by Dilly Court
Still not much the wiser, but feeling relieved that her condition was not going to prove fatal, Eliza went out into the yard and drew water from the pump. Having completed her ablutions, she filled the kettle and took it back into the house. She found Freddie sprawled in Ted’s chair by the range and Dolly perched on the edge of her seat listening enthralled to the medical jargon that tripped off his lips. Millie was huddled on a stool with her arms wrapped around her knees, eyeing them warily.
‘Of course,’ Freddie continued, puffing out his chest, ‘I’m not one to boast, but I have excellent qualifications from the University of Paris where I studied medicine.’
‘So why don’t you set up in practice, doctor? Or work in one of the London hospitals?’ Dolly asked, wide-eyed with interest.
‘Because, ma’am, I prefer to spread my talents amongst the poor and needy. I am a free spirit and a free thinker. I work to benefit mankind and bring my knowledge to those most in need.’
Dolly leaned forward, her eyes shining. ‘Can you give me something for my nerves, doctor? I’m a martyr to my nerves and palpitations have kept me confined to the house for many long years.’
Eliza set the kettle on the hob and drew up another stool to sit beside Millie. ‘Don’t be scared, dear,’ she whispered. ‘No one is going to hurt you.’
‘My dear lady, I shall give you some of my blood purifier, Sanguis purus, which will do the trick nicely. We’ll soon have you dancing in the street like the pretty young woman that you are.’
Covering her face with her pinafore, Dolly burst into a fit of giggles. ‘Oh, doctor, you are a one.’
Eliza stared at Freddie, and, seeming to feel her glance, he looked up with a benign smile. She was certain that he winked at her, but it was done so quickly that she thought she might have been mistaken. Surely the doctor was not having Dolly on? Eliza set about making a pot of tea and, as instructed by Dolly, she fetched a packet of broken biscuits from the cupboard in the scullery.
Freddie took a bottle of medicine from his suitcase, and Eliza was sent to fetch a teaspoon. He administered a dose with the aplomb of a fairground magician: Eliza half expected him to produce a rabbit from his bowler hat, but he merely put the cork back in the bottle, placing it on the mantelshelf.
Dolly smacked her lips, smiling happily. ‘I can feel it doing me good already.’
‘So it will, Mrs Peck,’ Freddie said, resuming his seat by the fire. ‘Eliza will see that you only take one teaspoonful at a time. It’s unwise to overdose on medication.’
Eliza poured the tea into Dolly’s best china cups. ‘Can Millie stay here with us, Mum?’
‘Oh, Lord. Don’t ask me such awkward questions, Eliza. Not in front of the good doctor. I don’t know what to say.’
‘Say yes, please say yes. Otherwise she’ll have to go back to the workhouse.’
‘I don’t understand why you brought the workhouse child here in the first place,’ Dolly said, frowning. ‘And shouldn’t you being going back to your place of work, dear?
Eliza stared helplessly at Freddie; she couldn’t bring herself to tell Dolly the truth. The dire facts about Mrs Tubbs’s activities might bring on a severe attack of the vapours and undo all the good that Dr Prince’s medicine had done.
Freddie seemed to understand Eliza’s unspoken plea for help. He reached out to pat Dolly’s hand. ‘My dear lady, there is something that I should discuss with your husband when he returns home, the facts being too harsh for the ears of a delicate person such as yourself.’
‘Oh, Lord above us.’ Dolly’s mouth turned down at the corners and her lips wobbled ominously.
‘You must not distress yourself, ma’am. As my patient, I advise you strongly to calm yourself.’
‘Yes, doctor. Anything you say.’ Dolly sank back in her chair, fanning herself with her hand.
Freddie pulled a pocket watch from his waistcoat pocket and, taking Dolly’s wrist gently between his fingers, he took her pulse. ‘As I thought, ma’am, your pulse is racing. I strongly advocate a rest in bed until your husband returns from work and, if I may, I will call upon him or, better still, I’ll visit him at his place of work.’
‘Of course, I’ll go to my bed immediately.’ Dolly rose unsteadily to her feet. ‘Eliza will see you out and you, little girl, whatever your name is, you can help me upstairs.’ Beckoning to Millie, Dolly took her by the hand. ‘Can you see the way, dear?’
Millie shot a puzzled look at Eliza, who gave her an encouraging nod.
‘Yes’m. I can see fine.’ Millie led Dolly to the stairs, guiding her between the furniture.
‘Eliza,’ Freddie said, when they were out of earshot. ‘I have a proposition to put before you.’
Chapter Four
‘How would you like to work for me?’ Freddie’s eyes twinkled, although his face was set in a serious expression.
‘Doing what, sir?’
He set his hat on his head, and struck a pose with his thumbs tucked in his waistcoat pockets. ‘I am a professional man, although some ignorant people call my profession crocussing, which is blatantly as unfair as it is untrue. I peddle hope and comfort to the unfortunate poor and in doing so I make myself a reasonable living, which is only right and proper. Now I could do a lot better with an assistant, or maybe two, if that little scrap upstairs is not to return to the workhouse. She’s suitably pale and thin and, with a bit of coaching, would make an excellent ailing child, who can be seen to benefit miraculously from my nostrums. What do you say, Eliza? I could pay you the same as Mrs Tubbs, maybe more if we did well together.’
Eliza stared at him, dazed. ‘Work for you, sir? As a doctor’s assistant?’
‘An assistant, certainly. How about it?’
‘I think I’d like to, but you would have to ask Dad, I mean Mr Peck.’
‘And that’s exactly what I intend to do.’ Freddie picked up his bags. ‘We’ll go to Mr Peck’s place of work right away. Where is it, by the way?’
‘Eliza, don’t leave me.’ Millie’s voice rose in an anxious wail as she came running down the stairs.
‘Come along then, Millie.’ Eliza held out her hand.
‘You ain’t taking me back to the workhouse.’
‘There’s no fear of that,’ Eliza said firmly. ‘You and me is going to be the doctor’s assistants.’
Enoch was hunched over his ledgers like a carrion crow huddled over the remains of a dead rat. He scowled ominously when he saw Eliza as she followed Freddie into the chandlery. ‘What’s this then? And who are you, mister?’
‘Doctor,’ Freddie said, setting down his bags. ‘Dr Frederick Prince and I’ve come to see the sailmaker.’
‘What’s she doing with you?’ Enoch pointed his pen at Eliza.
‘I don’t think that’s any of your business, sir.’ Freddie marched to the bottom of the ladder that led up to the sail loft. ‘Ahoy, there, Mr Peck. Permission to come aboard, sir.’
The hatch opened and Ginger’s freckled face appeared through the hole. ‘Who’s asking?’
‘Dr Frederick Prince, late of the University of Paris.’ Freddie mounted the ladder with Eliza and Millie close on his heels. ‘I’ve come to speak to your employer, lad. Make way there.’
Ted climbed off his stool, approaching Freddie with a curious stare. ‘Who wants me then?’
Eliza moved closer to Davy, who was sitting cross-legged on the floor, working on a lateen sail. He looked up and grinned. ‘Who’s that, Liza?’
She laid her finger on her lips. ‘Shhh! I’m trying to hear what they’re saying.’ But it was impossible. Ted had taken Freddie to a far corner of the loft where he conducted his business, out of earshot of the apprentices. Eliza watched them, wishing she could hear what they were saying, but struck by the difference in the two men. Ted was much older, of course, and stooped from a life spent bent double working on canvas. He had seemed big and strong to her, but standing beside Freddie he looked quite small and insignificant. Freddie was not much taller, but he h
eld himself straight, like the guardsmen that Eliza had once seen standing outside Buckingham Palace. Although he was slim, he had wide shoulders and a solid look about him that might make men think twice before they challenged him to a bout of fisticuffs. There was something about that him reminded Eliza of Bart, or maybe it was simply being back in her old home that had made her think of him at this particular moment. Her heart contracted with the pain of missing her brother. He had promised to send for her and she knew that he would keep that promise, if he could; but there were terrible dangers at sea, she knew all about those from the mariners who came into the chandlery. She had grown up listening to seamen’s tales of storms, typhoons, ships lost and men drowned. Her throat constricted painfully and it was only when Millie tugged at her hand that she came back to earth. For a moment her imagination had taken her into wild seas, storm-tossed ships and Bart in peril of his life.
‘How do I know it’s all above board?’ Ted’s raised voice echoed around the sail loft as he stood glaring at Freddie.
‘I can assure you that I am an honest man dedicated to helping those less fortunate than myself.’
‘You can’t soap me, mister. I know all about you crocussers. Quacks and charlatans, the lot of you.’
Eliza opened her mouth to protest and then thought better of it; this was not going at all to plan. She glanced anxiously at Freddie, but he was looking unperturbed.
‘Mr Peck, I understand your feelings, sir. And I agree that there are many unscrupulous men in my profession but I am not one of them.’
Ted frowned, shaking his head. ‘I don’t know about that. From what you’ve just told me about Mrs Tubbs, who I thought was a good, respectable woman, I’ll have to think hard before I trust Eliza to someone else.’
‘I can assure you—’ began Freddie but was cut short by Ted holding up his hand.
‘I need time to think it over.’
The boys had stopped working and were listening to this exchange, open-mouthed.
Davy scrambled to his feet and came to stand by Eliza. ‘What’s going on, Liza?’
‘Get back to work, all of you.’ Ted turned on the apprentices with a fierce frown. ‘And you, Davy Little. This is none of your business.’
‘I’ll call round this evening,’ Davy whispered out of the corner of his mouth. He scuttled back to his place, sitting on the floor beside Dippy Dan, who as usual was chortling and mumbling to himself as he coated lengths of yarn with beeswax.
‘Of course you must talk it over with your good lady,’ Freddie said equably. ‘And, if I may, I will call upon you this evening to hear your decision. Good day to you, Mr Peck.’ As he walked past her, Freddie bent down with his lips close to Eliza’s ear. ‘Don’t worry, my dear, Freddie Prince always gets his own way in the end.’
‘We’d best be going too then,’ Eliza said, eyeing Ted nervously, unsure whether he was cross with her or merely put out by the strange turn of events.
‘Yes, yes,’ he said impatiently. ‘Get on home then, Liza. We’ll sort this out later.’
With Millie following her like a shadow, Eliza shinned down the ladder into the shop below. She hesitated when she saw that Uncle Enoch was standing with his back to the door, arms folded across his chest, barring Freddie’s exit.
‘Let me pass, my good fellow. I have business to do.’
‘And how does it concern my niece?’
‘Your niece?’ Eyebrows raised, Freddie turned to Eliza. ‘Is this true?’
Eliza nodded. ‘It’s true, but he threw me out on the street. Ted and Dolly took me into their home.’
‘That’s a lie!’ Enoch’s brows knotted over the top of his nose and his nostrils flared. ‘This child is a daughter of Satan and she lies. She ran away from me when I chastised her for being untruthful. I’ll say it again, mister, what is your business with my niece?’
‘He’s lying,’ Eliza cried. ‘Don’t believe him, Dr Prince.’
‘A doctor!’ Enoch’s lip curled. ‘A crocusser more like.’
‘I could show you my diploma from the University of Paris, but I don’t feel the need to prove myself to you, sir.’ Freddie held his hand out to Eliza. ‘I’ve heard enough and I know who I believe. Come, Eliza and Millie, we’re finished here.’
Flinging his arms out across the door, Enoch glared at Freddie. ‘Take this child from me and I’ll have you charged with kidnapping. Eliza is my dead brother’s daughter and I am her legal guardian.’
‘How much?’ Freddie demanded, putting his hand in his pocket. ‘How much do you want for her, you old villain?’
‘You insult me, insinuating that I would sell my own flesh and blood.’ Enoch’s eyes gleamed with greed. ‘But I will take a nominal sum to compensate me for all the expenses involved in her upbringing and education. Four pounds.’
‘That seems a rather large nominal sum.’
‘Two pound ten.’
‘Two guineas and that’s my last offer.’
‘Done!’ Enoch held out his hand.
Freddie produced two golden sovereigns and two shilling pieces, dropping them into Enoch’s outstretched hand. ‘Now move aside, sir. Our business is concluded.’
Enoch sidled past Freddie, casting a scornful glance at Eliza. ‘Good riddance.’
Dizzy with relief and barely able to believe that she was really and truly free of Uncle Enoch, Eliza tossed her head. ‘Same to you, you old skinflint.’ Holding tightly to Millie’s hand, she followed Freddie out into the street. ‘Did you really buy me?’
‘I bought your freedom, Eliza. Now you go on home to Dolly, and I’ll find myself some new lodgings.’
‘You will come round tonight, like you said?’
‘I will indeed. Freddie Prince always keeps his word.’ With a cheery wink and a smile, Freddie strolled off carrying his cases and whistling.
Millie tugged at Eliza’s hand. ‘What about me, Liza? You won’t let them send me back to the workhouse, will you?’
‘Of course not,’ Eliza replied staunchly. ‘We’ll go and talk to Dolly; she’ll make Ted see sense.’
They arrived home to find Dolly had come downstairs and was sitting in her usual seat by the range. ‘That medicine is truly wonderful,’ she said happily. ‘Your Dr Prince is a miracle worker.’ Reaching for her spectacles, Dolly set them on the bridge of her nose, peering at Millie who was loitering in the doorway. ‘Come in, dear. There’s nothing to be scared of in my house.’
‘Can she stay, Mum?’ Eliza pleaded. ‘I’ll look after her and Dr Prince has offered us both a job helping him to peddle his cures, only …’
‘Only what, ducks?’
‘Dad wouldn’t give him a direct answer. Said he has to come back after supper and he’ll think about it.’
‘We’ll see about that,’ Dolly said, getting slowly to her feet. ‘Fetch me my bonnet and shawl, Eliza. We’re going to market and I’m going to buy some material to make dresses for both of you. My own little girls.’
Eliza stared at her in amazement. ‘But you never go out.’
‘That was before I had my blood purifying medicine. I’m a new woman, Eliza. A new woman and a mother.’
When Ted returned home that evening, Eliza and Millie were seated on the floor surrounded by scraps of cotton print and calico. Eliza had mastered backstitch and, with her tongue held between her teeth, was concentrating on sewing a straight seam, but Millie was having difficulty with simple tacking and was sucking her finger where she had pricked it on her needle.
‘Hello, what’s going on here?’ Taking off his peaked cap, Ted shot a questioning look at Dolly.
Dolly smiled up at him as she plied her needle. ‘I’ve been out to market, Ted. Me and the girls went together, and we bought some material to make them clothes suitable for their new employment.’
‘But Dolly, you haven’t been out of the house for years unless I was there to go with you, let alone go to market.’ Ted’s eyes rounded in surprise and he sat down on his chair beside the range. �
�And you ain’t touched a pair of scissors since you had to give up sewing because of your eyes.’
‘Well, it’s a miracle and that’s for certain. And, Ted Peck, I owe it all to that Dr Prince. He give me this tonic for my blood and it’s worked a treat. I feel well for the first time in years, and it’s all thanks to him.’
Ted stared at her in disbelief. ‘And you’re wearing your spectacles!’
‘Just for the close work, my dear. You know very well that I don’t need them the rest of the time.’
‘I forgot for a moment.’
‘And you must allow these girls to work for the good doctor. Think of the people he can help, just like me.’
‘But the child, Dolly.’ Lowering his voice, Ted jerked his head in Millie’s direction. ‘Think of the responsibility. We can’t take on another mouth to feed.’
Eliza had kept her head bent over her sewing, but she looked up now, casting an appealing look at Dolly. ‘Please, let Millie stay. I’ll help look after her and Dr Freddie said she can earn some money as the ailing child.’
‘Then that’s settled.’ Dolly fastened off her piece of sewing and snipped the thread, pointing her scissors at Ted. ‘It’s up to you, Mr Peck, you being the head of the household, but for myself, I say yes.’
Freddie had rented a room in a house in Anchor Street, just around the corner from Hemp Yard. It was not much of a place, as Eliza discovered when she went round to his lodgings for her first lesson in her new trade. The house was a modest two-up and two-down, very similar to Ted and Dolly’s dwelling, but in a much less salubrious neighbourhood. In Hemp Yard, the terraced houses were tenanted by workingmen and their families, but the dwellings in Anchor Street were crammed from attic to cellar with unfortunates who had nowhere else to go. The buildings were unsanitary and run-down to the point of dereliction. Whereas the inhabitants of Hemp Yard considered themselves to be respectable, hard-working people, and took a pride in keeping their street clean, tidy and relatively vermin-free, the denizens of Anchor Street seemed to be content to live in squalor. Feral children roamed the street day and night, begging or stealing off unwary passers-by. Horse dung and dog excrement carpeted the road and clogged the drains. Rotting vegetable matter filled the gutters; the air was thick with flies and their squirming grubs thrived on the corpses of dead cats and rats.
