by Dilly Court
‘It’s all right, Mr Bedwin. I’m not a baby. I can find me own way, ta.’
He gave her a quizzical look.
‘I mean,’ she said, correcting herself, ‘I can find my own way, thank you.’
‘Very good, Miss Lucy. Have I your word of honour that you won’t try to run away again?’
‘I won’t try to run away again today.’
His lips twisted into a wry smile. ‘Finish your drink before you go, Miss Lucy. I’m a busy man so I’ll have to trust you to keep your promise.’ He left the room, closing the door behind him.
Lucy put her cup down and thrust her hand into the pocket where she had concealed her present. After a brief struggle with the clasp she hung it round her neck and tucked it out of sight under the bodice of her cotton print frock. She felt at once happy and sad. Granny had called at the house: she had been so close, and then she was gone. Her fingers traced the heart shape of the locket beneath the thin cotton of her bodice, and the precious metal was warm against her flesh. If only Granny had stayed for a moment longer she might have seen her, and if she could have spoken to her she might have persuaded her to take her home, wherever that was. She finished the chocolate and replaced the dainty cup on its matching saucer, but all the fine china in the world could not make up for the loss of the one person who truly loved her.
She left the pantry and made her way slowly to the staircase with Peckham at her side. She was tempted to run away again, but she had given her word to Bedwin and he had been kind to her. She would honour her promise today, but there was always tomorrow. She reached the entrance hall in time to see James opening the front door and she paused at the foot of the stairs, hoping that Granny might have changed her mind and come to take her home. Peckham stood alert with his brown ears cocked. He uttered a growl deep in his throat as Linus Daubenay strode into the vestibule, tossing his hat and cane at James. ‘Where will I find my uncle?’
‘I believe he’s in the study, sir.’
Linus crossed the floor in long strides, coming to a halt beside Lucy.
‘You should muzzle that cur,’ he said, glaring at the dog.
Lucy knew better than to argue. She snatched Peckham up in her arms and started for the stairs, but Linus caught her by the sleeve. ‘You may think you’re clever, Miss Pocket, but you won’t steal my inheritance, of that you may be certain. One way or another I’ll make certain that you don’t get the chance. Do you understand what I’m saying?’
She understood well enough, but she was not going to let him see that she was afraid. ‘I never asked to come here, mister,’ she said, returning his hard stare with a toss of her head. ‘I don’t want to stay and I don’t want your inheritance, whatever that might be.’
He leaned over her, lowering his voice. ‘And I’ll make sure you don’t get a penny of it, little girl. I’m going to tell my uncle just what sort of family you come from. Your mother is a whore and so is your grandmother. I should know, because I’ve had them both.’
‘That’s a wicked lie.’ Lucy’s voice broke on a sob. ‘You’re a bad man.’
‘You don’t know how bad I can be, but you’re going to find out very soon.’ His laughter echoed off the crystal chandeliers as he strode off in the direction of Sir William’s study.
James hurried after him. ‘Shall I announce you, sir?’
The front entrance was momentarily unguarded and Lucy forgot her promise to Bedwin. She seized the moment to make her escape. She wrenched the heavy oak door open and with Peckham clutched in her arms, she ran.
Chapter Six
LUCY BARGED HER way past startled pedestrians, and did not stop running until she reached Piccadilly Circus. By this time she was out of breath, and had a stitch in her side. She stopped and put the dog down, instructing him to sit and stay. He looked up at her with big brown eyes and nuzzled her hand as she bent over to ease the pain. The spasm passed and she took off her sash, looping it through Peckham’s collar, using it as a makeshift lead. She continued at a slower pace, heading along Haymarket in the direction of the Strand. It was a long walk to Rosemary Lane, but she was determined to find her grandmother, and when she did they would never be parted again. Sir William could keep his money and his big house. She trudged onward, feeling the sun hot on her back and blisters forming on her heels, but she had been used to walking everywhere long before Miss Wantage had instituted the daily promenade in the park.
She was hot and she stopped to slake her thirst with water from the Buxton fountain in Parliament Square, cupping her hands and filling them so that Peckham could also drink. Feeling refreshed she went on her way, arriving late in the afternoon just as the stalls in Rosemary Lane were packing up for the day. She went from one end of the street to the other, asking if anyone had seen Eva Pocket, and although most people knew her, none of them had seen her recently. Lucy was not about to give up. It was not far to Hairbrine Court, and if Granny had moved on, Pearl might know where she had gone.
Mrs Wicks opened the door a crack. Her beady eye widened slightly as she took in Lucy’s new clothes. ‘What d’you want?’
‘Does Eva Pocket still live here?’
‘Who’s asking?’
‘You know me, Mrs Wicks. Miss Pocket is my granny.’
‘She left weeks ago. Now clear off.’
Mrs Wicks was about to slam the door but Lucy was ready for her and she gave it a mighty shove. She stepped inside. ‘I want to see Pearl and I’m not leaving until I’ve had a word with her.’
Caught off balance, Mrs Wicks staggered backwards, clutching at the newel post, which wobbled dangerously. ‘You got no right to barge in, you cheeky little brat. I’ll have the law on you.’
Peckham growled deep in his throat and crouched down, as if prepared to launch himself at her.
‘Good dog,’ Lucy murmured. ‘On guard, boy.’ She edged past Mrs Wicks, who seemed to be paralysed with fear. Peckham was relatively small, but with bared teeth and raised hackles he looked fierce. Mrs Wicks took one look at him and retreated to her domain at the back of the house.
Lucy took the stairs two at the time, coming to a halt outside Pearl’s room. She hammered on the door. ‘Pearl, it’s me, Lucy Pocket. Let me in.’
After an agonising few moments she was beginning to think that she had missed her when the door opened to reveal Pearl, tousle-haired and sleepy-eyed, wearing nothing but her stays and a pair of drawers trimmed with lace. ‘God almighty, where’s the fire?’ she demanded.
‘It’s me, Lucy. I’m looking for my nan.’
‘Lucy, my pet. Come in and close the door.’ Pearl reached for her wrap and shrugged it on. ‘I was just having a lie-down, and I must have dropped off.’
Lucy summoned the dog with two short whistles and he came bounding up the stairs. She followed him inside and closed the door. ‘Have you seen my nan, Pearl? I got to find her.’
Pearl moved to the table and searched amongst the clutter of beer bottles, newspapers and an overflowing ashtray. She found a packet of cigarettes, took one and scrabbled about until she found a match. Striking it on the tiled hearth she lit up with a sigh of satisfaction. Lucy watched, fascinated by Pearl’s urgent need for a smoke, but she was growing impatient. ‘Do you know where she is, Pearl?’ she repeated anxiously.
‘Can’t say I do, love.’ Pearl relaxed, regarding her through a haze of blue smoke. ‘You look very smart. What’s it like living with the toffs?’
‘Horrible. I hate it there and I want to come home.’
‘Well now, that’s a bit difficult because I don’t know where Eva is now. She was in a terrible state when she come back after leaving you with your granddad. I never thought to see Eva Pocket blubbing like a baby, but she was really upset. Then she packed her bags and took off, and I haven’t seen her since.’
Lucy sank down on the nearest chair, but she leapt to her feet again having sat on one of Pearl’s high-heeled boots. She put it on the floor and resumed her seat. ‘What shall I do? I asked round th
e stalls in Rosemary Lane and no one knew where she was.’
Pearl sucked on her cigarette, inhaling deeply, and exhaled with a sigh. ‘I really can’t help. Can’t you think of a place she might go?’
‘She mentioned someone called Abe, and he gave her a bag of clothes to sell in the market, but I never met him.’
‘I don’t suppose you did, Lucy. He’s not the sort of person a kid like you ought to mix with.’
‘But Granny said he was an old friend.’
Pearl flicked ash into the empty grate. ‘Do you know what a fence is? And I don’t mean the wooden kind.’
‘I ain’t stupid,’ Lucy said, forgetting Miss Wantage’s rigorous attempts to correct her grammar. ‘It’s a person who deals in stolen goods.’
‘Exactly. That’s what Abe does, and more besides. If Eva’s gone to live with him you’d be better off going back to the toff’s house.’
Lucy responded to a nudge from the dog’s nose, and automatically patted his head. ‘I said I ain’t going back there and that’s the end of it. Tell me where to find this chap.’
Pearl took a last drag on her cigarette and stubbed it out, adding to the pile of dog-ends in the ashtray. ‘Tell you what, nipper. I ain’t sending you into that den of thieves. You’d best stay here and let me go. If Eva’s there I’ll pass on the message and see what she says, although I can guess what it will be.’
‘I want to be with her,’ Lucy said stubbornly.
‘I know, love. I understand, but your gran will do what’s best for you.’ Pearl reached for a stocking which was dangling precariously from the mantelshelf and pulled it on. Its twin was discovered on the far side of the bed, as was her petticoat and crumpled cotton gown. ‘Tighten me laces, will you, love?’ she said after a struggle with the strings of her stays. ‘I ain’t as slender as I was in the old days. It takes longer and longer to squeeze me into me frocks.’
Lucy tugged and pulled while Pearl held her breath and sucked in her tummy, and eventually, due to their combined efforts, they managed to get her waist down to the required size. ‘I dunno,’ Pearl said, gazing critically at her reflection in a mirror propped up on the chest of drawers. ‘I don’t have all this trouble first thing when I get dressed, and it ain’t that I scoff lots of grub. It must be the beer I drink in the pub with Carlos what does it.’ She tidied her hair and reached for a perky little straw hat trimmed with faded pink roses, which she secured with a vicious-looking hat pin. ‘There, not bad, even if I say so meself.’
‘You look splendid, Pearl,’ Lucy said tactfully. She did not like to mention that Pearl’s garments were grubby and smelled strongly of stale fish and tobacco smoke.
‘Ta, love.’ Pearl dropped a kiss on top of Lucy’s head as she walked past. ‘Stay here and lock the door. Don’t let the wicked witch Wicks in, even if she threatens you with the law. That one wouldn’t dare call a copper, so take no notice of her. I’ll be back as soon as I can.’
With Pearl gone Lucy found herself with nothing to occupy her time. She locked the door, and stood looking round at the scene of utter chaos. After a moment’s thought she decided that the least she could do in return for Pearl’s kindness was to tidy the room. She opened the window to let out the smoke, but the stench from the outside privy and the foul smell of the riverbank at low tide made her change her mind, and she closed it again. It was hot and stuffy, but she worked diligently. Living with Granny had taught her to keep house in the most insalubrious places, and she soon had everything under control. Pearl’s clothes, abandoned in heaps as if she had tossed them over her shoulder not caring where they landed, were folded neatly and put away. She emptied the ashtray onto a sheet of newspaper and bundled it up with the rest of the rubbish, placing it by the door ready to be disposed of later. Having done all she could, she lay down on the bed and curled up with the dog at her side.
She was awakened by the sound of Pearl’s voice demanding to be let in, and she tumbled off the bed, still half asleep. It was dusk and the room was filled with shadows. ‘Where’ve you been?’ she demanded as Pearl breezed in, smelling strongly of gin and tobacco.
‘Don’t take that tone with me, kid,’ Pearl said, tossing her hat in the direction of the chest and missing. It fell to the floor, losing a petal from one of the silk roses. ‘I’ve been searching for Eva in all the usual places. I visited every pub where she might have been, and no luck.’
‘Did you find her friend Abe?’
‘I did, and she weren’t with him. Sorry, kid, but I did me best.’ Pearl reached into her pocket. ‘I got you a pie from the pub.’ She produced a small grease-stained package and laid it on the table. ‘It’s got a bit squashed, but they’re the best pies in the East End.’ She sank down on a chair and began to unlace her boots. ‘I got to get some sleep. I’m up at five to go and get me fish.’
Lucy snatched up the pie and peeled off the paper. Her stomach growled in anticipation and the delicious aroma made her mouth water. She had not eaten for hours and she was starving. She took a bite, tossing a piece of pastry to Peckham who gulped it down, wagging his tail furiously.
Pearl took off one of her boots, peering into the gloom as she dropped it on the floor. ‘Where’s everything gone?’
‘I tidied up a bit,’ Lucy said with her mouth full of pie. ‘I thought it would be a nice surprise.’
‘I won’t be able to find a thing.’ Pearl heaved off the other boot with a sigh of relief. ‘It’s all right, love. You did your best, but I liked things as they was. Anyway, I’m going to get me head down and you should too. You’d best come with me in the morning. I can’t leave you here alone.’
Early next morning, Lucy accompanied Pearl to Billingsgate market to purchase the fish she would sell that day. They went on to the Three Tuns tavern, where Pearl had an arrangement with the landlady, who cooked the fish in return for her help in preparing the fish dinners for which the pub was famous. Peckham was not allowed indoors, but he sat patiently outside the front entrance while Lucy made herself useful in the kitchen.
The landlady was a motherly woman who insisted that no one could work properly on an empty stomach, and she provided a breakfast of bacon, eggs and sausages for all the staff on duty at the time. Lucy ate hers with relish, saving a sausage to give to Peckham later, and then it was back to the slimy business of clearing up after Pearl and the kitchen boy, who was learning to be a cook. The bones and skin went into the stockpot for fish soup, and the guts were tossed into the river, to be scavenged by a squabble of seagulls.
It was almost midday by the time they had completed their tasks and the fish was fried to golden perfection. They set off with Peckham trotting at Lucy’s side. ‘I always do well in Rosemary Lane,’ Pearl said cheerfully. ‘You never know, we might find someone who’s seen Eva, or she might turn up in person.’
‘I do hope so,’ Lucy murmured breathlessly as she lengthened her stride in order to match Pearl’s. ‘But I’m not giving up. I’m never going back to that house in Albemarle Street. I’d rather end up in clink.’
‘Don’t you want to be a lady?’ Pearl shot her a sideways glance. ‘You got that pretty little frock and good boots; what more could a kid your age ask for?’
‘Someone to love me like my granny does,’ Lucy said with her bottom lip trembling. ‘No one cared for me in that place, least of all Sir William.’
‘But he’s your grandfather, Lucy. He must care a bit or he wouldn’t have gone to all that trouble to find you.’
‘He only wants me because he’s got no one else, apart from that horrid man Linus Daubenay. He scared me, and I ain’t scared easily.’
Pearl threw back her head and laughed. ‘You’re a caution, Lucy Pocket. Come on, we’d best walk faster or the fish will be cold, and all my profits will fly out of the window.’
Lucy broke into a trot. Visions of pennies sprouting wings and flying up into the cloudless sky brought a smile to her lips. She was still in a dream when she realised that they had reached Rosemary Lan
e, and she had become separated from Pearl. Coming to a sudden halt she listened for the cries of ‘Fish, fresh fish’, but all she could hear was the babble of voices and the shouts of the vendors extolling the virtues of their wares. At first she was unworried and she strolled along the street, stopping to ask if anyone had seen Eva Pocket, but the answers were the same as before. Then she spotted Carlos, who was difficult to miss with his bright orange billboards and his waxed and curled moustache. She rushed up to him. ‘Have you seen Pearl?’
He stared at her and his bushy black eyebrows shot up to his hairline. ‘I thought you had left us for better things, little one.’
‘I ran away,’ Lucy said shortly. ‘I was with Pearl just now, but I’ve lost her.’
‘She’s a difficult woman to lose,’ Carlos said, chuckling. ‘Follow your nose and you’ll find her.’
‘It’s not funny. She’s helping me to find my granny.’
His smile faded. ‘Ah, yes, the lovely Eva. I haven’t seen her for a long time.’
‘You’re no help,’ Lucy said crossly. ‘I must find Pearl.’
‘You’ll like as not find her in the pub,’ Carlos called after her as she hurried off. She was angry with Carlos for laughing at her, and with Pearl for walking off without her, but most of all she was furious with herself for lapsing into a daydream when she should have been concentrating on more important matters. She broke into a run, dodging in and out of the milling crowds who were on the hunt for a bargain, but just as she reached the pub she found her way barred by a tall, well-dressed gentleman. ‘I thought I might find you here.’
She uttered a cry of fright and tried to sidestep him, but Linus Daubenay was too quick for her and he caught her by the arm, twisting it behind her back. ‘I know Eva’s haunts of old,’ he said triumphantly. ‘And when my uncle told me where he had eventually tracked you down, I knew exactly where to come.’
‘Leave me alone. I won’t go back there. You can’t make me.’ She looked round for her dog, but he was nowhere to be seen. It was the first time he had strayed from her side and now she had genuine need of him.