Hannah sighed and picked up the tray, and took it into the parlour where she found Sophie and the doctor sitting on either side of the fire, deep in conversation.
‘Why, Hannah, what delicious-looking scones,’ said Dr Bryan with a smile.
Hannah set the tray down and asked, ‘Shall I pour the tea, Miss Sophie?’
‘No thank you, Hannah. We can manage now. I’ll call you if we need anything else.’
When Nicholas left, Hannah came back into the parlour and asked, ‘Did you know the doctor was coming, Miss Sophie?’
‘Sort of,’ admitted Sophie. ‘When I told him I was coming home, he said he had business in London soon and asked if he might call.’
‘And you gave him your address.’ Hannah spoke flatly. ‘Oh, Miss Sophie, you shouldn’t have done. How can we allow him to call when you have no chaperone? It’s not right for you to receive him alone. People will talk.’
Sophie laughed at this. ‘But, Hannah,’ she replied, ‘I have no chaperone but you, and you were here in the house with me. Nothing improper took place, as you well know.’
‘I do know, Miss Sophie, but it’s not what I know that matters. It’s what people think.’
‘What people, Hannah? Who takes any interest in me and what I do?’
‘Any right-thinking person,’ Hannah answered. ‘We have to protect your reputation.’
‘My reputation is my own concern,’ Sophie said briskly. ‘And if I choose to receive Dr Bryan here in my own home, I think it is no one’s business but mine.’ She fixed Hannah with a hard stare and then, relenting, said more gently, ‘Hannah, if Mama were here, of course she would be in the room with me, but she isn’t. You would feel uncomfortable sitting in the corner while Dr Bryan and I talk, and I don’t think he would like it either.’
‘Whether he likes it is neither here nor there,’ replied Hannah roundly. ‘It’s not proper.’
‘I know what you’re saying, Hannah, but in that case I’ll never be able to meet any man who isn’t a relative. At least you know Dr Bryan and know that he’s accepted at Trescadinnick. They find him respectable. No one complained when I took tea with him at The Clipper, or when I went out driving with him.’
‘No,’ sighed Hannah. ‘No, they didn’t, but on both those occasions you had AliceAnne with you. You wasn’t seen to be alone with him.’
Sophie laughed. ‘AliceAnne was my chaperone?’
‘You wasn’t alone with him,’ repeated Hannah doggedly.
‘Hannah, I know you have my best interests at heart, but I’m not a child.’
‘No, indeed,’ Hannah agreed, ‘and that’s the problem. You’re a grown woman and an heiress at that.’
‘Well, as for being an heiress, Nicholas doesn’t know that, does he?’
‘Doesn’t he? Maybe not, but he might well think it is likely.’
‘Why should he? Everyone else thinks it’s Charles who’s the heir, as by rights it should be. Why would Nicholas think any different?’
‘And that’s another thing,’ Hannah said, moving on. ‘His use of your Christian name. He’s much too free with that.’
‘He asked if he might use it,’ Sophie said patiently, ‘and I agreed. He then asked me to use his, and so I do. We’re friends, Hannah, that’s all.’
‘Are you?’ said Hannah. ‘I’ve seen the way he looks at you and I’m not the only one.’ It was a mistake and Hannah realized it at once.
‘Have you?’ Sophie said, blushing. ‘I thought I might be mistaken.’
‘If he has honourable intentions towards you, Miss Sophie, and you want to encourage them, he should approach your grandfather. Since both your parents are dead, he must be your natural guardian.’
‘I doubt if he’d get far there,’ countered Sophie. ‘My grandfather is determined I shall marry Charles. He would never give Nicholas permission to address me.’ She reached out and took Hannah’s hand. ‘I know you worry about me, dearest Hannah, but you don’t have to. If anyone is going to give Dr Bryan permission to address me, it will be me.’
For an instant she thought back to Joss’s letters to her mother and added, ‘I shall be of age in March, and I shall require no one’s permission to marry whomever I choose. And,’ she added with steel in her voice, ‘if Dr Bryan comes to call again I shall receive him as I did today, alone. He’s a gentleman and will take no advantage of such licence.’
Hannah knew when she was beaten and she said, ‘You must suit yourself, Miss Sophie, but I know your grandfather would not approve.’
‘I care nothing for his approval,’ said Sophie and getting up to indicate the conversation was over, crossed to her piano. She raised the lid and said, ‘I think I shall practise now for a while, Hannah.’
Rightly taking this as her dismissal, Hannah left the room and went to the kitchen to prepare the evening meal. As she peeled potatoes she heard the flood of music coming from the parlour. I hope she knows what she’s doing, Hannah thought. I know Dr Bryan seems quite respectable, but there is something I don’t quite trust about him. He’s too forward, too forward in every way.
If she’d known the truth of where he was at that moment, she’d have been even more worried.
21
When Nicholas left Sophie, he took an omnibus across the river to a small house in Southwark. He walked up Clayton Street and paused briefly outside the familiar front door before reaching for the knocker. The door was opened by a small blonde-haired woman, who took a step backwards when she saw who was standing on her doorstep.
Nicholas treated her to a wide smile. ‘Hallo, Dolly,’ he cried. ‘Surprise!’
Dolly began to close the door, but Nicholas was too quick for her and putting his foot in the way said, ‘What’s the matter, Doll, aren’t you pleased to see me?’
‘Pleased to see you?’ sniffed Dolly. ‘Why should I be?’
‘Thought you might’ve missed me.’
‘What? Like a pain in the ’ead?’
‘Come on, Doll, aren’t you going to let me in?’
‘No.’
‘Don’t you want to know what I come round for?’
‘No. You only comes round when you want somefink.’
‘Not this time, Dolly. This time I got something to offer you.’
‘Oh yeah? What’s that then?’
‘Fifty quid.’
‘Fifty quid?’ echoed Dolly, her eyes widening.
‘Interest you, does it?’ asked Nicholas with a grin. ‘Thought it might!’
‘Suppose you better come in,’ Dolly said, stepping back into the house and allowing him to follow, closing the door behind him.
She led the way into the kitchen and as soon as she turned back to face him, he reached for her and pulled her roughly into his arms. For a moment he felt her body stiff, resisting him, but ignoring her resistance as usual, he slid his hands lower. And cupping her buttocks, he lifted her up against him so that she could feel his need, and murmured, ‘You always did have a lovely arse, Doll.’
‘Bastard!’ she muttered, and squirmed against him, making him gasp.
Somehow they got upstairs to the tiny bedroom and Nicholas pushed her down onto the bed, pulling her blouse away and rubbing himself against her breasts. Reaching up, Dolly unbuttoned his trousers and released him, quivering, into her hands.
It was a quick coupling, full of pent-up energy, forceful and rough, as it always had been with Nicholas. When he rolled away, spent, Dolly lay beside him, still aroused, yet angry with herself for allowing him to take her so easily.
Why can’t I resist him? she thought angrily. Why is it every time he comes back we end up like this?
Almost as if she had spoken her thoughts aloud, Nicholas said, ‘You liked that, Doll, didn’t you? You always were a good lay. Miss me, do you, when I’m not here?’
‘No,’ snapped Dolly, ‘always glad to see the back of you.’ And that was true too. She was far happier when Nicholas wasn’t there. Sometimes she didn’t see him for months and she
’d think she’d finally seen the last of him, and then he’d turn up again, like today, and within minutes he’d have her gasping for him. And she hated him for it.
Even as she was thinking these thoughts, Nicholas reached over and ran his finger down between her breasts, teasing the still erect nipples.
‘Ready for more?’ he laughed. He placed her hand between his legs and said, ‘Oh! Look at that! So am I!’
‘So,’ he said, later still, ‘all right, are you, Doll?’
‘As if you care,’ muttered Dolly.
‘Don’t be like that, Dolly. Don’t you want to know what I’ve come round for?’
‘Thought that was pretty obvious!’ Dolly replied bitterly.
Nicholas grinned. ‘Well that too,’ he admitted. ‘But I just thought you might be interested in making a nifty fifty, that’s all.’
‘Yeah? An’ how do I do that then?’ demanded Dolly suspiciously.
‘Our marriage lines,’ he replied easily. ‘I want them, you’ve got them and I’ll give you fifty for them.’
‘You mean our marriage certificate?’ she repeated incredulously. ‘What you want that for?’
‘Well, you don’t want to be married to me any more, do you?’
‘No,’ Dolly said flatly. ‘Never does me no good, does it? Never see you, do I? Never get nothing off you.’
‘Exactly,’ Nicholas said. ‘An’ I ’spect you have other blokes when I’m not here,’ continuing as Dolly began to protest, ‘’Course you do, Doll, stands to reason, a good-looker like you. I don’t mind, but us being married when we don’t want to be, well, it stops us getting on with our lives, doesn’t it?’
When Dolly didn’t answer, just looked at him with narrowed eyes, he went on. ‘So what I thought was, it’d only be fair to give you a bit of cash for yourself, so’s you can have a fresh start. You can give me our marriage certificate which I tear up and then we won’t be married any more. What do you think? Fifty pounds says we never been married, and we never see each other again. I’ll disappear from your life, you’ll be a rich woman and can take your pick of the blokes.’
‘A hundred,’ said Dolly.
‘Hey, Doll, that’s a bit steep!’ Nicholas complained.
‘No, it ain’t,’ she drawled. ‘I didn’t come down with the last shower, Nicky boy. If you want to get shot of me, no questions asked, you must have a good reason. Yeah? Then a ton’s cheap at the price, don’t you fink?’
Nicholas did think, but he didn’t trust her. ‘Maybe,’ he said coolly. ‘I might manage that at a push. But it wouldn’t be wise to come back for more, Dolly.’
Dolly looked at him, into the pale blue eyes that had once enchanted her and later terrified her, and nodded. She knew better than to cross Nicholas Bryan, but somehow she couldn’t break free of him. Perhaps this would be her chance.
‘You got plans then?’ she asked, idly running a fingernail across Nicholas’s stomach, making the flesh quiver and clench. ‘Good in the sack, is she?’
‘Who?’
Dolly shrugged. ‘Whoever she is. Has to be someone.’
Nicholas laughed. ‘Hardly. She’s straight from the schoolroom. But by the time I’ve finished with her, she’ll know what to do.’
‘Poor girl,’ murmured Dolly.
‘I’ve some scores to settle,’ was the enigmatic reply as he reached for her again.
‘So, where’s that certificate?’ demanded Nicholas when he lay back, sated.
‘Where’s the money?’
‘I’ll get it,’ Nicholas promised. ‘But it’ll take time. A hundred’ll take time. Don’t you trust me?’
‘No,’ said Dolly. ‘You bring me the money. When I see that, then maybe I’ll find the certificate. I’ll fink about it, but I want to see the cash with my own eyes first.’
As she had known he would, Nicholas stayed the night, and as she lay beside him in the darkness Dolly thought about his proposition and considered the reason for it. They had met and married while he was at St Thomas’s Hospital learning his ‘doctoring’. Dolly had been the barmaid in The Falcon, a pub Nicholas and the other medical students liked to frequent, and when she had fallen pregnant with Nicholas’s child, her father, with three other large dockers, had marched them off to St John’s Church, Waterloo, for Nicholas to make an honest woman of her. They had lived together until the baby was born, a stillborn girl, and then the marriage was over. For Dolly it was a relief when, tired of married life in two rooms in Southwark, Nicholas had disappeared. In the following three years, he turned up occasionally, demanding his marital rights, and Dolly was too afraid to refuse. Now he clearly wanted to be shot of her, and with the promise of so much cash all at once, Dolly thought perhaps she really could put her miserable marriage behind her and start again.
When he’d gone the next morning, Dolly discussed the idea with her brother, Luke.
‘What’s he up to, I wonder?’ said Luke, scratching his head. ‘Somefink’s up if he’s gonna pay you a hundred quid for a bit of paper. Stands to reason, don’t it? Has to be worth a looksee, don’t it?’
‘He’s found someone he wants to marry,’ answered Dolly. ‘Don’t envy her, poor cow!’
‘’Zactly,’ said Luke. ‘So, it must be worth finding out who she is.’
‘What d’you mean?’ demanded Dolly.
‘What I mean is, there should be money here for all of us, innit?’
‘Us?’ queried Dolly. ‘That money’s for me, bro. I’m the one what’s put up with him.’
‘Yeah. But what if we could get more, much more?’
Dolly looked interested. ‘How?’
‘Simple, me old darlin’. Is he coming back here tonight?’
‘Yeah, ’spect so. Said he was in London for a week and he ain’t got nowhere else to go for a free shag.’
‘What’s he up to, here in London, anyway?’
Dolly shrugged. ‘I dunno, do I?’
‘P’raps he’s getting the money,’ said Luke. ‘You got this certificate what he wants?’
‘Yeah, ’course I have.’
‘Well, Doll, if he’s coming back here, I fink I’ll take that certificate wiv me, so’s he can’t get his hands on it without paying up, all right?’
Dolly nodded. She certainly didn’t want to be cheated of all that money.
‘Then tomorrow,’ Luke went on, ‘I’ll follow him, find out where he goes and who he’s seeing, right?’
‘Told you, he wants to get married again.’
‘There you are then,’ Luke continued. ‘Should be worth our while, that should. Whoever she is, bet she’ll pay well for a sight of them marriage lines, don’t you?’
‘Why would she?’
‘Come on, Doll, fink about it, the girl’s got to be rich for him to bother, yeah? But if she marries him she’s gonna lose all her money, ain’t she? Never mind the odd black eye. Your Nick’ll bleed her dry. If we go and tell her he’s already married, she’ll cough up to see the proof.’
‘Suppose she might,’ conceded Dolly. ‘But I wouldn’t want to be around when Nick finds out. He’ll come after us an’ it’ll be the worst for me. I been on the end of his fists too often to want it to happen again. No, Lukey-boy, I’m happy to settle for what Nick gives me to keep me mouth shut.’
‘We don’t give her the certificate, Doll. If she pays us, then we let her see it. It’s Nick we give it to, when he coughs up the hundred. That way we gets paid twice, see.’
‘An’ if he finds out?’
‘By the time that happens we’ll be away on our toes where he can’t find us. The only thing I don’t understand is why he’s come to you at all.’
‘Cos I’ve got the marriage lines,’ Dolly said. ‘That’s what he wants. Till he’s got them, I got a hold, ain’t I?’
‘But you wouldn’t have knowed he was getting married again.’
‘I might have.’ Dolly nodded judiciously. ‘Word gets about with things like that. That old uncle of his is still about, what’s
he called? Edwin? I seen him sometimes. The thing is,’ Dolly went on, ‘if I’d heard about it after Nick had married this bird, I could’ve gone to the law and he could’ve ended up in clink. He weren’t gonna risk that.’
‘And ’spose you give him the certificate and then he don’t pay up?’ Luke said. ‘Are you gonna risk that?’
‘No,’ Dolly said. ‘You and some of your mates’ll be here with me for the exchange. You’ll be my protection. If we don’t see the money he don’t get the certificate. Nick’ll pay up.’
‘Still,’ Luke said. ‘Fink I’ll keep an eye on him while he’s here. Wouldn’t hurt to know who she is and where she lives, now, would it? When we know who she is, well, we can decide what to do about her.’
With some reluctance, Dolly agreed. ‘But for Gawd’s sake don’t let him see you, all right?’
Luke grinned. ‘Don’t worry, Doll, he won’t.’
22
On the day before Nicholas’s return to Cornwall, he and Sophie spent a chilly afternoon at the zoo and were pleased to be back in the warmth of the parlour; Sophie, seated in an armchair at the fireside, Nicholas standing with his back to the fire. Silence surrounded them and then Nicholas stepped forward and reaching down, took Sophie’s hands in his.
‘Sophie, look at me.’
Sophie looked up into his face and her heart missed a beat. He was looking at her with such intensity that she felt almost afraid. She could feel the colour rushing to her face and knew that the moment had come.
‘Sophie, my dearest Sophie, you know how I feel about you, don’t you?’ When she didn’t reply he went on, ‘How I’ve felt about you ever since the first day I saw you?’
Sophie found she couldn’t speak, but she nodded.
‘I haven’t much to offer you,’ Nicholas said, ‘but I love you more than anything in the world. Will you marry me, my dearest girl? Marry me and be my wife?’
She looked away, hesitating. Gently pulling her to her feet, Nicholas slipped his arms round her, and held her close against him. He could feel her heart thumping against his chest, the pliant warmth of her body against his, and he was seized with a desire to possess her so strong that, for a second or two, he had difficulty restraining himself and thus undoing all his careful, gentle wooing. After a moment he relaxed a little and cupping the back of her head he tilted her face to his and simply murmuring the word ‘Sophie’, kissed her on the lips.
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