The Mistletoe Seller

by Dilly Court

  ‘Do you really want to know why I want to see you suffer?’

  ‘Yes, I do. It doesn’t make sense.’

  He took a seat at the head of the table, putting his feet up on the nearest chair. ‘Is there any coffee left in the pot? I had a damned uncomfortable ride in a donkey cart from the station.’

  Angel poured him a cup of strong black coffee, resisting the temptation to tip it over his head as she placed it in front of him. ‘Well, go on. I’m listening.’

  He sipped the coffee. ‘It’s cold.’ He pushed the cup and saucer away. ‘Ring for a fresh pot. I have something to tell you that will put you in your place for ever. You ruined my life and I intend to ruin yours.’

  ‘That’s ridiculous,’ Angel protested. ‘What could I have done to harm you?’

  Chapter Eighteen

  ‘You were born,’ Galloway leaned his elbows on the table, eyeing her with contempt. ‘But it was your conception that led to me losing the only woman I’ve ever loved.’

  Angel stared at him in disbelief. ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘I was a talented musician, and I could have studied anywhere in Europe.’ Galloway had a faraway look in his eyes and a smile hovered on his lips, which Angel found more frightening than his scowl. ‘I could have become a great pianist, but my father was a solicitor and he insisted that I follow in his footsteps, although he had retired by the time I was old enough to leave school. He forced me to accept a position as an articled clerk with Beauchamp and Quelch. I was paid a pittance and I eked out my wages by teaching the piano. My first pupil was a young girl called Jane Elizabeth Malone.’

  The initials were the same as those on her ring and Angel’s hand flew to her mouth to suppress a gasp of surprise. The mere idea of having him for a father was enough to sicken her, and a wave of dizziness threatened to overcome her and she sat down, unable to speak.

  ‘Jane was on the verge of womanhood, fresh as a rose and just as beautiful,’ Galloway continued, seemingly oblivious to her distress. ‘She was very talented and she had a wonderful sense of fun – she was always on the brink of laughter, and she brightened up a dreary world. I fell hopelessly in love with her, but her strict father would never have consented to a humble clerk paying court to his daughter. Jane returned my love and we planned to elope, but her father had other plans for her.’

  Galloway spoke like a lovelorn youth, but Angel could find no pity in her heart for the man who had caused her so much pain and distress.

  ‘What has this got to do with me?’

  ‘Shut up, and you’ll find out.’ Galloway’s eyes narrowed and his lips tightened into a thin line. ‘Her father had arranged for her to marry a much older man who was extremely wealthy. Despite her protests the wedding went ahead and there was nothing I could do to prevent my Jane being tied for life to a man more than twice her age.’

  ‘So you gave up without a fight,’ Angel said acidly. ‘Why doesn’t that surprise me?’

  He gave her a withering look. ‘We continued to meet in secret until she told me that she was in the family way, and we parted. I vowed never to see her again, but almost a year later I had to deliver a writ to a house close to where she lived. I walked up and down her street, hoping to catch a glimpse of her and I realised that she still held me captive, despite being a married woman and a mother. I forced myself to change my route and I went to Green Park to clear my head of the torment that raged in my soul, and it was there I met her again. She was accompanied by a nursemaid pushing the infant in a perambulator, but the moment I saw Jane again I was lost.’

  ‘Who did she marry?’ Angel demanded, clenching her hands in her lap. ‘What was her married name?’

  His glance flicked over her with reptilian coldness. ‘Montgomerie. A man who made his fortune importing Peruvian guano – a man who dealt in muck for a living – but that’s by the bye. As I was saying, we met in the park and it was obvious that she wasn’t happy. The fine house, elegant clothes and servants to wait on her were no substitute for true love. We arranged to meet at Gunter’s for tea, and after that we saw each other almost daily, finding some excuse to meet, as if by accident.’

  ‘So you were the man she ran off with.’ The words escaped Angel’s lips on a breath, but her heart was pounding and the blood drummed in her ears. It was a question she had to ask even though she dreaded the answer. ‘Are you my father?’

  He leaped to his feet, dragging the tablecloth with him and sending crockery and glassware flying. Coffee spilled onto the white cloth, spreading in a dark stain like blood oozing from a wound. ‘No, dammit. She was already with child when she left her husband, although she swore that she did not know it at the time. But I wasn’t going to have a cuckoo in the nest. She had a choice between you or me, and she chose you. I left her.’

  Angel stood up. She was shaking, but with anger, not fear. ‘You abandoned her. You took her away from her home and the child she had borne her husband, and then you walked away.’

  ‘I returned some months later to find her living in a dosshouse, about to give birth. I offered to take her back, but only if she gave you up. There is the Foundling Hospital and there are orphanages aplenty, but she refused my help. She was thin and gaunt and had lost her looks, but I wanted to stand by her. Once again she chose you over me, and yet you wonder why I hate you.’

  ‘So you left her penniless and unable to care for her baby. She threw herself into the Thames and drowned. Doesn’t that prey on your conscience?’

  ‘She could have made a different choice, but she was stubborn and she cared more for a squalling infant than she did for me. One of the old hags in the dosshouse told me that Jane had left you in Angel Alley that Christmas Eve. It was easy to trace you then, and pure coincidence that Joseph Wilding was one of my clients. When I learned of Jane’s death I knew who was to blame. I made it my business to follow your progress so that one day I could make you as miserable as you’ve made me.’

  ‘You’re mad,’ Angel said breathlessly. The manic flame in his eyes and the twisted look of hatred on his face were enough to convince her that he was quite insane. ‘You’re the one who was at fault for abandoning the woman you said you loved. You caused her death, not me. Get out of here or I’ll have you thrown out.’

  ‘No, my dear. You’re the one being thrown out. You will leave this morning. I’m due a tidy sum when the developers take possession of the estate. It will go some of the way to mend a broken heart.’

  ‘You have no heart,’ Angel said bitterly. ‘You are a monster and I hope you rot in hell.’ She could not bear the sight of him a moment longer and she left the room, heading for the kitchen and Lil, the only person who had been a constant in her life so far.

  Meg and Flossie had, at the last moment, decided to return to their families in the village, and it was Angel, Lil and Cook who arrived at the house in Naked Boy Court.

  Sergeant Baines was older, greyer and even less agreeable than he had been years ago, but he let them in with a sigh of resignation. ‘Are you sure I’ve got to put up with all them women?’ he demanded as Cook and Lil helped Russell to unload their luggage from the Devanes’ carriage.

  Angel met Baines’s stern look with a smile. ‘It’s not for ever, Sergeant Baines. I’ll explain everything, but I’m sure we could all do with a nice hot cup of tea.’

  He glared at Lil, who had struggled into the entrance hall hefting a heavy case. ‘I don’t want no interference in my kitchen. It’s bad enough having lost the colonel without being invaded by petticoats.’

  Lil glanced over her shoulder. ‘A gent would help a lady.’

  ‘I ain’t a gentleman and you certainly ain’t a lady,’ Baines said dolefully. ‘I suppose you’ll do what you want whatever I say, just like last time.’ He stomped off in the direction of the kitchen.

  ‘Try not to get on his bad side,’ Angel whispered. ‘We haven’t anywhere else to go.’

  ‘Huh! Men, they’re all the same.’ Lil went outside the collect mor
e of their luggage from the yard.

  Angel picked up her valise and carried it upstairs to the bedroom that she had shared with Dolly. Nothing had changed, except perhaps the layer of dust was a little thicker and the heat was stifling, having built up during the long hot days of summer. She opened a window, stretching a lacy cobweb until it gave way and the agitated spider swung to safety on a silken thread. The familiar stench of the city wafted into the room. It was putrid, but in a strange way it was comforting. Angel had grown up with the odours of the river and the exotic smells emanating from the warehouses that clustered around the docks. The rich aromas of roasting coffee and molten sugar, wine and spices had always struggled for supremacy over the rank stench of sewage, animal dung, soot and smoke, but that was the price city dwellers paid for living at the throbbing heart of the Empire. She left her case on the bed, intending to unpack later, and went downstairs to keep the peace between Lil and Baines.

  Later, after a meagre supper of bread and cheese, washed down by some of the sergeant’s beer, there being no tea left in the caddy, Angel remained at the table with Baines while Lil and Cook went upstairs to make up the beds. It was the opportunity for a quiet chat that Angel had been waiting for.

  ‘You already know why we’ve had to leave Grantley so suddenly,’ she said earnestly. ‘But you were close to Sir Adolphus, is there anything you can think of that might help save the estate?’ She met his quizzical gaze with a hint of a smile. ‘I’m not asking for myself, Baines. The colonel took me in and treated me like one of his own. I owe it to him to do everything I can to keep Grantley from being buried beneath roads and streets of new houses.’

  ‘People have to live somewhere,’ Baines said gruffly. ‘But I seem to recall the colonel telling me that part of the Grantley estate is Lammas Land.’

  ‘What is Lammas Land?’ Angel asked urgently.

  ‘I think it means common land, and has something to do with the local parishioners having rights to graze animals after the hay harvest until the following spring. I can’t remember the exact details, but there’s a chest filled with the colonel’s papers in his study. You might find something in it that would help.’

  ‘If it is common land does that make a difference?’

  ‘I can’t say, miss. But there’s only one way to find out.’ Baines put his hand in his pocket and took out a bunch of keys. ‘I never let these out of me sight, but I trust you.’ He handed it to Angel with a nod. ‘That solicitor fellow came here one day not long after I heard that the colonel had died. He wanted to know if the colonel kept any papers here, and I said I had no knowledge of the colonel’s private business. As far as I know, I says, everything is dealt with by the colonel’s lawyer and that ain’t you, sir.’

  ‘And what did he say to that?’

  ‘He looked away, muttered something and left. I didn’t take to the fellow and I certainly didn’t trust him, and from what you told me earlier, it seems I was right.’

  Angel rose to her feet, clutching the keys in her hand. ‘I can’t wait until morning. I won’t get a wink of sleep until I know what’s in that chest.’

  ‘It’ll be cold in the study.’ Baines swallowed the last of his beer. ‘I’ll bring the chest back here so that you can go through it in comfort.’ He stood up and Angel heard his bones creak as he flexed his muscles, but she was not about to refuse his offer.

  He picked up the lamp and led the way through the draughty passages to the study, which was equally dank and cold. The smell of musty books and rising damp added to the sombre atmosphere in the shuttered room. Angel could not quite dispel the feeling that Sir Adolphus still inhabited the place where he had spent many hours, poring over his books with his two greyhounds for company. Thor and Juno had been left with Russell and his wife, who lived in a cottage behind the coach house at Grantley, and Angel had the satisfaction of knowing that they were loved and well cared for. She was certain that Sir Adolphus would have approved of such an arrangement, and, as if in answer to her unspoken question, a draught of cold air rushed through the room, creating flurries in the dust and rattling the shutters. A superstitious shiver ran down Angel’s spine, but Baines remained calm and unruffled as he picked up the wooden chest.

  ‘Reckon I’d best light a fire in here tomorrow,’ he said gruffly. ‘The colonel wouldn’t want his books to be ruined by damp.’ He gave Angel a sympathetic grin. ‘Come on, miss. Let’s get back to the warmth. He wouldn’t want you coming down with a chill.’

  Angel nodded, too choked with emotion to speak.

  The contents of the chest were disappointing: mostly household accounts, newspaper cuttings reporting the various skirmishes that the colonel’s regiment had been involved in, and bills for his uniform and accoutrements. It was not until she took out a scroll of parchment, tied with red tape, that she discovered what appeared to be the original deeds. She unrolled the fragile document and spread it out on the kitchen table, peering at the spidery writing. ‘Do you think this is what Galloway was looking for, Baines?’

  He leaned closer. ‘I dunno nothing about legal matters, miss. But I’d say it’s a fair chance that this is important or he wouldn’t have made such a fuss about searching the master’s study. I thought I might have to throw him out bodily, but lucky for him he decided to retreat.’

  ‘He’ll be back,’ Angel said thoughtfully. ‘I need to know what to do with this, and I want to find out more about Lammas Land. I think there’s someone who might be able to help, and if not I’ll go to Sir Eugene.’

  ‘Maybe you should wait for Captain Devane’s return, miss.’

  ‘I’ve a feeling it will be too late by then.’ Angel rolled the document carefully and secured it with the tape. ‘Tomorrow morning, first thing, I’m going to Hackney and then on to Westwood Hall. Promise me that you won’t fall out with Lil and Cook, Baines. We have to stick together or we’ll lose everything.’

  It was late morning by the time Angel arrived at the Wickses’ cottage and Sally greeted her warmly, as did Stumpy. The dog jumped up and down, attempting to lick Angel’s hand, and he kept on until she bent down to make a fuss of him. The scent of dried lavender wafted from the tiny front parlour and the kitchen was filled with the savoury aroma of cooking and loaves of freshly baked bread, cooling on the table.

  ‘Jack and Danny are working on the plot,’ Sally said, wiping her hands on her apron. She eyed Angel curiously. ‘Danny told us about the trouble at Grantley. Is there anything we can do to help, love?’

  Angel took off her mantle and bonnet and laid them on a chair. ‘That’s why I’m here, although it’s a good excuse to come and see you as well.’

  ‘Sit down, dear, and I’ll call the men in. We’ll have a nice cup of tea and you can tell us all about it.’ Sally bustled to the door, opened it and stepped outside to call to her husband and son.

  They arrived, moments later, ruddy-cheeked and smelling of wet earth and fresh air. Jack beamed at Angel, but Danny held back, eyeing her warily.

  ‘This is a pleasant surprise,’ Jack said warmly. ‘How are you keeping, Angel?’

  She smiled. ‘I’m well, thank you.’

  Sally gave her son a straight look. ‘Have you nothing to say, Danny?’

  ‘Is there any news about our strip of land?’ he said gruffly.

  ‘That’s not much of a welcome.’ Sally moved to the range and picked up the kettle. ‘Sit down both of you and have a cup of tea. I think Angel has something she wants to tell us.’

  Angel pulled up a chair and sat down. She explained the reason for her visit as briefly as possible. ‘I thought you would know about Lammas Land, Jack,’ she concluded. ‘It’s mentioned in the deeds to Grantley and the deer park is included in the curtilage, whatever that is.’

  Jack scratched his head. ‘I dunno about curtilage, but Lammas Land is common land, and I don’t think the developers would get permission to build on it, but you’d have to get proper legal advice.’

  ‘You won’t be using Galloway agai
n, will you?’ Danny asked anxiously.

  ‘No, certainly not. I’m going to see Sir Eugene at Westwood Hall. He’s been very helpful so far, and naturally Lady Westwood is eager for Hector to claim his inheritance.’

  Sally gave her an anxious look as she passed a cup of tea to her husband. ‘Surely you’re not going to attempt the walk across the marshes today, Angel? The mist is coming in already, and you know how treacherous the ground is at this time of the year.’

  ‘I’ve come this far and I have to see Sir Eugene as soon as possible. Galloway has already been to the house in Naked Boy Court, looking for the deeds. I have them in my reticule and I must get them to Sir Eugene so that he can put them before his solicitor.’

  ‘I’ll take the donkey cart and see her safe across the marsh, Ma,’ Danny said, rising from his chair. ‘Can you manage without me for an hour or two, Pa?’

  Jack shrugged. ‘It’s more important to look after Angel, but don’t loiter. I want you back before dark.’

  A white mist swirled around them as the donkey plodded along the well-worn path across the marsh. Visibility was down to a few yards and there was a chill in the air. ‘Don’t worry,’ Danny said, giving the reins a gentle flick. ‘Dash knows his way blindfold.’

  ‘I suppose he must do. You used to come this way every day when you were working in the greenhouse at Grantley.’

  ‘If there’s anything I can do to help get it restored to the family, you know I will.’

  ‘This is help enough, Danny. It would take me a long time to cross the marsh on foot and I’d probably get lost, especially with the fog closing in as it is.’

  Danny cleared his throat. ‘I think you know how I feel about you, Angel. I wouldn’t have said anything while you were living with the Devanes, but now you’re free of them I think I have the right to speak.’

  ‘I might have been living in the big house, but I’m still the same girl I was when I first knew you.’

  ‘No, you’re not. You’re a lady, and I’m just a gardener sharing Pa’s stall in Covent Garden market, but I love you, Angel. I reckon I always have, only I didn’t know it until that day in the greenhouse when I kissed you, and you kissed me back.’