by Merry Farmer
He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about his dark-haired America beauty since he left her in the café a few days before, flushed with excitement from finding a job. Her exotic face and sultry eyes came to his mind at the most inopportune times, including when he should have been focusing on plans to rent space on Oxford Street for his department store. He couldn’t shake the feeling that his attraction to Noelle was more than a passing fancy, more than the shallow interest he’d felt for women in the past. This was something special.
That was why after meeting with Mr. Titus of Titus Brothers Property about a large commercial space that was about to be available for rental and eventually possible purchase, he found himself strolling down Oxford Street in the direction of Noelle’s café. The moment he opened the door and stepped from the chill of the damp January afternoon to the sweet-smelling warmth of the café, his heart grew light. Even more so when he spotted Noelle serving tea to a pair of elderly ladies at a table to one side of the shop.
He watched with a smile, waiting until Noelle stepped away from the ladies and headed to the counter at the back of the café. Then he followed her.
“It would be unkind of me to say anything other than that you’re the most delicious sight in this entire café,” he greeted her. The line was silly and far more sentimental than anything that had come out of his mouth before, but it was worth it when Noelle’s troubled frown melted into a blushing smile.
Although it was the troubled frown that snagged Ram’s attention.
“You’re too kind, Ram,” she said.
“Is something wrong?” Ram asked, losing some of his deliberate charm.
“Um.” Noelle glanced to the café owner’s daughter behind the counter. The young woman looked just as tired as Noelle. She handed a small tray laden with tea cakes and steaming mugs of hot chocolate over to Noelle. “I have just a bit more work to do,” she said, forcing a smile, eyes darting to the young woman. “Why don’t you have a seat and I’ll be with you as soon as I can. I’m almost done for the day anyhow.”
Something in her eyes told Ram to do as she asked. There was more going on than serving tables and finishing up work. Ram watched Noelle carry the tray to a table by the window as he wound his way through the café to sit far enough from the counter so if she did have something to say to him, the café owner’s daughter wouldn’t hear her.
“What are you doing just standing around, you lazy chit.” The café owner burst through a door at the back behind the counter. He carried a large sheet of decorated cakes and glared at his daughter. “There’s a customer just sitting there.” The beefy man nodded to Ram, scowling as he set his tray on the table behind the counter.
“He’s....” The man’s daughter tried to speak but choked on her own words.
“I’m taken care of,” Ram said, loud enough for the café owner to hear.
The café owner scowled. Noelle shot a wary look over her shoulder from the table where she was serving customers. None of it added up to anything Ram liked. His self-satisfaction at helping Noelle to find a job flattened into concern that he’d landed her in a position that wasn’t good for her.
He had to wait several more minutes for a confirmation of his suspicions. Noelle finished with the customers—who were now happily having their tea and conversations—and headed to the back of the café.
“I’m finished for the day, Mr. Platte,” she said, untying her apron as she approached the owner.
Mr. Platte narrowed his eyes, barely glancing at her before returning to his work. “Leave the apron and go, then.”
Noelle hung her apron on a hook, but didn’t rush to join Ram. Instead, she cleared her throat, her hands clasped in front of her. She shot a quick look in Ram’s direction.
“What?” Mr. Platte straightened and pivoted to face her. Ram didn’t like the way the man drew himself to his full height, trying to intimidate.
“I was wondering,” Noelle began with a slight croak in her voice. She cleared her throat again, took a breath, squared her shoulders, and continued with, “I was wondering if I might be paid today.”
Ram’s brow inched up. Had Mr. Platte not paid her yet?
The answer came as Mr. Platte sniffed and said, “I told you, I only pay at the end of the week.”
“But Friday was the end of the week,” Noelle argued. “I’d worked two days by Friday, and you didn’t pay me then.”
“First two days don’t count,” Mr. Platte growled, returning to his work.
Ram rose from his chair at the man’s dismissive attitude and began to walk toward the counter.
Noelle sent him a warning look, as though she wanted to handle the situation herself. “You haven’t paid me since I started working here, Mr. Platte,” she went on, her tone somewhat firmer. “I can’t continue to work for you for free.”
“You should be grateful to have a job at all,” Mr. Platte told her over his shoulder.
“It isn’t much of a job if there’s no pay, is it?”
At last, Mr. Platte straightened and turned back to her. “Do you want a job or not?”
“I want a paying job,” Noelle answered. Ram was proud of the way she stood up to the bully.
Mr. Platte sniffed. “I’ll pay you at the end of the week.” He turned back to his work, shutting Noelle out completely.
Noelle stood her ground, blinking incredulously at the man’s back.
“Come on,” Ram said, reaching for her hand. “There are other cafés.”
Noelle continued to glare at Mr. Platte’s back for a moment, but finally gave up with a sigh. She moved to the side, taking her coat from a peg and shrugging it on. She also reached under the counter and drew out her carpetbag.
“What’s that?” Ram asked as the two of them headed out of the café and into the damp, cold afternoon. He took her carpetbag. At least he could do that.
Noelle sighed. “It’s my things.”
“Shouldn’t they be tucked away at the hotel?” he asked, already knowing how she was going to answer, and hating it.
She confirmed his suspicions by glancing sideways at him and admitting, “I checked out of the hotel this morning.” When Ram frowned, she went on with, “I don’t have that kind of money, Ram. It was a very nice hotel, but far more than I can afford.”
“Then we’ll find another one.”
Her sideways glance was closer to an eye-roll. Of all things, that send a jolt of warmth through Ram. If she was comfortable enough with him to roll her eyes in an anxious moment, then there was no telling how much more comfortable they could become.
“I don’t need a hotel,” she said, a note of defeat in her voice. “I need proper lodgings.”
“There are plenty of boarding houses in the area,” Ram said. “I can think of several off the top of my head that take in women who work in the shops around here. They’re respectable places.”
“Yes, they are,” Noelle agreed. “So respectable that they won’t even consider a foreign woman without references who has only been employed in the city for a week, and who can’t even provide proof of that employment.”
A sinking feeling filled Ram’s gut. “Ah. You’ve already asked around then, have you?”
Noelle nodded, hugging herself. “Why is it that everything in this city requires references and recommendations? Is no one willing to take a chance on someone who has just arrived?”
Ram frowned, staring at the pavement in front of them as they walked down Oxford Street. He’d never thought about how someone with few or no connections at all would make their way in London. Especially a woman. Men could loiter down by the docks and find work unloading a cargo ship if they were pressed for employment, but a woman couldn’t. In fact, he could only think of one way women with little to recommend them could earn money.
With a deep shudder, he understood how someone like Noelle could end up forced to do terrible things to survive.
“I suppose I’ll just have to find a sheltered spot somewhere in one of the
parks tonight,” Noelle said, startling Ram out of his thoughts.
“What?” he asked, prickles of dread racing down his spine.
She shrugged. “There are so many parks in London. One of them has to have a sheltering bush or something that I can sleep under tonight.”
Twin feelings of relief that she wasn’t talking about finding a spot from which to sell herself and anger that she would even have to think about sleeping under a bush hit Ram, heating him with indignation. “You’ll do no such thing,” he said, harsher than he wanted to.
Noelle glanced to him. “What else am I supposed to do? I can’t afford a hotel and the respectable lodging houses won’t take me. That leaves the seedy lodging houses—and believe me, I’ve seen enough of places like that to know just what would happen to me there—or the parks.”
Ram shook his head. “Things are not as bad as that yet. And you forget, you do have friends here.” He managed to smile through the ache in his gut.
That ache took on a whole different character when she smiled back at him. “Ram, I can’t depend on you for everything.”
“You absolutely can,” he told her. “And I know just how we’re going to solve this problem.”
Their journey down Oxford Street brought them back to where Ram had parked his wagon earlier. Ram tossed her carpetbag up onto the seat, then helped Noelle up. They chatted about less important things, as he climbed into the seat beside her, then spurred the horse into motion.
“Where are we going?” Noelle asked as they drove east, heading back toward Stepney.
“I think I know where you’ll be able to stay, free of charge,” Ram told her with a wink. “And we might even be able to find you a better job in the process.”
“Really?” Hope infused Noelle’s face. It made Ram feel like he could do anything. “Where?”
“You’ll see,” he teased.
He drove through the heart of The City, pointing out all of the lawyers and professional men to Noelle as they went. She gradually loosened her shoulders, more interested in his tour than the troubles she was leaving behind. He liked the look of her at ease so much that he took the long way to his destination, driving her past Tower Hill so that she could see the imposing, ancient edifice of the Tower of London.
By the time they drove up New Road to Whitechapel Road, Noelle was smiling as though she were on holiday once more.
“Here we are,” Ram said, pulling the wagon into an alley that led to the mews behind a row of plain but solid middle-class houses.
“All right.” Noelle nodded, glancing around at laundry hanging from lines overhead, small balconies stacked with boxes and barrels, and the slate roofs and chimneys beyond. “Where are we?”
Ram’s only answer was a smile. He drove the wagon into its spot, then hopped down to see to the horse. Noelle climbed down as he was working.
“Should I bring my bag with me?” she asked.
Ram paused to think. “Let’s put it in here.”
He took the carpetbag from her and tucked it into a concealed corner of the horse’s stall, then took Noelle’s hand and led her back out to the street, then around to the front door of the building. Noelle wore a baffled but excited look as Ram knocked, then let himself in.
The familiar scent of curry and spices filled the house that they walked into. Upstairs, the sound of children playing echoed in the hall. Ram wiggled his eyebrows at Noelle—who glanced around in amazement—then drew her deeper into the house.
“Ajay?” he called out. “Faye?”
“In here,” a deep voice replied.
Ram led Noelle around the corner into a large sitting room. It was decorated in a blend of English and Indian styles. The simple, English furniture was draped with printed scarves in bright colors. A print of an English country landscape hung on one wall, and a painting of the Golden Temple in Amritsar hung on the other. A bookshelf laden with old and new books stood in a corner.
Sitting in a chair by a crackling fireplace was a broad-shouldered man in a sherwani and dhoti, with a thick, British sweater over top. One leg of his dhoti was folded up and pinned out of sight where the limb was missing.
“Ram,” the man said, putting down the book he’d been reading. “Who is this?”
“Ajay, this is Miss Walters,” Ram said, stepping slightly forward and turning to gesture toward Noelle. He quickly added, “Noelle, this is my brother, Ajay.”
A surprised flush came to Noelle’s cheeks. She sent him a wide-eyed look, perhaps a scolding for not warning her what she was walking into. Ram couldn’t help but grin. He liked the idea of Noelle caught off-guard.
Ajay pushed himself out of his chair, reaching for the crutch that he used to get around the house. “Miss Walters,” he said with a guarded smile. “I’ve heard so much about you. It’s a pleasure to meet you at last.”
Noelle’s cheeks burned brighter. “I hope you’ve only heard good things,” she said, smiling for Ajay, then asking Ram with her eyes just how much he’d revealed about her.
“Of course I’ve only said good things,” he said with a wink, hoping she would understand that he hadn’t betrayed any of her secrets.
“Whose voice do I hear in here?” As soon as the question was asked, a plump Englishwoman with rosy cheeks that hinted she’d been working over a hot stove marched into the room. She wore a serviceable, English dress and carried a towel stained yellow with turmeric in her hands. She took one look at Noelle and blinked. “Who is this?” Her expression dropped to an irritated frown.
It wasn’t the warm greeting Ram had been hoping for. “Faye, this is my friend, Miss Noelle Walters.” Ram introduced the two women with care, wondering if he should have given Faye some warning as well as Noelle. “Faye is Ajay’s wife and my sister-in-law,” he explained to Noelle.
“Pleased to meet you.” Noelle nodded respectfully to the woman, a benign smile lighting her face. Ram was relieved that she, at least, knew how to handle the situation.
“Is she staying for supper?” Faye asked, her lower-class accent sharper than usual.
“I was hoping she might stay for longer than that.” Ram peeked to Ajay, but he knew who he really had to win over to get what he wanted.
“Strangers are always welcome at our table,” Ajay told Noelle with a slight nod and a smile.
“Our table, yes,” Faye said.
“Thank you,” Noelle replied. Her smile faltered. She shot an anxious sideways glance to Ram.
“Supper will be ready in ten minutes,” Faye went on. “Take yourself through to the dining room and have a seat.”
She turned to go.
“Faye,” Ram stopped her.
With a huff, Faye turned back.
“There’s something important I want to discuss with you first.” Ram glanced from his sister-in-law to Ajay. He could drag things out, hoping that a shared meal would help his brother warm to Noelle, or he could face the problem in front of them head-on. One glance at Noelle’s pinched and anxious face spurred him to get things settled as quickly as possible. “I was hoping that Noelle might stay for more than just supper.”
Faye—who hadn’t fully turned back to the conversation—faced Ram, eyes wide. “You want to bring your little bit of something into my house?”
Noelle’s mouth dropped, and Ram could feel the indignation radiate from her, but before Noelle could say anything, he blurted, “Noelle is not a little bit of anything. She is newly arrived from America. The position as a maid she was supposed to take up fell through, and she is in need of kindness and assistance until she is able to find another.”
“And what do we have to do with that?” Ajay asked, frowning.
None of it was going at all the way Ram had planned. “It is our duty to help those in need,” Ram insisted. “Noelle is not asking for herself, I am asking for her.”
“Asking what?” Faye demanded. “Asking to eat our food and soil our linen?”
“I would be willing to help out in any way I can,” Noe
lle said. “I could help cook and clean. I could even do laundry.” Considering how much Ram knew she hated washing, he was impressed with her offer.
“I don’t need any help,” Faye said. “I manage just fine.” She took a step toward Noelle. “And where were you managing to sleep, missy?” Her eyes darted to Ram, leaving no doubt about the implication.
Ram sighed in exasperation. “There is nothing unseemly here. I am just trying to help out a friend.”
“Shouldn’t you be busy looking to your own concerns instead of helping friends?” Ajay asked. “How did your meeting with Mr. Titus go this afternoon?”
“It went fine,” Ram snapped, in no mood to discuss business. Although considering it was Ajay who was loaning him the money to start his business, he would do better to focus on that. “I am more concerned with providing Noelle with a place to stay tonight than discussing numbers and terms right now.”
“Noelle?” Faye’s frown deepened. She snorted in derision.
“Business before pleasure, little brother,” Ajay scolded.
“I’m not—”
“Forgive me,” Noelle interrupted him. “I didn’t know that my presence would cause such trouble. Ram was only trying to look out for me, but I see his kindness does not extend to the rest of his family. I’ll go.” She turned to stomp out of the parlor.
“Wait, wait.” Ajay raised his voice to stop her. He took an awkward, hobbling step toward her. “It isn’t right for us to turn away someone in need. Please, Miss Walters. Stay and break bread with us.”
Noelle stayed where she was for a moment, her back to Ajay and the rest of them. Ram watched as she took in a breath, squared her shoulders, then turned to face Ajay. She wore a smile. “Thank you for your hospitality, sir. I would be delighted to stay for supper.”
“Hmph.” Faye turned and marched out of the room.
Ajay watched her go, weariness filling his expression. “You must forgive my wife,” he said. “She has a temper, that one. But that’s why I married her.” He chuckled, then started hobbling toward a doorway hung with a beaded curtain that led to the dining room. “Please, come through and have a seat at our table.”
