by Evie Grace
Torn between propriety and instinct, she sank against him and rested her head on his shoulder, as she cried for her sister and the lost child. She felt his fingers tangling in her hair at the nape of her neck, and the warm whisper of his breath against her cheek.
Eventually, the jolting of the carriage stopped. The horse’s hooves clattered on the road and the brougham’s wheels swished along as they entered Ramsgate, where the driver pulled up to ask for the address.
Hannah gave it.
‘Dobbs, do you know of it?’ James said.
‘Yes, sir. I know Ramsgate like the back of my ’and. It’s in the direction of West Cliff.’
It wasn’t long before they were standing on the pavement in front of the Falstaff Inn, looking along the row of cottages in Addington Street. Hannah recognised number 8 by its decrepitude, even in the moonlight.
‘It’s that one,’ she said, pointing.
James stepped past her and rapped at the door with the end of his cane.
‘Open up,’ he shouted, at which the door came flying open, the wood splintering on the hinges.
‘Not you again!’ The man who answered James’s knock swore furiously and spat at their feet.
‘I’m Doctor Clifton from Margate.’ James introduced himself, his voice calm, the muscle in his cheek taut.
‘A doctor? Oh dear, then I’m sorry for my mistake.’
‘I wish to speak to Mr Allspice – I believe he’s one of your lodgers.’
‘Oh, ’im? ’E’s been nothin’ but trouble, ’im and ’is nearest and dearest.’
‘I need to speak to him, urgently. Is he here?’
‘’E’s here all right, more’s the pity. ’E had a caller earlier this evening, just before closin’ time across the road. There was fisticuffs and the constable came, but ’e’d been in the alehouse as well and could ’ardly walk, let alone talk. Anyway, the gentleman concerned got away and now old Allspice and ’is missus won’t let up. Listen to ’em.’
From the bowels of the house, Hannah could hear a man and woman shouting at each other, and a child bawling its eyes out. Ignoring James’s protestations to be careful, she pushed past the landlord and headed down the stairs to the dingy cellar to find Mr and Mrs Allspice positioned at each end of the windowless room, yelling across their gaggle of children who were lying top-to-tail under a sheet on the mattress. It was one of the boys who was crying, not Mercy. There was no sign of her.
‘What are you doin’ ’ere, pokin’ your nose into our business? Can’t you see we’re ’avin’ a barney?’ Mr Allspice snapped from his bath chair.
‘Where’s my niece? Where is my sister’s child?’
‘She’s gorn, thanks to my wife who is even more stupid than I was led to believe.’ The room began to spin as he went on, ‘I don’t know ’ow many times I told you not to let ’er out of your sight—’
‘I ’aven’t got eyes in the back of my ’ead. Mr Allspice, you expect too much. I run back and forth and side to side, lookin’ after you and our littluns, and givin’ the infant ’er medicine—’
‘The babe is sick?’ Hannah cut in, but the Allspices ignored her. ‘Where is she? Where is little Mercy?’ She raised her voice in desperation.
‘They’ve gorn, both of ’em,’ Mr Allspice confirmed, dashing her hopes. ‘And good riddance to the girl because she was eatin’ us out of ’ouse and ’ome, and I caught ’er drinkin’ our gin – that’s why the bottle was goin’ down so quick.’
‘This young lady’s sister, Ruby, has met with an accident,’ James said.
‘What’s ’appened to ’er?’ Mrs Allspice turned to him.
‘She drowned.’ James kept his voice low.
‘Drowned?’ one of the children exclaimed.
‘Hush,’ said one of the others, and they all sat up on the mattress, several sets of eyes shining from the filthy darkness. Even the pig was silent, as though overwhelmed by the news.
‘Oh, my poor child!’ Mrs Allspice pressed her hand to her mouth.
‘You mean the infant? Mercy?’ Hannah urged, wishing her nightmare to be over, one way or the other. It was the not knowing …
‘I mean Ruby. I was fond of ’er, even though she could be a pain in the—’
‘Where is the child?’ James interrupted. ‘Did Ruby take her with her?’
‘It’s none of your business. She’s my property,’ Mr Allspice said.
‘She isn’t an asset to be bought and sold,’ Hannah exclaimed. ‘A child belongs with its mother.’
‘Your sister gave ’er to me. It was ’er express wish—’
‘She’d never have done that. I don’t believe you.’
‘I ’ave the paperwork to prove it.’ Mr Allspice clicked his fingers and his wife, who seemed to be in a state of shock, went rummaging around under a pile of laundry and dragged out a metal box. She opened the lid and took out a scroll of paper which she handed to her husband. He unrolled it across his knees.
‘That’s ’er signature and there’s my mark,’ he said in triumph. ‘The child is mine.’
Hannah had to read it twice before reality slid like a block of ice down the back of her neck. Ruby had begged her forgiveness for signing little Mercy away to the Allspices.
‘Why do you want another child when you have so many already?’
‘We’re doin’ it entirely out of the goodness of our ’earts. We plan to rear ’er as our own, feed ’er, wind ’er and wipe ’er bum. She’ll be put above all our other little tykes – that’s right, isn’t it, Mrs Allspice?’
‘Don’t you keep calling ’em tykes, they’re our littluns.’
‘They’re tykes as soon as they fall out of the womb,’ he said. ‘Little Mercy is our princess and the key to our fortune. She’s small – very small – and fine-featured, thanks to her parents. A freak of nature. With daily baths in gin and the same spirit diluted in milk, she’ll maintain ’er stature, and as soon as she can walk, we’ll show ’er off in New York and Los Angeles. When she’s of childbearin’ age, we’ll marry ’er off to the world’s smallest man, and breed from ’er.’
‘You can’t do that,’ Hannah shouted.
‘She’ll be eternally grateful for the way we ’elped her to fame and fortune,’ Mr Allspice went on.
‘The gin will burn holes in her gullet,’ Hannah protested. ‘It’ll kill her.’
‘It’s a tried and tested means of keepin’ a person small,’ Mr Allspice opined. ‘She’ll be fêted and adored, and in return, she’ll favour us with a gen’rous pension. Why should I ’ave to scrimp and save when she’s been sent to me as a gift from God to make up for my sufferin’? I won’t give ’er up to anyone else, least of all ’im.’
‘Who, Mr Allspice?’ James interrupted.
‘That rotten, murderin’ scoundrel who turned up out of the blue and stole ’er from us.’
‘Mr Milani?’ Hannah said. ‘When was this? When did he take her?’
‘This evenin’,’ Mr Allspice said.
‘Then we’re wasting time. We must go after him,’ Hannah exclaimed.
‘My boys are on ’is tail,’ Mr Allspice said. ‘All is not lost. They’ll bring the infant back and beat the livin’ daylights out of ’im for good measure.’
‘You’re deluded if you think I’ll let you take the child back.’
‘You’ll ’ave ’er over my dead body!’
‘Have some compassion for the child’s aunt,’ James interrupted.
‘I appreciate what you done for me, Doctor Clifton, but this is none of your business. Go and poke your nose in somewhere else.’ Mr Allspice flashed a glance at his wife. ‘You and the doc will lift me up the steps in the chair, so I can go and look for the boys.’
‘Oh no, never again, Mr Allspice. I won’t help you. You’re a wicked, vile man, the lowest of the low,’ Mrs Allspice said.
Her husband’s brow furrowed. ‘I beg your pardon?’
‘You ’eard me. I won’t ’ave anythin’ more to do with you after th
is. You can stay and rot in this basement. I’m leavin’ you.’
‘You mean you’ve double-crossed me?’ he roared. ‘How dare you! I’ll ’ave you ’ung, drawn and quartered. I’ll tear yer hair out!’
‘Mr Allspice,’ James shouted. ‘That’s enough!’
‘Don’t you come between husband and wife. This woman – she’s been lyin’ to me for weeks.’ He turned to Mrs Allspice. ‘It was you! It was you who told ’im to come.’
She began to tremble and shake. ‘I did it for the girl – for Ruby – and my brother. I wanted somethin’ good to come out of this terrible mess. A babe should be with its mother and father.’
‘’E tried to kill me!’
‘’E ’ad ’is reasons – and not just because you broke every promise you ever made to ’im. No, ’e did it for me, because ’e couldn’t stand by and watch you treat me badly any longer. Why do you think he lent you the money? It was to ’elp me and the children, not you, Mr Allspice.’
‘’Ow did you know where ’e was?’
‘I didn’t. ’E didn’t want you torturin’ me, thinkin’ I’d give ’im up. No, a mutual friend of ours at the ’All by the Sea sent notes back and forth on our behalf.’ She broke into sobs. ‘I didn’t tell Ruby either – I wish I ’ad, but I thought I was keeping ’er safe until ’e came to get ’er and Mercy. I didn’t know she was goin’ to leave like that. If I’d ’ad any idea, I’d ’ave said something to ’er. I’d ’ave let ’er know ’e was coming for ’er.’
‘Why didn’t he come back before?’ Hannah asked, horrified at the way events had unfolded, when they could have gone so differently.
‘I didn’t ’ear anythin’ from ’im for a while – ’e was lyin’ low. But knowin’ of my situation, ’e’s never out of touch for long. I admit ’e done wrong, but when ’e ’eard your sister was with child, he chose to come back for ’em.’
‘It was too late,’ Hannah said bitterly. ‘He’d already ruined her.’
‘I should ’ave taken more notice of what Ruby was sayin’ – she’s been low since the babe arrived. Very low. I stopped her walking out of ’ere the other day. It was freezing and she wasn’t wearing any shoes, but she didn’t care. She said she was ready to end it …’ Mrs Allspice shuddered. ‘I told her not to be so silly. If only I’d said my brother was on ’is way … I’ll regret it for the rest of my days.’
‘What about the boys?’ Mr Allspice said suddenly. ‘Are they in on this too?’
‘I wish that they were, but you sent them off after ’im before I ’ad a chance to explain. When ’e saw Ruby wasn’t ’ere, ’e thought e’d been set up – that’s why ’e made ’imself scarce.’
‘Hannah, come with me.’ James took her hand and they ran up the stairs and out on to the street to the waiting brougham with the sound of the Allspices’ voices fading behind them.
‘What would you do if you were in his shoes? A man in hiding, with a child in tow? Where would you go?’ James said, having briefly explained the situation to Dobbs who was waiting patiently at the horse’s head.
‘If I were him, I’d make my way abroad – to the Continent or America perhaps,’ Dobbs said. ‘Unless he has friends here who will give him shelter.’
Hannah racked her brain for any clue that Ruby might have dropped in the past about her lover’s other connections, but she couldn’t think of any.
As Dobbs helped her into the carriage, he said, ‘The person in question would have to wait till later this morning to take the coach to London or Dover. If he’s in a hurry, he’ll head for the harbour and make his getaway by boat. The Ramsgate Packets sail every other day to France and there are other steamers that leave the Pier Head for London. It would be unusual for a gentleman to travel unaccompanied with an infant – someone will have seen him.’
‘Then we will go to the harbour forthwith.’ James jumped in beside her and Dobbs closed the door, stepped up into his seat and flicked the whip across the horse’s rump, sending it on into a jolting trot.
‘What if he’s decided to travel by hoy? We’ll never find him,’ Hannah said, frantic at the thought of Mercy disappearing without trace.
‘We have to,’ James said. ‘The infant is too sick to travel – she needs proper medical care before anyone can make a decision about her future. This Mr Milani is her father by blood, but he can’t possibly look after her. He’s on the run, a wanted criminal who treated your sister most cruelly, seducing her, then abandoning her. I can’t allow it. It’s too late for him to make amends.’
‘I’m not sure what to believe,’ Hannah said. ‘I’d like to think he came back for Ruby – out of guilt, or love maybe – but knowing a little of his character and not having the same faith in his goodness as Mrs Allspice has, I suspect that he returned to retrieve the child to rear her as a freak for money and fame. Or, fearing arrest, to sell her to somebody else.’
‘It’s no use speculating,’ James said. ‘We just need to find her.’
A misty dawn was breaking when Dobbs dropped them at the wharf in the Royal Harbour.
‘It’s best that you go on foot from here. Try that way.’ Dobbs pointed his whip towards the ships and smaller boats that were moored alongside. James grabbed Hannah’s hand.
‘We must think logically,’ he said gently. ‘Where might they be?’
Hannah looked along the wharf at the stacks of cargo, the people milling about, and a steam packet which was berthed ready for boarding. The passengers were waiting in an orderly queue at the foot of one gangway, while a group of porters were loading boxes and trunks via a second.
‘This is hopeless. They could be anywhere,’ she said above the sound of fluttering flags and water slapping against the stones, but then she heard shouting from behind them, and the pounding of feet heading in their direction.
‘Stop ’im. Stop that man! ’E’s a murderer!’ Two men were chasing another, who was carrying a bundle under one arm and trying to keep his flamboyant hat on his head as he ran past them.
‘James, that’s him!’ Hannah cried out.
‘Let me through – I have a ticket.’ One of the ladies in the queue started screaming when Mr Milani pushed his way through and on to the foot of the gangway with the Allspice boys right behind him. He turned sharply, lifted the bundle by a knot in the swaddling and let it swing above his head, while he bellowed at his pursuers, ‘Lay one finger on me, and the child will get it!’
The Allspice boys backed down, the whites of their eyes gleaming in the ship’s shadow.
‘Just give us the child and we’ll leave you to make your escape,’ Alan said.
‘I’m not falling for that one. Do you think I was born yesterday?’
James stepped up behind the Allspice boys. ‘Give me the child and I’ll restore her to her mother’s sister where she rightfully belongs.’
‘She’s mine. She’s the fruit of my loins!’ Mr Milani hissed, as he reversed two steps up the gangway. ‘Keep back!’ The bundle dangled precariously over the black water as he stared at his audience, his hat dropped back behind his shoulders and his hair streaming in the breeze.
Hannah moved up between the Allspice brothers, aware that James had slipped away.
‘How will you care for your daughter while you’re on the run? Let me look after her. You have my word that we will let you go, if you will just hand her over to me. For Ruby’s sake …’
‘This is a trick,’ he said scornfully, glancing over his shoulder where two of the crew were standing, waiting to pounce. His voice was filled with bravado, but his actions were those of a cornered man. ‘I’m not falling for it – this little one is my insurance.’
‘She’s sick,’ Hannah said, fighting the tremor in her voice. ‘If your daughter, this innocent babe, dies, then you will be charged twice over – for cruelty, as well as attempted murder.’
She heard the passengers’ gasps from behind her and a thud as some poor lady fainted, followed by muttering as her fellows tried to rouse her.
‘Her mother is dead,’ Hannah said bluntly. ‘Drowned!’
Mr Milani’s mouth dropped open. ‘No … I never thought … My sister said she’d run away.’ He snatched the bundle close to his body and cradled it in his arms.
‘I blame you!’ Hannah snapped, her self-restraint entirely vanishing into the morning mist which was clearing into a blood-red sky. ‘You killed her! This is all your fault and I’ll never forgive you! Give the babe to me!’
‘Or else?’ he mocked. ‘What can you do, a mere woman? One look from your sour face and the cream would turn. You drove your sister to it – she went mad with boredom.’
‘Give up the child and take me with you instead,’ she suggested. ‘Let me be your insurance.’
‘She is mine! My flesh and blood,’ he repeated, looking over his shoulder to where the crewmen had shuffled a little closer. ‘I said, keep your distance!’ He held the bundle back over the water.
‘Abel, I’m goin’ to do you for this – we ’ad ’im and you let ’im go.’
Hannah heard Alan duck back behind her, then a sickening crunch of knuckle hitting bone.
‘What did you do that for?’
‘You’ve been lookin’ for a fight all day, and now you’re goin’ to get one.’
As Mr Milani was distracted by the scuffle going on behind her, she spotted a figure emerge from between the two crewmen. It was James, who leapt on to the lion tamer’s back and grabbed him around the neck.
‘Take the child,’ he shouted above Mr Milani’s howl of anger as he let go of the bundle. Hannah dived forwards, catching it in her hands and pressing it to her breast.
‘James! Be careful,’ she cried as he clung on to Mr Milani, half strangling him as he pulled him back. Mr Milani’s face was turning purple, but somehow he managed to reverse, slamming his adversary into the handrail and knocking him to the ground. Having let go, James got up again and before Mr Milani could get away, he tripped him up and pinned him down. The Allspice brothers joined in, sitting on his legs to stop him thrashing around, as one of the crewmen brought ropes to bind his wrists and ankles.