The Best of Sisters

by Dilly Court

  Although his words struck her like cold steel, Eliza met his eyes without blinking. ‘We’ll see what your father has to say about that.’

  A fleeting expression of doubt flickered in Brandon’s eyes. ‘Leave my father out of this. You’re dealing with me now.’

  Eliza broke free of his grasp. ‘The higher a monkey climbs,’ she said, repeating something she had once overheard when a group of sailors were chatting together in the shop, ‘the more you can see of his arse!’

  The look of shock on Brandon’s face would have been laughable, if Eliza had been in the mood for mirth, but her whole future and that of her family was wavering in the balance. She turned on her heel and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her. She headed straight for Aaron’s office, almost colliding with him as he was about to leave. He eyed her in some surprise. ‘My dear Eliza. Whatever is the matter?’

  She could hear Brandon’s footsteps approaching and she clutched Aaron’s arm. ‘I need to speak with you, sir. In private.’

  Aaron frowned. ‘I’m in a hurry. Won’t it wait?’

  ‘No, sir. I need to speak to you now.’

  ‘Then you’d better come into my office.’

  Aaron held the door for her and was about to close it when Brandon pushed past him. ‘This concerns me, Father.’

  ‘Very well, but I haven’t got all day.’ Aaron sighed audibly and went to sit behind his desk.

  ‘I don’t want him here,’ Eliza protested, jerking her head in Brandon’s direction. ‘What I have to say is for your ears only, Mr Miller.’

  ‘I’m a busy man and I don’t want to listen to tales of petty squabbles.’

  Elbowing Eliza out of the way, Brandon leaned his hands on the desk. ‘Father, I’m sorry to say that we were mistaken in our assessment of Miss Bragg’s character.’

  She stared at him, momentarily lost for words.

  ‘Explain yourself, Brandon.’ Aaron sat back in his chair, folding his arms and staring from one to the other.

  ‘That’s not right,’ Eliza cried, finding her voice, although it sounded high-pitched and strange even to her own ears. ‘He tried to force hisself on me, Mr Miller. He took me to dinner in a pub with a private room …’

  ‘So that we could discuss business,’ Brandon interjected smoothly. ‘The rebuilding of the chandlery is complete and I wanted to find out when Eliza intended to purchase the stock. Then I discovered that she had used the funds we issued for her own purposes and she was demanding more.’

  Unable to believe her ears, Eliza gripped the back of a chair. ‘That’s a lie.’

  ‘And, Father, she offered me certain favours if I were to agree to her demands.’

  Aaron sat forward, leaning his elbows on the desk and staring at Eliza. ‘Is this true?’

  ‘No, sir. It’s a pack of lies. He tried to have his way with me and I only just managed to get away. If Arthur Little and Mary hadn’t come into the pub preaching against the evils of drink, I – I can’t bear to think what might have happened.’ Eliza broke off on a sob as tears of anger flowed freely from her eyes.

  ‘See how she protests and cries.’ Brandon curled his lip. ‘She’s nothing more than a common whore and an actress to boot.’

  ‘Take that back,’ Eliza cried, fisting her hand. ‘I’m neither of them things and you never give me the money to buy stock.’

  Brandon caught her by the wrist. ‘See how she does it, sir? She fooled us both into thinking she was a sweet and innocent young thing, but she’s just a scheming hussy.’

  ‘I gave you the benefit of the doubt on a previous occasion, Eliza.’ Aaron’s eyes were bleak as he stood up slowly. ‘I trusted you, Eliza. I thought you were so like your mother, but I can see now that I was wrong.’

  Pushing Brandon aside, she held her hands out to Aaron. ‘I’ve done nothing wrong. I swear to you that I never had any money from Brandon. Not a single penny.’

  ‘She lies, father. Didn’t Brigham Stone warn you about her, but you chose to believe Eliza over your old friend?’

  ‘You’ve struck me to the heart, Eliza,’ Aaron said, walking slowly round the desk to face her. ‘I treated you like my own daughter and you’ve betrayed my trust.’

  ‘No, sir. No. I’m telling you, I never done nothing wrong. It’s your precious son what’s lying.’

  ‘You deceitful trollop,’ Brandon said, scowling. ‘You’re only making matters worse for yourself. Shall I call a constable and have her arrested, Father?’

  Aaron shook his head. ‘Eliza, the money means nothing to me. If you were in dire need, you only had to ask me and I would have given you anything you wanted. You’ve hurt me more than I can say. I helped you because of my love for your mother but you’ve shamed her memory. No!’ He held up his hand as Eliza opened her mouth to argue. ‘Don’t say another word. Brandon, instruct my solicitor to foreclose on the loan.’

  ‘But, sir. The chandlery – it’s mine.’

  ‘Not any longer,’ Aaron said, walking to the door. ‘From this moment on, it belongs to Miller and Son.’

  As the door closed on his father, Brandon perched on the desk, eyeing Eliza with a triumphant smile. ‘You see what happens when you cross a Miller, Eliza. If you had been obliging you would still own the chandlery.’

  She drew herself up to her full height. She was not going to let Brandon see her despair. ‘I’d rather starve than let you have your way with me.’

  His eyes narrowed and he drew back his head like snake about to strike. ‘I’m sure that can be arranged. In fact the cost of rebuilding the shop is greater than the value of the land on which it stands. I shall instruct our solicitor to seize all your assets, including your house.’

  ‘I don’t own the house in Hemp Yard. It’s rented.’

  ‘But you do own the house in Bird Street. Don’t look so surprised, Eliza. I made enquires at the outset of our dealings, just in case things didn’t work out as planned.’

  Eliza’s hand flew to her throat: she was going to be sick or faint. ‘You can’t do that.’

  ‘My dear girl, I can. And I will send the bailiffs round to your aunt’s house too. You could have had everything, but I’ll see you end up with nothing. Unless—’

  ‘You don’t frighten me,’ Eliza lied valiantly. ‘There’s nothing more you can take off me.’

  ‘No, but I have a fancy for your little sister. I’m sure she’ll be more obliging than you, especially when she learns that her job is at stake.’

  ‘You bastard! If you touch a hair off Millie’s head, I’ll kill you with me own bare hands.’

  ‘I’d enjoy wrestling with you, Eliza. But I think you know who would win.’

  ‘You are an unspeakable rat. No, worse than a rat. I can’t think of a word that describes you, Brandon.’ Eliza slammed out of the office and ran all the way to the Millers’ mansion. She hammered on the door of the servants’ entrance, and when a slightly bemused boot boy answered her frantic summons, she pushed past him. After arguing with a kitchen maid and almost coming to blows with the irate cook, Eliza was about to be ejected by a burly footman when the butler came upon the scene.

  ‘I want to see Miss Turner,’ Eliza said, pausing in her struggle with the footman. ‘Please, mister. It’s urgent.’

  ‘Get the creature out of here.’ The cook lobbed a soup ladle at Eliza but her aim was somewhat off and it hit the footman in the face. He yelped with pain and brought his hands up to cover his bleeding nose.

  Eliza faced up to the butler. ‘I’m asking you nicely, mister. Let me see me sister. It’s a family matter and I must see her now.’

  ‘Someone fetch Miss Turner.’ The butler sniffed, looking down his nose at Eliza. ‘I’ll have you know, young woman, this is a respectable house and we don’t allow such goings on.’

  ‘I ain’t budging without Millie.’ Eliza folded her arms across her chest.

  ‘If she leaves now then she don’t come back.’

  She tossed her head. ‘No fear of that,
mister.’

  The sight of Freddie’s dog cart being held by a shivering boy at the corner of Hemp Yard made Eliza’s heart swell with relief. The barefoot child eyed her suspiciously, and seeing his mottled legs, covered with weeping sores and chilblains, she was moved to put her hand in her pocket. She had precious little money left but this boy’s bones were clearly visible beneath skin that had a sickly graveyard pallor. She placed a halfpenny in his hand and told him to go to the baker’s shop and buy some bread or a pie. As he scuttled off, Eliza handed the reins to Millie. ‘I want a private word with Freddie. I won’t be long.’

  ‘I wish you’d tell me what’s going on,’ Millie said, wrapping her shawl more tightly around her shoulders as rain began to fall from potbellied clouds.

  ‘I will, as soon as I’ve seen Freddie.’ Without waiting for a reply, Eliza hurried down the street and let herself into the house.

  Dolly was laughing at something Freddie had said and, Eliza thought with a surge of gratitude, she almost looked like her old self. She paused on the threshold, meeting Freddie’s enquiring gaze with a wobbly smile. He had been kneeling beside Dolly and he rose slowly to his feet.

  ‘What’s the matter?’

  His voice held a caress and he looked so achingly familiar and trustworthy that Eliza longed to seek comfort in his arms, but somehow she managed to exert her flagging self-control. ‘Freddie, I need to speak to you.’

  ‘Dr Freddie has been telling me all about Australia,’ Dolly said, smiling happily. ‘He’s made me up some special medicine and I feel better already.’

  ‘That’s splendid, Mum.’

  ‘We’re going there next week. Me and Freddie and your Uncle Ted are going on a ship to Australia and I’m going to see them funny hopping creatures, hankyroos they calls them.’ Dolly closed her eyes. ‘I’m fair wore out just at the thought of it, and now I’m going to have forty winks. You will tell Ted all about it when he comes in, won’t you, ducks?’

  ‘Yes, Mum.’ Eliza went over to the table and pulled out a chair. She sat down suddenly as her knees gave way beneath her. ‘Freddie, I’m in terrible trouble.’

  He sat down beside her and held her hand. ‘Take your time, my love. Tell Freddie what’s bothering you.’

  One look into his sympathetic eyes and the words came gushing from Eliza’s mouth in an unstoppable stream. She omitted nothing.

  ‘There’s only one thing for it, Liza,’ Freddie said, as she finished her story. ‘You’ll all have to come and live with us in Dark House Street.’

  ‘But we can’t do that. What would Daisy say?’

  ‘She’s a good-hearted woman when all is said and done. And she is your sister-in-law.’

  The flash of relief that Eliza had felt at his offer of a home dissipated like morning mist as reality struck her. Daisy might have a heart as big as Australia thumping away beneath her ample breasts, but she had made it clear that she considered Freddie to be her private property. Eliza stared down at his tanned fingers twined around her small hand and she felt tears sting the back of her eyes. For all his experience of women, Freddie was as naïve as a baby when it came to understanding how the female mind worked. She lowered her eyes and squeezed his hand. ‘I don’t think that would do at all.’

  ‘Of course it would, my dear. The house is huge and there’s plenty of room for all of us.’

  ‘But, Freddie. What about your plans to be a proper doctor? You’ll need all your rooms for your clinic.’

  ‘Doctor?’ Freddie raised his eyebrows, as if caught by surprise, and then he chuckled. ‘That was yesterday, poppet. I’ve given up that idea.’

  ‘But you had your heart set on it. You know you did.’

  ‘Circumstances change and a man has to change with them.’

  ‘Is it because of Daisy? Has she made you change your mind?’

  Freddie shook his head. ‘It has nothing to do with Daisy. I’m considering my options, Liza.’

  ‘So what do you intend to do?’

  Freddie seemed about to answer when Dolly stirred, muttered something unintelligible, and then subsided once more into a deep sleep. He jerked his head in her direction. ‘I helped put her in that state. I’m not proud of it, and God knows how many other poor souls I’ve sent in that direction with my nostrums based on laudanum. Doctoring isn’t for me – it was a pleasant dream that kept me from going mad in the outback, particularly when I was missing home – and you.’

  ‘But, Freddie …’

  ‘You mustn’t concern yourself about me, poppet. Don’t deny me the opportunity to make up for six long years on the other side of the world, when I could do nothing to help you.’

  Leaning her elbows on the table, Eliza rested her head in her hands. Her mind was a jumble of confused thoughts. Brandon’s lies and betrayal, Dolly’s illness, Daisy’s warning to keep her hands off Freddie: their faces and voices merged into a deafening tumult.

  ‘Is it such a hard decision?’ Freddie’s voice broke into her thoughts. ‘You can trust me, Liza. I won’t let any further harm come to you, Dolly or young Millie. I know you think of me as an old man, but I want to look after you, my dear. And you’ll be close to Tommy. Millie will be safe from men like Brandon and …’

  Eliza remembered Millie, standing in the bitter cold, holding the horse. She jumped to her feet. ‘I left Millie at the corner of the street. She’ll be soaked to the skin and like as not catch a chill.’

  Freddie caught her by the hand. ‘Will you come with me, or not?’

  ‘Let me go, Freddie.’

  He stood up, gripping her hand tightly. ‘Tell me that you’ll accept my offer.’

  She met his unwavering gaze with a hitch in her heart. Living in Freddie’s house would be heaven and hell rolled into one. She could still see the rumpled bed in Daisy’s room; the bed that she almost certainly shared with Freddie, and where they performed the act that was supposed to be one of love. Eliza remembered all too clearly the stories told her by the unfortunate girls who worked for Mrs Tubbs, the brothel keeper in Old Gravel Lane. Her recent experience with Brandon was muddled up with the memory of that day, years ago, when she had gone to Freddie’s room in Anchor Street. She had never been able to forget the spectacle of Beattie’s bare buttocks and bouncing breasts as she straddled Freddie on the bed, or the grunts and groans that they had been emitting, like pigs in Smithfield Market. How could she live in a house where he cohabited with another woman? Freddie was the only man she had ever loved – would ever love. Imagining what went on behind closed bedroom doors, with her own brother’s widow, would be too much to bear.

  ‘Would it be so terrible to see me every day?’ Freddie’s voice hardened. ‘Or are you secretly in love with that bastard Miller? Is that what has come between us?’

  Shocked, Eliza’s eyes flew to his face and she recognised genuine pain. She was about to deny his accusation when Millie burst in through the front door, bringing with her a gust of damp air.

  ‘I’m soaking wet and chilled to the bone, Liza. Did you forget I was stuck there holding on to that old nag?’ She came to a halt, staring from one to the other. ‘What’s up?’

  Freddie picked up his hat and gloves. ‘I’ve offered you all a home with me, but Eliza is being stubborn.’

  ‘Oh, Liza, no. You can’t think of turning down an offer like that. Think of me. Think of Dolly.’

  Eliza glanced at Dolly, who was sleeping peacefully in spite of their raised voices. She met Millie’s troubled eyes and she could see Brandon’s shadow looming over her. Last of all, she looked round the tiny room that had been her home and her safe haven since Ted had rescued her from the clutches of Uncle Enoch. Wherever she cast her eyes there were mementoes of past and happier times. The china dog that Ted had won for her at a street fair in Spitalfields; the brass clock on the mantelshelf that lost five minutes in every hour; the dog-eared Bible that was the only book in the house and from which Ada read passages to Dolly; the grease stain on the wall shaped like a mushroom, wh
ere Millie, years ago, and in a rare fit of temper, had thrown her bread and dripping because she had wanted bread and jam.

  Eliza gave a start as Freddie laid his arm around her shoulders. ‘I know it’s hard for you, Liza. But you haven’t got much choice. If you stay here the Millers will send in the bailiffs and take everything.’

  ‘There’s so little,’ Eliza said, choking on a sob. ‘But it all means so much to me.’

  ‘We’ll take everything we can pack into the dog cart. Miller can take the chandlery from you, but we’ll take legal advice as to the house in Bird Street. We won’t let them take that without a fight.’

  Millie uttered a strangled cry. ‘What will happen to Ada and the nippers? And what will Davy say when he comes ashore to find his family thrown out into the gutter?’

  ‘We won’t let that happen,’ Freddie said calmly. ‘If the worst comes to the worst, they can come and live in the old servants’ quarters in my house. There’s plenty of room for all.’ He took Eliza by the hand, speaking to her gently. ‘Liza, my love, I care about you more than you will ever know. But the choice is yours: what is it going to be?’

  Chapter Twenty

  She had to get out of the house. Eliza’s head was ringing with the sound of Daisy’s shrill voice haranguing Freddie for his failures and inconsistencies. She had not forgiven him for reneging on his promise to become a fashionable, if unqualified, practitioner of medicine. Daisy, it seemed to Eliza, had social aspirations far above her station. She never lost the opportunity to nag Freddie for his apparent lack of ambition. Neither had she forgiven Eliza for losing the chandlery that was Tommy’s birthright. In fact, Daisy was not a happy woman. She had objected to having Eliza, Millie and Dolly foisted upon her, but she had grudgingly allowed them to have two rooms on the ground floor: one for Dolly with all her possessions arranged around her and the other to be shared by Eliza and Millie. This was a particularly small room at the back of the house, overlooking the stables, and sparsely furnished with two narrow beds and a washstand. Freddie had no say in all this and, when he had asked Eliza if she was happy with the arrangements, she had somehow managed to convince him that she was perfectly content.