by Dilly Court
Lucy hurried after her, followed by Pascal. ‘But you can’t go yet, Mama. You’ve received offers to tour England. You said you wanted to come home. Please don’t leave me so soon.’
Chapter Twenty-Six
CHRISTELLE SIGHED, SMOOTHING her crumpled skirts. ‘So tempting. I don’t know what to do.’
‘You could start behaving like a mother, my girl,’ Eva said crossly. ‘You abandoned your child in order to follow your dreams, and now you’ve got a chance to make amends. I’m not going to be here forever.’
Christelle shot her a withering look. ‘You’ll outlive us all, Ma.’
‘Look out of the window,’ Froniga suggested, pointing to the faces pressed against the windowpanes. ‘That’s your public, Christelle. Are you going to disappoint them by running off to France?’
‘Pardon, madame.’ Pascal’s moustache quivered with suppressed emotion. ‘Is it any of your business?’
‘Don’t speak to her like that.’ Eva rose majestically to her feet. ‘Christelle, are you going to let your man insult our friend?’
Lucy heard the rattle of teacups on their saucers and she hurried to open the door for Bedwin. ‘I’m sure we’d all feel better for some refreshment,’ she said brightly.
Bedwin placed the tray on a side table. ‘We’ve got the coffee but Hester said she’s forgotten how to make it.’
‘Oh, mon Dieu,’ Pascal said, throwing up his hands. ‘This is an uncivilised country. I can’t wait to go home. We’re leaving right away, Christelle.’
She regarded him calmly. ‘You may go, but I’ve decided to stay and accept the offers I’ve received.’
He puffed out his chest. ‘I am your husband. I’m ordering you to obey me.’
‘I’ll return to France when it suits me, Pascal. In the meantime I want you to instruct my maid to pack my costumes and bring them to England. Give her this address.’ She turned to Lucy. ‘If it’s all right with you, my dear girl.’
‘Of course it is, but only if you’re sure. I mean, perhaps you ought to listen to your husband.’
‘Christelle’s never listened to anyone in her whole life,’ Eva said with a knowing wink.
‘I will remain in England as long as it suits me.’ Christelle glared at her husband as if daring him to argue. ‘Don’t try to bully me, Pascal.’
Lucy had been about to pour the tea but she handed the pot to Bedwin, who was hovering at her side. ‘Do the honours, please, Bedwin. I’m going to get Mama’s room ready.’ She shot a sideways glance at Pascal. ‘Do I take it that you won’t be staying? You’d be most welcome, and it would give us time to get to know each other.’
‘Thank you, Lucy. Your kindness is much appreciated, but . . .’ His moustache quivered and drooped and the bravado seemed to desert him, leaving him helpless in the face of an apparently overwhelming burst of emotion. He grasped Christelle’s hand and pressed it to his lips. ‘I am sorry, chérie. I meant none of the things I said. I am bereft without you. Please come home.’
Christelle’s cheeks reddened and her full lips trembled. ‘You’re just saying these things, Pascal. It is a ploy to make me do as you wish.’
‘No, chérie. On my honour, I swear it is true. I love you and I need you. My life is nothing without you.’
‘Men will say anything to make you do what they want,’ Eva muttered, frowning. ‘I was never fool enough to let a man put a ring on my finger. I loved Abe, but he never owned me.’
‘That’s enough, Ma,’ Christelle said sharply. She leaned forward to brush her husband’s lips with a kiss. ‘You silly old fool, Pascal. You know I’ll come home when it suits me, but for the time being I want to stay in London and get to know my daughter.’
He bowed his head. ‘I can’t live without you, ma belle.’
Lucy looked from one to the other, torn by the desire to beg her mother to stay with her forever and pity for the man whose devotion was beyond doubt. ‘I think we ought to leave you to talk this over,’ she said softly.
Froniga stood up. ‘Lucy’s right. I’d like to go to my room anyway. Come along, Eva.’
For a moment Lucy thought that her grandmother was going to argue, but Eva rose slowly to her feet. ‘You was always a fool when it came to men, Christelle.’
Lucy found Bram in the kitchen helping Hester to make coffee. He looked up as she entered the room and greeted her with a sunny smile. ‘This is how we made it in camp,’ he said, stirring the ground coffee into a pan of boiling water. ‘I don’t suppose it’s the way they do it in coffee houses, but it works after a fashion.’
‘All this fuss for a foreigner,’ Hester said, crossly. ‘A good strong cup of tea would do him the world of good.’
Maggie looked up from her plate, munching a mouthful of cake. She gulped and swallowed. ‘That funny little man with a curly moustache makes me laugh.’
‘I didn’t like him,’ Bertie said, reaching for another slice of seed cake and receiving a reproving look from Hester. ‘Just one more small piece, Hester, darling. I’m a growing boy.’
‘You’ll have to earn your keep, young man.’ Hester shook the wooden spoon at him. ‘You can bake the bread tomorrow. What’s the use of having a baker’s apprentice in the house if he doesn’t help in the kitchen?’
‘Quite right.’ Bram abandoned his attempt to make coffee and pulled up a chair for Lucy. ‘I’m a tea man myself. Can’t abide coffee.’ He sat down beside her. ‘What next? We need to have a long talk.’
‘The first thing I’ll do is get the room ready for my mother. Even if she only stays for a short time it will give me time to get to know her properly, and then I must see Mr Goldspink.’
He frowned. ‘Are you still going to ask him to represent Stella in court?’
‘You’re mad.’ Hester slapped a lid on the saucepan. ‘That woman tried to kill you according to what Vicky just told me.’
‘It’s true,’ Vicky said earnestly. ‘We saw it all, didn’t we, Maggie?’
Maggie nodded, rendered speechless by a mouthful of cake.
Hester made a move towards the table. ‘You’ve all had enough to eat. Bertie, you can go and fetch some coal for the range and you girls can help Lucy. Your days of idling with the circus people are over. You’re home now.’
Grumbling, the children left the table and drifted off to do Hester’s bidding. Lucy sipped her tea and smiled. ‘You’ve got them well trained.’
‘Years of practice,’ Hester said, taking a seat at the table. ‘Now, while they’re out of the room you can tell me exactly what’s been going on in the wilds of Essex.’
Even though Lucy was eager to be alone with Bram, a suitable opportunity never seemed to arise. The house was buzzing with activity after Pascal left, apparently on the best of terms with his wife. Christelle admitted with a wry smile that she had promised to return to France when her prospective tour of the English music halls came to an end. ‘Love is a complicated emotion, Lucy,’ she said, sighing. ‘Alas, I am the sort of woman who cannot live without a man, but he does not get things his own way.’ She winked and tapped the side of her nose with an impish grin. ‘You have to know how to handle them, my dear. Now where is my room? I wish to change out of these travel-stained garments.’
As soon as they had snatched a quick breakfast next morning, Lucy and Bram set off for Goldspink’s office. He did not seem surprised to see them. ‘I read the newspapers,’ he said by way of explanation. ‘I knew you would arrive sooner or later.’
‘How do I stand regarding Marriott Park?’ she asked anxiously. ‘Is it really mine?’
‘It’s yours, as is the house in Leman Street. Had Linus’s life not been terminated he would have faced criminal charges for his attempt to defraud you of your inheritance, and he still had outstanding gambling debts. He must have been a desperate man.’ He rested his elbows on the desk, looking from one to the other with a wry smile. ‘We have a satisfactory outcome, and that concludes our present business.’
‘Not quite,’ Lucy
said hastily. ‘I’d like you to consider taking on Stella’s case.’
His eyes widened, magnified by the pebble lenses of his spectacles. ‘The young woman who shot Linus? Surely there’s no question as to her guilt?’
‘She was driven mad by jealousy. At the very least she’ll plead insanity, and in actual fact she saved my life. Linus clearly intended to harm me and I think he would have killed me there and then if she hadn’t intervened.’
‘I’m very glad she did.’ Bram grasped Lucy’s hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. ‘But I can’t say that I agree, because that woman was intent on harming you, Lucy.’
‘But she’s not right in the head,’ Lucy protested. ‘I thought you understood that, Bram.’
‘I suppose I do, in a way. But that doesn’t alter the fact that she was prepared to go to any lengths to get rid of you. She was responsible for you breaking your arm, and you might easily have broken your neck when you were thrown from that horse. Or had you forgotten?’
‘No,’ Lucy said angrily, ‘of course not. I knew that Stella wanted me out of the way, but Monty was partly to blame. He used her and then he abandoned her. I still say Linus might have killed me if she hadn’t intervened.’
Bram frowned, shaking his head. ‘I can see that we’re never going to agree on this, and yet you expect me to pay for her defence.’
She snatched her hand free. ‘How could you bring this down to money? I thought we had an understanding, and we both felt the same about everything, but obviously I was wrong.’ She rose to her feet, leaning her hands on the edge of the desk. ‘Mr Goldspink, I want you to represent Stella Smith. I’ll be responsible for the costs.’ She shot a sideways glance at Bram. ‘After all, I’m a woman of property now.’
Goldspink reached for a pad of paper and a pen. ‘Give me the details, Miss Marriott, and I’ll see what I can do.’
‘We’ll discuss it later, Mr Goldspink. I have to go now.’
‘Lucy, for God’s sake be reasonable.’ Bram leapt to his feet, but Lucy had reached the door and she wrenched it open.
‘I can find my own way home.’ She raced down the stairs, blinded by tears of humiliation and hurt pride. She would have entrusted her life to Bram, and she had never imagined that they would disagree so fundamentally about something that was so important to her. Stella was a spiteful, calculating woman, but it was her obsession with Monty that had turned her into a murderer, and the least she deserved was for her side of the story to be heard in court. It was not a question of forgiveness; it was a matter of fairness.
‘Lucy, stop. Please.’ Bram caught up with her as she reached the foot of the stairs. ‘I didn’t mean to upset you.’
‘I thought you were on my side,’ she said angrily.
‘I am, of course I am.’
‘You brought everything down to money – your money. You sounded just like Pascal when Mama said she wasn’t going to do as he wished. You men are all the same.’ She headed for the main entrance, but Bram caught up with her in two strides.
‘This is ridiculous. You mistook my meaning.’
She turned to face him. ‘I think it was perfectly clear. You didn’t want to spend your money on paying for Stella’s defence.’
‘The woman tried to kill you. Why would I want to save her from the law?’
‘Because I asked it of you.’
‘You’re being unreasonable.’
‘If you really loved me you’d understand how I feel.’
‘I do love you, Lucy. I’ve always loved you. What’s mine is yours, little though it may be.’
‘That’s not what you said in Goldspink’s office.’ She opened the door and stepped outside into the crowded street, covering her nose with her hand as the stench of unwashed bodies, horse dung and overfull sewers took her breath away. ‘Leave me alone, Bram.’
‘I’m not leaving you on your own. You’d be set upon and robbed for your hanky let alone your purse by this rabble.’
‘You’re forgetting that I was once one of this rabble, as you call them.’ She tossed her head. ‘I can look after myself. I’ve been doing it all my life and I don’t see the need to change now.’ She marched off, head held high. She knew he was following her but she did not look back.
‘Let me hail a cab. I’ll see you safely home.’
‘I’m going to see Dora. It’s not far and I’ll walk, on my own.’
‘You are the most stubborn woman I’ve ever met.’
She quickened her pace and did not look back until she reached the Strand. Bram was nowhere in sight.
‘Lucy. You’re safe.’ Dora dropped her embroidery hoop and leapt to her feet, holding out her arms. ‘I’ve read all about it in the newspapers, but I didn’t know when you were returning to London.’
Lucy embraced her but drew away quickly. ‘Sorry, I’m a bit out of breath. It’s hot and I walked from Pickett Street.’
‘You shouldn’t go there on your own. You know what a rough area it is.’ Dora moved swiftly to tug at the bell pull. ‘Sit down and I’ll send for some lemonade, or tea if you’d rather.’ She resumed her seat, staring at Lucy with a worried frown. ‘What’s happened to upset you? It’s not because of what happened to Linus, is it? I mean, he deserved what he got. I know I shouldn’t say it, but it’s true.’
Lucy sank down on the sofa. ‘Everything is in a muddle. I don’t know what I’m going to do.’
‘But you’ve found your mother. She’s rich and famous, and now Linus is no more you’ll get what’s rightfully yours. You’re an heiress and very eligible.’
‘Yes, I suppose so. I have the house in Leman Street, and Marriott Park, but . . .’ She broke off, unable to continue.
‘But what?’ Dora angled her head. ‘It’s Bramwell, isn’t it? What’s he done to upset you?’
‘I thought he supported me in everything, Dora.’
‘Darling, you’re bound to disagree about something now and then. Life would be very boring if you didn’t.’
‘It’s more than that, but it would sound like something and nothing if I went into details. I just feel he’s let me down.’
Dora moved from her chair by the window to sit at Lucy’s side. ‘But you love him, and I’m sure he loves you. It’s a lovers’ tiff, that’s all. You’re exhausted after all you’ve been through and you need a rest.’
Lucy gave her a watery smile. ‘When did you get to be so wise, Dora?’
‘I may not be very clever, but I know what’s in people’s hearts. I think you ought to go to the country and spend some time away from everyone who takes so much from you.’
‘But I love my family, Dora. Are you suggesting I leave them all in London?’
Dora smiled and her dimples deepened. ‘Who would you least like to leave behind?’
‘The children, I suppose, and perhaps Bedwin. He’s as solid as a rock and I know I can depend on him, and Hester too. But she’s needed to run the lodging house.’
‘What about your grandmother and Froniga?’
‘I think they’d rather stay in London, and Mama will be making arrangements to tour the music halls.’
‘Then you have your answer. Take your little household with you and leave the others, including Bramwell, to sort themselves out. You can’t be responsible for everyone’s happiness, Lucy. Sometimes you have to be a bit selfish and do things just for you.’
A tap on the door preceded the maid who bobbed a curtsey. ‘You rang, Miss Dora?’
‘We’d like tea and lemonade, and perhaps some of Cook’s shortbread.’
‘Yes, miss.’ The maid retreated, closing the door softly.
‘I’m going to do something just for me as well,’ Dora confided. ‘I’m joining Mama and Papa in Paris. Piers will have to find someone else to act as hostess for his boring dinner parties. It’s high time he married, but I can’t seem to find a woman who’s prepared to take him on. I love him dearly, but he’s a bit of a bore.’
As if on cue Piers strolled into the room.
He stopped, staring at Lucy in overt astonishment. ‘Lucy. So you’ve returned to London none the worse for your adventure.’
‘I wouldn’t call it an adventure, Piers.’ She stood up. ‘I’m back, but only for a day or two.’ She glanced down at Dora. ‘I’m thinking of going to Marriott Park for the rest of the summer.’
‘To recover, I should think. You and your family have been headline news for days. I’ve had people accosting me in the House of Commons, asking about you. I’ve told them, of course, that we are no longer affianced.’
‘We never were, Piers. And perhaps it’s just as well considering the scandal I would have brought to your door.’
He smiled and nodded. ‘It would have been an embarrassment, but I hope I’m a big enough man to overcome such prejudice.’
‘Well, you won’t have to since we’re just friends.’ Lucy treated him to a smile as she made her way to the door. ‘I have to go now, but I hope I’ll see you before you leave for Paris, Dora.’
Dora rose gracefully from the sofa. ‘I’m leaving tomorrow, but this is au revoir and not adieu. You see, I’m speaking the language already. Do tell Christelle to contact me if and when she comes to Paris. I’m sure she’d be more than welcome at the Embassy.’
‘My little sister has developed a mind of her own at last.’ Piers moved to open the door for Lucy. ‘Are you returning to Leman Street?’
‘I am.’
‘I’m going that way as it happens. I have business in the city and my carriage is waiting outside. I’ll take you home.’ He held up his hand as she was about to argue. ‘Indulge me, Lucy. We’ve not always seen eye to eye, but I want us to remain friends, and if ever you’re in need you know where to come.’
‘Thank you, Piers.’ She turned to give Dora a fond hug. ‘I’ll miss you, but we won’t lose touch. We’ll always be good friends.’
‘The best,’ Dora said, wiping tears from her eyes.
The carriage drew up outside the house in Leman Street and Piers stepped out to help Lucy alight. To her consternation she saw Bram striding along the pavement towards them. Of all people she did not want him to get the wrong impression. ‘Thank you, Piers,’ she said hastily. ‘I mustn’t keep you.’