A Tattooed Heart

by Deborah Challinor

  James’s gaze didn’t waver from hers. She felt like a beetle skewered to a card with a pin.

  ‘That did appear to be rather more than dislike,’ he said. ‘On your part, as well as hers.’

  No, no, no!

  Matthew said a little too heartily, ‘Look, I’m afraid I really must be getting back to the office. Thanks for inviting me along, James. It was nice to meet you, Sophie, Anna and Robbie, and I’m pleased you arrived here safely. I was delighted to meet you, too, Miss Christian.’

  ‘And I you, Mr Cutler,’ Lucy said.

  Harrie knew James was still looking at her, frowning. To deflect any further questions from him, she said, ‘Why don’t you come to the house on Sunday night, Matthew? We could have a little celebration and the children can meet Sarah and Friday and Aria. We could invite Nora and her family, too. What do you think, James?’

  Jerked out of his ruminations, James said, ‘A celebration? Yes, excellent idea.’

  Matthew accepted the invitation immediately and strode jauntily back to work, and Harrie turned to look at her darlings, all four now safe with her after so long. She let the thought fill her up, pushing Bella’s haggard face out of her mind.

  Chapter Six

  Leo Dundas sat on his tattooing stool staring down at the floor, across which were spread dozens and dozens of old flash that hadn’t see the light of day for several years. He was thinking of resurrecting some, redrawing them so they looked fresh and modern. But perhaps he didn’t need to: the walls of his shop were already plastered from ceiling to floor with designs from which his customers could choose, and, without fail, Harrie presented him with a stunning new series every month. No, he couldn’t be bothered.

  Crouching to gather up the old flash, he suddenly sensed that someone had entered the shop; he glanced towards the doorway, and got the absolute fright of his life.

  A hand over his wildly pounding heart, he lurched to his feet and burst out, ‘What the bloody hell are you doing here?’

  Walter shrugged. ‘I’ve come back.’

  ‘For Christ’s sake, lad! You’re supposed to be in England!’ Leo really thought he was about to have a heart attack.

  ‘I didn’t like it. I want to be here with you.’

  ‘Well, you can’t. What about Bella?’

  ‘Don’t care. I’ll hide or something.’

  Leo took in Walter’s scruffy hair, the thin wrists and shins sticking out of ill-fitting clothes because the lad had grown at least another two inches since he’d seen him last, and his heart ached. He marched across the room and enfolded him in a fierce hug. ‘You bloody little idiot.’

  ‘I won’t go back,’ Walter said tearfully into Leo’s chest. ‘I don’t care what she does to me. I won’t.’

  ‘Christ,’ Leo muttered. ‘Does anyone else know you’re here?’

  Walter stepped back from Leo’s grasp and nodded. ‘I saw Harrie at the quay. She had a fit, too.’ He smiled. ‘And her husband. She were meeting her brother and sisters off the ship I come in on.’

  Leo’s eyebrows went up.

  ‘That Matthew were there, too.’

  ‘Shit. So much for hiding you,’ Leo said.

  ‘They won’t tell no one.’

  ‘Not on purpose they won’t.’

  Walter wiped his snotty nose on the back of his hand. ‘Can I stay here?’

  Leo nearly burst into tears himself. ‘Of course you can, lad.’

  ‘Harrie said Sarah’s got Clifford. Can I go and see her?’

  ‘I’ll think about it. Probably.’

  Walter nodded. ‘Leo?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘What am I going to do?’

  Sighing, Leo said, ‘God knows. I’ll think about that, too.’ He patted Walter’s arm. ‘But don’t worry, we’ll work something out. I’m glad you’re back, lad.’

  Walter gave a watery smile. ‘So am I.’

  When they all finally arrived home, the trunks were sitting on the path leading to the front door.

  ‘What a beautiful house you have, Mrs Downey,’ Lucy said.

  ‘Thank you,’ Harrie said, feeling herself going red.

  ‘Will we be sleeping in there?’ Sophie asked, pointing at the little carriage house and attached stable.

  Shocked, Harrie said, ‘Of course not. You’ll be in the house with us. Why would you think that?’

  Sophie said, ‘I don’t know,’ and burst into tears.

  Drawing her into a hug, Harrie realised just how awful things must have been for them in London. But she’d known, really, hadn’t she? And had tried not to think about it. There’d been nothing she could do except send money, and there’d never been much of that. She wasn’t like Friday, who earnt so much as a prostitute, or Sarah, who was such a clever little thief.

  ‘May we speak later? In private?’ Lucy asked quietly.

  Harrie nodded.

  James announced, ‘Right, let’s get everyone inside and settled, shall we? Cups of tea all round, I think. Daisy, what do we have in the cake tins? Something tasty, I hope?’

  ‘Shortbread and a pound cake, sir.’

  ‘Just the thing. Come along, in we go,’ James said, shooing everyone ahead of him through the front door as though he were herding geese.

  While Daisy was seeing to the tea, Harrie took Lucy and the children upstairs to the bedrooms, the beds already made up as they had been for some time. Harrie smiled to herself, understanding now why James had insisted on buying such a big house and furnishing every single room. Oh, she did love that man.

  ‘I believe we’ll make this your room, Sophie and Anna. What do you think?’

  Wide-eyed, the girls gazed at the pair of single iron bedsteads with white covers and linen-slipped pillows, the cedar bureau, clothespress and washstand, the dressing table and looking glass, and the thick carpet covering half the floor.

  ‘Is this all just for us?’ Anna asked, stunned.

  Harrie felt the burn of tears again. The poor little things. ‘Why don’t you have a look round at everything while I show Robbie his room? If you look out the window, you can see the harbour.’

  Robbie was equally impressed by his accommodation, a slightly smaller room next door containing a single bed, bureau, washstand, clothespress and a comfortable chair. Harrie and Lucy left him hurling himself delightedly onto the generously stuffed mattress, hoping he didn’t break the ropes beneath it.

  Harrie had decided that Lucy would have the room at the other end of the landing, next to Daisy and Charlotte’s.

  ‘Oh, this is lovely. Thank you very much.’ Lucy removed her gloves and bonnet but kept hold of them. Her hair proved to be a pretty shade of dark blonde, which she wore braided and pinned in a neat and unfussy coil at the back of her head.

  ‘I’ll ask Isaac to bring your trunk up in a minute. Isaac Longbone, his name is. Unusual surname, isn’t it? He’s our carriage driver but he’s doing the gardens and odd jobs around the house as well. He’s getting on a bit but he’s still very hale. He hasn’t worked for us for long. James only recently bought the carriage, to use when he gets called out after hours. We haven’t even been out in it together yet.’ Harrie realised she was chattering, and had no idea why she was telling Lucy all this.

  Lucy went to the window and looked out. ‘Mrs Penfold told me that you’re a convict.’

  Harrie froze, bracing herself for condemnation, or at least contempt. ‘Yes,’ she said tersely. ‘That’s right. My husband is my master. What of it?’

  Lucy turned to face her. ‘Forgive me for being blunt, Mrs Downey, but I don’t come from particularly grand circumstances either. Father earnt a reasonable salary while he was teaching but he made some very unwise financial decisions. Most of them at the whist table, actually. He never quite perfected the mathematical formula he was so sure would see him win. We were constantly in debt, our roof had a very large hole in it, our floors were bare and, quite often, so was our pantry. I could only just afford my bounty fee, which is why I accepte
d the job of chaperoning the children. So I do understand that you might not be entirely at ease with all this,’ she said, indicating the pleasantly decorated and well-proportioned room. ‘You don’t have to explain anything. Or excuse it. I’m not accustomed to such luxury myself. I hardly know where to step, for fear of breaking something. Having said that, however, I’m very grateful for your hospitality. Really, I’d put no thought at all into where to stay for the next day or two.’

  Harrie felt herself relax for the first time that day. ‘That was James’s idea, actually, inviting you to stay here. I’m very grateful to you for looking after the children.’

  ‘Oh, I enjoyed their company. I suspect the voyage would have been extremely boring, otherwise.’ Lucy placed her gloves and bonnet on the bed, then changed her mind and moved them to a cane chair.

  Glancing over her shoulder to make sure they were still alone, Harrie asked, ‘Were you there when Beatrice and Mr Handley found them? In London?’

  ‘No, they’d already been installed in Mrs Penfold’s house by the time I became involved. But you do allude to what I wished us to discuss.’

  ‘Go on,’ Harrie said, perching on the edge of the bed.

  Lucy moved her bonnet and gloves yet again, this time to a dressing table, and sat in the chair. ‘I don’t wish to upset you, Mrs Downey, but Mrs Penfold told me that they were in rather a shocking state when she first located them. They were living in a tenement in St Giles, in a single room with seven other people.’

  ‘Yes, I knew that. Sophie wrote. But what could I do about it except send money?’

  ‘Absolutely nothing, I expect. Apparently there was no hearth, the window was unglazed, and there was only one water pump and one privy per hundred tenants.’

  Harrie felt sick.

  ‘The children all had ringworm, and body and head lice, which Mrs Penfold said she managed to eradicate, though I’m not so sure about the latter as my own scalp has been suspiciously itchy for the past three months, and they were also suffering from chilblains, malnutrition, boils and bad coughs. Mrs Penfold had a doctor attend them and I must say they’ve improved remarkably after five months of decent meals. Even the shipboard food seems to have done them good. Anna, however, I suspect, had a touch of rickets as her legs are a little bowed. She also seems to be long-sighted, which the doctor apparently said can be a result of malnutrition.’

  That’s my fault, Harrie thought. That’s all my fault. ‘James can give them a thorough examination. He’ll know what to do if they need medical treatment.’

  ‘I was thinking Anna might need spectacles. She’s very keen on learning to read properly, but the effort associated with trying seems to give her a headache. The thing is, Mrs Downey —’

  ‘Oh, look, please call me Harrie. Everyone else does.’

  ‘Well, only if you’ll call me Lucy.’

  Harrie nodded and managed a smile, even though the news about the children was tearing at her heart. ‘Lucy, then.’

  ‘The thing is, they’re all really rather bright. I don’t know what you have planned for them —’

  ‘I don’t have anything planned. I didn’t even know they were coming until I saw them on the wharf! This is all my husband’s doing. I had no idea at all.’

  ‘You must be absolutely delighted to see them.’

  More tears flooded Harrie’s eyes, and a mighty squeeze of feeling almost closed her throat. ‘You have no idea. I’ve worried for them, and cried over them, and dreamt about seeing them again so often, but I never thought I actually would. And now they’re here and none of it feels quite real. Not yet, anyway.’

  ‘Well, I’m sure it will soon enough. If you’ll pardon me for being so forward, I think it would be worthwhile for them to attend school. As I said, they’re bright and I think they’d benefit. They’d have some catching up to do, but I’m sure they’re all capable of that.’

  ‘Do you think so?’ Harrie replied. ‘I never went to school. My mother taught me to read and write.’

  ‘Forgive me again, but did you have the means to attend?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘They will, though, won’t they?’

  ‘I expect so. James puts a lot of store in education.’

  Lucy fiddled with a button on her sleeve. ‘I do foresee one small problem. While I did manage to get Robbie to sit down with a book or a slate some of the time, I must admit he was more interested in spending time on deck with Walter Cobley and the rest of the crew. He’s a very headstrong boy, Robbie. He may not want to attend school, but I feel that he should. Such a waste of a good mind if he doesn’t. Harrie, may I be frank?’

  ‘Again?’

  Lucy grinned, but the smile quickly faded. ‘The thing is, I believe Robbie could well be headed for trouble if he isn’t gainfully occupied. In fact, Mr Handley suspected he’d already fallen in with a criminal element. Oh, I am sorry. No offence intended,’ Lucy added, going pink. ‘This is awkward, isn’t it?’

  Harrie waved off the unintentional affront. ‘Whatever he was up to in London, I’m sure he was only trying to provide for Sophie and Anna. There’ll be no need for him to get involved with that sort of thing here.’

  ‘No, but that doesn’t mean he won’t, does it?’

  That was true. While she’d been in Newgate Gaol awaiting trial and then transportation, Harrie had suspected Robbie of being light-fingered, and he’d only been eight then. But he’d had to steal; she’d been the only breadwinner in the family and she’d been taken away. She loved him very much. He was fiercely loyal, quick-witted, determined, resourceful and he could be very funny, especially when it came to entertaining Anna and Sophie, but perhaps he was also quite happy being a thief. Some people were. Look at Sarah.

  ‘And that brings me to another matter,’ Lucy said. ‘How easy will it be for him to hand over responsibility for his sisters to your husband? He’s been looking after them for the last four years, after all.’

  Harrie suppressed a sigh. She could certainly see that becoming a concern. ‘You’ve got to know them quite well, haven’t you?’

  ‘There wasn’t much else to do, jammed into a ship’s cabin for months.’

  Daisy knocked on the open door, Charlotte parked on her hip. ‘’Scuse me. Tea’s ready and Isaac wants to know where to put the trunks.’

  Charlotte reached out her arms for Harrie, who took her off Daisy.

  ‘Hello, again, sweetheart,’ Lucy said. ‘You’re a lovely little thing, aren’t you? What have you got there?’

  Opening her hand, Charlotte revealed a crumbled lump of shortbread.

  ‘Mmm, that looks tasty. Is there more downstairs?’

  Charlotte nodded solemnly.

  ‘Well, let’s go and find it, shall we?’

  ‘Find it!’ Charlotte crowed.

  After endless pestering, and against his better judgment, Leo took Walter to visit Sarah and Clifford, though he made him walk up George Street with his cap pulled down so low he could barely see.

  Sarah and Adam had just closed the shop after a busy day’s trading, and had locked the front door and were clearing the window displays and counting the takings from the till. Clifford was asleep under the counter, curled into a hairy little ball, when she suddenly woke, her ragged ears at attention, and burst into a fusillade of ear-splitting barks.

  His hands full of money, Adam stared down at her. ‘What’s got into her?’

  Sarah, instantly on the alert, said, ‘Maybe someone’s come into the house through the back.’

  But Clifford scrambled out from beneath the counter, her paws skidding on the floorboards, raced across to the shop door and scratched wildly, still barking. A moment later someone knocked.

  As Sarah slid the bolts across, she realised, with surprisingly mixed feelings, who their visitor might be. Harrie had sent a note that morning inviting her and Adam to a get-together the next evening to meet her brother and sisters, who’d finally arrived — James was such a decent man — and mentioning that Wal
ter was also back. She was fond of Walter, though he should have stayed away as Bella would be onto the stupid boy the moment she discovered he’d returned, but she was also very fond of Clifford now. No doubt Walter would want her back.

  Pushing Clifford out of the way with her foot, she opened the door. ‘Evening, Leo, Walter. I heard you were back.’

  Clifford shot around the door and launched herself at Walter. Grinning madly, he caught her mid-leap and clutched her to his chest, where she wriggled in a fit of ecstasy, yapping madly between licking his face and knocking off his cap.

  ‘For God’s sake, come in before someone sees you,’ Sarah snapped, and jerked him inside.

  Leo stepped in after him and Sarah relocked the door.

  ‘You’re a bloody little fool, coming back here,’ she said.

  ‘Everyone’s saying that,’ Walter replied, one arm under Clifford’s hindquarters and the other hand holding her face still so he could kiss her wet nose.

  ‘And they’re right. Stop that, will you, and listen to me!’ In response to Sarah’s voice, Clifford tried to give her cheek a placatory lick, but Sarah pushed her away. ‘Bugger off, you hairy little turncoat. Put her down, Walter, you’re mollycoddling her.’

  Adam shoved the money from the till into his pocket. ‘Come through to the house. I don’t know about you, Leo, but I’d kill for a brandy.’

  They all traipsed down the hallway, Clifford tearing backwards and forwards between Walter and Sarah, and took seats at the table in the dining room. While Adam poured drinks, Clifford sat first on Sarah’s knee, then Walter’s, then, clearly growing increasingly distressed, Sarah’s again, until finally she lay on the floor with her legs in the air, whining quietly while she eyed them both.

  ‘She doesn’t know who to go to,’ Leo observed.

  ‘Well, she’s Walter’s dog,’ Sarah said. ‘I was only looking after her because no one else would. You can have her back if you’re staying,’ she added to Walter. ‘Are you? I really don’t think you should.’

  Adam said, ‘Hold your horses, Sarah. You’re very fond of that dog, though God only knows why.’ He turned to Walter. ‘I’m sorry, son, but she is, and she’s cared for her very well. It’s a bit unfair of you to expect to claim her now you’re back.’