Secret in St. Something

by Barbara Brooks Wallace

  Danny never Robin’s real brother!

  “Did Mama know?” gasped Robin, his head reeling.

  “No way she could o’ not known about her own baby not bein’ born alive. So I had to tell her, only she never knowed whose baby was put in her own baby’s place, or where it come from. But I told her she better not say a word about any o’ it, or it’d be your life.” Hawker’s voice faded into silence after this grim admission.

  “But who put you up to this, man?” asked the stunned Mr. Highcrofft, finally able to speak. “Who was it paid you a lot of money to do this terrible thing?”

  “It was Franklin Highcrofft,” replied Hawker.

  “Franklin? My cousin?” breathed Jonathan Highcrofft, his face contorted with shock and disbelief. “Why? Why?”

  “He never told me why,” replied Hawker, his voice barely above a hoarse whisper. “And I never asked why. I just wanted the money. But he said he didn’t care if the baby never lived. If it did, he’d take care o’ sending it someplace where no one here could ever find it. But he wanted to know, always, where it was.”

  “Then tell me,” Jonathan Highcrofft cried out, “where is our baby now? Has Franklin already taken him and sent him away? Please, I beg you, you must tell me.”

  “I don’t know if he is alive or dead,” replied Hawker, now struggling for every breath. “The baby got stolen, but not by Mr. Highcrofft. Had me searching high and low for it, afraid someone’d find out the story and would take it back where it belonged.”

  “Stolen? You mean kidnapped? How did it happen, man? How? Please, can’t you tell me more?” pleaded Jonathan Highcrofft.

  But in reply, Hawker only gave a terrible groan. His head rolled over, and he was gone. Gone into another world, never to speak in this world again, nor ever answer another question.

  “May God have mercy on his soul,” said Jonathan Highcrofft.

  Then tears suddenly streamed down from his eyes, and he threw his face into his hands. “Oh God!” he sobbed. “Our baby! Found only to be snatched away again. And where in this big, cruel city have we any hopes of ever finding him? Oh, please let me wake from this nightmare! Our baby, alive but gone!”

  Then Robin put his hand gently on Mr. Highcrofft’s shoulder, shaking with his sobs. “I know where your baby is, Mr. Highcrofft,” he said.

  Chapter XVIII

  A Supper Invitation

  “St. Katherine’s Church! And hurry!” said Jonathan Highcrofft to his driver as he and Robin climbed back into the carriage. “I would dearly love to stop by home first,” he said when he and Robin were settled inside. “I know my wife Adelaide is anxiously awaiting what news I have to bring her about the locket, which of course I showed her before I left the house. Yet think of the other news I’ll now be bringing her as well! But I want to make certain our baby is indeed alive and well before I see her. You say he’s been named Danny?”

  “Mama let me choose the name,” said Robin. “His name is Daniel, but we always called him Danny.”

  “We’ll have to see how that sits with Adelaide,” said Jonathan Highcrofft. “For the moment he’ll certainly remain Danny. Oh, I still can’t believe this! Our baby alive and all this while cared for under the floorboards of the very church our family attends. Why, I even serve on the church vestry! So far, though, Robin, I know nothing of how he came to be there, for indeed you’ve not had the chance to tell me. So please now, you must tell me everything you can. Every last thing!”

  So Robin did, starting with describing the dread baby farm run by Mrs. Jiggs, where Danny was put by Hawker after Robin’s mama died. He told of how he had seen Hawker Doak’s deadly hand raised against Danny just as it had been raised against Robin himself, and how he feared for Danny’s life. That, in the end, he said, was what caused him to run away. For running away, no matter how difficult it would prove to be, would give Danny a chance to live and not face almost certain death at the hands of Mrs. Jiggs and Hawker Doak.

  Robin even told how he was, in desperation, going to leave Danny on the steps of St. Katherine’s Church, hoping someone would take him home and care for and love him as Robin did. And that was when he discovered the boys living in the cellar of the church. Asking nothing in return, they had taken in Robin and Danny. They had become a family, Robin said. Piggy, who could not work because of his bad leg, stayed home to look after Danny, while the rest of them went off to shine shoes.

  “They’re all Danny’s uncles now,” said Robin. “Uncle Piggy, Uncle Duck, Uncle Spider, and Uncle Mouse. And oh, Mr. Highcrofft, I hope nothing bad will happen to the boys now they’ve been found out. I don’t want them to have to go back to living under the pier, or sent back to a pa that beats them just as Hawker beat me.”

  “Robin,” said Jonathan Highcrofft, “turn and look at me. I promise you nothing bad will happen to those boys. You have my word on it. What exactly will happen to them you must give me a little time to think about. But please don’t tar me with the same brush as my cousin Franklin. What kind of monster would I be to turn on these boys who have without doubt helped you keep my baby son alive? I can only hope that the baby is still as you left him.” Jonathan Highcrofft paused to clench his fists and struck the seat beside him impatiently. “Why isn’t this carriage going faster? How long did you say since you’d seen my baby?”

  “I …I’m not certain,” replied Robin. “I lost track of the days. It might be as long as two weeks. But Mr. Gribbins will …” Robin stopped and threw a hand to his mouth. He had never intended to say anything about Mr. Gribbins’ part in all this. It might cost him his job!

  But Jonathan Highcrofft was quick to pick up on the name. “Mr. Gribbins? Was he in on all this?”

  “He …he found us out,” replied Robin, for it was too late now not to confess. “It was when he heard Danny crying for his milk. He likes us being there because he likes the company, he says. He says he was a street boy once too, and thinks they should be treated better than rats. And he loves babies. Please, Mr. Highcrofft, nothing bad will happen to Mr. Gribbins either, will it? His Hannah’s been ailing, and he doesn’t have enough money even to buy her medicines that she needs. What will he do if he loses his job at St. Something?”

  “Robin, look at me again,” said Jonathan Highcrofft. “Believe me, Mr. Gribbins is not going to lose his job. I don’t know about his wisdom in storing boys in the cellar of the church, but I certainly can’t fault his reasons for doing it. But far from losing his job, I think it’s high time he had a salary raise, a big one. He’s been a loyal and faithful servant to the church, and there’s no excuse for this not having been taken care of sooner. Did you say Hannah’s been ailing? He’s never said a word about it. I’m sorry to hear it, and you may be sure we’ll look into what kind of care she’s been getting, and see that she has everything needed.” Jonathan Highcrofft paused as a puzzled look crossed his face. “St. Something? May I ask where that is, or even what it is? I thought we were talking about St. Katherine’s?”

  At last, Robin had a reason to smile. “We are. St. Something is just what the boys call it. They can’t read or write, so they can’t read the sign in front of the church. But they say all the churches they know about are called St. Something or other. So St. Something is what they call this one.”

  Jonathan Highcrofft produced a boyish grin. “Well, St. Something certainly had a secret hiding in its cellar, that’s all I can say. Five boys and a baby!”

  He leaped from the carriage almost before it had come to a stop in front of the church. Robin could barely keep up with him as he raced to the cellar door. His hands were trembling as he pulled out a ring of keys from his pocket.

  “Good thing I’m a vestry member,” he said. “Always have the church keys with me. Never know when they’ll be needed.”

  “Mr. Highcrofft,” Robin said, hesitating, for he knew how anxious the man was to see his baby for the first time, “would … would it be all right if I went into the room first? I don’t want to scare them
by us both coming at once.”

  “Of course! I’ve let my excitement run away with me. You go on in first,” Jonathan Highcrofft said, lowering his voice to a whisper as they entered the hallway. “I’ll wait here and give you a few minutes.”

  So he remained behind as Robin crept softly to the door through which he could see the faint light of the candles he knew must be burning. When he entered the room, the boys did not see him at first, for they were all down on the floor, laboriously writing on scraps of paper with their pencil stubs. Robin cleared his throat, and Piggy looked up.

  “Robin!”

  They were all on their feet in an instant, crowding round him.

  “We been dyin’ here, wonderin’ wot were happenin’ ter you,” Duck said.

  “How’d you git away?” Mouse asked.

  “C’mon tell us. Tell us!” Spider started jumping up and down in a high state of excitement.

  But before Robin could answer a single question, Jonathan Highcrofft, having heard the uproar from the room, could contain his impatience no longer. He ran into the room.

  The boys’ faces froze.

  “Wot did you do, Robin? Lose us our home?” Duck asked simply.

  “Do we got ter go back ter the pier?” Piggy asked.

  “Or git sent back ter our pa?” said Spider, his pale face grown even paler.

  “Or the workhouse?” said Mouse. “Wot you done ter us, Robin? We b’lieved as how you was our friend.”

  Jonathan Highcrofft, to his great credit, restrained his desperate desire to see what it was he had come there to see. He quickly replied for Robin, who was too stunned to speak.

  “Robin is still the very best friend you could have,” he said. “And I have made him a solemn promise that not one of you is going back to live under the pier, or to fathers who beat you, or even to the workhouse. Just what we’re going to do about finding you a new home, as I told Robin, you must give me some time to work out. But I’ll stake my life on it that you’ll be going to a kind of life you can’t even have dreamed about. And now, please, I’d like to see my baby son. Is that he asleep over there in the corner?”

  Before anyone had a chance to reply, Jonathan Highcrofft was striding to the nest of rags on which Danny was sound asleep. He dropped to his knees. In a moment, his shoulders began to shake, for he was sobbing uncontrollably.

  “Wot’s he talkin’ ’bout?” asked Mouse, still with a wary look on his face despite the assurances from Jonathan Highcrofft. “Yer pa’s dead, Robin, an’ Danny’s yer baby brother. Don’t make sense ter me.”

  “You never kidnapped him nor nothin’, did you?” asked Spider.

  “Aw, wot would he go an’ want ter kidnap a baby fer?” said Duck. “Use wot brain you got, Spider, an’ think ’bout it.”

  “Anyone wot’s goin’ ter tell it ter us?” asked Mouse.

  “I will later,” Robin said. “I promise. And everything else as well.”

  Piggy then walked over and tapped Jonathan Highcrofft on his shoulder. “Danny jist had his evenin’ feedin’ o’ milk,” he said. “Oncet that happens, he’s out like a bleedin’ little light. You c’n pick him up an’ never hear no peep out o’ him.”

  Jonathan Highcrofft leaned down and picked Danny up as if he were made of spun glass. Tears were still rolling down his cheeks as he stared at the baby.

  “Yes, he’s a Highcrofft all right. There’s no mistaking it. But I hope you will all understand that I want to take him home to my wife at once. You’ll hear the whole story from Robin later, but I want you to know now that until tonight, I didn’t know our baby was alive. My wife still doesn’t know. And Robin, I want you to come with me, for there are many things I want to settle tonight, late though the hour is getting to be. But I want to thank you boys for what you have done. And again I make my promise that your lives will only change for the better, and you have nothing to fear.”

  Then suddenly, through his tears, Jonathan Highcrofft managed to produce a boyish grin. “Come to think of it, we might even start that change tonight. What, by the way, did you boys enjoy for supper this evening?”

  “We didn’t enjoy nothin’,” said Mouse. “We had our usual o’ stale bread.”

  “Don’t fergit water,” Spider said. “We had that, too.”

  “And that was it?” said the disbelieving Jonathan Highcrofft.

  “Split up an apple,” said Duck, giving it further thought.

  “An’ the worms in it,” Spider said, wrinkling his nose.

  “Well,” said Jonathan Highcrofft. “Mrs. Beckett, our cook, prepared a roast chicken for my wife and me tonight. When she does a chicken, she always does two so we can enjoy it for our luncheon the next day. I’m sure she won’t mind planning something else for us. So, how would you boys like to come with Robin, Danny, and me, and dine on roast chicken? If I’m not mistaken, there were some roast potatoes left. And, oh yes, a cake with cream layers and a very good frosting.”

  “Choclit?” asked Spider, his eyes popping.

  “I believe so,” replied Jonathan Highcrofft. “A very rich, dark chocolate, if I’m not mistaken.”

  Needless to say, when he climbed back into his carriage, delirious with happiness, he not only had his baby and Robin with him—and an old cloth shopping bag filled with diapers, bottles, and a tiny tin spoon and bowl, which Piggy had insisted he must take along—but four awestruck boys crowded on the front seat across from him.

  Chapter XIX

  A Vile Crime

  As soon as Jonathan Highcrofft, carrying Danny, had let himself into his home with the five boys at his heels, four of them goggle-eyed at seeing this elegant room for the first time, he rang the bell for his butler. Fletcher appeared almost before the bell had stopped ringing.

  “Here, Robin,” Jonathan Highcrofft said, handing him the bundle that was the peacefully sleeping Danny. Then he peeled off his hat and coat and handed them to Fletcher. “Fletcher, is Mrs. Highcrofft still in the drawing room?” he asked.

  “Yes, Mr. Highcrofft,” replied Fletcher, who as a perfect butler never allowed his expression to change when he saw the friends his employer had brought with him.

  “Well, then,” said Jonathan Highcrofft, taking Danny back from Robin, “would you please escort these young men out to the kitchen, and ask Mrs. Beckett to sit them all down at the kitchen table, and allow them to have all they want of that second roast chicken I know she has prepared. Any potatoes and other vegetables she has left from supper may also be served. And please remind her that they’re to have as much of that cream cake with the chocolate frosting as they can cram into themselves.

  “I’ll want some time alone with Mrs. Highcrofft. Then I’ll ring and ask you to deliver some urgent notes to my cousin Franklin and my grandfather. After that, I’ll want you to escort this young man”—he pointed to Robin—“into the drawing room. As for you other fellows, if you don’t mind, I’ll ask you to remain in the kitchen for a while after Robin leaves you, until I call for you. You can entertain Mrs. Beckett with stories of stale bread, and worms in apples, and all the rest. I’ve little doubt she’ll find that very interesting!”

  What Fletcher thought of the ragged guests he was escorting through the house was certainly never revealed in the rigid expression on his face. It is possible, however, that when he saw one slack-jawed guest roll his eyes and punch another guest in the ribs, the faintest smile might have passed over his face. There was no way, of course, that this phenomenon could ever be confirmed.

  When Robin was finally summoned to the drawing room by Fletcher, he found Adelaide Highcrofft sitting on a settee with the baby in her arms, and Jonathan Highcrofft standing before her gazing down at them in a clear state of wonderment. Both still had eyes brimming with tears.

  “This is Robin, the young man who saved our baby’s life,” said Jonathan Highcrofft.

  “And for which, if we spent our lives doing it, we could never thank you enough,” said Adelaide Highcrofft, her soft, sweet voice a
perfect accompaniment to her gentle face.

  “The boys helped save him too,” said Robin, determined that they should have all the credit due to them.

  Jonathan Highcrofft smiled at him through his tears. “I’ve already reported about his Uncle Piggy, who was such a good nursemaid while you went to work, and his Uncle Duck, and Uncle Mouse, and Uncle Spider, whom you shall soon be meeting, Adelaide. We have no words to express our gratitude to them. But it’s you, Robin. It’s you, son, who was most responsible for saving him from what was almost certain death.”

  There it was again—that word “son.” But Robin was nobody’s son. And now he no longer even had a baby brother. He now had no one. Danny was most miraculously going to belong to just the kind of family Robin had wanted for him. And this was not a family who had simply picked him up off the church steps, but was his real family. Only that real family did not include Robin. Suddenly, it was all more than he could bear. He threw his arm over his face to hide the fact that he was crying bitterly.

  Immediately, he felt an arm thrown around his shoulders. “What is it?” asked Jonathan Highcrofft. “What’s wrong?”

  “D-D-Danny’s not my little brother any more,” sobbed Robin.

  “Oh, my dear child!” Adelaide Highcrofft cried. “What are you talking about? Of course he’s still your brother. No blood bond is needed for that. What has made him your brother is caring for him and loving him as much as you have.”

  “And that doesn’t even begin to address the fact that you saved his life,” said Jonathan Highcrofft. “What could make him more your brother than that, son?”

  Robin then raised his eyes to look into Jonathan Highcrofft’s own. “Oh Mr. Highcrofft, sir, you should not call me that. I’m not your son. I’m no one’s son.”