by Pat Herbert
Suddenly, a look of agony crossed Olivia’s face. “Oh!” she exclaimed. “Oh – oh!” She clutched her stomach.
“Are you all right?” Jonah was thrown into seven kinds of panic. This couldn’t be happening to him.
“I – I believe the – the baby’s coming! Oh – ooo-oooh!”
She grabbed his arm, and the pain she was feeling was immediately transferred to him as it was nearly wrenched out of his socket. “Get Alice! Tell her to fetch the doctor – go – now!”
Alice had heard her mistress cry out and was already donning her cape. The doctor lived three streets away, and she knew time was of the essence.
Jonah suggested, not without a great deal of self-interest, that she remained with her mistress while he went and fetched the doctor.
“No!” cried Olivia, gripping his arm even tighter. “You stay! Oh, the agony. Tear this thing out of me!”
Jonah felt sweat trickling into his already soiled collar, and his hair suddenly collapsed from its upright position by sheer weight of the perspiration seeping through the pores in his head.
He looked around. “Alice!” he called.
But Alice had already left the flat.
“B-but I don’t know anything about delivering babies,” he said, wishing now he was still outside up to his knees in snow.
“N-now’s – the time to find out....” gasped Olivia between contractions.
It was several hours later when the doctor (delayed by another confinement) and Richard Latimer turned up together.
The front door was opened to them by a grinning Jonah, cradling a screaming bundle in his arms. “It’s a – it’s a – ” he began.
“What in all that’s holy are you doing here, Longbody?” yelled Latimer, pushing past him and dashing up the stairs two at a time. “If you’ve harmed a hair of that woman’s head, I will not answer for the consequences.”
The doctor was more circumspect and took the mewling infant from Jonah’s shirt-sleeved arms. Alice smiled at Jonah conspiratorially as they both followed the doctor into the warm parlour.
“Well,” said the doctor, after a cursory examination of the child. “He looks perfectly fine. A healthy bonny boy. Now, for the mother.”
He left Jonah, Alice, and the baby together to check on Olivia. She was lying on top of her bed with Richard beside her. She looked pale, sweaty and undeniably exhausted. But she was smiling.
“I won’t hear a word against him,” she was saying to Richard. “He probably saved my life – and my baby’s too. I don’t know what I would have done if he hadn’t been here.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to get here sooner,” said the doctor, checking her pulse.
“And I told you what time I would be here,” said Richard. “If only I had known. Still, everything has turned out well. I suppose I – we – owe Longbody a debt of gratitude …”
“Yes, Richard,” smiled Olivia weakly. “So just you make sure you give him a generous bonus.”
Chapter Fourteen
March 1895
Richard had always been a moral man, but lately, he had been behaving out of character. However, far from feeling wretched about this, he couldn’t help feeling happy instead. His wife, Beatrice, was still proving very delicate, and he was beginning to be irritated by her constant bad health, especially when comparing her to Olivia. Even though she had only given birth a few months ago, she was the picture of rude health. Beatrice, on the other hand, was still flaking out on the sofa after her confinement over a year ago.
He tried not to think this way, but he found he couldn’t help it. Although he still loved his child wife, Olivia’s charms were too strong. He had visited her regularly since the birth of her baby boy and had gradually succumbed. These visits, both before and after the birth, had been purely platonic but, by the end of January, they had involved more than just a cup of tea. And, once their relationship had progressed to the bedroom, he had enjoyed his visits even more. He took much pleasure in their lovemaking, finding in Olivia a soft and gentle partner, welcoming and unresisting.
But today, he found her in an untypical aggressive mood. Their coupling had been hard and urgent as he took his cue from her, realising he had enjoyed it more than he cared to admit. He felt it was unseemly for a woman to show such physical passion, but his darker side wished she would show it more often. He was a hypocrite, of course, but it made no difference, human nature being what it was.
Later that afternoon, they sat by the fireside together taking tea, the atmosphere between them uncertain and uneasy. They had both been satisfied, but he could see that Olivia’s mood hadn’t changed following their passion. She had seemed angry when he arrived, even angrier in bed and now she seemed positively furious. He drained his cup and carefully returned it to its saucer. It made a clatter as he did so. She was leading up to something, and he began to get an inkling of what it was.
“What is the matter, my dear?” he said at last, as she remained silently staring at him. “You have a face like thunder. Have I done something to upset or offend you? If so, I’m truly sorry. I never meant ... I hope I didn’t hurt you just now…”
“Oh, do shut up, Richard. You have done nothing. Perhaps that is the problem.”
“I don’t quite see ...”
“No, I’m sure you don’t. I suppose I shall have to spell it out.”
“Well, I am looking after you and the baby ... I assume you are suitably grateful?”
“Grateful be damned! Grateful enough, I suppose, to sleep with you, do you mean?” This was said with venom.
“Well, I wouldn’t put it quite like that. I don’t want you to think you are under any obligation in that respect. I am not such a cad as that, I hope.”
“I realise that you are an ‘officer and a gentleman’, Richard,” she said in a sarcastic tone, “but I only sleep with you because I want to. Haven’t you worked that out for yourself?”
Richard was at a loss. “I am not quite sure – I mean, I’m glad you enjoy my visits…” He trailed off lamely.
“Oh yes, Richard, you are right. I enjoy your ‘visits’, as you put it.” The inverted commas were very evident as she said this. “But what I’m trying to tell you is that I’d like nothing better than for it to continue on a more permanent basis. I have been waiting for you to make your position clear to me. I think you know this can’t go on much longer without something being settled.”
“What is this leading up to, Olivia?”
She gave a long-suffering sigh. “I think you know what I want,” she said.
“I think you had better speak plainly,” he said, steeling himself.
He was beginning to understand what his brother-in-law had been through with this woman, and he wished with all his heart he had taken warning from his predicament. But it was easy, with hindsight, to see that now. He had had his fun. Now, it seemed, he had to pay for it.
“I am not to be trifled with, Richard,” she said. “You must disencumber yourself and make an honest woman of me. Otherwise, our meetings are at an end.”
“And just how do you suggest I ‘disencumber’ myself of Beatrice? Murder her?”
Olivia shrugged. “That is your suggestion, not mine. But would she be such a great loss? You are always complaining how delicate she is. It wouldn’t take much to see her off for good.”
Richard felt a deep anger swell up inside him. “How dare you speak like that? I have no intention of ‘seeing her off’ as you so nicely put it. I also have a son, and I have every intention of doing my best for both of them – now and in the future.”
Olivia began to realise she had overplayed her hand. She had reckoned the timing would be right today. The start of spring when new lives begin. She had been sure of Richard for some time now. She was sure he was completely in her power, but now she could see she had been very wrong. It wouldn’t have been so bad, she now realised, if she didn’t care for him so much. She had never felt like that about any ma
n before, and she didn’t like the feeling of impotence it gave her.
“I don’t quite understand, Richard,” she said, still in control, but only just. “What are you saying to me?”
“You, my dear, beautiful, wicked Olivia, are very much a secondary consideration,” he said smoothly. “The sooner you get that into your head, the better. Maybe it is just as well we are having this conversation now, as I will need you to move out of this flat soon. I was prepared to let you stay as long as it suited us both, but it seems the parting of the ways has arrived sooner than expected.”
“And the child? What is to become of him?”
“That, my dear, is your problem. It is nothing to do with me.”
“No, you are right. I realised you had no interest in my baby long ago. You didn’t even ask to see him.”
“I repeat, your baby is of no concern to me.” Richard stood up and began pacing the room. “But I understand that my sister came to you with a proposition with regard to the child shortly before it was born,” he said. “Is that not so?”
“You know it as well as I, so why ask?”
“Quite. And I understand you sent her about her business with much discourtesy. So, if you are worried about your child’s future, then you have no one to blame but yourself. He could have had a good home with Hannah and his natural father, but you refused to consider it.”
“On the contrary, I considered it. But after considering it, I rejected the idea. I am his mother, and it’s my right to decide what happens to him.” She said this with all the defiance she could muster.
“Well, if you think I wish to take you and your bastard child on, you must think again, Olivia. I have my own child, and I love him very much. What would I want with another man’s brat?”
They were cruel words, and he felt almost sorry as soon as they were out of his mouth. But he had to make her understand.
Olivia felt tears well up and her throat began to throb with the effort of holding them back. It was now obvious to her that Richard Latimer felt nothing for her. He had been bedding her simply because he could. He had taken her favours as his right for services rendered. A mere business transaction. Her tears would be bitter when she finally allowed them to fall.
“So,” she said, pulling herself together, “when do you require me to vacate these rooms?”
Richard wasn’t a naturally cruel man, and he could see she was very upset, more vulnerable than he had ever seen her. “There is no immediate hurry,” he said gently, “but it would be as well to make alternative arrangements when it is convenient for you to do so.”
Later that evening, Olivia sat beside her baby’s cot and rocked it gently. The little boy’s eyes opened as she did so. He was a strange-looking child. He obviously took after Humphrey, she thought. As she rocked him, she realised she felt no stirrings of maternal affection for him. And now that she had lost her meal ticket, she had to make other plans.
She slowly rocked her little boy, deep in thought. He began to snuffle, then to cry. As his crying grew louder, she rocked him harder. It didn’t even cross her mind to pick him up and comfort him. All she could do was think about her own situation.
What was she to do? What was she to do?
Chapter Fifteen
April 1895
Olivia was finding her life a trial to her. Her lover had as good as told her to go about her business, and he no longer came to visit her. In fact, her only visitor now was Jonah. Even though she only welcomed him into her home through boredom and of course had no wish to become any more intimate with him beyond tea and a chat, she resented the fact that he now came to see Alice more than herself. She tried not to be envious of these two lesser mortals who seemed to be getting on like a house on fire, but she found she couldn’t help it. How could life be so cruel to her? She had never put a foot wrong. Her self-delusion knew no limits.
But, these annoyances aside, her most pressing concern was what to do about the baby. She had received a letter the previous week from Richard politely enquiring when she would be vacating the flat. He had given her plenty of time, he said, to find alternative accommodation. How, she wondered, could she begin to do that with no money and a baby in tow? She had decided not to answer him and hoped he would leave her alone a bit longer while she made arrangements. What those arrangements would be she still had no idea.
A week after she had received Richard’s letter, Jonah appeared on her doorstep, looking very flustered. His hair looked even more dishevelled than usual and his complexion was red and mottled. She invited him in as usual, curious to see him so put about.
As she handed him his customary cup of Darjeeling, she remarked politely on his wild look. “Are you quite well, Mr Longbody?”
Even though he had been with her in her most intimate moments and seen things that no gentleman should ever see, Olivia still maintained her distance. He was, after all, in a class well below her own. Time and distance had shut out that afternoon when he had held her hand and instructed her to push.
“I am very well, thank you, Madam,” he replied. “Two please.”
She stood over him, holding the silver tongs and dropped two sugar cubes into his cup.
“I think spring is finally here,” he remarked, stirring his tea. His hand was shaking.
Olivia gazed out of the window. It was indeed very spring-like and she could see the blossoms on many of the trees across the way. The sun was shining fitfully through white scudding clouds, but the weather was neither here nor there to Olivia these days. Rain, storm, heatwave: it was all the same to her.
“Yes, it is very pleasant,” said Olivia. “So, why are you looking so worried, Mr Longbody?”
He coughed nervously. “I wonder if – ” He broke off.
“Yes?”
“I wonder if you would ask Alice to come in here for a minute?” he asked, putting his untouched tea down on the table beside him.
“If you wish it,” said Olivia, puzzled. “Is the tea not to your liking? It’s the same as usual, I think. Alice always makes an excellent cup of tea – ”
“No, no, it’s not the tea,” he interrupted her. “I – we – have something to tell you.”
It didn’t take long for Olivia to be apprised of the situation. As soon as Jonah and Alice stood together before her, holding hands, she knew what was going on. So, the pair wanted to get married, did they?
“I see,” she said in measured tones. “I suppose I should congratulate you.”
“Thank you, Madam,” they said in unison, aware that Olivia’s congratulations lacked both warmth and conviction.
“Thank you,” said Jonah again when Alice had returned to the kitchen. “Of course, we won’t be getting married immediately. Alice’s family want a proper church do, and that takes time to arrange. And – ”
“And?”
“There is the question of Alice’s employment with you,” he said. “I understand she was being paid by Mr Latimer, but lately he hasn’t been doing so.”
Olivia was about to interject, but Jonah raised his hand to stop her. “It’s all right,” he said, “Alice is more than happy to continue to serve you as long as you require her, but you must understand that she will want to leave when we are man and wife.”
Olivia could see another nail in her proverbial coffin. Up to that moment, she had given no thought at all to Alice. She was part of the fixtures and fittings, as far as she was concerned, and whether she was being paid or not had never entered her head. Now, of course, she realised that her days in her luxury Regent’s Park flat were well and truly numbered.
Even more to the point was the question of the child. Alice had been more than happy to see to his needs. What would she do without her? Olivia hardly knew one end of a baby from the other. It was all too much.
Chapter Sixteen
May 1895
Richard Latimer placed several large notes into Jonah Longbody’s hands. This was over and above his usual retainer fee and t
he latter’s eyes lit up as he counted the money.
“This is your final payment, Longbody,” said Richard. “You have done a splendid job for me, and I wish to reward you properly. Also, I understand you are about to marry...”
“Yes, sir,” Jonah grinned, pocketing the notes.
“I wish you well – and your bride too. I understand your wife-to-be is the little maidservant I hired to look after Mrs Ayrton-Williams. I think you owe me a matchmaking fee, don’t you?” He said this with a sardonic grin.
Jonah looked worried for a moment, unsure if he was joking.
Richard laughed outright. “No, no, my man. It was a jest. You are more than welcome.”
“Er, is this the end of our association, sir?”
Jonah couldn’t hide the disappointment in his tone as he said this. The extra money was handy, but he needed a regular income to support a wife. He had a small nest egg, but it wouldn’t last forever.
“Do you know where the lady has gone?” asked Richard, as he gazed around the empty Regent’s Park flat. It looked desolate now, bereft of Olivia’s presence.
“Wandsworth,” Jonah replied, offering no further information.
“Hmm,” said Richard. The fact that he lived in that borough himself couldn’t just be a coincidence. What was the minx up to now?
“Do you know her address?”
Jonah handed his former employer a piece of paper. “I’ve written the details down for you. As you can see, she is just across the Common from your own home. I trust there will not be any complications.”
Olivia had finally made her decision. She had toyed with various parts of London to honour with her presence, but it was obvious, really. There was only one place she could go. She would be close to Richard and serve as a constant reminder of what he was missing. In her mind’s eye, she saw herself strolling across the Common, twirling her parasol and looking ravishing, and he would appear from the opposite end and be strolling towards her. Their eyes would meet, and he would be her slave once more.