by Dilly Court
Lottie pulled up a chair and sat down beside him, taking his hand in hers. ‘It’s early days yet, Pa. We have a roof over our heads and a good business in the pie shop. We won’t starve, and I have plans for the future.’
‘I don’t deserve you, Lottie. If your dear mother had not succumbed to the fever things would have been different.’
‘I know, Pa.’ Lottie leaned over to kiss his thin cheek. ‘There’s one thing that’s been puzzling me. I never told you, but when I first arrived at Poona I wanted to visit Kirkee. I don’t know why, but I thought I’d been there before.’
‘You have been there, Lottie. Your mother and the little ones are buried in the cemetery at Kirkee. You were only six years old at the time, but it must have made a deep impression on you.’
‘I understand now. I’m only sorry I didn’t have time to go back there and visit their graves.’
‘Do as I have done all these years, my love. Carry them in your heart and they’ll never be forgotten.’ Harold leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes. ‘I’d like to have a nap, if you don’t mind, dear girl.’
‘You must be tired. I’ll bring you some tea and something to eat in a while.’ She waited for an answer but he had drifted off to sleep.
‘Sweet dreams, Pa.’ Lottie rose slowly to her feet. It hurt to see her pa suffering. He would have been in his prime, but for the injury that almost cost him his life. His mind was still sharp and there must be something he could do that would make him feel like a man again. She knew she would not rest until she had found the answer, but for now there were more pressing matters.
Lad was the first to spot Lottie as she entered the kitchen. He raced across the flagstone floor, slipping and sliding in his eagerness to greet her, and she bent down to stroke him. Ruby pushed him out of the way. ‘Get down, you silly dog. It’s my turn to make a fuss of Lottie.’ She gave her a hug. ‘It’s good to have you home at last. We’ve all missed you.’
Lottie held her at arm’s length. ‘Jem didn’t tell me that you were expecting an addition to the family.’
Ruby blushed and giggled. ‘Isn’t it wonderful? I never imagined I could be so happy.’
‘It’s due fairly soon, isn’t it?’
‘It’s what they call a honeymoon baby,’ Grace said, clutching Gideon’s arm as if she would never let him go. ‘That’s what you were, my boy. Nine months almost to the day and you came into the world, red-faced and angry and yelling at the top of your lungs.’
‘Ma, don’t embarrass me.’ Gideon kissed his mother on the forehead. ‘It’s good to be home safe and sound.’
Jezebel put down the wooden spoon she was using to stir the eel liquor and she crossed the floor to grab Lottie by the hand. ‘It’s a happy day, Lottie. We’ve done all right while you were away, but I’ve a feeling we’ll do even better now.’
Lottie smiled at the big woman. ‘I’ve missed you all.’ She glanced round. ‘Where’s Molly? And I haven’t seen Teddy yet.’
‘Molly’s having a nap,’ Ruby said hastily. ‘But you’ll hardly recognise her. She’s walking and into everything. She says a few words too, and she’s a beautiful little girl, just like …’
‘Just like her mother,’ Lottie finished the sentence for her with a wry smile. ‘Lady Aurelia still refuses to have anything to do with her daughter, although she is going to help out financially.’
‘She has her hands full, you must admit,’ Gideon said mildly. ‘She’s devoted all her time and attention to Farrell.’
‘He was blinded in a terrible accident,’ Lottie added by way of an explanation. ‘Perhaps, when they’re married, she might feel differently towards Molly, although it will break my heart to let her go.’
‘And mine.’ Ruby clutched her belly. ‘Ouch, he kicked me hard then. I’ll swear your son is going to be a young ruffian, Jem.’
‘I’ll teach him to be a gentleman,’ Jem said, grinning, ‘and if it’s a pretty little girl, just like her ma, I’ll spoil her and treat her like a princess.’
Lottie was about to remind Jezebel to make a pot of tea, intending to take it upstairs to her father, when the street door burst open and Teddy rushed into the kitchen.
‘I knew it,’ he said gleefully. ‘You’ve come home, Lottie.’ He ran to her and wrapped his arms around her waist. ‘Why did you stay away so long? I thought you was never coming home.’
‘I’ve missed you too, Teddy.’ Lottie ruffled his copper curls. ‘I’ll swear you’ve grown a couple of inches since I went away.’
He looked up at her with tears in his eyes. ‘Promise me you won’t go away again. The sun went in when you left, but it’s come out again. Everything will be all right now.’
Jem moved to the door at the sound of the footsteps overhead. ‘That sounds like customers. It’s dinner time so we’d best get to our places ready to serve the pies and mash.’ He took the stairs two at a time.
Suddenly the kitchen became a place of business. Grace abandoned her son and moved to the range where she started filling jugs with the parsley-flavoured liquor, and Teddy followed Jem upstairs to collect the orders for food.
Lottie stood at Gideon’s side, watching with a feeling of pride as Jezebel opened the oven door and a blast of heat filled the room with the savoury aroma of hot pies. She shot a sideway glance in Lottie’s direction. ‘Don’t just stand there, girl. Fetch the plates from the dresser and get ready to serve the mash.’
‘I’d better get out of your way?’ Gideon took a step towards the door.
‘We all have to work here, Sapper Ellis,’ Jezebel said firmly. ‘Take a cup of tea and a pie upstairs to Lottie’s pa. You might not be in the army now, but you have to take orders when you’re in my kitchen.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’ Gideon snapped to attention and saluted. ‘You would make a very good sergeant-major, Miss Pretty.’
‘Less of the cheek, sapper, and it’s Jezebel to you.’
‘You won’t win a battle of words with Jezebel,’ Lottie said, laughing. ‘I know we keep saying it, but it’s good to be home. I’ve missed you all so much.’
Teddy appeared at the top of the stairs. ‘Four pie and mash,’ he said importantly. ‘And there’s a queue outside the door.’
At first Lottie was delighted to find that business was brisk, but after a week at home she realised that there was very little profit to be made from such a small business. Gideon went out each morning, looking for work without success, and although he said nothing, Lottie could see that he was anxious and dispirited. What worried her even more was the fact that the rent was due at the end of the month, and unless a miracle happened they would be unable to find the money.
The evening before the rent collector was due to call Lottie sat at the kitchen table poring over Jem’s attempt at book-keeping, while Jezebel sat by the range smoking her clay pipe. Grace and Ruby had retired to the parlour to sit with Harold for a while before they went to bed, and Jem, Teddy and Gideon, accompanied by Lad, had gone to the river to lay traps for the eels that would be in tomorrow’s pies. Despite helping in the pie shop, Lottie had been able to spend an hour or two each day with Molly, and had fallen in love with her all over again. She was a beautiful child, and already showed some of the wilfulness and spirit that characterised her mother, but her sunny smile would break many hearts in years to come, and it was obvious that everyone adored her. The thought of giving her up, even to Aurelia, was too hard to bear.
Lottie sighed and went back to the scrawled figures in the ledger, some of them virtually obscured by blots, which made it almost impossible to check their accuracy. What leaped out of the pages was confirmation of her worst fears: they were not making enough money to live on.
‘Judging by your expression it don’t look too good.’ Jezebel relit her pipe with a spill from the fire. ‘We’re working ourselves into the ground for nothing. Ain’t that the truth?’
Lottie stared at her, startled by Jezebel’s grasp of the situation. ‘That’s just about it, as
far as I can see, anyway.’
‘There’s too many of us. I can do me sums, and you don’t have to be clever to work that out.’
‘No one seems to have realised it but you.’
‘I had to tot up the books for her ladyship at The Swan, so I got a rough idea how much things cost and how much profit there is to be made on certain things. Old Prudie weren’t too bright, although she wouldn’t admit it.’
‘You’re right, Jezebel. The pie shop is too small to make enough profit to keep us all and pay the rent, and we’re in arrears as it is.’
Jezebel sucked on the stem of her pipe and smoke trickled out of the sides of her mouth. ‘I didn’t know that.’
‘It looks as if Jem has been keeping it secret. I don’t suppose he wants to worry Grace and Ruby, especially with her baby due in a few weeks.’
‘Well, I won’t be able to get me old job back. Neither will you, for that matter.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I heard that The Swan is up for sale. The railways have finally done for the mail coaches, and the Filbys have been struggling for months. I had it from Ned Potts, the head ostler.’
‘He had a soft spot for you, as I recall.’
‘He’s soft in the head, if you ask me.’ Jezebel sniffed and rose to her feet at the sound of voices outside. ‘I’m going to me bed.’
Lottie closed the ledger as the door opened. Lad bounded into the kitchen, followed by Teddy, Jem and Gideon.
‘We should get a good catch tonight,’ Teddy said excitedly.
‘Eels are about the only thing tough enough to live in that filth.’ Gideon sank down on Jezebel’s recently vacated chair. ‘The stench down on the foreshore is disgusting.’
Jem snatched a jug from the dresser and thrust it into Teddy’s hands. ‘Pop over to the pub and get them to fill it with ale, there’s a good chap.’ He took a coin from his pocket and gave it to him. ‘We’ve earned a nightcap.’
Teddy grinned and saluted. ‘Yes, sir.’ He let himself out into the street, allowing the door to swing on its hinges.
‘I see you’ve been checking me figures, Lottie.’ Jem pulled up a chair and sat down beside her. ‘You’ll have seen that things ain’t too good.’
‘It’s obvious that we can’t pay the rent, let alone the arrears.’
‘Is that true?’ Gideon asked anxiously. ‘Why didn’t you tell us, Jem?’
‘I done me best, honest I did.’ Jem turned a worried face to Lottie. ‘We worked really hard, girl, but people round here have barely enough to live on. If we charged more for our pie and mash we’d have no customers at all.’
‘But we aren’t a charity,’ Lottie said wearily. ‘All the hard work has been in vain, and I’m afraid your ma will lose her home, Gideon.’
‘I’ve got some of my back pay,’ he said, frowning. ‘But when that’s gone I’m broke until I can find work, which I fully intend to do, although no one wants to employ a man with a gammy leg, and the army won’t have me now.’
‘I don’t want you to go back into active service, Gideon. We talked about this during the voyage home. We planned a life together.’
Jem cleared his throat. ‘Would you like me to take myself off? This isn’t my business.’
‘And this isn’t a conversation we should be having now,’ Gideon said firmly. ‘I’ll find work, Lottie. I learned a lot when I was operating the electric telegraph, and the work we did installing cables and transmitting information in the Crimea should count for something. There must be something similar I can do; it just takes time to find it. I want to be able to support my wife and family, and I won’t settle for second best.’
Lottie laid her hand on his. ‘I understand, but we still have to face the fact that we can’t pay the rent this month.’
Gideon’s jaw set in a stubborn line. ‘I’ll raise the money somehow.’
Lottie knew better than to argue with him in this mood and she could feel his pain as if it were her own. She rose to her feet. ‘I’m tired and I’m going to bed.’ She leaned over to kiss Gideon on the forehead. ‘Things will look better in the morning. They always do.’
Lottie rose early next day and left the house before anyone else stirred. A plan had formulated in her mind before she went to sleep, and she took a cab to Lord de Morgan’s mansion in Grosvenor Square. She was still wearing clothes that Aurelia had given her and she presented herself at the front entrance, knowing that at least she was dressed like a lady, even if she lived over a pie and mash shop in Whitechapel. When the door was opened by a liveried footman with a supercilious expression Lottie adopted the confident attitude displayed by Aurelia and her contemporaries.
‘Please inform Lady Aurelia that Miss Lane has called to see her. She’s expecting me.’
This time she had no difficulty in gaining admittance and the footman ushered her into a small but elegantly furnished room overlooking the square. Minutes later a maid came to take her to Lady Aurelia’s boudoir.
Lottie was not surprised to find her ladyship sitting up in bed, sipping a cup of chocolate.
‘You’re bright and early,’ Aurelia said, yawning. ‘What’s so urgent that you had to wake me from my beauty sleep?’
Lottie perched on the edge of the bed, taking in her surroundings with an admiring glance. The room was furnished with taste and elegance and no expense had been spared. The curtains and carpet were in delicate shades of silvery blue and crystal chandeliers hung from the ornate plasterwork on the high ceiling. It was a bedchamber fit for a princess, let alone an earl’s daughter.
‘This is a change from our rooms in the bungalow at Poona.’
‘You didn’t come all this way to compliment me on my bedchamber.’ Aurelia replaced her cup on its saucer. ‘Why are you here at crack of dawn? It must be urgent.’
‘I need to know what you intend to do about your daughter.’
‘I thought we’d settled that question, Lottie.’
‘Molly isn’t an object. She’s beautiful and intelligent and altogether delightful. We all love her dearly, but she’s your child. I can’t believe that you could give her up so easily.’
‘My dear friend, we’ve been through such a lot together, I thought you would know me better by now. I regret it, but I have no maternal feelings. I can’t help it, Lottie. I’m not like you. I’m prepared to pay handsomely for the child’s needs, and maybe when she’s older I’ll want to get to know her, but only as a kind aunt or some distant relation. I gave her to you the moment she was born and nothing has changed.’
‘I thought so, but I needed to hear it again.’
‘Good, I’m glad that’s settled. I’ll always be your friend, even though our lives will take us in different directions. At the moment all I care about is getting Farrell the best possible treatment for his condition. I refuse to believe that he will never see again.’
‘I understand, and I sympathise, but now I have a business proposition to put to you. Can we talk?’
Two hours later Lord de Morgan’s carriage drew to a halt in the yard of The Swan with Two Necks. Ned Potts rushed forward to hold the horses’ heads, and a lackey leaped to the ground to open the door and help Lottie alight. She could just imagine the sensation it would create in Leman Street if she turned up at the pie and mash shop in such style, and she sent the carriage back to Grosvenor Square. It was fun being treated like a lady of quality, but it was not really her style.
‘Lottie, is it really you?’ Ned stared at her, his pale melt-water eyes popping out of his head.
‘Yes, Ned. I’ve come to see Mr Filby.’
‘He’s in the taproom, miss. Shall I get him for you?’
‘Yes, please. Tell him that Miss Lane is here with an offer that he will not be able to refuse.’ Enjoying herself hugely, Lottie stood aside and Ned bumbled past her on his way to the bar. She looked round, recalling the long years of servitude she had endured at the hands of the Filbys, half expecting to see May and Ruth leaning over the balustrade on t
he upper gallery, but the doors and windows were closed and a general air of dilapidation seemed to have taken over a once-thriving business. There were one or two sorry-looking nags in the stables, but no sign of carriage trade, and the cobblestones were ankle-deep in straw and dung.
Filby emerged from the taproom at the same moment as his wife waddled out of the scullery.
‘Lottie Lane, is that you, girl?’ Prudence’s strident tones echoed off the walls and the horses whinnied in alarm. ‘Come for a job, have you?’ she added, smirking as she waded towards Lottie, but her face fell as she took in the cut of Lottie’s fashionable gown and her expensive hat and shoes. She was not to know that they were Lady Aurelia’s cast-offs. Lottie wanted to laugh, but somehow she managed to keep a straight face.
‘What d’you want?’ Filby demanded angrily. ‘Have you come to gloat?’
‘Shut your trap, Shem.’ Prudence glared at her husband. ‘She don’t know nothing.’
‘Oh, but I do.’ Lottie faced her with her head held high. ‘As a matter of fact I know that you’re virtually bankrupt and likely to end up in the debtors’ prison.’
‘Who told you that? It’s a rotten lie.’ Prudence balled her hands into the fists that Lottie had seen her use on several occasions.
‘She come in a toff’s carriage,’ Ned volunteered. ‘I seen her get out of it.’
‘Sold yerself to a rich cove, have you?’ Prudence moved a step closer. ‘I always knew you’d end up a wrong ’un.’
‘You are mistaken, ma’am.’ Lottie had begun to enjoy herself. For the first time she had the upper hand. Years of ill treatment, beatings and verbal abuse had left their mark and she could not bring herself to feel sorry for either of the people who had made her life a misery.
‘Enough of this,’ Filby said impatiently. ‘What have you come for?’
‘I’ve come to buy you out.’
There was a stunned silence. Prudence’s jaw dropped and her mouth hung open. Her husband appeared to be dumbstruck.
Ned guffawed loudly. ‘That’s a good ’un.’
