Nightingale Wedding Bells

by Donna Douglas

  Anna was silent for a long time. She didn’t want to believe it, but at the same time she knew there was a tiny spark of truth in what Nellie was saying. She had no reason to lie.

  Unlike Edward.

  No. No, it couldn’t be. She thought about his jealous rage over Tom’s letters. He hated the Franklins, he always had …

  Or perhaps it was just Tom he hated? The thought came to her, crystal clear. He hated Tom because he was the one Edward could not control, the only one who saw through him. He was the only one who stood between Edward and his ruthless ambitions.

  No wonder he had wanted her to cut off all ties with Tom. And Anna had gone along with it, out of blind, foolish love. She had allowed herself to turn her back on the one man who might have saved her.

  ‘Why would he do it?’ Dry-mouthed, her voice came out as a whisper. ‘If he wanted the business, why would he try to destroy it?’

  ‘Like I said, they went too far. I suppose he wanted to teach you a lesson, to frighten you. He told me he wanted to marry you before he was called up, but you wouldn’t do it. And you know Eddie don’t like his plans going wrong, does he?’

  She knew too much about it to be lying, Anna thought. How could she have known Anna had turned down Edward’s plan for a quick wedding because she was so desperate for her father to give her away?

  ‘You need to leave him,’ Nellie’s urgent voice broke into her thoughts. ‘Leave him while you’ve still got the chance.’

  While you’ve still got the chance. The words fell ominously, like leaden drops.

  ‘What do you think will happen to me?’ said Anna in a small voice.

  ‘I dunno,’ Nellie admitted. ‘Nothing, while I’ve got anything to do with it. I like you, believe it or not,’ she said wryly. ‘And I reckon you deserve better than you’ve got. But sooner or later Eddie is going to want you out of the way. At the moment, he’s hoping he can make you walk out on him. But I couldn’t imagine what he’s got in mind if you don’t.’ Nellie laid her hand on Anna’s arm. Her nails were grubby and bitten, Anna noticed. ‘You’ve got to leave him,’ she pleaded.

  Anna saw the urgency in her eyes. If she didn’t know better she could almost believe that Nellie truly cared.

  She turned away, shaking off Nellie’s restraining hand. ‘I don’t have a choice,’ she said. ‘This is my father’s bakery, and I have to hold on to it for his sake.’

  Nellie sighed. ‘Hasn’t it sunk in yet? It’s a bit late for that, girl. It’s your old man’s business now.’

  ‘I don’t care whose name is over the door!’ Anna’s temper flared. ‘It’s my father’s business, he built it up from nothing.’

  ‘It’s just bricks and mortar, girl.’

  Nellie’s words stopped Anna in her tracks.

  ‘Listen to me,’ she said. ‘If your father’s half as good a man as you reckon he is, do you really think he’d want you to put yourself through this? I bet if you asked him he’d tell you to get yourself out of it while you still can.’ Her face softened, her green eyes turning gentle. ‘Face it, your dad’s long gone. And if you’ve got any sense, you’ll go too. Before Eddie’s taken away your last shred of self-respect and you’re too ashamed to try to leave.’

  It’s too late for that, Anna thought bleakly.

  ‘Well?’ Nellie prompted her.

  Anna looked back at the other woman standing in front of her, a shimmering blur of red hair and creamy skin through her tears. She had no idea how long they had both been standing there, but suddenly she felt deeply weary, right down to her bones.

  ‘Go home,’ she said.

  Nellie blinked at her in surprise. ‘But what about the shop?’

  ‘We’re not opening today.’

  ‘Eddie won’t like that.’

  Anna felt her temper flare again, a spark igniting in her chest. ‘Eddie isn’t here, is he?’

  Nellie stood her ground, arms folded over her ample chest. ‘What about my money?’

  ‘You’ll get it.’

  Nellie didn’t look convinced until Anna found her purse and took out a ten-shilling note. Nellie grabbed it and rooted around for a moment, arranging it inside her grubby blouse.

  Anna turned away and opened the oven door. The delicious aroma of warm baking bread filled the kitchen. Nellie breathed in deeply.

  ‘Lovely,’ she sighed. She looked at Anna. ‘You’re a better baker than he is, you know. Eddie knows it, too.’

  Anna held herself rigid, her back turned. She tipped out the first loaf and tapped the base, listening for the hollow sound.

  ‘You’ve still got friends, you know. You might not think it, but you have. Including me,’ she added quietly.

  Anna ignored her. She turned out another loaf and tapped it.

  ‘Suit yourself,’ Nellie sighed. Anna heard the back door open, then Nellie said, ‘But I’ll prove how much of a friend I am. Look in the back of Eddie’s wardrobe. There’s something in there that might cheer you up.’

  The back door closed, and all Anna’s fragile strength seemed to seep out of her body. She slumped forward, curling her fingers around the wooden counter top for support.

  Nellie was wrong, so wrong. Anna did not have any friends. She was utterly, utterly alone.

  And that was the way Edward had wanted it. Anna could see it now, as plain as day. All the time he had supposedly been protecting her, convincing her that he had her best interests at heart, that he was the only one she could truly trust, he had been planting seeds of doubt in her mind, isolating her from her friends and family.

  And now she had no one to turn to, no one to help her out of her misery.

  Her only ‘friend’ was apparently Nellie Madigan, the woman who had helped plunge her into despair and misery in the first place. It was so pathetic Anna would have laughed if it hadn’t been so terribly sad.

  But Nellie wasn’t really responsible for the ghastly predicament she found herself in. That was all Edward’s doing. And her own, of course.

  She looked around the kitchen. She had had such high hopes for her marriage. She had wanted Edward and herself to be like her parents, close and happy, living and loving and working side by side in utter contentment.

  And when it had all started to go wrong, she had blamed herself. She had spent months feeling like a failure, wondering what was wrong with her that she couldn’t create the same happy, loving relationship with her husband.

  But it took two to make a marriage. Now she realised she had been the only one trying to make it work, while all Edward had wanted was to destroy her.

  And she had been too blinded by her dream to see the reality.

  A customer was rapping on the shop door, but Anna ignored them. She stood at the counter, staring at the neat line of loaves she had just baked. What was the point of it all? she thought. Nellie was right, why should she bake bread and open up the shop just for Edward’s benefit? Especially when he wasn’t even there to see it.

  The customer rapped again, more loudly this time. Anna thought about answering the door, but her limbs suddenly seemed to be filled with lead, making it hard to drag herself along. Her head ached, a rim of pain around her crown from ear to ear.

  Slowly, she dragged herself upstairs to the bedroom to fetch her nerve tonic. She helped herself to two spoonfuls, then lay on the bed.

  Edward’s wardrobe loomed over her in the corner of the room, wide and solid, with curved doors of polished walnut.

  There’s something in there that might cheer you up.

  It took a moment for Anna to rouse herself enough to stand up and walk across the room. She threw open the wardrobe doors and peered inside. Immediately Edward’s scent wafted across the room and for a moment she was filled with panic that he was there with her.

  She steeled herself and rummaged among his clothes, wondering what she was looking for.

  Something that might cheer you up …

  She could scarcely imagine what it might be. Surely there could be nothing in Ed
ward’s wardrobe that might make her feel better …

  And then she saw the box.

  CHAPTER FIFTY

  By the time Edward came home, Anna was ready for him. She had made an effort to tidy herself up; she had washed her hair, put on her best dress, and cheered up her wan face with some make-up.

  From time to time, she’d heard customers tapping on the shop door downstairs but had ignored them. She was too busy preparing herself.

  Just putting on lipstick transformed her and made her feel more powerful. Now, when she looked in the mirror, she could almost see the old Anna staring back at her.

  But that didn’t stop her from jumping nearly out of her skin when she heard the sound of the back door opening just before noon.

  Anna steeled herself as she listened to him calling out her name, the sound of his footsteps up the hall going into the shop.

  ‘Anna?’ His voice was louder now, a rough edge to it. She clasped her hands together to stop them trembling as she heard him coming up the stairs.

  He threw open the bedroom door. She was sitting before the dressing-table mirror, pinning up her hair. She saw his quick frown behind her reflection.

  ‘There you are. Why’s the shop closed?’

  ‘It’s your shop. You tell me.’

  His brows lifted. Then he looked her up and down, his mouth twisting.

  ‘You’re very dolled up, I see. I hope it ain’t on my account?’

  ‘I wouldn’t waste my time.’

  ‘Someone’s in a mood today,’ Edward commented. But he was rattled, she could tell. And no wonder. He must have got used to coming home to a cringing, submissive wretch over the past few months.

  Anna turned away from him and finished doing her hair in the mirror. There was no fear in her eyes anymore, she noticed. Only stone-cold resolve.

  She wondered if Edward had noticed it too.

  ‘Aren’t you going to ask what I’ve been doing with myself all day?’ she said.

  ‘I’m not particularly interested.’

  ‘I’ll tell you anyway, shall I? I’ve been reading.’

  ‘And why do you think I care what—’ As Anna stood up and stepped to one side, Edward’s gaze fell on the box sitting on the dressing table.

  His face tightened and for a moment Anna tensed too, wondering what he might do. He was capable of anything, she realised that now.

  His fiery gaze rose to meet hers. ‘Where did you get that? You have no right to go through my things.’

  ‘And you had no right to keep Tom’s letters from me,’ Anna shot back.

  Edward pulled himself upright, towering over her. ‘I told you I didn’t want you writing to him.’

  ‘But they were my letters.’ No wonder he had run to meet the postman every morning. It all made sense to her now. ‘You let me think he hadn’t written to me. You made me think he didn’t care.’

  But Tom did care. Anna had spent all morning reading the letters he had sent to her since her marriage, letters Edward had carefully intercepted.

  Every week he had written to her, even after she had told him not to. He had somehow read between the lines of her last message, put two and two together and realised what was happening to her, even before she knew herself.

  And why wouldn’t he? After all, he understood Edward better than she ever had. Tom had seen him for what he really was while she was still blinded by love. He had even tried to warn her before he left for France. But she wouldn’t listen. Anna felt ashamed of the way she had rejected his advice.

  But Tom had remained her steadfast protector. Reading his letters, Anna had felt the warmth of his affection, his genuine friendship, coming through each scrawled line, each page of tissue-thin blue paper. He was the only one who had ever truly cared enough about her to tell her the truth. And he still cared now, even after she had shunned him. She felt warmed by his friendship, like the flowers in Victoria Park, tentatively emerging from the winter cold to show their faces to the sun.

  You’ve still got friends, you know. You might not think it, but you have.

  All this time she had had a friend. Knowing that gave her the strength to face Edward. To do what she had to do.

  Her husband sneered, ‘You really think he cares about you? He’s only out for what he can get.’

  ‘Like you, you mean?’

  Fire flared in Edward’s eyes. ‘Don’t you dare compare me with him. I’m nothing like Tom Franklin!’

  ‘No, you’re right,’ Anna said calmly. ‘You’re not half the man he is.’

  For a moment she thought she had gone too far, but she no longer cared. The days had gone when she would tread carefully, living in fear of upsetting him. He could do what he liked to her, but she would never fear him again.

  She could see him now, fighting for control of his temper, his mocking smile reasserting itself.

  ‘Maybe you should have married him, then,’ he said.

  ‘Maybe I should.’

  He laughed. ‘Your father would never have allowed it. You, marrying the messenger boy!’

  ‘Why not? He let me marry the apprentice.’

  Her barb hit home. Edward flinched. ‘I was different.’

  ‘You were both nothing!’ Anna threw back at him. She could feel her own anger unfurling inside her, rising to match his. ‘What makes you think you were so special? You were just another orphanage kid until my father took you in and gave you a start.’

  ‘You know nothing about me!’

  He was furious, his fists balling at his sides, his lips turning white. Anna cautiously circled the room, putting the bed between them.

  ‘You think I’m not special?’ he raged. ‘You didn’t see the kind of hell I was brought up in. Thrown away by my own mother, chucked into the workhouse when I was just a baby. You don’t survive that without having something about you. Christ, even your precious bloody Tom had some kind of family! I had no one. I watched the other kids sink into nothing around me, dying because no one cared. I had to learn to fend for myself just to survive.’ He looked her up and down with contempt. ‘But you’ll never understand that, will you? You and your sister, with your charmed lives and your loving parents. You think you’ve had it hard these past few years? You don’t know the meaning of the word. Try being a kid of six years old, going to bed hungry, too frightened to go to sleep in case you get another beating.’

  Anna stared at him, realisation dawning. ‘Is that why you resent me so much? Because you think my life has been too easy?’

  ‘Hasn’t it? You’ve never had to worry about where your next meal was coming from, have you? Your future was all settled for you, from the moment you came into this world. You and your perfect family.’ Edward’s eyes were like chips of ice. ‘I used to watch your father fussing over you, praising you for whatever you did. His liebling – “Such a talent! Just look at her sugarcraft, Edward, have you ever seen such a delicate touch?”’ He cruelly mimicked her father’s German accent. ‘And there was me, working twelve-hour days for him with scarcely a word of thanks for it.’

  ‘Papa loved you,’ Anna said. ‘He thought of you as a son.’

  ‘He thought of me as a skivvy!’ Edward shot back. ‘At least until the day he realised his precious daughter had fallen for me. Then, suddenly, everything was different. Suddenly he was welcoming me into the family with open arms, telling me how I’d run the place one day.’

  ‘Which was what you wanted all along.’

  ‘It was what I deserved.’ His mouth curved in a cruel, cold smile. ‘Don’t look so shocked, Anna,’ he mocked her. ‘You have to learn to take in this world. That’s what growing up in the workhouse taught me.’

  ‘But Papa welcomed you into our family,’ Anna said. ‘And you repaid his kindness by taking everything away from us.’

  ‘Kindness is a weakness,’ Edward said.

  Anna shook her head pityingly. Looking at him now, she wondered how she had not seen what he was really like. ‘You’ve got a black soul, Edward S
tanning. I feel sorry for you.’

  His eyes flared with rage. ‘Don’t you dare feel sorry for me!’ Edward hissed. ‘I’ve got everything I ever wanted.’

  ‘Have you? Is this really all you’ve ever wanted?’ Anna curled her lips. ‘Then I really do pity you.’

  He glared back at her, his fists clenching, and for a moment she thought he was going to hit her. But to her surprise she did not care. Nothing he could do to her now was as bad as the torture he had put her through already.

  ‘I want a divorce,’ she said flatly.

  His eyes flickered with surprise. Then he shrugged.

  ‘Suit yourself. You can go whenever you like.’

  ‘But this is my home.’

  ‘It’s mine now.’

  She was disappointed but not surprised. She had hoped that there might have been some shred of decency left in him – but no. He was too consumed with greed.

  The war hadn’t changed him, she thought. She had tried to use it as an excuse, but the reality was he had always been like this. She had never allowed herself to see behind the mask he wore.

  Her suitcase was already packed. Edward watched her out of the corner of his eye as she retrieved it from under the bed.

  ‘You’re leaving?’ He sounded uncertain.

  ‘One of us has to go. And you’ve made it very clear that you won’t, so it will have to be me.’

  She could feel his gaze on her, wary as an animal. ‘You ain’t getting this place,’ he said. ‘It’s mine now, all of it.’

  ‘So you’ve said.’

  His eyes narrowed, still sensing a trick.

  ‘There’s no catch,’ Anna said. ‘I’m moving out. You can have it, all of it.’

  She had wondered how she would feel, saying those words. But she was amazed to feel a real sense of peace and calm settling over her. None of it mattered, she realised.

  It’s just bricks and mortar. Nellie’s words had been the key, unlocking Anna from the miserable prison she had placed herself in. Suddenly, she had been able to see it all clearly for the first time. What was she fighting for? A few poky rooms over a shop. And the bakery itself, a sink and a set of ovens. There was no real value in it, not the kind that was truly worth anything.