by Anne Gracie
Hope said, “It was very brave of you, Dorie. And it was the right thing to do.”
Dorie stared at her and looked at Sebastian for confirmation.
“Yes, it gave us a chance to rescue you.”
Cassie said, “But why would he want Dorie to go off with him?”
Sebastian prompted her, “You knew something about Albert, didn’t you, Dorie? Something that Cassie didn’t.”
She nodded.
“You can talk now,” he said softly. “He’s locked up safe in prison, and he’s never coming out again. I’ll see to that. He can’t hurt you now. It’s all right to speak.”
“He killed our Mam,” she whispered.
He put his arm around her. “Did you see him do it?”
Her face quivered, and she nodded. “Mam was sick, up in her bed. I was upstairs, too. I saw Uncle Albert sneak up the stairs, all quiet.” She looked at Cassie. “You were downstairs, working. He picked up a pillow. I thought he was going to make her more comfortable—but he put it on her face and held it down. Hard.”
Hope put a hand over her mouth in horror.
Dorie went on in a thin, flat voice, “She kicked and struggled . . . but he held it down on her face, pushing and pushing . . . And then she went quiet.” She gave a jerky sob. “I was scared. I didn’t move or make a sound. He put the pillow back under her head. That’s when he found me. I had a cup of tea in my hand, and it rattled.”
“What happened then?”
She was silent a moment, then said shakily, “I tried to run away, but he hit me. He knocked me down the stairs.”
“I remember,” Cassie interrupted. She explained to the others. “I heard something smash and came running. The teapot and cup. It was a really loud crash.”
“Louder than Mam dying.” Dorie gave another choked sob, and both Cassie and Sebastian put an arm around her.
Cassie said wonderingly. “You hurt your head. It bled and bled. There was blood everywhere, and you had to go to bed for a couple of days.” She opened her mouth in surprise and said slowly, “And when you woke up again, you couldn’t talk. Uncle Albert said the fall had turned you simple.” She looked at Sebastian. “I didn’t even remember that until now. Why didn’t I remember?”
Hope touched her arm. “Your mam died. That probably overshadowed everything else.”
“But you’re not simple, Dorie, so—”
“Uncle Albert told me if I said a word, he’d kill me, and Cassie, too.” She looked at Sebastian and Cassie and said, “So I didn’t.” She shivered. “I never said a word.”
Sebastian held her tightly, his eyes closed in mixed anguish and relief. To think that all this time she’d taken the bastard’s words so literally and simply not spoken again.
“I think he killed Uncle Eddie, too.”
“Uncle Eddie?” Sebastian said.
“Mam’s other brother. He was the oldest. He owned the inn.” Cassie explained. “After he died, the inn went to Mam, and after she died—”
“Uncle Albert got it,” Dorie completed the sentence.
Now Sebastian truly understood why the girls had rejected him so roundly at the beginning. Their matter-of-fact use of the word “uncle” for these strangers, one of whom was a murderer, had instantly become abhorrent to him.
“You stayed at the inn for how long, after Mrs. Morgan died?”
“A while,” Cassie explained. “More than a year. But Albert was no good with money—not like Mam or Uncle Eddie. That’s why he kept us on. He didn’t like us, but I’m good with figures and money and stuff, and Dorie is good in the kitchen. We kept the inn going for him.” She added wryly, “That’s when I started carrying my knife.”
Two little girls, slaving away to survive and keep a business going for a murdering swine! A child of twelve running an inn and having to carry a knife to protect herself! Sebastian tamped down on his deep rage and managed to say, “Aren’t my sisters marvelous, Miss Merridew? To be able to handle such a difficult situation so bravely and competently—and so young!”
She smiled mistily. “I think all the Reynes are special in that way.”
There was a lump in his throat, and he could not talk.
Cassie continued, “We left the inn when Albert came in one day and said he’d lost all his money. He had to sell everything, even the inn.” She shrugged, “So he did. That’s when—” Dorie nudged her, and Cassie broke off. There was a long, private, silent exchange between the two children, then Cassie looked down, as if ashamed and mumbled. “You might not want to hear where we went next. The lady at the Tot told us we weren’t to tell a soul.”
Oh God, no. Sebastian thought. He didn’t want to know. He’d pushed aside the knowledge ever since Morton Black had broken it to him where the girls had been found. He didn’t want to hear where his sisters went next. He couldn’t bear to hear their childish lips telling him that. He stood, almost knocking the chair over in his haste. “You’re right, Cassie. You’ve told us quite enough. We’ll—”
“I’d like to hear it,” said Hope quietly.
“They’re tired. They need to—”
“They haven’t finished their story,” she said softly, firmly.
“No! You don’t know what you’re asking!” Sebastian said in a low, desperate voice. He stared at her, trying to convey a silent, urgent message. No more. The girls have said enough.
She gave him a long, clear look. “May I speak to you alone?”
“Very well.” He led her from the room, into his office. “You don’t know what you are asking. They know. I know. It is enough.”
“I can see it must be very bad, but have they actually told you what happened?”
He shook his head and said bleakly, “They don’t need to. I know all about it. My agent, Morton Black, made a very full report when he found them. For some reason he thought, given the circumstances, I might not want them back, after . . . After.”
She smiled then. “He does not know you well, my love, does he?”
He hugged her then, hard, the anguish in his heart showing. “You can guess what—”
She pulled back and took his hands in hers. “Sebastian, you must let them tell us. Everything. No matter how ugly, or painful, or horrifying. Those children need to get it all out in the open. Then they can heal.”
He pondered her words, his face twisted with grief. He shook his head. “I cannot,” he said brokenly and collapsed in a chair. He put his head in his hands and said in a jagged voice, “I cannot . . . bear to hear it. It does no good to rake up the pain of the past. Best to leave it lying.”
She put her arms around his bent head and pressed it to her breast. “No, my love. If you do, it will only fester inside you and in them, and your guilt and their shame will grow. And a gulf will remain between you and your sisters that will never be breached. You must hear them out, love, for all your sakes.”
“You cannot know what it’s like, knowing I am responsible for what happened—me! It was my fault!” He groaned.
She sighed. “Yes, just as it was Cassie’s fault when Dorie was kidnapped.”
He looked up, horrified. “No! It wasn’t Cassie’s—”
She shook him. “You were the same age as Cassie when your sisters were lost, Sebastian!”
He was silent.
She caressed his hair. “You need to forgive yourself, my love. Everyone else has.”
“Perhaps,” he said slowly. “But I cannot stand to listen to the details. They are my sisters. Children!”
She caressed his face and kissed him on the top of his bent head. “Then, my darling, stay here. I will listen for you. For those girls need to tell it all, and someone needs to listen.” She kissed him again. “Stay here, love. I’ll fetch you when it is over.”
She had taken six paces toward the door when a heavy voice behind her spoke. “No. I will come.”
He stood. “You are stronger than I gave you credit for.” He gave her a shaky smile. “What was it you said at the orphan
asylum? ‘If these children can survive the depravity inflicted on them by others, then I can certainly endure hearing about it!’” He took her hand, and they returned to the sitting room, where the girls awaited them, their faces anxious.
“Tell us everything, Cassie. Miss Hope has convinced me we all need to get it all out in the open. And whatever you tell us here will make no difference, Cassie. You and Dorie are my sisters, and I love you. Nothing that has happened can ever change that, nothing.”
Hope came out of her seat and knelt in front of the settee. She took Cassie’s and Dorie’s hands in hers and said with warm intensity, “And I have come to love you both like sisters, and whatever you tell me here will go no further, I promise you.”
He stared at her. What had he ever done to deserve this miracle of a woman? He came and knelt beside her. She took his hand, and they sat back and waited. Cassie glanced at Dorie and hesitated.
“Albert didn’t just sell the inn,” said Dorie in a clear little voice. “He sold us, too.”
It was like a kick to his chest. He’d known for months, but hearing it in raw, bald words like that hurt more than he would have believed.
Cassie said, “He brought us down to London on the stage. He told us he was getting us a job, since we were such good workers.”
“But he sold us to a lady who owned a brothel.”
Dorie’s matter-of-fact tone horrified him. Few twelve-year-old girls would even know what a brothel was. Sebastian braced himself to hear the rest. He’d long suspected it, after all. The moment he’d found that many of the girls from the Tothill Fields Institution had come from child brothels, he’d known. And the knowledge had eaten away at him.
He set his jaw and waited. If they could bear it to happen, he could bear to listen. He held Hope’s hand tighter. His love, his lifeline.
Cassie explained, “We tried to run away, but Auntie Sadie—that was what the lady said to call her—had brought two men with her, and they grabbed us and hung on to us.”
Dorie said, “They took us to the brothel and gave us each a bath. That’s when they found Cassie’s knife and took it off her. She got it back later. And then they made us put on these awful dresses, and then they locked us in a room. It was really high up. In the attic, right under the roof.” She tilted her head, remembering, and said reflectively, “The roof sloped down like this, with a little window set into it. You could see out over the rooftops of the city.” She grimaced. “I didn’t look much. I’m scared of being too high up. But it was nice to see the sky.”
Sebastian ran a shaking hand over his face. Hope put her arm around him and squeezed. With his other hand, he held her even tighter.
Dorie continued, “But Cassie likes being up high. That’s when she got the idea.” She grinned at her sister and hunched her shoulders in excitement.
Sebastian waited tensely. “What idea?”
Cassie said, “There was a trunk at the foot of the bed. Dorie’s good at squashing into small places, so I told her to hide in there. We threw the things in it out of the window.”
“I fitted perfectly,” said Dorie proudly.
“And I climbed out of the little window,” said Cassie. “It was a really steep roof, and slippery because it was slate, but in bare feet it was all right.” She grinned at Sebastian. “You know me and roofs.”
He tried to muster a smile, but failed.
“I climbed to the top bit, where you can sit with your leg on either side.”
“The roof ridge,” Sebastian said numbly.
“Yes, that bit. It was very high up, and I could see right into the street from there.” She smiled at each of them.
“What happened next?” Hope asked.
“I waited until some people came past, and then I started chucking slates down into the street. They smashed really well, made such a loud noise. And everyone was looking up, so I yelled out as loud as I could that my sister and I had been stolen away and were being sold in a brothel and could someone please help us because we didn’t want to be sold in a brothel.”
Hope gasped at such bold audacity. Sebastian stared, dumbstruck.
“And I yelled and screamed and chucked slates into the street. And then Aunt Sadie stuck her head out of the window and screamed at me to ‘come inside, you naughty girl’ and she tried to tell the people I was her niece and playing a trick on her—”
“But Cassie yelled back that she wasn’t anybody’s niece, and that this horrible woman is a horrible brothel keeper, and we didn’t want to be here! I could hear her, even from the trunk!”
“And I yelled that we’d been stolen from our home, and I just kept flinging slates and yelling and flinging slates until I ran out of slates, and by then people had come from everywhere, and they knocked down Aunt Sadie’s door and came bursting into the attic room, and some men took Aunt Sadie away to the magistrates, and then they told me to come in off the roof, and so I did!” Cassie ended triumphantly.
“And then I got out of the trunk, and everyone was amazed!”
Sebastian regarded his sisters with stupefaction. “You are amazing!” he said shakily, and gathered them in a huge, exuberant hug.
They hadn’t been forced into child prostitution! His little sisters hadn’t been raped and violated, after all. He gulped in huge thankful breaths of air and hugged them tightly to him. The worst hadn’t happened. He’d thought Cassie’s knife and Dorie’s timidity and silence were a result of their hideous brothel experiences. The thought had tortured him for months.
They’d escaped! Rescued themselves from a horrible fate through sheer, bloody brilliance and bravery!
He couldn’t speak. His eyes were wet with tears. He blinked the tears back and hugged his sisters again, sending up a silent prayer of thanks for their ingenuity and their bravery and their blessed, blessed escape.
“And then what happened?” Hope asked, a short time later. Somehow they’d all come to be sitting on the floor in front of the fire. Cassie and Dorie were between Sebastian and Hope.
Cassie answered; she was still in the habit of speaking for both of them. “They took us to the magistrate, and he asked us all about it, and I told him what happened, and he said Aunt Sadie would go to prison. But they didn’t know where Albert was anymore, so they couldn’t punish him.”
“And when he found out we didn’t have any family, he sent us to the Tot.”
“The Tot?” Hope queried.
“The Tothill Fields Institution for Indigent Girls,” explained Cassie. “We were there for—I don’t know—about two months.”
“It’s where I found them,” explained Sebastian. “Or more accurately, where Morton Black found them, acting on my instructions.”
“Oh!” exclaimed Hope. “So that’s why you—”
“Purchased it? Yes,” said Sebastian, giving her a meaningful look. He’d cut her off deliberately. He knew what she’d been going to say, but he didn’t want his sisters to know why he’d kept them from the tea party, not wanting them to meet up with their erstwhile fellow Tot girls. He had no intention of them ever being recognized as former inmates.
He added, “Lady Elinore doesn’t know they were there. They were listed as Carrie and Doreen Morgan, not Cassandra and Eudora Reyne. They never met her. Lady Elinore’s mother was dying, and she didn’t come to the institution at all during that time.”
As the words came out of his mouth, it occurred to Sebastian to wonder about Lady Elinore. Once she found out, would she have treated his sisters as fallen girls, in need of rehabilitation?
He looked across at Hope Merridew, who sat on the floor hugging his sisters and lavishing them with unquestioning love, and he sent up another heartfelt prayer of thankfulness.
After a time, Hope said, “Well, I don’t know about you girls, but I think a celebration is in order.”
“Celebration?” Cassie asked.
Hope said briskly, “Decidedly! We have a number of things to celebrate! First we must celebrate Dorie’s escape and t
he capture of the evil Albert Watts.” She counted them off on her fingers as she spoke. “And the return of Dorie’s voice, and we must celebrate your brilliant escape from horrid Aunt Sadie, and also, we had another first today.”
They all looked at her.
She winked merrily and said, “Both you and Dorie had your first ride on horseback today, and both of you did marvelously well. So I think we need to all go to Astley’s Amphitheater this afternoon and watch one of the spectacular shows. And you will see the brilliant lady equestriennes there who inspired me when I first came to London.”
She caught Sebastian’s eye and added with a mischievous twinkle, “Not, of course, that you will wish to emulate them. But they are tremendous fun to watch, and if one thing is clear to me, it’s that none of us had enough fun when we were children, so it is our duty to make up for it now.”
She stood up, a lissome, graceful movement that made Sebastian’s mouth dry with longing, and said, “Now, I shall return home to change and fetch my sisters, and you will wish to change also. And then at two o’clock, you shall come and collect us in your carriage, and we shall go to Astley’s. And after that, perhaps your brother will buy us all ices at Gunter’s? What say you?”
“Yes please!” both girls exclaimed in excitement, as if all thoughts of past terrors were forgotten. Sebastian belatedly realized her intention. She’d returned them to childhood and innocence again. He’d wanted to wrap them in cotton wool and comfort them. He’d thought maybe they should take a nap to recover from their ordeal. She offered them a fun outing, a treat, and the opportunity to accept the past and move on.
His lovely miracle woman. It was no accident she was named Hope. She was his Hope, now and for the future.
The girls raced out to change and get ready, and Sebastian and Hope were left alone in the room.
“I thought it was going to be so much worse,” he said raggedly. “I thought—”
She reached up and cupped his cheek. “I know. So did I.”
