“If, as I’ve said, we plan for stated days ‘at home’ you could purchase ‘fancies’ from the bakery.” Ann Marie was thinking frantically. “We could order in smoked salmon and ham to make dainty sandwiches. You would only have to present the food attractively and that I can demonstrate for you.”
“I’m always up for learning something new, Ann Marie.” Sadie had never seen salmon that didn’t come in a tin and that was for high days and holidays. She hadn’t a clue what ‘fancies’ were. She didn’t want to let Ann Marie down in front of her friends.
“We could practise.” Ann Marie warmed to the idea. “I would, of course, purchase a uniform for Dora. I am perfectly capable of describing what is needed. We could have several practice runs. It could be fun. I’ll invite Ivy and Jem to come visit while Emmy’s in school. They will enjoy the experience and I can give instructions as to what’s needed.”
“On your own head be it, Ann Marie.” Sadie took a deep breath and straightened her shoulders. Her family were coming up in the world thanks to this woman and Ivy Murphy. Never let it be said Sadie Lawless let the side down. She’d learn these new ways if it killed her.
“There is one more matter I wish to discuss.” Ann Marie looked down at her fingers twirling the teacup on its saucer. She was embarrassed by the subject she wanted to broach.
“Ann Marie,” Sadie felt quite daring when she leaned across the table and stopped the other woman from twirling the tea out of her cup, “I know you have an agreement with Ivy. An understanding that you can each say what you are thinking without giving offense. Could we not have something like that between ourselves?”
“Sadie Lawless, you are a treasure. I’m afraid I don’t take the time to tell you how much I appreciate all you and your family do for me. I am happier living in this house than I have been in years. I feel part of a family again.”
“Then just spit it out, whatever it is.”
“I’d like to pay for elocution lessons for Clare and Dora.” Ann Marie watched Sadie’s face carefully. Was she going too far?
The Lawless daughters were very attractive young women but, in Ann Marie’s opinion, their flat Dublin accents ruined their appearance as soon as they opened their mouths. She did not want the baby, that innocent little boy, growing up speaking in the same accent. Sadie might never know that the baby she’d adopted was related to Ann Marie by blood but Ann Marie intended to do everything she could to see the child had opportunities and options as he grew to manhood.
“Ela–what?”
“Elocution, it means teaching someone to speak correctly.” Ann Marie, thankfully, could see only interest in Sadie’s face. “I believe your daughters would benefit by a course of speech instruction.”
“I ask your sacred pardon!” Sadie gasped. Whatever else?
A sharp knocking on the back door startled both women. No one was expected, and the coalman and milkman had set days and hours.
“Who on earth could that be?” Ann Marie said.
“Only one way to find out.”
Chapter 29
“Ivy Murphy!” Sadie gasped at the sight of the woman standing outside the back door.
“Ivy!” Ann Marie had been standing inside the open kitchen door, listening in case she might be needed. She hurried out of the kitchen and down the hallway to stand at Sadie’s shoulder. “Finally, you’ve come to visit us. Come in!”
“I didn’t know where else to go.” Ivy stepped into the hall. She waited while Sadie closed the door then walked with the two women into the kitchen without speaking.
“You must have smelt the tea.” Sadie looked at Ann Marie with concern. Ivy didn’t look too good.
“I’ve been walking around for ages.” Ivy allowed Ann Marie to take her coat and shawl. The kitchen was lovely and warm.
“Sit down, Ivy.” Ann Marie had been longing to show Ivy around her home but now was obviously not the time. Something was wrong, and the fact that Ivy had come to her in her hour of need gave her a warm glow. “Sadie will pour you a cup of tea.” She almost pushed Ivy into one of the sturdy kitchen chairs.
Ivy waited until Sadie joined them around the table – after all, this concerned her too. “I sold hardly any dolls.”
“Oh, Ivy!” Ann Marie reached across the table and took her friend’s trembling hands. They were freezing. She released them and reached for Ivy’s teacup, then wrapped Ivy’s hands around the bowl, hoping the tea would warm her hands. Sadie watched and said nothing. She was stunned. The Lawless family had so much riding on the sale of those dolls.
“It was a nightmare.” Ivy started to tell them about her experience at the preview show. They hung on her every word.
“You are overreacting, Ivy Murphy,” Ann Marie stated clearly when Ivy had told her story. “Sadie, could you ask Dora to bring a bottle of whiskey from the study, please? We’ll add a drop to our tea.”
“I’ll get the whiskey meself.” Sadie stood quickly. “I’ll have Dora keep her ear open for the baby. She can look after him while we talk.” She hurried from the kitchen.
Ivy sat staring into her cup. She didn’t know what to do or say. The silence hung over the two women.
“I overreached meself, Ann Marie,” Ivy finally muttered. She had walked the streets, trying to come up with a way of making her plan work. She’d gone to Mass seeking divine intervention for all the good that had done her. She hadn’t known where to turn.
“Ivy Murphy,” Ann Marie slapped both hands on the table, “snap out of it!”
“You don’t understand.” Ivy’s eyes filled with tears. She’d failed.
“For heaven’s sake, Ivy!” Ann Marie sat back in her chair and glared. “I want to shake you until your teeth rattle.”
“That sounds serious.” Sadie, the whiskey bottle clutched in her hand, exploded breathlessly into the kitchen. She hadn’t wanted to miss a word of whatever was going on. She put the whiskey on the kitchen table and looked at the other two women.
“Make a fresh pot of tea, Sadie, please,” Ann Marie said. “I’m about to pin Miss Ivy Rose Murphy’s ears back.”
“I came here looking for comfort.” Ivy straightened in her chair. “Seems I came to the wrong shop.”
“I’ve already said you’re overreacting.” Ann Marie stood abruptly. She couldn’t sit still and look at Ivy’s miserable face. “Sadie, hurry up with that bloody tea! That one,” she flung one hand in Ivy’s direction, “is incapable of thinking straight without a cup of her bloody tea in hand.”
“I can’t make the kettle boil any faster.” Sadie looked over her shoulder at Ann Marie – she’d never heard her swear before. She thought she was being a bit hard on Ivy – after all, the poor woman had had a terrible shock.
“Listen to me, Ivy Murphy.” Ann Marie put both hands on the table and leaned down to stare into Ivy’s face. “You were extremely fortunate with your baby dolls. We all know that. You had a stroke of good fortune and I for one was delighted. However!” She slapped both hands on the table, causing Ivy and Sadie to jump.
“Here, Ivy.” Sadie poured a fresh cup of tea directly from the pot and carried it over to the table. “It’s a bit weak yet but I reckon it doesn’t matter that much for once.”
“Right!” Ann Marie picked up the bottle of whiskey, opened it and poured a healthy dollop into the cup Sadie had just set before Ivy. “Now you have your bloody tea perhaps you’ll be able to hear what I’m going to tell you.”
Ann Marie found she still couldn’t sit down calmly.
“First and foremost,” she stated, stepping out across the tiled floor of the kitchen. “I should have thought of the problem of children being brought to the theatre by servants and for that I apologise.”
“Ann Marie!” Ivy and Sadie said together.
“That’s simply a fact.” Ann Marie held both hands up in the air. “However, this is not the tragedy you are making it out to be, Ivy.”
“We all knew it was a gamble, Ivy.” Sadie cleared the table of the
cups and saucers she and Ann Marie had used and replaced them with fresh ones. She poured a cup of tea for herself and without asking permission poured some of the whiskey into her own tea. She was being led into sin.
“Ivy – Sadie . . .” Ann Marie stormed over to the table, poured a healthy dram of whiskey into one of the cups and, without adding tea, held it in her hand as she paced. “You are both being unrealistic.” She sipped at the whiskey, grimacing as it went down. “You cannot expect to be an instant success every time you take a venture into business. The preview gave you an example of what to expect. Now,” and she turned to glare down at the two women sitting staring up at her, fascinated, “you deal with it.”
“I am not lowering the price of those dolls.” Ivy’s eyes were watering from the whiskey Ann Marie had dumped into her tea.
“Nobody’s asking you to, you hardheaded . . . Dubliner!” Ann Marie practically spat. “If you are finished with your snit, I’ll explain.”
“I’m all ears.” Ivy shrugged.
“It will take time.” Ann Marie finally dropped into one of the kitchen chairs. “The dolls you’ve created are wonderful. You both know that. It may take days or even weeks but news of those dolls will travel through society. Once that happens, parents will insure that their servants carry the money necessary to purchase the bloody things.” She sat back and stared. “That is simply a fact. You will make the dolls a desired commodity and people will fight to be the ones who can boast that their little darlings have one.”
“Do you think so?” Ivy asked.
Sadie crossed her fingers under the table. She badly wanted the dolls to sell. She had a stake in this after all.
“Yes, I do.” Ann Marie nodded decisively. “I think they will sell like hot cakes. You will find that the house servants in and around Dublin will spread the word very quickly. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait a while but you will see. Your dolls will sell. So pull yourself together, Ivy Murphy, and find your fighting spirit wherever you’ve left it.”
“Well,” Ivy grinned, “you certainly told me.”
“Have we dealt with your fit of the vapours or is there something else bothering you?” Ann Marie didn’t think the lack of doll sales would upset Ivy to this extent but she might be wrong.
“I’ve decided I’m going to have to take Jem’s advice and go see Billy Flint.” Ivy sank back in her chair.
“My God, Ivy!” Sadie gasped.
“Who is this Billy Flint I keep hearing about?” Ann Marie asked.
“He’s a gangster,” Sadie said, visibly shocked. “Why on earth do you need to go see him, Ivy?”
“I was scared last night. Me knees were knocking that hard it’s a wonder me legs didn’t shatter. I was standing out in front of the Gaiety in full view of God and everyone. I sold a few dolls, I’m not saying I didn’t, and I was yelling out the price for everyone and his brother to hear. You could see the flyboys prick up their ears. I swear I could feel their eyes on me the whole time I was there.” Ivy shivered violently. She had never been so glad to see anyone as she’d been to see Jem last night.
“I can’t keep this lad quiet any longer, Ma.” Dora Lawless, a slim blonde young girl wearing a navy dress with white collar and cuffs, walked into the kitchen, a very unhappy baby on her hip. “He wants something to eat, and he wants it now.”
Sadie stood to take the baby from her daughter but Ann Marie got there before her. She loved to cuddle the baby. It fascinated her to see the changes taking place in even so young a child. It broke her heart that she imagined she caught glimpses of her own father from time to time in the baby’s face. She felt so fortunate to be able to watch this child grow. The baby the Lawless family had adopted was the result of a shabby affair between her only male cousin and a young dancer. Her father would have been the baby’s great-uncle . . . she wasn’t too sure what that would make her.
“I’ll make his bottle.” Sadie saw the look on Ivy’s face and grinned. “You have to fight around this place to get ahold of that fella.”
“I’d never have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with me own eyes.” Ivy shook her head. “Her Ladyship,” she jerked her head in Ann Marie’s direction, “gettin’ all over baby spit and not being bothered.” She laughed. “This is one of them times when I wish I had one of those box Brownie cameras you’re always talking about, Ann Marie.”
“Ivy,” Ann Marie, the baby gnawing on her expensive silk blouse, turned sharply to stare at her friend, “you are a genius. That is exactly what we need around here, a camera to record the changes in this young man.” She caught the look of hurt on Dora’s face out of the corner of her eye. She made a mental note to herself to be careful – not make too much of a fuss over the baby. It could lead to resentment. “We can record the history of the house and everyone in it. It will be a fascinating project. Don’t you think, Dora?”
“Don’t know.” Dora walked over to the kitchen table and dropped into one of the chairs. “Any tea going?”
“What did your last maid die of?” Sadie snapped. She had enough people to wait on. “Get up and get it yourself. You’re big enough and bold enough.”
“Okay!” Dora shoved the kitchen chair back with the back of her legs as she stood. “No need to get in a snit.”
“I’ll give him his bottle.” Ann Marie ignored the byplay between Sadie and Dora. She held out her hand for the bottle Sadie had prepared for the baby and dropped into the chair across the table from Ivy, a contented smile on her face. She put the teat in the baby’s mouth and sat beaming around at everyone.
“That blouse will be a nightmare to clean if you don’t cover it with something, Ann Marie.” Ivy grinned at her friend’s absorption in the baby.
“Don’t matter to her.” Dora returned to the table with her cup of tea. “She don’t wash the bloomin’ thing.”
“Dora!” Sadie was horrified by her daughter’s rudeness.
“While being unnecessarily rude,” Ann Marie looked up from the baby and around the spotlessly clean kitchen, remembering how Sadie had looked earlier, “Dora is nevertheless correct. We need to employ a washerwoman, Sadie.” The utility room was furnished with a washing machine but she should have been aware that Sadie could not be expected to handle the sheer volume of washing, ironing, folding and putting away of laundry that five adults and a baby produced, not to mention household linens. She’d been very short-sighted there.
Sadie didn’t know whether to kick or kiss her daughter. The amount of laundry in this house was a nightmare. She never seemed to finish it. Ann Marie had put a machine in the utility room to beat the dirt out of the clothes, a washing machine she called it, but Sadie was afraid of the thing.
“Marcella Wiggins.” Ivy could see the denial forming on Sadie’s lips so she got in quick with her suggestion. “The woman’s a holy terror for scrubbing and cleaning.”
“Didn’t she use to work in one of the big houses ’round the square before she got married?” Sadie almost collapsed onto one of the kitchen chairs. She glared at Dora – she’d have to talk to her about her rudeness. But the good Lord knew it would be a blessing to have someone else take care of the mountains of laundry this house produced.
Ann Marie tried not to wince as Sadie’s broad Dublin accent suddenly grated on her ears. She looked at the baby in her arms, wondering if he’d grow up speaking in the same accent. “Have a word with the woman, would you please, Ivy?”
“I’ll send her over to see you,” Ivy promised, glad to be able to do something to help a woman who always held out a hand to help her neighbours. “She’d be a great help to you, Sadie.” She ignored the panicked look on Sadie’s face. “Mrs Wiggins is not exactly backward about coming forward. She learned a lot in the years she spent in service. You could ask her for advice –” Ivy laughed, thinking of the almost overpowering woman, “that is, if she waits long enough to let you ask.”
Chapter 30
Ivy wanted to kick up her heels and dance in the street. It was so
strange to walk along these familiar streets without her pram. She’d been for a second visit to Nanny Grace. The rooms Nanny Grace inhabited were a wonderland to Ivy. She had touched diaries, mementos and what should have been precious objects. It was hard for her to understand people who threw away their family history. Perhaps it was because she’d none of her own? She didn’t know, she only knew it saddened her to see that old woman sitting surrounded by the memories of others, worrying about her future.
The furniture Nanny had to sell was top class – obviously moved from other areas of the house over the years. It was well tended but Ivy didn’t think anyone would pay a great deal of money for the stuff. She was tempted to buy one of the beds and some of the bedroom furniture for herself. She was running a mental list of the families in The Lane, wondering if any one she knew could afford to buy some of the toys. They would make ideal Santa gifts. She thought Emmy would love some of the toys too. She’d have a word with Jem, see what he thought. She sighed, wrapping her thick knitted beige scarf tighter around her neck against the chill wind.
She really should have been at the market today but the thought of Nanny Grace’s plight was one of the things that kept her awake last night. She was still worrying about those darn Cinderella dolls too. Listening to Ann Marie had put new heart into her but she couldn’t help fretting in the dark of night. She’d been stupid to think the dolls would be snatched out of her hand. She unconsciously straightened her shoulders as she walked. So, she had problems. She wasn’t the only one in the world. She’d make a success of that little venture or her name wasn’t Ivy Rose Murphy.
Ha'Penny Chance (Ivy Rose Series Book 2) Page 25
