” Peg said curtly and headed for the other end of the bar.
Becky watched after her with a feeling of dismay. She had lost control of Peg. The younger girl no longer showed any sort of respect for her. And now she was turning her back on someone who had been a close friend of the family. Someone who would be hurt by her not greeting him. She again decided that they must soon make a move. This could not go on.
The dwarf left the tavern before Davy and Becky made a point of having a minute with him to bid him goodnight. The bearded little man asked solemnly, “Is anything wrong with Peg? She’s not ill, is she?”
“No,” she said. “She’s in some kind of a temper against me. I’m sure she will be sorry later that she didn’t speak to you.”
“I don’t understand,” the little man worried. “I tried to speak to her once and she hurried right by me.”
“She’s been doing things like that,” Becky said. “I can’t reach her at all.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Jimmy Davis said. “I’ll be back another night. Only I was worried about her.”
Becky managed a forlorn smile. “Don’t worry yourself. She’ll be all right.”
That night Peg went home early. Davy and Becky were alone. Becky confided in him, “Tomorrow I’m going to have a straight talk with Peg and ask her what is bothering her. We can’t go on this way. Whatever it is, I must know.”
Davy was frowning. “I agree,” he said. “And I think she’s angry because you were responsible for sending Alfie Bard and his girls away from the tavern. Alfie used to make a lot of her. She liked his exaggerated nonsense.”
Her eyes met his. “You could be right. I hadn’t linked the two things.”
“I’d be worried about it.”
“Then I’ll certainly talk to her in the morning,” Becky said. “I can’t let it wait if she’s really upset over that awful Alfie!”
But by the morning Peg had gone! Becky discovered this when she went to find her. She hurried to the kitchen to ask Mrs. Crown about her, but Mrs. Crown had not seen Peg since the previous evening. She went back to her own room in tears, and it was then that she remembered the tin box with their savings. She rushed to the closet and found it was no longer there!
It did not take too much longer to arrive at the conclusion as to what had happened. She was almost certain that Alfie had been seeing Peg somehow on the sly and persuaded her to go off with him and bring the money with her! It would be typical of the pimp to want the money as well as poor Peg!
In tears she sought out Luther Crown at the bar of the tavern and told him her story. She ended with, “If I don’t get her away from that man somehow, he’ll destroy her!”
“No doubt of that,” the owner of the tavern agreed bleakly. “I’ll see what I can do about locating him. You mind the bar while I’m gone.”
So she tended to the late morning and early afternoon patrons of the tavern, anxiously waiting for the old tavern keeper to return. He came back just after two o’clock, and she could tell he did not have good news for her. As soon as they were both free she asked him, “What did you learn?”
“I found one of Alfie’s whores drunk in a doorway,” Luther told her. “Soaked with gin and full of tears! Her fancy man had run off with a younger girl. She claims Alfie and Peg have taken off for France!”
“Oh, no!” she said in panic.
Luther nodded. “I’m afraid so. According to the girl, they left on an early morning boat for Calais. They’re probably there now. From Calais they’ll journey to Paris!”
“I’ll go after them and find them!” she insisted.
The tavern owner shook his head. “You’d be wasting your time,” he said. “The Paris underworld is darker than the one here in London. Once those two disappear into it, you’d have had an easier time finding a needle in a haystack. And you can be sure Alfie knows where to market Peg’s body to the best advantage!”
Tears brimmed over in her eyes. “Please don’t talk about it that way!”
“You must face the truth,” Luther said sternly. “Peg has always been the weak one. Girls like her are hypnotized easily by men like Alfie Bard. He’s an old hand at it. You would be better to think of her as dead, for she is now dead to the world.”
“How can I save her?”
“Pray,” the tavern owner said. “Perhaps she’ll come to her senses and escape from him. She’ll have to help herself now. You’ve tried to guide her and failed. Now she is on her own; perhaps she will develop enough character to see Alfie what he really is!”
“I knew he’d have revenge on me,” she said tearfully. “And this is how he managed it.”
“He was probably planning something like this anyway.”
“I worry for Davy,” she said. “He’ll not rest until he harms him in some way also.”
The elderly tavern owner gave her a troubled glance with his one eye and asked, “Are you planning to leave me, now that your sister’s gone?”
“I don’t know what I’ll do,” she said. “I must think. And talk to Davy.”
“Peg wasn’t earning her way,” the tavern keeper said. “I kept her on because of you. You’re the one the customers like. And Mrs. Crown and I care for you as well. As much as if you were our own.”
She was touched by his sudden revelation of his kindly feelings. Normally he was gruff and reticient. It must have taken some effort on his part to speak as he had. She gave him a grateful glance, “I’ll not leave you without some serious thought. But I can’t bear to think of Peg off there in trouble.”
“You’d never be able to find her,” the elderly man said. “And if by accident you did, she’d likely refuse to listen to you!”
It was the bleak truth and she knew it. Peg’s loyalty was not to her—it was to the pimp who had taken her off to Paris. Somehow she got through the day and, when Davy arrived at the bar that night, she took a moment to briefly tell him what had taken place.
Davy was not startled. He said, “I warned you she was thinking of that villain. Now you know I was right.”
“I should have realized it myself.”
“Why?” Davy said with disgust. “You wouldn’t expect her to turn from you to the likes of him!”
“That is true,” she said tautly. “I didn’t expect that.”
She went about her duties that night in a kind of fogged state. Luther showed his consideration by not asking her to sing. She could not have done so even if he’d insisted, but he didn’t. A few people noticed that Peg was absent and mentioned it. Becky said her sister had a minor illness and would retur
n later. This seemed to satisfy them.
Davy had a surprise for her when the tavern closed. He said, “I’ve made an arrangement with Luther to take Peg’s room. I want to be as close to you as possible, in case Alfie tries to strike at you some other way.”
Becky couldn’t help but he relieved to hear the news. It would mean there was someone close by to defend her if trouble should come. And she’d been worried about his walking the long distance to his lodging place every night.
She said, “I’m glad you’ll be close by. Do you think there is anything we can do to locate Peg and that man?”
“Luther is going to try and get some more information,” Davy told her. “If he is successful, we may get Alfie’s Paris address. Then we could at least try to get Peg out of his clutches.”
She cried herself to sleep that night and tried to stifle her sobs in order that Davy in the room next door shouldn’t hear her. When she got up the next morning, he had already left for work at the docks. The wet, miserable day matched Becky’s own frame of mind.
That night Davy brought his belongings to the room and then came to the bar as usual. At the first opportunity she told him, “There’s been no news to help. Luther couldn’t find out anything new.”
Davy sighed. “We’ll have to wait and hope.”
“I’m sick with it all,” she said, near tears. “I don’t know if I can carry on.”
“Giving up won’t help Peg,” the young seaman said. “You must keep yourself in good health to help her. She’ll surely turn to you when she needs you.”
Becky made no reply but went back to work. Davy was in a quiet, troubled mood as he kissed her goodnight at her door. No sooner had her head touched her pillow than she began to cry in the darkness again. She tried to stop and could not help herself.
Then the door slowly opened and Davy, bare to the waist, in his dark trousers, came silently into the room and closed the door after him. He came and sat on her bed and touched his finger to her tear-streaked cheek.
“This cannot go on,” he said gently.
“I’m sorry.”
“You must think of yourself,” he said. “And of us. I’ve stayed on land, Becky, because I want to marry you.”
Vintage Love Page 102