The Cockney Sparrow

by Dilly Court

  ‘If he dies I’ll never forgive myself,’ Isobel sobbed. ‘I was hateful to him. I disobeyed him and went behind his back. I’ve been such a bad sister.’

  ‘Nonsense. Don’t say such things. I’m sure Jared loves you just as much as he ever did. All he wanted was the best for you, Izzie.’

  Nick moved to Isobel’s side and raised her gently to her feet. ‘Clemency’s right, my dear. You won’t help Jared by making yourself ill.’

  Clemency managed a smile. ‘She’s lucky to have you, Nick.’

  He shook his head. ‘I can’t allow that. She is a splendid girl, and I love her dearly. When Jared recovers, and we must believe that he will, I’ll ask him most humbly for Izzie’s hand in marriage.’ He took a handkerchief from his pocket and dried Isobel’s tears as tenderly as a mother with a baby. ‘Come with me, dear.’

  Clemency squeezed her hand. ‘Go with Nick. And what you should do is to send Ronnie to Half Moon Street with a message for Lady Skelton. She ought to know that Jared is ill.’

  ‘Yes, I will. That’s what I’ll do. I’ll send for Grandmama.’

  When they had left the room, Clemency sat down beside the bed. The laudanum had made him sleep, but when the fever was at its height he thrashed about, mumbling incoherently. There was little that she could do except bathe his brow with cold water and talk to him softly. She found that the sound of her voice seemed to calm him, and she chattered incessantly, saying anything that came into her head. She lost all track of time, refusing to leave his side, until Lady Skelton arrived and insisted that she went downstairs to eat the meal that Nancy had prepared for her.

  She ate without tasting the food, and she answered the questions fired at her by Jack and Ma, but did not elaborate on her stay in Paris. Although she longed to find out what had been happening in her absence, she could not concentrate on anything that was said. In the end, they lapsed into silence and she hurried back to Jared’s room where she found Isobel pacing the floor and Lady Skelton sitting at his beside, looking pale and drawn: not at all her usual self. She seemed to have aged suddenly, and shrunk inside her skin like a wizened apple. Clemency shooed them gently from the room, insisting that they had some rest, and that they would do Jared no good at all by wearing themselves to a shadow. He would need them all to fuss over him when he was convalescent. She did not really believe what she was saying, but they appeared to, and, rather reluctantly, they left the sickroom.

  Edith and Nick both tried to make her go to her own room and take a nap, but Clemency refused to leave Jared’s side. She sat with him throughout the hours of darkness, willing herself to stay awake, and listening for any slight change in his breathing that might indicate he had reached the crisis. In the early hours of the morning she found herself nodding off to sleep, and sheer exhaustion forced her to lie down beside him. She held his hand, terrified that if she let him go he would slip away from her. Her eyelids were heavy and she closed her eyes.

  ‘Clemency.’

  She heard him calling her name. At first she thought she was still dreaming and they were back on the platform in the Gare du Nord. But as she opened her eyes she realised that she was in a bedroom – Jared’s room. He was holding her hand and murmuring her name. She raised herself on her elbow, and saw to her overwhelming delight that he was looking at her, clear-eyed and smiling. ‘Am I dreaming, or have we really slept together?’ His voice was hoarse and little more than a whisper, but his eyes were alight with love.

  ‘Oh, Jared. My own darling.’ She felt his brow, and it was cool. The fever had broken, and she knew for certain that he was going to get well. All her prayers had been answered. She had vowed to God that she would never do anything bad again, if only he would spare Jared, and he had. She leaned over, careful not to touch his injured arm, and brushed his lips with a kiss. ‘I thought I was going to lose you. I was so scared.’

  His eyes lit with a tender smile, and he laid his finger on her lips. ‘You will never lose me, my love. And I will never let you far from my sight.’ He closed his eyes and slept.

  Although it was very early in the morning, Clemency ran through the house, rousing everyone with the news that Jared had come through the fever. Isobel and Lady Skelton left their beds to visit his room to see for themselves, on the promise that they would not wake him. Below stairs, no one grumbled at being woken at such an early hour, and Fancy urged the fire in the range back into life, setting the kettle on the hob and making tea for them all without a murmur.

  Later that morning when Nick called to see the invalid, he confirmed their hopes that Jared was well on the way to recovery. At Lady Skelton’s suggestion, he took Isobel out to choose an engagement ring. He would, of course, have to go through the formality of asking Jared for his sister’s hand, but she was certain that he would not refuse. Isobel went off in a high state of excitement and Clemency could only be glad for her.

  Lady Skelton then insisted on sitting with Jared, while Clemency spent time with her family below stairs. At first, she was going to refuse, but she had not properly congratulated Jack on his new-found ability to walk, and Ma seemed to have something on her mind that she was bursting to share. She went down to the kitchen and took a seat at the table. ‘Well?’ she said, looking Ma in the eye. ‘I can see that you’ve got something to tell me. What have I been missing?’

  Edith went to Ronnie and took him by the hand. ‘We’re getting hitched, Clemmie. Ronnie and me have decided to make a go of it.’

  Ronnie twirled his moustache and beamed proudly at Edith. ‘She’s made me the proudest man in London, Clem.’

  ‘And we’re going to live with Hannah at the lodging house in Flower and Dean Street,’ Edith continued breathlessly. ‘She’s getting too old to run the place on her own, and Jared has signed the lease over to us. He done it weeks ago, soon after you disappeared. He was in a terrible state, ducks. We all was, come to that. We thought at first that the Ripper had got you. Then, when he got the letter from Paris – well, I never seen a man so happy or so worried. That was when he give us the boarding house. He said he didn’t want his mother-in-law breathing down his neck, but, of course, it weren’t that at all. He done it for you.’

  ‘For all of us,’ Jack said, reaching out to hold Fancy’s hand. ‘Fancy and me are getting hitched too. Now I can walk on me own, after a fashion, I’ve got meself a place in the orchestra at the Gaiety Theatre in the Strand. Maybe I could put a word in for you, Clemmie.’

  ‘Well, maybe you could, Jack.’ Clemency beamed at them all. ‘What a love nest this has become, to be sure.’ She turned to Augustus, who was sitting at the head of the table, unusually silent. ‘What about you? Did you find Lucilla?’

  Augustus cracked a smile. ‘I did. Or rather me and Ronnie did, on the day you disappeared. It rather spoilt my pleasure on finding my girl quite happy with a fine baby boy, and Tom Fall acting out the part of a good provider. They have rooms in Wimbledon and plan to follow the construction of the railways. I doubt if my little nightingale will ever sing again, but she seems content to be a wife and mother, so who am I to complain?’

  Clemency patted him on the shoulder. ‘You always were a good dad, Augustus. And Jack, yes I do plan to go back on the stage. I learnt a lot singing in the chorus at the Opéra Garnier. I was too young and inexperienced before, but now I think I could be a good performer.’ She smiled at Augustus. ‘If you’ve nothing better to do, maybe you’d consider being my manager again?’

  He grasped her hand and his eyes welled up with tears. ‘Really? Do you mean it?’

  She nodded emphatically. ‘I’d most likely have to start at the bottom, but that wouldn’t matter.’

  Nancy pulled a face. ‘And what would Mr Stone have to say about you cavorting half naked on the stage with them other hussies?’

  ‘Oh, Nancy,’ Edith said, frowning. ‘Don’t be such an old stick.’

  ‘Huh! You’re all touched in the head if you ask me. All this soft talk about love and romance – it makes me want
to puke.’ She flounced off into the pantry.

  ‘She’s just jealous,’ Edith said, cuddling up to Ronnie.

  Clemency gazed round at their happy faces. Just a short time ago life had seemed intolerable. She had suffered so much at the hands of Marceau and Hardiman, and she had almost lost the man she adored, and who, amazingly, loved her in return. Now it felt as though the terrible times were at an end. Those whom she loved the most, and who had depended on her, were now settled with partners who would love and care for them, taking her place, and allowing her to live her own life. She left them happily discussing their future while she went upstairs to relieve Lady Skelton.

  Within a week, Jared was well on the way to recovering his old strength. Isobel was sporting a minuscule diamond engagement ring as proudly as if it had been the Koh-i-noor, and she and Nick were planning to marry as soon as he had obtained his fellowship and found a permanent position. Jack and Fancy were looking for accommodation closer to the theatre, and planning a quiet wedding in Holborn Register Office, with Ronnie and Edith booking the same day. It would be cheaper, Edith had said, to have a double celebration in the pub afterwards: and, of course, it had to be the Crown and Anchor. After all, who would make a more fitting best man than Jack’s brother, Ned? Edith confided in Clemency that, during the dreadful time when she was missing and they did not know her fate, she and Nell had made their peace, and renewed their friendship.

  It seemed that Nancy was still sulking and pretending that she did not want anything to do with all the fuss, but Clemency smiled secretly when, one afternoon, she saw her poring over a rather old copy of The Milliner and Dressmaker with Edith, and chatting as excitedly as a young girl over the possibility of a new hat or perhaps a new dress for the coming nuptials.

  She went upstairs to find Jared alone in his study. He was so absorbed in perusing some papers on his desk that he had not heard her enter, and she crept up behind him, covering his eyes with her hands.

  ‘Clemency.’

  ‘How did you know it was me?’

  He twisted her round with his good arm so that she fell onto his lap with a squeal of protest. ‘I would know you in a crowd of a million women.’ He nuzzled her throat. ‘You smell so good that I could eat you.’

  ‘I’m not sure you should say such things to me.’ She giggled as he nipped her throat gently with his teeth. ‘You are a wicked man, Jared Stone. Taking advantage of a poor girl.’

  His lips claimed her mouth in a kiss that made her senses soar and sent the blood pulsating through her veins. She wrapped her arms round his neck, responding to his embrace with mounting desire. She wanted him more than she would ever have believed possible, but the shadow of Marceau lingered in her memory, and she pulled away.

  He stared at her with a dazed expression clouding his eyes. ‘What’s the matter?’

  She turned her head away, unable to look him in the face. ‘I’m not the same girl I was before he – before he forced himself on me. I’m tarnished by what he did to me.’

  ‘It wasn’t your fault.’

  She shook her head. ‘I wanted you to be the first man to make love to me. I was yours, body and soul, but he spoilt all that.’

  ‘Look at me, Clemency.’ Turning her head slowly, she raised her eyes to his. She saw nothing in them except love and admiration. ‘If there was any fault, apart from that brute who raped you mercilessly, it was mine for introducing him to you in the first place.’ His eyes darkened but he held her gaze. ‘My darling girl. I placed you in danger by playing my own selfish games with the Frenchman. You suffered for my desire for revenge and retribution.’

  ‘But you didn’t get your family home back.’

  ‘Damn the family home! You are the only home I need, my love. You are my family, my love and my life. Without you I am nothing. All I want is to make you happy.’ He ran his hand through her hair and drew her into a long and tender embrace, so that it seemed to Clemency that they lived and breathed as one. When at last he released her lips, he looked deeply into her eyes. ‘All the game playing is over. I’m asking you, most humbly, to be my wife.’

  She stared at him for a moment and an irrepressible giggle escaped from her lips. ‘Humbly? You?’

  His serious expression melted into a smile. ‘Will you, Clemency? Will you marry me?’

  ‘And make an honest man of you?’

  ‘I’m not sure I could go that far. Not with a wife to support.’

  She twined her arms around his neck, interlacing her fingers behind his head. ‘Of course I’ll marry you, Jared. But on one condition.’

  His eyes widened and then crinkled into laugh lines at the corners. ‘What condition is that, my love?’

  ‘That we don’t steal any more. I can go back on the stage. I can earn enough money to keep us, especially if we leave this big house and find something smaller. You could still do the charitable fundraising, but without keeping any of it for ourselves.’

  He threw back his head and laughed. ‘My God, Clemency. You’ll have me in holy orders next.’

  ‘Don’t laugh at me. I’m serious.’

  He kissed her on the tip of her nose. ‘I’m not laughing at you. I’d already decided that we couldn’t go on as we were. I don’t want my wife to run the risk of arrest every time we go out in public. We’ll be a respectable couple, darling. I’m not sure about you going back on the stage, though.’

  ‘But I want to, Jared. I want to prove that I can be as good as Dorabella Darling. And anyway, I’ve promised Augustus that he can be my manager. I can’t let him down.’

  For a moment, she thought he was going to argue, but he kissed her again, slowly and sensuously, until she was melting with desire. ‘All right, I agree that you can’t let Augustus down. I won’t stand in your way. As long as I have you, my darling, I don’t care if you are La Moineau or plain Mrs Jared Stone. I will always love you.’

  ‘And I you.’ Clemency slithered off his lap. She moved towards the door, holding out her hand. ‘I don’t want to shock your grandmother, but I would really like you to make love to me properly – in your – I mean our bed. Even though it is broad daylight.’

  Jared rose to his feet and took her hand in his. ‘Grandmama is not easily shocked.’

  She was about to open the door but she hesitated, casting a wary glance at his injured arm. ‘Perhaps we ought to wait after all. I don’t want to hurt your bad arm.’

  He slipped his arm around her waist. ‘I think I could bear the pain, my love. I could bear anything except the pain of separation from you for one moment longer than necessary.’

  Clemency stood on tiptoe to kiss him on the lips. ‘That sounds like a life sentence, Mr Stone.’

  ‘In your hands, the future Mrs Stone, I’ll take my punishment like a man.’

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  Published by Arrow Books 2007

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  Copyright © Dilly Court 2007

  Dilly Court has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work

  This novel is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or c
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  First published in the United Kingdom in 2007 by

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  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  ISBN 9780099499640