“This is Ivy and this is Ann Marie,” Sadie said before the girl could slam the door shut.
“What’s it to me?” Molly Riordan, otherwise known as Desiree, wanted to die. She’d got herself into the oldest mess in the world.
“I believe you have a coat you want to sell?” Ivy said quickly.
“You couldn’t afford one of the feckin’ buttons!” The girl looked at Ivy from head to toe and sneered.
“You never know.” Ivy grinned. “Appearances can be deceiving.”
“Ain’t that the truth? You better come in, I don’t know if all of yeez will fit.”
“I want to see the coat,” Ivy said. The room, with its scattered clothing, looked more like a market stall than the one downstairs. “I’d also like to ask a few questions about going on the stage.”
“You!” Molly looked Ivy over. “You might be able to make it as a dancer but I’d need to see you without that God-awful coat.”
“No, not me!” Ivy laughed. “A friend of mine dreams of going on stage with his dog act.” Ivy shrugged. “He hasn’t a clue what’s involved. I thought you might know of someone he could talk to.”
“You’ve got a bloody cheek, I’ll say that for you!” Molly collapsed into a chair. “The coat’s in that box.” She pointed.
Ann Marie, following the pointing finger, wanted to faint. She recognised the bespoke gilded lettering on that box. What in the name of goodness was it doing here?
“Sweet Jaysus!” Sadie opened the big white cardboard box sitting on the floor. “This isn’t a coat – it’s a bleedin’ bank statement.”
“Here, try it on, Ivy.” Sadie shook out the thick white fur coat. “Come on, try it on. I dare yeh!”
Ivy was staring at the coat with her mouth open. Ann Marie was leaning faintly against the door, incapable of movement.
“Jaysus, I couldn’t put something like that on me.” Ivy stepped back as far as she could in the cluttered space.
“You”ll never get another chance.” Sadie held the coat open and waited.
“Oh my God!” Ivy dropped her coat to the floor and stepped into a slice of feminine heaven. The collar of the coat was cloak-like and was meant to be lifted around the face. Ivy buried her face in the rich fur and almost purred.
“It was made to go with the shorter skirts that are in fashion now.” Molly Riordan was remembering her own reaction to the coat.
“It was made to say ‘This woman is for sale’, you young twit!” Sadie snapped. The pregnant girl didn’t look much older than her own daughters. “I’ll bet this coat got you in that state, didn’t it?” Sadie was standing hands on her hips, glaring at the pregnant woman.
“Not on its own, it didn’t!” Molly hit back.
“You need to take a good long look in the mirror!” Sadie roared. “What yeh got up to to earn this feckin’ coat is going to be the death of yeh!” Sadie didn’t like the look of the girl. “You haven’t been taking care of yourself, have yeh?”
“There’s no point.” Molly pointed at her expanded stomach with dislike. “After this thing is out of me I’ll get me figure and me life back.”
“What are yeh goin’ to do with the baby when it gets here?” Sadie snapped.
“Put it on the steps of the poorhouse.” Molly shrugged. “They find homes for the babies. They get put in good homes with wealthy couples that want a baby.”
“What fairy tales have you been reading?” Sadie wanted to kick something. She’d spent hours on her knees praying for a miracle. She’d cried bitter tears because she wanted more children and here was this young girl pregnant with a child she didn’t want. Still, who said life was fair?
“Everyone knows the only thing those babbies get is an early grave, yeh young twit! Yeh need to think about now, start using the help available. You can get free oranges and milk from the Saint Vincent de Paul and the Penny Dinners are free for a pregnant woman. If you don’t start taking care of yourself the only home you and that baby will get is a pauper’s grave.” Sadie knew she was wasting her breath but she had to try.
“Sadie?” Ivy had been lost in the feel of the silken fur gliding through her fingers. She’d never felt anything so luxurious in her life and never would again.
“Did you look at the label on that thing?” Sadie pointed to the coat with hatred. “It’s made of winter wolf fur. My John has a book all about artic wolves and the hard life they live. He read it to us, every evening – me and the girls. They mate for life you know, wolves. They take care of their young as a family. Those animals died so this young fool could strut her stuff.”
“Keep your hair on, Missus.” Molly snapped. “I didn’t shoot the bleedin’ things.”
“Where’s the old fool that bought that thing?” Sadie wanted to shake someone.
Ann Marie, still incapable of speech, desperately wanted to hear the answer to that question.
“Charlie isn’t old.” Molly stuck her tongue out at Sadie. “So there, yeh interfering auld hag!”
“Sadie!” Ivy had to actually clap her hands to stop the two women staring daggers at each other.
“Desiree, it’s a coat I’m looking for, something to wear daily. This thing,” Ivy couldn’t resist giving the coat another stroke, “while the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in me life, is white. White is for the very rich, Desiree. This coat would be more expensive to keep than a family of four.”
“Are ye listening, ye twit!” Sadie couldn’t keep her opinion of that to herself. “The feckin’ coat costs money to keep, for Jaysus’ sake!”
“Amn’t I trying to get rid of the bloody thing, Missus? Where do you get off coming in here and insulting me?” Molly Riordan knew she’d been a fool. She didn’t need these women to tell her.
“We don’t know yeh from Adam,” Sadie shrugged, “but we won’t stand by and see yeh kill yerself.”
“I’m not going to kill meself. Jaysus, Missus, you’re crazy!” Wasn’t she trying to sell the feckin’ coat, trying to make enough money to keep herself going?
“You are killing yourself.” Sadie would have sold the clothes spilled around this room to feed herself and her family. This girl could have done the same thing. The girl didn’t seem to realise the danger she was in. “Look at yourself, go on, take a good look!”
Sadie pulled a struggling Molly out of the chair and over to a nearby mirror.
“Look at the colour of your skin, is that normal?” Sadie was practically holding the girl up. “You’re skin and bone! The babbie is taking what it needs whether you give it to it or not. You are killing yourself and that babbie too, you twit!”
“Stop calling me a twit!” Molly shrugged off Sadie’s hands and turned to Ivy. “Yeh may as well have a look at yerself in that coat, Missus. It doesn’t half suit yeh.”
“I give up!” Sadie threw her hands in the air.
“I know I’m a twit, all right?” Molly watched Ivy admire herself. The coat made the woman look stunningly beautiful.
“Yeh don’t wear this coat,” Ivy whispered. “The coat wears you.” She slipped her arms out of the coat and passed it to the fuming Sadie.
“Yeh need to get out in the fresh air.” Sadie wasn’t giving up. “This room stinks, open a bloody window. You could sell some of these clothes to buy food, and the odd bottle of milk, have a bottle of Guinness now and again.”
“You won’t find anyone in this neck of the woods to buy that coat. It’s a work of art meant to be worn by a very rich woman.” Ivy had been looking and listening. She didn’t know anything about having babies but the girl did look sickly to her.
“I’ll need me clothes for after, ” Molly whispered.
“When did you last eat?” Sadie knew nothing about work-of-art coats but she knew about pregnant women. There was food at her place she could share.
“I couldn’t tell yeh.” Molly was in a bad way and she knew it.
“I might know of someone who’d want the coat.” Ann Marie was green to the gills. “How
much are you asking?”
Chapter 24
“This is nice, Ivy.” Jem settled his aching bones into one of the easy chairs in front of the range.
“You’re working too hard, Jem.” Ivy tidied the table. She and Emmy had been playing ‘school’ and the table was covered in their ‘schoolwork’. “You look like a man who needs a week of good nights’ sleep.”
“I’m fine, Ivy.” Jem felt like he was running in place, chasing his tail. He didn’t want to burden Ivy with his problems. He wanted to enjoy this time with her. “Tell me the latest on Vera Connolly and the pups.”
Liam’s brother Conn and his sister Vera had taken the dog and her pups into their care. They’d built a kennel of sorts in the backyard of the tenement block. Vera was taking the training of the pups very seriously.
“You should see it, Jem!” Ivy laughed. “Those dogs will have no problem performing in public. They get more attention for their every little move than any other dog before in the world. Every child in the lane acts as an audience. If a pup sits down by mistake the kids roar in appreciation! Emmy found this book at school, didn’t you, Emmy?”
“It’s a book about training dogs, Uncle Jem!”
“Emmy sits on that hay bale you put out by the dog’s kennel in the yard,” said Ivy, “and gives directions. Today Vera had the dog jumping through the iron rims the lads play with. The noise, you’d have thought the circus had come to town!”
Emmy bustled around importantly – putting the art supplies and books away in the orange crates Ivy kept for them. The little girl loved doing little domestic chores.
“Have the family had any more trouble with Father Leary?” Since Liam Connelly left The Lane Jem had been hearing whispers that frightened him. Father Leary posed a real danger to Ivy.
“You know Father Leary thinks visits to The Lane beneath him. If it wasn’t for Liam Connelly he wouldn’t darken our doorstep.” Ivy didn’t want to talk about the parish priest.
“Father Leary could cause you a great deal of trouble, Ivy.” Jem worried that idiots like Tim Johnson and his cronies would take the priest’s loudly voiced disapproval as permission to torment Ivy. The man could claim the Church’s approval of any action he cared to take. Jem couldn’t stay around The Lane and protect Ivy.
“Jem, I don’t want to talk about that man,” Ivy sighed.
“I just want you to be careful, Ivy.” He could see he was upsetting her. “We won’t talk about him any more tonight. Tell me what you and your sidekick got up to today.”
“I took Ann Marie back to the Warren again this afternoon. I told you about the pregnant dancer, didn’t I?”
“I have to say, Ivy, it seems a bit peculiar to me that Ann Marie would get so involved in a stranger’s life.” Jem shrugged. “It all seems a bit fishy to me.”
“You should have seen Ann Marie today, Jem.” Ivy shook her head in silent admiration. “The woman’s a force of nature when she gets going. I’ve never seen the like in my life. I could tell she had the bit between her teeth when I went to pick her up. It was just as well we’d arranged everything in advance. Nobody could have refused Ann Marie today, the mood she was in. She had that box with the fur coat under her arm and Desiree, the dancer, packing before ye could say Jack Robbins. I can’t believe it myself and I was there.”
“Still, to move that pregnant woman bag and baggage into Sadie’s place!” Jem shook his head. “That seems a bit extreme to me. I know you’ve told me Sadie and her girls can really use the extra money Ann Marie is going to pay them for the woman’s care, but still, Ivy, something isn’t right.”
“Ann Marie is a woman who needs to feel she can help the less fortunate, Jem. Look at the way she is with Granny. She picked Granny up earlier this evening and took her for a drive if you can believe it! They’re not back yet as far as I know.” Ivy’s smile almost split her face. “She drove her car through the tunnel and into The Lane. Jaysus, Jem, the place exploded! I don’t think there was a person left inside a building. Granny walked out on Conn’s arm like the Queen of the May. She was waving and grinning to the crowd. It did me heart good to see her enjoy herself like that.”
“The automobile was beautiful.” Emmy stopped sweeping the floor for a moment.
“I can’t wait to hear what Granny thinks of her first trip in an automobile.” Jem laughed. “You have to give the old girl credit. There’s not many women her age would be willing to get into an automobile!” Jem sighed. “I’m sorry, Ivy. I’m not trying to say there is anything wrong with your friend. I like Ann Marie – I just worry that she is moving people around like pieces on a chessboard.”
“Ann Marie could see Sadie and her girls were struggling to survive, Jem. If the empty grate hadn’t been enough. Sadie and her two girls looked like miserable wrecks that day we went to their place.” Ivy thought Ann Marie’s solution to the problem brilliant.
Three days ago they’d left the pregnant woman, promising to return with the money to buy the coat. As soon as they’d got back to Sadie’s rooms Ann Marie had sent the girls out to play with the toys she gave them. Then the three women had sat at Sadie’s table and talked. Ann Marie had waved her magic wand – money – and by the time they’d finished they’d rearranged a shellshocked Sadie’s world.
“Still and all, Ivy, for Ann Marie to make herself responsible for paying Sadie to look after a pregnant stranger – it seems a touch off, if yeh get me drift.”
“Ann Marie can afford it, Jem! To you or me the amount of money involved seems a lot. Honest, the money Ann Marie offered Sadie a week to look after Desiree is less than she spends on cream teas at Bewley’s Café.”
“I suppose but it still all seems strange to me.” Jem sat back in his chair, patting his knees for Emmy to sit up – the little girl had finished her chores. He’d enough problems of his own to be getting on with.
“Jem, I’ve been thinking . . .” Ivy dropped into the chair opposite Jem’s at the range. She hoped Jem didn’t think she was butting in to his private affairs but she really wanted to help him.
“Oh, no, please, not that!” Jem grabbed Emmy onto his knees and hid his face in her neck. The little girl giggled in sheer delight. She loved coming to her Aunt Ivy’s house.
“Jem Ryan,” Ivy leaned forward and slapped Jem’s knee. “I’m trying to have a serious conversation.”
“Ouch!” Jem looked pitifully towards Emmy, looking for sympathy, grinning.
“I want to talk about the livery.” Ivy wished Liam was over at the livery. He could have watched Emmy while they talked privately. “I’m sorry if you think I’m poking my nose in where it’s not wanted or needed but I’m concerned, Jem.”
“What about the livery?” Jem asked.
“Jem, you can’t go on like this,” Ivy began. Emmy had her head buried in Jem’s neck but Ivy knew she was listening to every word. Ivy met Jem’s eyes, struggling to find the words she wanted to say.
“Ivy, what are you trying to say?”
“Being around Ann Marie has got me thinking, Jem.” Ivy desperately wanted to explain what she was feeling. “My eyes have been opened to a lot of things. It’s the way Ann Marie behaves. She expects people to jump when she’s around. She knows who to go to for information. She has – I suppose you could call them connections. Something you and me have never had.”
“That’s the way of the world, Ivy.” Jem rubbed Emmy’s back gently.
“No!” Ivy almost shouted. “It’s the way of our world, Jem, and I’m not willing to put up with it any more. You and me have a chance to change things and I think we should take it.”
“Ivy,” Jem sighed, staring at the woman who meant so much to him. He couldn’t ask her to share his life. He couldn’t afford to support a wife. “We were both born poor and we’ll die the same way. That’s just the way things are.”
“It’s bloody not!” Ivy did shout now. “That is defeatist thinking, Jem Ryan, and you’re the one told me about that.” Ivy nodded to underline h
er opinion.
“We can’t wave a magic wand and make ourselves rich, Ivy.” Jem looked down at the little person he’d promised to protect.
“You don’t have to.” Ivy pointed her chin at Emmy. “You have money.”
“I’m not touching that.” Jem glared.
Ivy sighed. The man was pigheaded. “I’m not suggesting you take the child’s money and flitter it away. The money is sitting in the bank doing nothing. You and I, Jem, can’t walk into the bank and ask for a loan. The bank manager would laugh himself sick before having us thrown out. That, yes, is a fact of our life. But you have a chance now, Jem. It fell into your lap. I think you should use the money. Think of it as an investment in the livery. Use the money but treat it as a loan and pay it back over time.”
“Jesus, Ivy!” Jem stared open-mouthed.
“Think about it, Jem. You can’t continue on like this. I’ve seen you dragging yourself home every night. The frown lines on your face are getting deeper. I know you’re worried but you never mention anything.” Ivy couldn’t sit still. She stood to prepare a pot of tea.
“You must be behind in the rent on the livery building. That place is huge and must cost a fortune to rent.” Ivy couldn’t help Jem out financially. She kept Emmy with her when Jem went out at all the hours of the night but it couldn’t continue. The man was killing himself.
Through Streets Broad and Narrow (Ivy Rose Series Book 1) Page 28