The Ragged Heiress

by Dilly Court

  Lucetta eyed him doubtfully. This was not the Sam she remembered, but then she was not the same bright-eyed innocent she had been then. She curved her lips into a smile. ‘Thank you, Sam. Tomorrow I will give you my full attention.’

  Tears trickled down Guthrie’s ashen cheeks as Giles finished binding his injured limb. ‘There, old chap, it’s all done,’ Giles said gently. ‘Try to get some sleep, Lennie.’

  Lucetta picked up the enamel bowl filled with bloodied water and placed it on the table. ‘He will be all right now, won’t he?’ she whispered.

  Giles rose to his feet, wiping his hands on a piece of towelling. His expression was grave. ‘He’s lost a great deal of blood, but providing sepsis does not set in, he should make a good recovery. He looks like a tough individual to me.’

  Guthrie grunted and his lips twisted into a parody of a smile. ‘I’m that all right, guv.’

  ‘You must rest, Lennie,’ Lucetta said gently. ‘I’ll make you a cup of tea and some toast. You have to keep your strength up.’

  Giles glanced round the sparsely furnished room. ‘Is this how you live now, Lucetta?’

  ‘We manage very well.’ She bent down to pick up the kettle. ‘You will stay for a cup of tea, won’t you?’

  ‘Let me fetch the water. You look exhausted.’ He took the kettle from her. ‘Is there a pump outside or do you have to use the one at the end of the street?’

  ‘We have our own pump but we share the privy with twenty other families. This is quite a modern house for this part of Wapping.’ She smiled at the shocked expression on his face. ‘It’s a hundred times better than the basement in Black Raven Court.’

  ‘Maybe so.’ Giles opened the door and disappeared into the darkness, returning moments later with a full kettle which he set on the hob. He glanced at Guthrie, who had fallen asleep under the influence of a generous dose of laudanum. ‘I hate to see you living like this, Lucetta. Come home with me and allow us to care for you as we did before.’

  She sat down on a stool by the fire, warming her chilled feet in the blaze which would consume the last of their coal supply until pay day. ‘I can’t do that. This is what I was afraid of, Giles, and why I kept away from Lonsdale Square. It was all too complicated, and Sir Hector …’ She broke off, staring into the flames.

  ‘He told me,’ Giles said softly. ‘He said he was an old fool who allowed his emotions to cloud his judgement, although I think he was being a bit hard on himself. Was that why you left the Grange in such a hurry?’

  Lucetta looked up and smiled for the first time that evening as she met the irrepressible twinkle in his eyes. ‘I couldn’t marry a man I didn’t love.’

  ‘I know that from bitter experience, my dear.’ Giles held up his hand as she opened her mouth to protest. ‘I’ve survived a broken heart. You don’t have to worry about me.’

  ‘I must seem an ungrateful wretch to you, after all you’ve done for me in the past. And Mary too, does she think badly of me?’

  ‘Mary is a saint. She can see no wrong in the people she loves and she does love you, Lucetta. She misses you very much and she would be so happy to see you again.’

  ‘Is she still in Dorset?’

  ‘She is, although they will be returning when the winter recess is over and Sir Hector resumes his seat in Parliament.’

  Lucetta eyed him curiously. ‘And have you begun working in your country practice? I was afraid that you might not have returned home for Christmas, but I am so glad that you did.’

  ‘I thought about it long and hard and in the end I decided that a comfortable life in Stockton Lacey was not for me. There is so much poverty and want in the East End that I could not turn my back on the people who are in so much need. I’m looking for a practice in an area where I can be of most use, and I think I might have found the ideal one in Hoxton. It’s in one of the poorest areas, quite near the fever hospital in fact.’

  She felt a lump rise in her throat and she did not know how to respond, but at that moment the kettle began to bubble. She was touched by his concern for his fellow men and for some unknown reason his words had brought tears to her eyes. She concealed her emotion by making the tea.

  ‘Will you stay for supper, Giles?’ She took the toasting fork from a nail by the fireplace and handed it to him. ‘I’ll slice the bread if you’d like to make yourself useful and toast it by the fire.’

  He took the long-handled fork from her, brandishing it in a fair imitation of Britannia holding out her trident on the back of a copper coin. ‘I’m a dab hand at making toast. We practically lived on it when I was a medical student.’ He was silent for a moment as he watched her slice the loaf that she took from a crock on the dresser. ‘Do you love him, Lucetta?’

  She looked up, startled by the suddenness of the question and the intensity in his voice. ‘That’s not a fair question, Giles.’

  ‘I’m sorry. I had no right to ask.’

  ‘Are we still friends, Giles? I couldn’t bear it if you hated me for what I did.’

  ‘Of course I don’t hate you.’ His voice broke with emotion and he turned away from her. ‘Why did you run away, Lucetta?’

  ‘You know why. I was the unwitting cause of so much heartache.’

  ‘Your sudden departure made things worse. If only you had waited until I returned from London, we could have straightened matters out. As it was I’ve spent weeks searching for you.’

  ‘I am so sorry I put you to such a lot of trouble, Giles.’ Lucetta handed him a slice of bread. ‘I thought I was acting for the best.’

  Giles held the toasting fork close to the flames, glancing at her over his shoulder with a wry smile. ‘You wouldn’t think that if you had seen my desperate efforts to find you. I visited hotels and lodging houses and in desperation did the rounds of the hospitals in case you had met with an accident.’

  ‘Oh, Giles, I am truly sorry.’

  ‘I was frantic, Lucetta. We all were when you disappeared without a trace. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I happened to meet up with an old friend, James Richards, the casualty officer at Bart’s, and he told me that he recalled treating a man who was accompanied by his pretty young daughter. She met your description exactly, and I remembered what you had told me about Guthrie. That seemed to fit too.’

  ‘I’m surprised Dr Richards remembered us when he sees so many cases in a day.’

  ‘You are not the sort of person a man can forget easily, and paired with your friend – it’s like the old fairy tale of beauty and the beast.’

  Lucetta cast an anxious glance at Guthrie whose mouth was open, and his unshaven chin rested on his chest as loud snores shook his whole body. She smiled in spite of her concern for him. ‘That’s not fair. Lennie is not a beast. He saved my life and he has stood by me ever since.’

  ‘And he took you to that hovel in Black Raven Court. I wheedled your address from James and I went there in the hope of finding you, but Guthrie said you’d gone out and he didn’t know when you’d be back. It was getting late and so I said I’d return next day and I did, only to find the place locked and shuttered. I went back day after day, but none of your neighbours knew where you’d gone.’

  ‘Why did you go to so much trouble when I had treated you so badly?’

  ‘You know the reason why, Lucetta, but in part it was because Sir Hector had received a reply from the British consul in Bali. Sir John Boothby confirmed your identity with a signed affidavit which would stand up in any court of law. You can now prove that you are Lucetta Froy and regain what is rightfully yours.’ He handed her the slice of charred bread, which was still smoking from too close a contact with the fire. ‘And I am little better than King Alfred who burnt the cakes, but all this will soon be a thing of the past, Lucetta. Burnt toast and dirt floors will become a distant memory. You will be able to return home, my dear, where you truly belong.’

  His words lingered in her mind long after Giles had left that evening. He had helped her put Guthrie to bed on the straw palli
asse which was kept rolled up in the corner of the kitchen during the day and laid out on the floor by the fire at night. She had banked the glowing embers of coal with cinders saved from previous fires, and on Giles’ instructions had given Guthrie a further dose of laudanum before she went upstairs to her room.

  She lay in bed staring at the cracks in the ceiling plaster as sleep evaded her. Sam’s declaration of love and his assumption that they would be married was not the wonderful happy ending that she had anticipated. Something had changed, but she did not know whether the difference was in her feeling for Sam, or if she doubted the sincerity of his love for her. She had tried to put aside Dora Cutler’s vituperative accusations and the animosity that Seth felt towards his cousin, but the poison was insidious and Lucetta had begun to harbour doubts about Sam. There was only one way to solve the conundrum and that was to ask him outright if he had fathered Dora’s child and then left her at the altar. Lucetta was no coward, but she was not sure that she wanted to learn the truth.

  She tossed and turned but every time she closed her eyes she saw another face and heard a different voice in her head. This time it was Giles who took control of her thoughts. She had left Stockton Lacey hoping that he would turn to Mary who had loved him for years and would make him a good and loyal wife; the ideal partner for a country doctor. But now Lucetta had to face that fact that her sudden departure had done the opposite. Instead of taking up the practice and recognising Mary’s silent devotion, he had left behind a comfortable, settled existence and spent months scouring the capital to find the woman who had spurned his advances. It seemed to Lucetta that she had been the cause of much pain and suffering. Eventually, she lapsed into a fitful sleep and awakened next morning with a headache.

  A cold white light filtered through the thin cretonne curtains at her window and when she drew them back she discovered that a fresh covering of snow had fallen during the night. The inside of the windowpanes was frosted with ice and when she went downstairs she discovered that the fire had burned away to ashes. She lit a candle and bent over Guthrie, who was mumbling in his sleep. She felt his forehead and realised to her dismay that he was far from cold, in fact he was burning up with fever. She could not move him in order to clear the grate and anyway there was not enough coal to keep the fire going all day. Sam had not actually given her any money, although he had paid the cab fare, and she had just a few pence left until she received her wages in two days’ time.

  She went into the yard and found that the pump had frozen solid. Icicles hung from its lip and she broke them into the kettle, scooping up a handful of clean snow and adding it to the shards of ice. She hurried back to the relative warmth of the house and mixed a few drops of laudanum with the melting snow, waiting until it had turned back to liquid before she held it to Guthrie’s parched lips.

  ‘I have to go to work, Lennie,’ she murmured. ‘But I’ll come back at midday to see how you are.’ She was not certain whether he had heard her, but she placed a cup of melting ice at his side. Her bonnet and shawl were still damp but she had nothing else to wear. She must not be late for work; Jeremiah had a nasty habit of docking their wages if his staff failed to turn up on time and she could not afford to lose a penny. She did not want to leave Guthrie in his present state, but it was possible that he might end up crippled for life and she would have to support them both. In any event he would need medicine and good food if he was to make a full recovery.

  She arrived at the warehouse on time and set to work immediately. Perks noted her pallor and insisted on making a pot of tea, telling her that if she were any thinner she would slip through the gratings in the street and fall down a sewer. He insisted that she ate the last of Mrs Perks’ shortbread and he flapped around her like a mother hen, until Jeremiah’s arrival put a stop to all communication between them.

  Jeremiah was not in a good mood. He stormed into the office, flinging his top hat onto a peg and cursing as it toppled onto the floor. ‘Damnation. As if I have not enough to put up with. Pick it up, girl.’

  Lucetta bent down to retrieve the hat and hung it on the peg. ‘Good morning, Mr Froy.’

  ‘Good? What’s good about it?’ Jeremiah waved a piece of paper in front of her face. ‘This is the estimate for repairing that bloody boat. Does he think me a fool to part with that amount of money to repair a rotting hulk? I’ll challenge it in court if necessary, but I’m damned if I’ll pay out that sort of cash for someone else’s problem.’

  Lucetta glanced over the document. She did not know much about the cost of repairing sailing vessels, but it did not seem inordinately expensive. ‘So you will not pay this then, sir?’

  ‘Not a penny.’ Jeremiah shrugged off his cashmere overcoat and allowed it to fall to the floor. ‘I doubt if I can pay it anyway. I’ve just had a letter from my father’s agent in Bali. Apparently the old man has had a seizure of some kind and is unable to continue with his tour. He is already on his way home. Hang my coat up, Miss Guthrie, and make me a cup of tea while you’re about it.’

  Lucetta was about to follow his barked instructions when Sam breezed in with a jaunty swagger. ‘Good morning, Froy. I’ve come to collect the money to pay for the repairs to my vessel.’

  Jeremiah puffed out his cheeks and his eyes disappeared into angry slits. ‘You won’t get a penny out of me, Cutler. This is extortion and I wouldn’t be surprised if you had engineered the whole thing yourself.’

  Sam’s smile did not waver. ‘You can argue your case in court if you’ve a mind to do things the hard way, Froy.’

  Lucetta shot him a warning glance. ‘I’m just going to make tea for Mr Froy. Would you like a cup, Captain Cutler?’

  He put his arm around her shoulders. ‘There’s no need to keep up the pretence, my love. I think it’s time we told your cousin a few home truths.’

  She drew away from him. ‘No, Sam. Don’t do this.’

  ‘What’s all this nonsense?’ Jeremiah demanded angrily. ‘What insane plot have you two hatched together?’

  ‘Nothing,’ Lucetta said, shaking her head. ‘It’s Captain Cutler’s idea of a joke.’

  Sam smiled benevolently. ‘The joke is on you, Froy. This young lady is your cousin Lucetta Froy. We knew each other in Bali and were engaged to be married. I thought I had lost her when the Caroline was sunk, but she was saved, and here she is alive and well as you see. And the bad news from your point of view is that she owns all of this.’ Sam encompassed the warehouse with a wave of his arms. ‘You work for her now, Froy. And you will be working for me too once Lucetta and I are man and wife. What do you think of that?’

  Chapter Twenty-two

  ‘Sam, how could you do that do me?’ Lucetta stood outside the warehouse, shivering violently with shock and suppressed anger. Jeremiah had refused to believe Sam and had thrown them out on the street. ‘What were you thinking of? I’ve lost my job because of you.’

  Sam hooked his arm around her shoulders. ‘My darling, you don’t need to slave away for the Froys. You said that your friends have a letter from Sir John Boothby which will establish your true identity. Once we have that, you’ll be able to walk into your old home as Miss Lucetta Froy, owner of Froy and Son, importers. You are a wealthy woman, my love, and when we are married we will add exporters and shippers to the name of Cutler above the door.’

  Lucetta stared at him in amazement. ‘You’re mad. It isn’t as easy as that. They’ll fight me all the way and in the meantime I have no money, and you have no ship. If Jeremiah refuses to pay for the repairs then you stand to lose everything.’

  ‘Don’t be such a little pessimist.’ Sam’s smile wavered but he recovered quickly. ‘Come; let’s get you back to that hovel you call home before you freeze to death. We’ll talk about our strategy over a glass of hot toddy.’

  ‘Haven’t you heard a word I’ve said, Sam Cutler? I can’t afford to buy coal for the fire, let alone rum or brandy for a hot toddy. We’re down to our last crust of bread and I’ve only threepence to my na
me.’

  ‘I’m not a beggar. I’ve money from my last voyage. We won’t starve.’

  ‘You will need every penny to pay for the repairs unless I can persuade Jeremiah that it is all a mistake. I think he will believe it if I tell him you are off your head with some tropical fever. If I grovel, he might just give me back my job.’

  She made for the office but Sam barred her way.

  ‘There’s no going back now, Lucetta. The first thing we must do is get hold of that document and then I’ll organise special licence so that we can be married tomorrow. We’ll fight this together, sweetheart. What do you say?’

  His eyes were alight with excitement and he grasped both her hands, but she snatched them away. ‘Do you want me or my fortune, Sam?’

  ‘What sort of question is that? You wanted to marry me three years ago. Nothing has changed.’

  She shook her head slowly. ‘Everything has changed, Sam. I am not the same person as I was then, and neither are you. You didn’t even recognise me when you first saw me.’

  ‘For God’s sake, Lucetta, I thought you were dead. How was I supposed to know it was you?’

  ‘If you’d truly loved me, Sam, I think your heart would have told you.’

  He took her by the shoulders, looking deeply into her eyes. ‘It’s telling me now.’ Ignoring the shouts of the men working on the wharves and the amused glances of the passers-by, he drew her into his arms and kissed her.

  Lucetta struggled at first but his mouth was hot and demanding and she closed her eyes, giving herself up momentarily to the thrill of being held in the arms of a man she had loved so passionately. The years seemed to melt away and she was back in the consulate garden, being kissed by her lover beneath the champak tree. She was breathless and trembling when he released her.