by Dilly Court
‘Miss Giamatti, please take a seat.’ Rogue waved his hand vaguely in the direction of two armchairs, upholstered in brown leather, set on either side of the fireplace.
Phoebe perched on the edge of the one nearest to her, feeling suddenly detached from the proceedings as if the whole matter had been taken off her hands. The truth had come out in the worst possible manner and there was very little she could do to limit the damage caused by Caspar’s vindictive revelations. The brothers were talking in low voices and she found herself more interested in her surroundings than in listening to what they were saying. The ambience of the room was masculine but she could see a woman’s touch here and there. Her attention was drawn in particular to four gilt-framed watercolours depicting country scenes which adorned the far wall, and the tasselled velvet curtains at the windows. ‘Our mother executed those,’ Rogue said, as if reading her thoughts. ‘She was a lady of gentle birth and considerable talent. Those are just a few of the paintings she did when she was a girl living in the country.’
‘They’re very pretty.’ A vision of a blue-eyed young woman with soft nut-brown curls flashed into Phoebe’s mind, but she banished it with difficulty. She must not start thinking of the Paxman brothers as being anything other than villains.
‘The charcoal drawing on the far wall is a portrait of our father. A gentleman by birth and a farmer by nature, but he was no businessman.’ Rogue hesitated, clearing his throat as if embarrassed by revealing too much. ‘Anyway, that’s not relevant to what’s occurred today. I think you’d better tell us everything, Phoebe. I’m not here to judge your mother or Ned, or you for that matter, but you’d better start at the beginning and go on from there.’
Haltingly, Phoebe began once again with her mother’s ill-advised visit to Snape’s lodgings and their subsequent flight to Brighton. Visibly moved by her account of Annie’s death, Ned paced the floor, but Rogue remained seated, his gaze never wavering from her face.
‘What is this Collins fellow to you?’ he demanded when she had finished her explanation. ‘Why did he pursue you to London, and why did you lie to me about the boy? Why didn’t you tell me that he is my brother’s child?’
‘I should have thought that was obvious,’ Phoebe said stoutly. ‘This is just the sort of situation I was trying to avoid.’
‘He’s my son.’ Ned came to a halt in front of her. ‘I have a child but you were never going to tell me.’
She looked him in the eyes and was surprised to see hurt, puzzlement and genuine distress in their blue-green depths. Teddy’s eyes would be almost exactly that colour when he was older. ‘What are you going to do?’ she asked anxiously. ‘You can’t take him away from me.’
‘Why shouldn’t I? I’m his father. I’ve every right.’ Ned turned to his brother. ‘What do you say, Rogue?’
‘That depends on you, but we can’t look after an infant.’
Phoebe shot him a grateful glance. ‘That’s right. Teddy’s just a baby. He needs proper care and attention.’
‘But he’s a Paxman,’ Ned said stubbornly. ‘I’m not having him brought up to be an Eyetie hokey-pokey maker, or worse still spirited off across the Channel never to be seen again.’
Phoebe leapt to her feet. ‘You can’t take him away from me. I’ve looked after him since he was born. I’ve been up at night, walking the floor with him when he’s cutting a tooth. He’s my flesh and blood too, and I love him.’
‘But you’ll marry Gino,’ Rogue said evenly. ‘And you’ll have a baby every year. You won’t have much time for my nephew. He would be better off with us.’
‘Better off with two criminals? What happens when the law catches up with you? You could both end up dangling on the end of a hangman’s rope. Who would take care of Teddy then?’
‘It won’t happen like that,’ Ned said firmly. ‘We keep the law sweet. The coppers won’t get us.’
She turned on him in amazement. ‘You mean that you bribe the police?’
Ned tapped the side of his nose. ‘You never heard me say that, ducks. Now take me to that hovel you call home. I want to collect my boy.’
‘No.’ Phoebe faced him squarely. ‘If you try to take Teddy from us you’ll stir up a hornet’s nest. You can’t begin to imagine what vendetta does to a community. I’ve heard my grandfather speak of it, and it’s terrible.’
Ned bared his teeth in a sarcastic grimace. ‘If they want trouble, then that’s what they’ll get from us and it will be twice as bad as anything the Eyeties can hand out.’
‘Shut up, Ned.’ Rogue rose to his feet. ‘This is getting us nowhere.’
‘I’m not giving in to her just because she’s got a pretty face, or because she’s her mother’s daughter.’ Ned loosened his neckerchief, running his finger round the inside of his collar. ‘I did care for Annie in my way.’ He met Phoebe’s curious gaze with a vague shrug of his shoulders. ‘Yes, I know. There’s no need to give me that look. I wouldn’t have married a woman who was ten years older than me, but we had a good time together and I was genuinely fond of her. I may be a bad ’un but blood is blood, and I want my son.’
Phoebe turned her back on him, holding her hands out to Rogue. ‘Please don’t let him do this. At least wait until after I’ve married Gino. When we return to London next spring I’ll make sure you see Teddy whenever you want to, but please allow me to bring him up in a respectable family. When he’s old enough to choose I won’t stop him if he wants to come and live with you.’
Rogue nodded his head slowly. ‘That makes sense. I can see you’re a woman of your word, Madonna. I trust you.’
‘Madonna?’ Ned spat the word out as if it left a bad taste in his mouth. ‘What nonsense is that? Have you gone soft in your old age, brother?’
‘No, I haven’t. I’m using my brain, Ned. Try using yours for a change. We’ve got enough on our hands fending off the high mob. We can do without having the Camorra on our backs as well. If Phoebe is sincere and she’ll let you see the child on a regular basis, then I say leave well alone.’
Phoebe smothered a sigh of relief. ‘I will honour my promise, and Gino won’t try to stop me. He knows you’re the father, Ned. But he’s the only one apart from us who’s in possession of all the facts.’
‘And Collins?’ Rogue’s tone was clipped and his eyes suddenly ice cold.
‘I don’t want anything to do with him. He’ll have to find someone else to help him in his act, for it won’t be me.’
Rogue met her earnest look with a hint of a smile. He turned to his brother. ‘Then it’s up to you, Ned. What do you say? Is it going to be war with the hokey-pokey makers or are you going to see sense?’
Reluctantly, Ned nodded. ‘I suppose so. But I won’t agree to anything until I’ve seen the boy. I want to be sure that she’s telling the truth and that he is my son.’
‘He’s just a baby,’ Rogue said impatiently. ‘How will you know?’
‘I’ll feel it in my bones. And if he’s got black hair and eyes then I’ll know for sure that he’s not mine. I’ll take you home, Phoebe. Then you can show him to me.’
Once again, panic seized her. ‘No, please don’t do that. I don’t want any of my family to see me with you. I’ll meet you later and bring Teddy with me.’
‘All right, but if you don’t …’
‘I will,’ she said hastily. ‘Cross my heart and hope to die.’
‘That can be arranged too,’ Ned said grimly. ‘Bring the boy to the Charterhouse gardens then at four o’clock. I’ll be there with the dogs. No one would suspect our meeting was anything but a coincidence.’
‘I’ll see you out.’ Rogue crossed the floor and ushered her into the entrance hall. He hesitated at the front door, turning to give her a searching look. ‘You meant what you said, I hope?’
‘Of course. I don’t lie and I don’t cheat. I know that my mother really did love your brother, and I’m certain he’s Teddy’s father. He has a right to see him.’
Rogue opened the door. �
��You’re a remarkable young woman, Phoebe. I hope that Gino is worthy of you.’ And to her intense surprise he took her hand and raised it to his lips. ‘Goodbye, Madonna.’
Shocked by the sudden change in his attitude, Phoebe went slowly down the front steps. She started off in the direction of home and quickened her pace. She could only hope and pray that the Paxmans would keep their word, and that Ethel Fowler and her sister would be too drunk by now to remember the details of their encounter in the pub. She had reached the corner when someone grabbed her from behind and a hand clamped over her mouth as she opened it to scream.
What happened next was always a bit of a blur when Phoebe tried to recall the exact sequence of events. One minute she had been walking along, minding her own business, when suddenly she had almost been throttled by an unseen assailant. She had struggled, of course, but then everything had gone black and the next thing she knew she was lying on the pavement gasping for breath. All around her there were the sounds of scuffling, raised voices and running footsteps. Someone helped her to her feet and then, before she had completely recovered her senses, she was bundled into a hansom cab.
‘You’re all right now. You’re safe. I’m taking you home.’
She opened her eyes and found herself leaning against Rogue Paxman. She inched away from him and leaned back against the stale-smelling leather squabs. ‘What happened? Who attacked me?’
‘I’ve never seen the cove before, but I’ve a feeling it might have been your magician friend.’
‘Collins?’ Phoebe stared at him in disbelief. ‘No. It can’t have been. Why would he do such a thing?’
‘It’s lucky that I didn’t go indoors straight away or he might have succeeded in carrying you off. I assume that was his intention.’
‘I can’t believe he would do something like that, especially not in broad daylight. And why were you watching me? Did you think to catch me out by spying on me?’
He shook his head, a ghost of a smile on his lips. ‘Don’t flatter yourself, Madonna. One of the dogs ran out into the road. He has a particular fondness for the duck pond in the gardens, and I was calling him back when I saw a tall fellow dressed in black from head to foot. It was obvious that he was following you and then he pounced.’
She frowned. None of this made sense. ‘What could Caspar hope to gain by setting about me? It’s not the way to win me over.’
‘Perhaps he didn’t care about anything other than having you for himself. I’ve known men do equally insane things for love of a woman.’
Phoebe recoiled at the thought. ‘Don’t say such things. He doesn’t love me. He doesn’t know the meaning of the word.’
‘And you feel nothing for him?’
‘Are you mad? I hate him.’
‘He doesn’t seem the sort who will give up easily. I can arrange to have him stopped, if that’s what you want.’
‘You’d have him killed on my say so?’
Rogue threw back his head and laughed. ‘Nothing so dramatic. I’m not a violent man.’
‘How can you say that? You’re a gang leader. Your men are thugs and extort money by terrorising innocent citizens.’
‘The only violence they are allowed to use is against the high mob, who, believe me, are far more of a danger to the people we protect. I’m not defending myself, or the way I make a living, but there are others far worse than Ned and me.’
‘And that makes it all right, does it? You rule by fear and you take what isn’t yours.’ She turned away, unable to look him in the eyes lest she weaken. There was something compelling about his personality that almost made her believe that he was doing a public service. She could not allow her defences to drop or she might be forced to acknowledge the fact that she was attracted to him, and had been from the moment they first met.
‘This isn’t a perfect world, Phoebe. I learned that a long time ago when my father died leaving nothing but debts. The disgrace sent my mother to an early grave.’
She turned on him angrily. ‘If you’re trying to make me feel sorry for you, you’re failing dismally. You and your brother chose the path you’ve taken. You’re not a stupid man; you could have done something better with your life.’
‘You’re probably right, but it’s too late to change now. And we’ve strayed from the subject, which was how to protect you from Collins. I could make his life in London so uncomfortable that he would want to remove himself to a safer place.’
‘Why would you do that for me?’
‘I’m doing it for my nephew. I trust you to care for him like a mother, and no harm must come to you.’
‘Oh!’ She turned away, hoping he had not seen disappointment in her eyes. She had won her battle to keep her baby brother, but she could not help feeling that she had lost something deeper and more meaningful. In the last couple of hours the world seemed to have gone topsy-turvy. She stared out at the familiar streets packed with carts, drays and costermongers trading their wares from their barrows. Respectable housewives brushed shoulders with prostitutes, and bankers hurried past the beggars who lolled on the pavements, holding out tin cups in the hope of attracting alms. Ragged children dodged in and out between horses’ hooves and feral dogs and cats scavenged for scraps of food in the detritus piled high in the gutters. She reached up to bang on the roof. ‘Stop here, cabby.’
‘I want to see you to your door,’ Rogue said sharply. ‘Drive on, cabby.’
‘No, stop, please.’ Phoebe struggled to open the half-door which covered their knees. ‘I don’t want anyone to see us together. Everyone knows everyone else in Saffron Hill. Please, Rogue, let me go.’
His hand covered hers and he pushed the door open. ‘All right, but I’ll wait here until I see you safe in your house.’ His fingers curled around hers for a brief moment. ‘And before you question my motives yet again, just remember we’re part of the same family now.’
She stared at him in surprise. ‘I suppose we are. If Ned had married Ma he would be my stepfather.’ She covered her mouth to suppress a chuckle. ‘And you would be my uncle.’
His eyes lightened with a smile. ‘I’d prefer it if we kept that between ourselves. It would ruin my reputation as a hard man if such a rumour were to get out.’ He climbed down from the cab and helped her to alight, holding her round the waist for a little longer than was strictly necessary. ‘You will keep your promise to Ned, won’t you, Madonna?’
She was suddenly breathless. She could feel the warmth of his hands even through the layers of cotton shift, her linen and whalebone stays and the print gown she wore. Her heart was thudding against her ribcage and quite irrationally she found herself wondering what it would be like to be held even closer to him. She drew away from him on the pretext of smoothing her crumpled skirts. ‘I’ll be there at four o’clock, Rogue Paxman.’ She lapsed into the safer area of formality, but he caught her by the hand as she started to walk off.
‘I keep telling you that my name is Roger. If we’re to be related I think you could call me that, Madonna.’
She shot him a glance beneath her lashes. ‘I’ll call you Rogue. It suits you better.’ She pulled her hand free and walked on, quickening her step and lifting her skirts above her ankles as she trod through the piles of rubbish and dried mud. She knew that he was watching her but she did not look back. She let herself into the house, hoping that her grandmother had not noticed her absence.
‘Phoebe, is that you?’
Sighing, she paused at the foot of the stairs. ‘Yes, Nonna.’
‘Come here at once, girl.’
Hanging her bonnet and shawl on the hallstand, Phoebe hurried into the front parlour where, to her horror, she saw Ethel Fowler and Minnie Sykes seated at the table where she held her séances.
Chapter Fifteen
‘YOU WANTED ME, Nonna?’ Phoebe struggled to maintain her calm, but she could see that Ethel and Minnie were out for trouble. The smell of strong drink and pipe tobacco clung to their persons and overpowered even the heady aroma of
Nonna’s lavender-scented furniture polish.
Maria rose slowly to her feet. ‘We’ve been waiting for an hour or more for you to return. These persons have told me some bad things about you, cara. I want you to tell them they are not true.’
‘I got a name, old woman,’ Ethel said, bristling like an angry turkeycock. ‘Me and Minnie have both got handles to go by, and we ain’t telling no lies.’ She pointed her finger at Phoebe. ‘Ask her. She’s the one who’s been fibbing her head off.’
Maria fixed Phoebe with a stern look. ‘What have you to say for yourself, my girl?’
Mustering every ounce of courage she possessed, Phoebe decided that attack was the only strategy left to her. ‘What have you been saying, you old witch?’
Ethel stood up, puffing out her chest as if she were about to explode. ‘You took me daughter away from me. You robbed me of the money old Snape was going to give me for her dowry.’
‘You don’t even know what that word means,’ Phoebe said scornfully. ‘You sold her to him so that he could use her as he wished.’
‘That’s as maybe, but she’s still my kid. And you lied about the baby.’
Phoebe held her breath. It was all going to come out now. The family would never forgive her for her deception, let alone the disgrace that her mother had brought upon them. ‘How did I lie?’ she demanded.
‘You told the Paxmans that Dolly was its mother.’ Ethel leaned across the table, glaring at Phoebe. Her breath would have stunned an ox, but Phoebe was too relieved to allow the stench of alcohol and rotten teeth to upset her.
‘Why did you say that, Phoebe?’ Maria cried angrily.
‘Yes, why indeed?’ Minnie echoed. ‘You’re a wicked girl.’
‘She wanted to hide her shame,’ Ethel said, hiccuping. ‘She didn’t want Ned Paxman to know she had a nipper. I seen the way she looked at him in the pub. She wants to be his sweetheart, but he wouldn’t want a trull like her. He’s got more taste.’
