Riches to Rags

by Beryl Matthews

  ‘Oh, isn’t it? You accuse an obviously well-bred young girl of being a thief and then turn her out.’

  ‘How was I to know? For God’s sake, Louise, she’s been scrubbing our floors.’

  ‘Exactly! So how desperate do you think that makes her?’ Louise wiped a hand over her eyes and sighed. ‘This is terrible, Gilbert. I didn’t expect her to flee from this house so quickly. I thought I would have time to see her on her own and put the matter right. We’ve got to find her before anyone else does. She might not have anywhere else to go.’

  Finally his parents became quiet, and Matt could almost taste the tension and worry in the room. The sense of triumph he’d felt, when the engine had roared into life after he’d put it back together, evaporated. What was going to happen to that poor girl now?

  The door opened and Mrs Douglas hurried in, very out of breath. ‘I’m so sorry, madam, but she’s gone. There was a bus at the stop and she jumped on just as it was pulling away.’

  ‘Which bus?’ Matt asked. There was no way he was going to keep out of this.

  ‘I couldn’t see, Mr Matthew.’ The housekeeper was clearly upset. ‘She glanced back at me as the bus went up the road, and she looked so young and frightened. I don’t believe she knew or cared which bus she was on. All she wanted to do was get away.’

  His parents now had an air of hopelessness about them, and his brothers were not contributing anything to help with the crisis, so Matt took over. ‘Who among the servants knew her the best?’

  ‘That would be Edna. They shared a room,’ the housekeeper told him.

  ‘Bring her here, please, Mrs Douglas.’

  The housekeeper returned with Edna, who was red-eyed with weeping.

  Matt left the questioning to his mother, who now seemed in control again.

  ‘Edna, do you know where Jenny might have gone?’

  ‘No.’ Another tear trickled down her face. ‘I’m that worried, madam. She ain’t fit to be out there on her own.’

  ‘Do you know who she is?’ Gilbert asked.

  ‘She never talked about herself – not even to me, and we was friends. But I know she wasn’t used to hard work. You should have seen her poor hands at first. There was never a complaint, though; just got on with the jobs, she did.’ Edna’s eyes were brimming over. ‘She isn’t a thief. Mrs Douglas said she’d told you she owned those things. If she said that, then it was the truth. She ain’t a liar neither.’

  Louise handed the housemaid a handkerchief.

  The maid mopped up her tears. ‘I did know she was hiding from someone. Real frightened of him, she was.’

  ‘We’ve got to find her, Edna.’ Matt didn’t like this situation at all. The thought of a defenceless girl like that running scared worried him. There was no telling what might happen to her. ‘Didn’t she tell you anything about friends she might have – someone she could go to?’

  Edna chewed her lip. ‘As I said, she didn’t say nothing about herself. Except …’

  ‘Yes?’ Matt prompted, when the girl stopped what she was saying.

  ‘She did say she came from Lambeth and went to school there.’

  ‘We know that isn’t true.’ Matt’s father was now pacing the room with an empty glass in his hand as if he’d forgotten to fill it with brandy. ‘She’s probably seen sense and gone home.’

  ‘Oh, no, sir!’ Edna was clearly horrified. ‘That’s the last thing she’d do. Too frightened, she is. This man what’s after her is not nice. When we was on the train today she saw something in a newspaper. Went white, she did – I thought she was going to faint. No! She won’t go home.’

  ‘Which newspaper?’ Louise sat down as if drained of all strength and began to scan the papers on the table.

  ‘I don’t know. She threw it out the window before I could see it.’ Edna hesitated, then gave Matt a pleading look. ‘You got to find her. She ain’t got no one. On her own, she is.’

  He nodded grimly. ‘I’ll do my best.’

  But where did he start?

  ‘Keep a sharp lookout, Luke,’ Matt ordered as he drove slowly up the road.

  ‘This is hopeless, you know that,’ his brother complained. ‘She could be anywhere by now. And why the hell are you bothering?’

  ‘Because she’s a young frightened girl and we don’t know if she’s got a family, or anywhere to go.’ He gave his brother a worried look. ‘Father acted too hastily, and I consider that makes us responsible for her safety!’

  ‘You would think that,’ Luke said with a shake of his head.

  ‘What does that mean?’ he snapped.

  ‘You care too much about other people and what’s going on in the world. Look at the way you’re always going on about the emerging Nazi Party. Now this R101 airship is really something to get excited about. Just think, Matt, with the kind of aircraft they’re now developing it won’t be long before we can go anywhere by air.’

  ‘I agree that it is an exciting prospect, but I happen to believe that the Nazis are dangerous. And they’re getting far too powerful. They’ve won almost a hundred seats in this month’s German elections.’ Matt loved his brother, but Luke couldn’t seem to see past his own little world …

  Luke continued as if he hadn’t spoken. ‘And the girl you’re getting in a stew about is only a servant –’

  ‘My God!’ exploded Matt. ‘What an unfeeling beast you are.’

  Luke laughed in his usual careless way. ‘No, I’m not. I’m a realist. While this girl was under our roof we were responsible for her, but Father has dismissed her. For a very good reason, as far as I can see. Stop worrying, Matt. She’ll go back to her family and soon get another job.’

  ‘Suppose she hasn’t got anyone who would take her in; have you thought of that?’ Matt drove along Oxford Street. ‘Keep looking. Some of the buses from our place do come along here. I wish Mrs Douglas had thought to get the number of the bus before it disappeared.’

  His brother scanned the pavements. ‘She could be anywhere. Why don’t you try the Edgware Road?’

  Without a word Matt shot down a side road, turned round and headed back the way they’d come.

  After another half an hour, Luke had clearly had enough. ‘Let’s go back. We’re never going to find her, and it’s nearly dark now.’

  With great reluctance Matt had to admit that his brother was right. He’d been driving around aimlessly, without the faintest notion of where the girl might have gone. Concern sat like a heavy weight on him as he drove past Marble Arch Station and headed back home. God keep you safe, he prayed silently.

  ‘Did you find her?’ their mother asked as soon as they walked into the drawing room.

  ‘Sorry, Mother.’ Matt sat down and picked up one of the newspapers now littering the room. ‘Did you find anything?’

  ‘No,’ John said. Whatever frightened her on the train isn’t in any of these newspapers. At least we don’t think so, but really, we haven’t any idea what or who she’s running from.’

  Luke poured himself a drink and shrugged. ‘It’s out of our hands now. We’ve done all we can.’

  ‘Yes!’ Louise glared at her husband. ‘We’ve thrown a young girl out to fend for herself. And I, for one, am very worried about her safety.’

  ‘Ah, my dear, don’t upset yourself so,’ her husband soothed. ‘We’ve dismissed servants before, and I’m sure this one was lying to us. We couldn’t keep her.’

  ‘Maybe not,’ she agreed, still looking concerned. ‘If she was masquerading as a servant, then we obviously couldn’t have kept her. But I would have preferred to know what this was all about, and to see that she had somewhere else to go.’

  Matt watched his mother. He had never seen her so concerned, and he felt the same.

  ‘What do you think about all this, Matt?’ she asked her youngest son.

  ‘I don’t know,’ he admitted. ‘But I wish I’d been able to bring her back here until we’d got to the bottom of the mystery.’

  ‘There’s no myst
ery,’ his father said with an air of exasperation. ‘The girl was untrustworthy. You must never take anyone on without proper references again, Louise. It only leads to trouble. Now let us have an end to this. I will not have a thief under my roof! And if those items had really belonged to her, she would have explained, and that would have saved all this unpleasantness.’

  ‘But she didn’t steal the snuffboxes, Gilbert, and you had no proof that the dress and pendant were stolen by her.’

  ‘Of course they were! Her silence condemned her.’

  Matt glanced at his mother and frowned. They were very alike in temperament. And, it seemed, the only two who were worried about the girl.

  ‘How did you get on today?’ his father asked, effectively changing the subject.

  Matt explained about his success in stripping down the engine and putting it back together.

  ‘How many bits did you have left over?’ Luke laughed.

  ‘Not one,’ he told them with a sense of pride.

  ‘Well done,’ his father said, happy now the vexing subject of the girl had been dropped.

  The conversation turned to general topics and the Stannard family indulged in their usual friendly banter. The unpleasant incidents of the day seemed to have been forgotten.

  There were people hurrying to and from the trains, and Jenny pretended to be studying the map of the stations on the wall. She was utterly lost and bewildered. Any hope of finding shelter here for the night had vanished. An underground railway station was no place for a young girl by herself. There were already some rather unsavoury-looking characters around, and one was eyeing her in the way that Greaves had. What was she going to do? Could she afford a hotel for one night? That idea was instantly dismissed. What little money she had would have to be used sparingly. But she couldn’t wander around London all night. Her insides churned alarmingly. The thought was terrifying!

  She touched the pendant round her neck. At least she still had that. She’d have to go to the pawnbroker tomorrow and sell it … Lambeth! Glad and Fred. They’d said she could go to them if she was in trouble – and she certainly was in trouble. Why hadn’t she thought of that before? They would take her in for one night, or at least show her somewhere safe to sleep. Then she could decide what to do in the morning.

  Galvanized into action, Jenny searched her bag for the address, letting out a ragged sigh when she found it. The paper was torn but still legible. Thank goodness she always carried it with her. Now that she’d made up her mind, she wanted to get there as quickly as possible. In less than an hour it would be dark. She hurried to buy a ticket to Lambeth.

  ‘How do I get there?’ she asked nervously.

  The man peered over the top of his glasses and leant on the counter. ‘You get on a train going to Oxford Circus, change there to the Bakerloo Line and that will take you to Lambeth North.’

  ‘Thank you.’ She hurried down the crowded stairs, stopping to see what platform she needed, then rushed to get on the train just thundering into the station.

  ‘Excuse me.’ Jenny stopped a woman outside Lambeth North Station. ‘Could you tell me where Forest Road is, please?’

  ‘Take a left turn at the bottom of the road opposite you, then left again into Park Street, halfway down there you’ll see a road on the right, that’s Forest.’

  ‘Thank you.’ But Jenny was speaking to herself; the woman was already hurrying away.

  She crossed the road and headed in the direction the woman had pointed out. It was quite dark now and she was really frightened about walking along these unfamiliar streets on her own, but she was even more scared of staying out all night, so she kept walking. She found Park Street easily enough, and her pace quickened as she passed groups of men standing outside the houses, smoking and laughing. It was with immense relief that she turned into Forest Road. The house at the top of the road was No. 38; she would have to walk quite a way, because Fred and Glad lived at No. 14.

  Whoever had named this street must have had a perverse sense of humour, she decided, as there wasn’t a tree in sight. The road was narrow and dingy, with the front doors right on the pavement. The paintwork on the doors and windows was peeling on most of them, revealing rotting wood underneath. Jenny began to shake. These were slum dwellings, and, from what she could see of the men and women standing on the front steps talking to each other, these people were very poor. Her step faltered. How could she ask someone she’d met only once to take her in? But she didn’t have anywhere else to go. She would have to throw herself on Fred and Glad’s mercy. If they couldn’t help her, they might know where she could find shelter until the morning.

  No. 20, not far now. She dropped her bag on the pavement outside No. 14 and let out a ragged sigh. Some effort had been made to make the front look presentable. Although a coat of fresh paint was needed, at least it wasn’t peeling off, and the step was clean enough to grace the Stannard house. Dismay tore through her when she remembered how they had treated her. They hadn’t needed any proof before calling her a thief, and to dismiss her in that way had been brutal. It would have been sensible to ask if she could stay the night and leave in the morning, but, if she’d done that, they might have insisted that she leave the dress and pendant behind. They were all she had left of value and she couldn’t risk it. She hoped she never saw any of them again – except Edna, of course. She was going to miss her very much.

  A group of men turned into the street, singing at the tops of their voices and reeling about all over the place. Drunk! In panic Jenny hammered on the front door. Oh, please be in, she prayed. The men had seen her and were already calling out; from the remarks they were making, they were obviously intent on having a bit of fun. She picked up her case and glanced around for somewhere to hide, but there wasn’t anywhere. It was a narrow street of terraced houses as far as she could see, without even a small gap between them. She was just about to bolt as the door opened. When she saw Fred’s kindly face a tear trickled down her cheek in relief.

  ‘I need help, please!’

  Fred peered at her in the gloom.

  ‘I’m Jenny.’

  ‘Well, I’ll be blowed, so it is.’ He stepped back and opened the door wide. ‘Come in.’

  She practically ran in. The front door opened straight into the living room and Glad was already on her feet.

  ‘My dear child, whatever’s happened to you? You’re in a right state.’

  That was too much for Jenny’s frayed nerves. She stood in the middle of the room, head bowed, and sobbed her heart out. Now she was safe, the horror of what had happened this evening was too much to bear. She’d lost her job, been accused of being a thief, and had to leave Edna behind. She tried to pull herself together, being ashamed of carrying on like this in front of people she hardly knew.

  Fred took the case out of her hands. ‘There, don’t take on so. You’re all right now. Put the kettle on, Glad.’

  ‘Come and sit down.’

  A young woman took her arm and pushed her gently into a chair. It was only then that she looked around and saw that the tiny room was crowded with people. She wiped her eyes, blew her nose and gulped. ‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come here, but I didn’t know what else to do.’

  Glad put a cup of tea in her hand. ‘We told you to come to us if you was in trouble, didn’t we?’

  ‘I know but it’s such an imposition.’

  Fred grinned. ‘Still using those long words, are you? Drink your tea now.’

  Her hands were shaking so much it was difficult to bring the cup to her lips, but she managed it without spilling too much. After a couple of mouthfuls she began to feel calmer. Fred and Glad were just as she remembered them. They wouldn’t turn her out.

  ‘I was going to try to sleep at Marble Arch Station,’ she told them.

  Fred tutted. ‘You couldn’t do that. It’s much too dangerous for a young girl.’

  ‘Let’s introduce you to everyone.’ Glad smiled. ‘This is our daughter, Ivy, and her husband, Ron. T
heir two kids, Alice and baby Bert. And this is Fred’s brother, Stan.’

  ‘I’m pleased to meet you all.’ She pulled a hanky out of her pocket, blew her nose and gave a watery smile.

  ‘Now,’ Fred said, sitting opposite her, ‘you tell us what this is all about.’

  For the next half an hour she explained what had happened since she’d met them and they’d taken her to the pawnbroker’s, and about the Stannards dismissing her because they thought she was a thief.

  ‘But I’m not,’ she declared stoutly. ‘Those things are mine, honest.’

  Glad patted her hand. ‘We know that, my dear.’

  Of course they would, Jenny thought, but it was wonderful to know that someone believed she wasn’t lying. They’d seen the items she’d sold to the pawnbroker. ‘I had to leave at once because I was afraid they would find out who I really was.’

  ‘Is that man you told us about still after you?’ Fred asked.

  ‘Yes, and he’s offering a large reward to anyone who can tell him where I am.’ She stood up suddenly, the cup she was still holding rattling in the saucer. That kind of money was probably more than this family had ever seen in their lives. Her situation was hopeless. Why had she ever thought she could get away? But perhaps she could do something good before she condemned herself to a wretched life.

  ‘Sit down, Jen.’ Fred relieved her of the cup.

  After sinking into the chair again, she gazed at Fred and Glad, feeling bewildered and very lost. ‘I don’t know how I can survive without a job. I can’t go back to the agency, because Mrs Dearing would never find me another place, and I don’t stand a chance without references. There’s only one thing I can do and that is go home.’ She felt like moaning at the thought but managed to keep her anguish inside her. ‘But that awful man isn’t going to get me unless he pays! If I tell you who I am, then you can claim the reward of a hundred pounds.’

  Fred was immediately on his feet, an outraged expression on his face. ‘We’ll do no such thing! As far as we’re concerned, you’re a young girl by the name of Jenny who is in trouble. That’s all we need to know.’