‘I see.’ Jeremiah sat down again and Charles, drawing up another stool, sat down beside him. ‘And what was that?’
Luke gave him a crafty look and said, ‘That’s between me an’ ’er.’
‘No,’ Jeremiah said firmly. ‘It ain’t.’ He stared the young man down, until he looked away. ‘It’s between you and us now. We’re the ones what’ve got the money to buy things, and we might, just might, be interested in what you’re selling. But of course, if you don’t wanna deal, that’s down to you. I’m sure Mrs Dolly Bryan might prefer us to deal direct with her.’
At the mention of his sister’s name, Luke looked anxiously round the bar and said, ‘Well... all right. But not in ’ere.’
‘I suggest we go and visit your sister,’ Jeremiah said. ‘Don’t you? At 14 Clayton Street?’ Luke’s eyes flickered at the mention of Dolly’s address, and Jeremiah added, ‘I’m sure you want the best deal you can get for your sister.’
Luke jerked his head at Charles and said, ‘Who’s he then?’
‘He,’ replied Jeremiah Hawke, ‘is the man with the money.’
Luke stared at Charles for a moment before saying, ‘’Ow do I know I can trust yer?’
Jeremiah, already getting to his feet again, said, ‘You don’t. Shall we go?’
The three of them left the bar, watched by the landlord, but no one else seemed to have taken any notice of the encounter. Hushed, private business was often conducted at the Drummer Boy.
When they arrived at Dolly’s house she stood at the half-open front door, not allowing them inside.
‘What you want, Luke? And who’s these?’
‘We come to talk business, Doll. ’Bout you know who?’
‘I don’t wanna talk about ’im,’ Dolly snapped. ‘Told yer before, I don’t want no trouble wiv ’im.’
‘Don’t be stupid, Doll. This bloke’s got money. He’s ready to buy.’
‘I ain’t stupid,’ retorted Dolly, ‘an’ it’s because I ain’t stupid I don’t wanna talk to them, whoever they are. You think I want Nicholas round here, beating me up?’
‘Mrs Bryan,’ Jeremiah said, ‘please don’t be alarmed. We just need to speak with you. I have a suggestion to make which might suit us both.’
Dolly was still about to say no, when Luke said, ‘It can’t hurt, Doll, just to see what they’ve got to say. Come on, girl, let us in. Don’t wanna be seen wiv them on the doorstep, do yer?’
Reluctantly, Dolly stood aside and they all trooped in to the house. From the tiny hallway a flight of steep stairs ran up to the first floor, and behind that was a door leading into the only downstairs room, a cramped kitchen-cum-living room. Dolly didn’t sit down or ask her visitors to. She turned to face them and stood, arms akimbo, and said, ‘Well?’
‘Mrs Bryan,’ Jeremiah said, ‘I have, this morning, been to St John’s Church, Waterloo, where I looked at the marriage records kept in the vestry there, and in those records I found one dated 6th January 1883.’ He gave her a serious look and said, ‘Does that date have any significance for you?’
‘What d’yer mean? Significance?’
‘Is that a special date in your life?’
When Dolly didn’t answer, Jeremiah went on, ‘You see, there is a marriage registered for that date between Dolly Mangot and Nicholas Bryan. Now, I believe that you are the Dolly Mangot mentioned and that you are still married to Nicholas Bryan.’ When Dolly still said nothing, he added, ‘Is that true?’
‘’Course it is,’ cried Luke, unable to keep silent any longer. ‘Tell ’im, Dolly!’
‘Thank you, Mr Mangot, but I’d prefer Mrs Bryan to answer for herself. Now, I’m working for two gentlemen who look after the interests of a certain lady, who thinks herself engaged to marry Nicholas Bryan. Obviously, she cannot marry him if he is still married to you. Have you got the marriage certificate?’
‘No,’ said Dolly, speaking for the first time. ‘I ain’t.’ But her eyes flicked to her brother and Jeremiah caught the glance.
‘That’s a pity,’ Jeremiah said, ‘as this gentleman needs proof for his client. We wouldn’t need to take it away. We just need a sight of it.’ He let the idea hang for a moment and then said, ‘Would a half-sovereign help you find it?’
Luke’s hand went straight to his pocket. ‘Been looking after it for her,’ he explained. ‘Just in case Nick come back for it.’ Still holding on to the certificate, he showed Charles and Jeremiah what was recorded on it. And when he’d noted the details, Jeremiah parted with the coin which, like the certificate, vanished into Luke’s pocket.
‘Now there’s one more thing we need you to do,’ Jeremiah said, turning to Dolly.
‘Another way we can arrange things to your advantage. We need you to come with me to visit a lawyer and swear an affidavit to the effect that you married Nicholas Bryan on 6th January 1883 at St John’s, Waterloo, and though estranged, are still married to him.’
‘What’s an affi... affi-thing?’ asked Luke
‘It is simply a statement made on oath, before a special lawyer. Your sister would go with me to make this statement, which could be used in court should the occasion arise.’ Jeremiah spread his hands. ‘There would be no need for Nicholas Bryan to know anything of this arrangement. He would only be informed that there is evidence in the form of the church records of your marriage. The affidavit would simply be kept on record in case of need.’
‘No,’ Dolly said firmly. ‘He’d come and find me.’
‘It seems to me that you, and your brother, might be happier living somewhere else. My friend here,’ he indicated Charles, ‘would be happy to defray the cost of moving.’
Luke was interested. ‘What d’yer mean “defray”?’
‘What he means,’ Charles said, speaking for the first time, ‘is that if your sister would like to move away from London and start a new life, I should be more than happy to help her do so.’
‘You mean pay cash,’ said Luke, anxious that there be no doubt of what was on offer.
‘I mean pay cash,’ agreed Charles. ‘Not to get her to swear the affidavit, but to help her move somewhere more congenial when she has done so.’
‘How much?’ asked Luke.
‘I was thinking two hundred pounds,’ Charles said, hoping that this would be enough.
‘That’s double what Nick was gonna pay yer!’ Luke said to Dolly. ‘Set us up for life, that will.’
‘Nick’ll find us,’ Dolly said bleakly.
‘No, he won’t. Not if we go to Australia!’
‘Australia!’ echoed Dolly incredulously. ‘Why would we wanna go there?’
‘Cos then he won’t find you! An’ there ain’t nothing for us here in London, is there?’
‘What I am suggesting, Mrs Bryan,’ Jeremiah explained, cutting into this argument, ‘is that you come with me to the lawyer on Monday. Once I have the affidavit you’ll have the two hundred pounds in your hand and you can go anywhere. By the time Nicholas Bryan is confronted with his attempted bigamy, you will have disappeared to your new life.’
‘Come on, Dolly,’ urged Luke. ‘This is a chance we’ll never get again.’
Dolly looked at Jeremiah and said, ‘An’ he’ll never know I told yer?’
‘He won’t know,’ said Hawke. ‘But if he ever did come looking for you, you’d be long gone... without, I’m sure,’ he added, ‘having told anyone where.’
At last she was persuaded, and Jeremiah Hawke and Charles left the tiny house with the promise they would come back on Monday morning to take her to a Commissioner of Oaths and then provide her with the funds for her new life.
And so it was that three days later Dolly Bryan and her brother walked out of the house in Clayton Street, carrying their worldly possessions in two cardboard suitcases, and disappeared. Luke kept the marriage certificate safely in his pocket. They hadn’t had to part with it, so if Nicholas did ever catch up with them, Luke pointed out, they could show it to him to prove that they had not sold it to a higher bidder.
Charles and Jeremiah Hawke met with Mr Staunton in his office four days later, the affidavit safely signed, and lodged it in the solicitor’s safe.
‘What are we going to do now?’ Charles asked. ‘We have proof that he’s married, but he can still maintain that Dolly was married to a different Nicholas Bryan.’
‘Difficult to maintain when our original information came from a man who followed him from Dolly’s house where he’d spent the night, to Sophie’s where he spent the day,’ pointed out Mr Staunton. ‘Hannah can testify to Luke Mangot’s visit if necessary.’
‘I think it is unlikely that he’ll contest what we can put before him,’ Mr Staunton continued. ‘If we let him know we have traced the marriage to St John’s, Waterloo, and that you, Mr Hawke, have made a copy of the entry in the register, certified by the rector as a true one, he’s unlikely to dispute it. If it went to court he could end up in prison. If we confront him privately, Dr Bryan can simply disappear without anyone but us being any the wiser.’
‘Of course he’s not a doctor, is he?’ Hawke reminded them. ‘He only spent a few months at St Thomas’s.’
‘You’re quite right, but I think that the fact that he’s married is more important just now. He mustn’t be allowed to make a bigamous marriage with Sophie,’ Charles said.
‘I agree,’ said Mr Staunton. ‘And we need to make further enquiries before we can be sure he is not a qualified doctor. However,’ he went on, ‘I think it would be wise to watch him carefully in case he does go back to Clayton Street to find Dolly. That would be further proof. I would like you, Mr Hawke, to continue to follow him until we are sure that he has given up all thoughts of marrying Miss Ross. I think Mrs Dolly Bryan was right to be concerned about her safety.’
‘That can be arranged, Mr Staunton,’ agreed Jeremiah. ‘’Course, I can’t keep watch twenty-four hours a day. I’ll have to call in my assistant, Rufus.’
‘Whatever it takes, Mr Hawke,’ replied the solicitor.
‘Before we confront him,’ Charles interposed, ‘we shall have to break it to Sophie.’
‘If you would like me to undertake that, Mr Leroy...’ began Staunton.
‘No, thank you, Mr Staunton,’ answered Charles. ‘That is something I must do myself. My cousin will be distraught when she hears what we’ve discovered, and I must be the one to explain.’
Stepping into the street, Charles had sighed as he left the lawyer’s office, having a fairly good idea what Sophie’s reaction would be to his news. But he was relieved they had some concrete evidence that would end Nicholas Bryan’s plans regarding marriage to her.
And so Charles returned to London the next day, not at all looking forward to his errand. He didn’t warn Sophie that he was coming, and he was glad that Hannah was alone in the house when he arrived so that he was able to tell her of the discoveries they had made.
‘So it was true,’ she cried in dismay. ‘What a wicked, wicked man, to lead her on so!’
‘She may not believe me at first,’ Charles said. ‘And she’s going to wonder how we came to hear about it.’ He looked at Hannah ruefully. ‘So, I’m afraid that’s going to implicate you.’
‘Don’t you worry about that, Mr Charles,’ Hannah said. ‘She may be angry at me at first and call me interfering for sending for you, but in the long run she’ll believe I did it for her own good.’
‘She is going to be very upset,’ Charles said, ‘so I know she’ll need you, Hannah. It’s you she’ll turn to.’
‘And you, sir,’ asserted Hannah. ‘She’ll turn to you as well.’
‘I doubt it,’ said Charles with a sigh. ‘I think in my case she’ll want to shoot the messenger. Where is she today?’
‘Gone to that Madame Egloff for a final fitting of her new clothes. Oh, Mr Charles,’ Hannah cried as she realized what she’d just said, ‘how are we going to tell her?’
‘I’m afraid there’s no easy way, Hannah.’
Charles was quite right. When Sophie got back from Madame Egloff’s she was full of bubble. The fittings had gone well and she would be able to collect the completed garments at the end of the following week; black for immediate wear and pale grey and lilac for later in the year when, though still in mourning, she was married. She was delighted when she found Charles drinking tea in the parlour.
‘Have you got another meeting with Mr Hawthorne?’ she asked as she joined him beside the fire.
‘No, not yet. As I told you before, these things take time. But I do think that eventually he will join us in the purchase of another ship. No.’ Charles sighed. ‘I’m afraid I’ve come to talk to you about something entirely different.’
Sophie waited a moment before saying, ‘And that is...? From your face I think it must be something bad. Has something gone wrong at Trescadinnick, or on the estate? Are my aunts both well?’
‘They are quite well, thank you. No, it’s nothing like that.’
‘Well, what then?’
‘Sophie, it’s very hard for me to tell you this...’
‘Then just tell me,’ said Sophie. ‘That’s always the best way with bad news.’ She cocked her head at him in the way he so loved. ‘Don’t you think?’
Charles nodded and drawing a deep breath, said, ‘Sophie, I’m afraid we’ve just learned that Nicholas Bryan is already married.’
The colour drained from Sophie’s cheeks and he reached out to take her hand, but she shook him off. ‘We?’ she demanded. ‘Who’s we?’
‘Mr Staunton and I—’
‘You and Mr Staunton? How did that happen? What were you doing? Why were you checking up on Nicholas? You were, weren’t you? Don’t you dare deny it!’
‘We certainly made some enquiries, yes,’ Charles began.
‘There, I knew it. How dare you check up on my fiancé?’
‘We felt it our duty,’ responded Charles. ‘It was with the best of intentions—’
‘The way to hell is paved with good intentions!’ snapped Sophie. ‘Your duty indeed!’
‘Whatever you think about that,’ Charles said, ‘it wasn’t we who were told that he was already married.’
‘Oh, and who was it then?’ cried Sophie. ‘Because I don’t believe a word of it!’
‘A man came to the house, here, one day when you were out. Hannah answered the door and he said he had information about Nicholas Bryan. She didn’t believe him at first, but he showed her a marriage certificate naming Nicholas Bryan as the groom. He was married to this man’s sister, Dolly.’
‘And he was asking for money, I suppose.’
‘Yes, he was,’ admitted Charles, ‘but that didn’t make his information wrong. He didn’t give Hannah the certificate, of course. But he showed it to her and she remembered the names of the couple, the name of the church and the date, 6th January 1883. She sent me a telegram, asking me to come to London.’
‘Hannah sent you a telegram? I don’t believe it!’
‘Well, she did and I came at once.’
‘And that’s why you were here last week? It had nothing to do with Mr Hawthorne or whatever he’s called, did it?’
‘Not at the time, though I’ve an appointment with him in a fortnight.’
‘I don’t care about your appointments with him,’ Sophie retorted. ‘How do you know it’s my Nicholas Bryan? There could be a hundred others.’
‘We know because this woman’s brother followed Nicholas from her house to yours. Nicholas had been with Dolly trying to buy her silence. He offered to buy the marriage certificate so that there’d be no evidence to link him with his wife. Unfortunately for him, there is other evidence that can be produced, church records and the like.’
Silence fell round them, broken by the crackling of the fire. ‘And there is no doubt?’ Sophie said at last.
‘I’m afraid not. Nicholas and Dolly were married on 6th January 1883. Dolly is still alive and they are still married.’
The tears which had been flooding her eyes overfl
owed and began to course down her cheeks as she wept. At a loss to know what else to do, Charles pulled out his handkerchief and she took it blindly to staunch her tears.
‘Does Hannah know?’ asked Sophie as at last her tears subsided.
‘Yes, I told you, it was she who sent for me...’
‘But does she know it’s true?’
‘Yes,’ replied Charles. ‘I told her when I got here. I wanted her to know that she’d been right to call me.’
‘She should have told me, not you.’ Sophie sniffed.
‘Maybe, but I think she did the right thing. She couldn’t have made the enquiries we did, she didn’t have money at her disposal to get rid of the man, and she didn’t want you to know anything about it unless it proved to be true. Imagine how you’d have felt if she’d told you and it had all been a hoax.’
‘But it isn’t, is it?’
‘No,’ Charles replied gently. ‘I’m afraid it isn’t.’
‘Have you told anyone else?’
‘No, of course not, and we won’t. We shall try and deal with everything as discreetly as possible. Now you know, we can confront Nicholas with what we’ve found out.’
‘Oh no,’ Sophie said, some of the old spirit reasserting itself. ‘I’m going to be the one to confront him.’
‘Dear Sophie, I’m not sure that’s wise,’ Charles said. ‘I think he is a man of very uncertain temper. He could become violent. His wife was afraid of him.’
‘Well, I’m not,’ declared Sophie. ‘I shall have it out with him.’
‘If you’re determined to do so, I think you should have someone with you.’
Sophie shook her head. ‘No,’ she said. ‘It’s not the sort of thing you can do in front of an audience.’
Charles did not stay at the house that night. He could tell that Sophie did not want company and he took himself off to the hotel he’d planned to stay in the previous week. Before he had dinner, he took an omnibus to Waterloo Station and from there followed the way Luke had led them to Clayton Street. When he reached the end of the road he walked along the pavement and was pleased to see that number 14 was empty. It was clear that no one was living there; Dolly and Luke had moved on.
Miss Mary’s Daughter Page 37