Jubilee (Book 1 of The Poppy Chronicles)

by Claire Rayner

  ‘If ’e was to ’ear you suggestin’ as ’ow ’e cheated ’e’d have your kishkas out on the line,’ Ruby said, almost conversationally, and came away from the door to sit beside Claude, no longer seeming to fear that she or they would run away from him. ‘Kishkas is guts, for you ignorant geezers. Listen, you played deep, showing off what toffs you was, and that was the truth of it. We’re ’appy enough to bet tanners an’ bobs. Even a joey’ll do for the likes of us. We’re in it for the sport, we are, not for showin’ off. But not you, oh no! You ’as to bet with ’alf sovs, don’t yer? Well, got yer come-uppance, didn’t yer? All yer givah taught yer nothin’ about form, did it? So ’ere you are with a big debt to pay, and pay it you shall before ’e lets you out. So the sooner you tells yer sister ’ere what’s what, the sooner we can all go and get a noggin, eh?’

  ‘I pay no debts for betting to anyone,’ Mildred said strongly. ‘My brothers both know that such behaviour is forbidden in our house and would not do it. Of course they have been cheated and so I shall tell whomever this is you’re all so frightened of. Debts indeed! More like stealing from innocent boys! They are neither of them yet twenty-one and as such it is not legal, I am sure, for you to take bets from them anyway. So the loss is yours – if there is any loss, which I take leave to doubt. You people who bet are all –’

  ‘All what?’ The voice that came from behind her made her catch her breath and turn at once and she stood there and stared at the man who was standing inside the door which he had so quietly opened.

  A short stocky man with eyes as rich and lustrous as Ruby’s but with much longer lashes so that he seemed to have a soft gaze – until the glint in the depths of them showed; at which point the sense of softness vanished at once.

  A dark and curly man with a shadow across his cheeks where his beard was announcing how long since he had been shaved, and wearing a neat suit and very white linen, with a glint of a gold ring on one short and rather hairy finger.

  Looking at him, she felt that the exotic quality she had seen in Ruby was multiplied five times over and she stood very straight as she stared at him, trying hard to keep her face expressionless so that he could not see how alarmed and yet how fascinated she was. He looked as out of place as a tiger would have done stalking down Leinster Terrace and he made her feel as alarmed as though he were indeed a tiger. All the strength and command that she had been using in her dealings with her brothers and Ruby, born of irritation and fed on fear, seemed to slide away and beneath her cream serge skirt she felt her knees become shaky.

  But she managed to speak and raised her head and said as steadily as she could, trying not to let her voice shake. ‘And who might you be?’

  Ruby grinned then and came hopping over from Claude’s side to the newcomer, who was still standing quietly by the door. He was barely a couple of inches taller than the boy, for all he was very obviously a grown man, but that did not detract from the menace she felt in him.

  ‘I’ll tell you ’oo ’e might be,’ Ruby said. ‘This ’ere’s the fella what is owed all the money. This ’ere’s Lizah.’

  She stared at the stocky man still standing silently and with his eyes fixed on her, and then looked at Ruby, and she couldn’t help it. It was as though someone else was inside her skin and reacting, not sensible Mildred at all. And the someone else began to laugh, softly at first and then more and more loudly until tears were streaming down her face and she was hiccuping helplessly. And all the time the man Lizah stood and watched her, his face quite blank of any expression.

  4

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she managed at last, and rubbed the back of her hand against her wet cheeks, not caring that it made the kid leather of her gloves darken into ugly patches. ‘I didn’t mean to be rude, but really – what sort of place is this where the men have women’s names? It sounds so ridiculous.’

  ‘Not so ridiculous as Basil and Claude,’ the stocky man said, and he drawled the names in so flat and nasal a tone that Basil reddened and stepped forwards, his hands clenched into fists, and Mildred put up her hand and set it warningly on his sleeve.

  ‘I meant no insult,’ she said. ‘And I’m sure there is no need for you to give one back. I have apologized for my ill manners. It was just that – I was taken aback.’ She let go of Basil’s arm and folded her slightly shaking hands in front of her and looked at the man appealingly. ‘You have to agree this is a very – ah – unusual situation for me to find myself in and when I am then told that a man such as you is called –’ And to her horror the bubble of laughter rose again in her throat and she had to bite hard on her lower lip to keep it under control. It’s just that I’m so frightened, she told herself, biting down even more savagely. It’s making me stupid. Stop being stupid –

  Amazingly, he produced a thin-lipped smile. ‘Well, you got something there, Miss Amberly. I dare say it does sound a bit strange, at that.’ His speech was not as racy as Ruby’s; indeed it seemed he had made some effort to speak with a better accent, but there was still a nasal resonance about it, and an unmistakable cockney twang. ‘I can’t say as I’m all that enamoured of it myself. It’s a shortening, you see. My name is Lazarus Harris, an’ how do you do.’ And he held out one hand towards her and inclined his head slightly.

  Almost without thinking she stepped forwards and held out her own hand and he took it and shook it punctiliously, if a little more vigorously than she was accustomed to; most of the men to whom she was introduced at Leinster Terrace had fingers that were damp and droopy and certainly never grasped hers so firmly. She could feel the warmth of his skin through her gloves and unaccountably felt her cheeks redden.

  ‘How do you do, Mr Harris,’ she murmured and then stepped back again as Basil tugged sharply on her arm.

  ‘You can call me Kid like most people do,’ Lizah said, ignoring Basil completely, although he was now standing very close to Mildred and glowering down on him from his considerably greater height. ‘Kid Harris, that’s me. Known the length and breadth of this city as a winner. Except by some particular fools, that is.’ And now he did flick a glance at Basil and she felt him stiffen at her side and she took a sharp little breath in through her nose. The glance had been momentary but so filled with scorn and even menace that a new frisson of fear ran through her.

  ‘Really,’ she said and stopped, not knowing what more to say, and Harris looked at her again and she blinked, for now all the menace was gone. His face was rather nice to look at, she found herself thinking; a little dark cheeked perhaps, but friendly. He had rather protuberant eyes, she realized now that he was so much closer to her, and they were a rich brown with a good deal of warmth in them, and his forehead was pleasantly creased with a series of parallel lines, although he appeared much the same age as she was herself. Though that is a considerable age indeed for a woman unattached, a small voice murmured deep inside her and she lifted her head and said quickly, ‘I’m sorry. I have not heard of you.’

  ‘You I don’t expect to know about me,’ he said and there was a note of magnanimity in his voice. ‘A woman I don’t expect nothing from. Only politeness and respect and this you give.’ Again he bent his head and again she wanted to laugh. He really was a very odd little man, she thought, looking at him, aware now that she was a good three inches taller than he was. A solid man, and well built, but considerably below middle height. Just as you are far too much above it, the jeering inner voice said, and again she spoke hurriedly, to drown its nastiness.

  ‘I would hope always to be polite, Mr Harris. Just as I would hope my brothers are. And I must ask why you are keeping them here in this manner, and why I was sent for so strangely? I am sure they have said nothing out of the way to you that would warrant such – such – ah – well, what is going on here? I do feel I have a right to know.’

  ‘Indeed you have, Miss Amberly. Of course you have. The thing of it is, they owes me money. More’n it’s right for one gentleman to owe another you see, and –’

  ‘Gentleman!’ said
Basil over her shoulder and snorted. ‘A nasty greasy kiky little –’

  ‘That’ll do, you!’ Ruby had been sitting on the bench beside Claude, watching them and now he was on his feet and running across the room to stand pugnaciously in front of Basil, his back to Kid Harris. ‘You been askin’ for a pastin’ ever since you come in ’ere and I’m in the right mood to give it yer – if the Kid don’t lose ’is temper first and flatten yer, which ’e ’as every right to do and every provocation –’

  Harris’s hand came down firmly on Ruby’s shoulder and he pushed him aside, not unkindly but with determination. ‘I don’t need no mouthpiece, Ruby,’ he said. ‘I can deal with this one –’ And he looked at Basil, taking his gaze from his feet up his lanky body to his flushed and angry face and then turned to Mildred. ‘Not that I intends to waste time on the monkey when I got so sensible an organ grinder here to talk to.’ And again he grinned at her, but it was not thin-lipped now. It was a wide smile and his teeth, uneven and with a wide central gap, but very white, glinted at her and made her want to smile back. But she didn’t.

  ‘I still don’t know what is going on here,’ she said stiffly. ‘Will you please explain in detail?’

  ‘The detail is a matter of a debt of ten pounds. Ten golden sovereigns, Miss Amberly, that’s the thing of it. This piece of cold lockshen here –’ He stopped then and smiled even more widely at her. ‘I must remember that you’re a stranger in these parts, eh, Miss Amberly? This long piece of cold cooked spaghetti – begging your pardon, of course, seeing as he’s your brother, but you got to admit he isn’t exactly a dazzler of a man – this brother of yours comes in here, on to my patch, swaggering and swanking like some tart out on a – again I must beg your pardon, Miss Amberly. Like some frilly piece o’ nonsense on a night out, and throwing himself about more than somewhat on how much he understands about pugilism and how the science of it is at his fingers’ ends and considerable nonsense of that nature. And when he hears as how I’m boxing here tonight, and he takes a look at me, he decides with all this great knowledge of which he is so inordinately proud that I’m a loser.’

  He laughed then, a sound that was, she felt, meant to be light and amused but which had a savage note in it. He was genuinely angry, even though he was trying to control it.

  ‘Me, Kid Harris, a loser! Now I asks you, Miss Amberly, do I look like a loser? Do I? You don’t need to be no expert to answer. Just a sensible person with eyes in her head. Would you call me a loser and lay down a sovereign apiece at odds of five to one the way this pair of ripe idiots you has the misfortune to be related to has done? Just look and tell me that, Miss Amberly.’

  She looked at him as he stood there in front of her, his arms hanging lightly at his sides, his feet set neat and foursquare in small and brightly shining patent leather boots and his chest pushed forwards so that his gleaming shirt front, which pouted above his Tattersal check waistcoat, could more easily display the large pearl buttons which fastened it, and shook her head, hardly aware that she was doing so.

  ‘I hardly know, Mr Harris,’ she managed to say at last. ‘I – I know nothing of such matters. I can only regret that my brothers made any wager with you, on any matter, because they know that their father would object and –’

  ‘I say, Mildred, do stop talking to this wretched creature!’ Basil could contain himself no longer, and pushed fowards to stand beside Mildred and glare at Harris. ‘M’sister isn’t interested in any conversation with you. She came here at my request, and not yours. Now leave her be.’ He whirled then to lean close to Mildred’s ear and hissed at her, ‘For heaven’s sake, Mildred, give it to him. Ten sovs, and I’ll give it back to you tomorrow – or not later than the next day. Claude still has half his allowance at home anyway, so you won’t suffer. Just hand it over and let’s get out of this damned place –’

  ‘I haven’t got ten pounds!’ She spoke loudly, not caring whether Harris heard or not, and at once Basil scowled and tried to push her back away towards the rear of the room, but Harris’s hand was on his shoulder, pulling him out of the way.

  ‘Not brought it, Miss Amberly? And here’s this one swearing on every available object to which he could lay his lying tongue that you would bring it.’

  ‘There is no need to abuse my brother to me, Mr Harris!’ she said sharply. ‘Any conversation we have is private to us, if you please. I do not interfere with your conversations and I do not expect you to do so with mine. Now, Basil, what are we to do?’ She turned again to look at her brother, who was now looking even sicker and yet still furious with anger. ‘Why didn’t you tell me in that wretched note what you wanted?’

  ‘I said to bring money!’

  ‘Yes, but not how much or what for! I knew I’d need to have money for the cab and that is all I do have – look!’ And she thrust her purse at him. ‘I had but thirty shillings in my writing desk and that is what I brought. I saw no need to fetch more from my locked box. Why should I? There was no mention of it in that note – you really are a great donkey, you know!’ And now she did drop her voice a little and looked back over her shoulder for a moment. ‘Why did you not explain properly instead of sending such a mysterious summons? Now what do I do?’

  Basil said nothing, just stared at her and then shrugged and turned and went back to the bench where Claude still sat, speechless and with his head drooping, and hurled himself down beside him.

  ‘Do as you please!’ he said in a rather high voice that barely concealed his panic. ‘I thought you had more wit than – oh, what is the use! Go home, do, and leave us to deal as best we can. I’ve done all I can –’

  And he folded his arms and glowered at her, and her chest tightened with pity, for she knew that mulish look of his so well. He only looked so when he was frightened and trying to be brave. So had he looked when she had had to be the one to go and tell him his Mama had died, when he was just six years old. So had he looked the year or two later when Papa had told him he was to have a new Mama and was to love her and obey her. And so had he looked any time this past dozen years as child after child had come to clutter the Leinster Terrace nursery and push the older Amberlys well into the shallows of family life.

  It was not surprising that he had learned to turn more and more to her, his only full sister, as the years had gone by, and now she had let him down; and not only he but Claude too, rather silly Claude who slavishly followed his older brother in all things and never seemed to have a thought to call his own. There they sat, the pair of them, in trouble yet again and needing her, and what could she do? This was not one of their usual pieces of trickery designed to keep Papa in ignorance of their doings, not a situation where she had only to open her eyes wide and lie to Papa, and let him scold her instead of them. This was real trouble and she had proven herself to be helpless to deal with it.

  Exasperated at her own uselessness she turned back to Harris, moving sharply so that her serge skirt bellied out a little and made a cold draught of air for which she was grateful, for her cheeks were hot and damp with a combination of the rising temperature of this rather unpleasant cellar room and her own state of mind.

  ‘Mr Harris,’ she said with an imperiousness that belied her anxiety. ‘We find ourselves unable to discharge this – this so-called debt at present.’

  ‘So-called?’ Harris’s brows snapped down so low that his rounded eyes seemed to protrude beyond them as he thrust his head forwards, tortoise fashion, to glare at her. ‘Are you suggestin’, Miss Amberly, that there was some sort o’ trickery here? I told these idiots they was wrong, but would they have it? Everyone told ’em not to lay a bet, but would they listen? No, they would not. I took their bet while warning ’em against it. I told ’em to name their odds, and name them they did – at five to one. Such shlemiels! Such idiots – five to one! So they owes me ten pounds, fair and square, and any suggestion that –’

  ‘It’s a fair debt, Mildred. For God’s sake don’t say otherwise,’ Basil growled at her from his bench,
but she did not turn to look at him. She never took her eyes from Harris’s face.

  ‘If any gambling debt can be said to be a fair debt,’ she said at length, ‘then I dare say this one is. But that does not alter the fact that I do not have that sum to give you. I have just enough to pay the cabman to take us home. If I fail to do that shortly then our family will become aware of our absence and may well alert the police. In which case you would, I think, be more than a little embarrassed.’

  ‘Embarrassed?’ He seemed to contemplate the word for a long moment and then grinned at her. He really was a most unpredictable man, she decided, moving from what appeared to be cold and malicious anger to joviality in a matter of moments.

  ‘I like the way you speaks, Miss Amberly, I really do. Class, ain’t it, Ruby?’ And he turned and looked at the boy who was still standing with his fists half at the ready beside him. ‘Not like those drawling idiots, but a real classy voice, quiet and nice, you know?’ He looked at her again and smiled even more widely. ‘Yes, Miss Amberly, I will agree with you that visits from policemen is something I find embarrassing. Not for myself, mind you, but for them. They never finds nothing here, that’s the thing of it, and I hates to see them what you might call disappointed.’

  Ruby laughed then, a little burst of merriment that made her lips curl in spite of her inner trepidation and Harris seemed to be aware of the change in her and leaned forwards and some more confidentially.

  ‘I’ll tell you what, Miss Amberly. Let’s you and me go and talk about this here situation somewhere a bit more –’ He looked around at the bare room and then grinned again. ‘A bit more ladylike. This ain’t – isn’t the place for a gentleman to entertain a lady so classy as yourself, now is it? I dare say we can reach an agreement about this silly sum of money. It’s not the sum that worries me, you understand. It’s the principle of the thing –’