Jubilee (Book 1 of The Poppy Chronicles) Page 5

  ‘I suspect it always is,’ Mildred said sharply and the grin vanished from his face as he looked at her and again fear lifted in her belly and rose to her chest and stole some of the air she had breathed.

  But then he laughed again and shook his head, admiringly. ‘Like I say, a lady of real class. Well, shall we?’ And he crooked his elbow and held it out to her.

  ‘No!’ Basil bawled suddenly and leapt to his feet and came across the room as though he had been propelled by a silent explosion. ‘Don’t you lay a finger on her, Harris! Do what you said you would and beat me, but if you set so much as one of your fat greasy fingers on her, I’ll –’

  Harris had stiffened and now he said in a low voice that was very clearly heard for all its softness, ‘You’ll what, Mr Basil Amberly? Eh? You’ll what? You saw how you lost that bet, didn’t you? You saw them carry Levine out on a stretcher, I take it? The blood that was running from his nose, or what was left of it, did not escape your attention? No, I didn’t think as how it could have done. I wouldn’t waste my time hittin’ you, Mr Basil Amberly. I got my standards, you know, and they are high, they are very high. But I am not goin’ to let you get away with anything either. You showed one glimmer of good sense tonight in fetching your esteemed sister here to sort matters out. Don’t go an’ ruin it now with your big mouth.’

  ‘You keep away from my sister –’ Basil said furiously again and moved closer and suddenly Mildred could bear it no longer. Ever since she had set foot in this extraordinary place she had been holding herself in the tightest of control. She had been trying to think of a way, any way, in which she could take her brothers by their elbows and walk them out of this ugly underground room with its heavy smell of male aggressiveness and male intransigence and male braggadocio to safety. Basil and Claude were male too, of course, but not in the way this man was. He stood there in his rather ridiculous over-fashionable clothes with his hair glossy with brilliantine and his finger with its glint of gold ring cocked so that the light caught the deep yellow and made it gleam, but he was far from ridiculous himself. He filled her with a very real fear, but also with a spurt of excitement; and the mixture of the two made her head swim a little and created a rather queasy sensation inside her which, though not entirely disagreeable, certainly interfered with her ability to hold herself in check.

  So she stamped her foot and shouted as loudly as she could, ‘Be quiet! Both of you be quiet! I don’t want another word from you, Basil, do you hear me? Not another word. Sit down and be quiet at once. And you –’ And she turned and stared at Harris with as withering a look as she could call up. ‘You stop talking in circles and spell it out. What do you want to let us out of here? A promissory note or whatever they are called, for your ten pounds? I’ll give you that, and you shall have the wretched money before the end of the week. Tomorrow, probably. Or, you can return to our house and –’

  She stopped then as she tried to imagine this man in Papa’s hallway in Leinster Terrace –‘– or certainly, you can follow us and wait at the end of the street and your money shall be fetched out to you this very night. But I have had more than enough of all this nonsense and wish to return home at once. I have a cab waiting above stairs with a driver who may well lose patience at any moment and be off, and then what do I do? So, Mr Harris, which shall it be?’

  She stood there with her elbows bent and her hands held stiffly closed in front of her, feeling the colour high in her cheeks, and stared challengingly at Harris. But he said nothing, just looking at her.

  ‘She’s a goer, ain’t she?’ The boy Ruby said and laughed again, that same burst of laughter that had amused her so much before; but this time she felt no urge to smile. ‘I tell yer, a right goer. Should ’a’ seen the way she took on a cabbie up West that wasn’t to ’er likin’! A right tongue lashin’ she gave ’im. An’ now she’s done it to you!’ And again he laughed. ‘Lizah!’ he crowed. ‘’Oo’s she?’

  ‘Shut your ugly face!’ Harris said, almost absently, never taking his eyes from Mildred’s face. ‘No other choices, then, Miss Amberly?’

  ‘How can there be any other choice?’ she snapped. ‘I’ve no money with me. I have money at home. I shall pay your debt as soon as I get there. As I see it, you have no other recourse but to bid us good night and see us on our way.’

  ‘I could keep you here and send your brothers home to fetch the cash,’ he said and still there was no expression on his face. Just the same watchful stare.

  ‘Don’t be stupid!’ she said witheringly. ‘The moment they were out of here, they’d fetch policemen to you. Wouldn’t you?’ she called back over her shoulder and at once Claude said, ‘Yes!’ and Basil cried loudly, ‘No!’ to drown him out. ‘Of course we wouldn’t,’ he gabbled. ‘Of course we wouldn’t. We’d fetch the cash right back!’

  ‘And leave your sister here till then?’ Harris said and flicked a look at him and again Mildred saw the scorn in it, and felt, just for a moment, agreement with him. Basil, the weakest and stupidest of her brothers; however easily he could twist her pity inside her, however easily he could manipulate her attachment to him, he was no match for this one.

  ‘Whatever you do I wish you’d do it soon,’ she said and turned her back on Harris and went to the bench to sit down beside Claude, who shuffled mournfully along to make room for her. ‘I am very tired. So be so good as to let me know what your decision is once you have reached it.’ And deliberately she turned her head away from him.

  There was a short silence and then Harris went to the door and stood to one side as Ruby, in response to a jerk from his chin, opened it and held it wide.

  ‘Goodnight, Miss Amberly,’ Harris said. ‘Take your brothers with you. And see to it they never come back here, for their sakes and for mine. The thing of it is that I have no wish to waste my good energy flattening them on to the canvas. They ain’t worth the trouble.’

  She lifted her head sharply. ‘We can go?’

  ‘That’s what I said, wasn’t it? Good night I said. I heard it clear. Didn’t you, Ruby?’

  ‘Clear as a canary’s kiss!’ Ruby said. ‘Good night. That was what you said.’

  She was on her feet and tugging at Claude’s arm. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘Thank you very much. Come on, Basil. It’s getting late and we have a long ride back to town. Come along, Claude, for heaven’s sake!’ for he was sitting staring at Harris with his lower lip lax, and making no effort to move.

  ‘Before he changes what passes for his mind,’ Basil hissed savagely and hauled him to his feet roughly and the three of them crossed the room, Mildred bringing up the rear, and Basil pushed Claude through, ignoring Harris completely.

  ‘If you tell me the address of this establishment, Mr Harris,’ Mildred said as she reached the doorway, ‘I shall see to it the money is sent tomorrow. And after that, there’s an end of it. Neither of my brothers will ever return here. Basil! You hear what I said? That neither of you will ever return here –’

  But Basil was gone, half way across the big outer room with Claude, now at last in some control of his scattered wits scuttling along beside him, and neither of them looked back, both making purposefully for the door that led to the staircase.

  ‘You’re dam’ right they won’t,’ Ruby said. ‘They ever show their faces dahn ’ere and I’ll circumcise their bleedin’ noses. Not that it wouldn’t improve their ugly mooshes more than mildly.’ And again he produced his infectious laughter.

  ‘Miss Amberly,’ Harris said as she still stood hesitantly looking after her brothers. ‘You really are a very polite lady. You’re really concerned as they should pay up, aren’t you?’

  She glanced at him momentarily. ‘If they owe it, of course. You say they do. They don’t deny it. So, yes.’

  ‘It’s written off, Miss Amberly,’ Harris said and his voice was suddenly deeper and more resonant and she looked at him again, and now he looked even more like a plump well-satisfied pigeon, for his chin was tucked into his neck and his chest pus
hed forwards and the laughter that had burst out of her when she had first seen him began to gather again. But all she did was smile and after a moment held out her hand.

  ‘Mr Harris, thank you. You are a very kind –’

  ‘Gentleman?’ he said and his full eyes glinted and now she did laugh, but it was not unkind amusement.

  ‘Indeed, yes.’

  ‘Not the nasty kiky little Jew boy that your brother called me?’

  Her face crimsoned then as she stared at him. ‘He didn’t say that!’

  ‘He was about to.’ Harris wasn’t a pigeon any more. He was standing looking at her with his dark brows raised and she felt the anger that was in him and the affront that filled him and for one brief moment could see her brothers through his eyes; as full of smugness as they were devoid of wit, as arrogant as they were stupid, loud in their criticisms of people they did not know or understand or wish to know. They had clearly behaved like boors, and this man had been deeply offended by them. Yet he had behaved to them as well as he could under the circumstances and now was behaving extremely well, and she took a sharp little breath and said softly, ‘I apologize for his – I apologize, Mr Harris. I would not have had him behave so ill for the world. But – I shouldn’t make excuses, I know, but since our Mama died and – well, various things, it hasn’t been easy for them. Thank you for your forbearance. Good night, Mr Harris.’

  ‘Good night,’ he said after a moment and bent his head again in that odd little bow and she walked past him as Ruby, with a great wink, went bouncing off ahead of her to lead the way to the door, the staircase, the cab that waited above and home.

  She followed him, not looking back at Harris, but very aware of his eyes watching her, and feeling, suddenly, a little sorry that her adventure was over. It had been an uncomfortable half-hour, but it had been interesting, and she laughed inside her head as the thought came to her; what was the phrase that odd little man had used so often? And then she remembered; that was the thing of it; it had been interesting. That was the thing of it.

  5

  She was in the nursery sorting through the children’s clothes, looking for any that required mending but thinking more about last night’s extraordinary events than about tattered sleeves and torn seams, when she became aware of Freddy at the door, whispering to Nanny Chewson, and she bit her lip with mortification. The servants would never dare behave so in front of Mama or Papa, yet they did as they pleased with her. To be the ageing unmarried daughter of the house was to be the butt of everyone’s scorn, clearly, and the spark of anger that thought created made her speak sharply to him.

  ‘Well, Freddy? Have you nothing better to do than waste Nanny’s time in this fashion? I thought the silver at table less than satisfactory last night. A little more attention to your duties than to –’

  ‘I came to tell you as you’re wanted at the door, Miss,’ Freddy said loftily and looked at Nanny and lifted one brow at her. ‘I was telling Mrs Chewson as I wasn’t sure it was right to tell you so, Miss, and seeking her advice.’

  ‘I hardly see you need seek advice on announcing my callers, Freddy,’ she said, and began to pull off her cambric sleeve covers as she moved towards the nursery door, picking her way over the bricks that Samuel had left scattered on the rug before the fire. ‘Put whoever it is in the morning room and I shall be there directly.’

  ‘I can’t do that, Miss,’ Freddy said, looking scandalized and now carefully not looking at Nanny Chewson, who had gone prudently back to her chair by the fire to continue the work of sorting the children’s clothes. ‘It would not be –’

  ‘Freddy, do as you are told!’ she snapped, well aware of the sneer in every line of the man’s body. ‘I am not answerable to you or anyone else about my visitors, so be about your business at once!’

  Stupid man! she thought furiously as she went along the landing towards her own room, so that she could tidy her morning gown and frizz up her fringe. How dare he be so full of himself! Freddy had once, for a short time, worked as under footman to a baronet and gave himself immense airs as a result. Ever since he had come to Leinster Terrace he had been at pains to point out what was proper behaviour in a gentleman’s establishment and since Mr Amberly was well aware of the shakiness of his own gentlemanly status and the problems of being regarded as of high class while engaging in trade, even a most lucrative and respected trade such as his chain of hardware shops, he allowed Freddy a good deal more leeway than he might have allowed other servants, much to Mildred’s increasing irritation. Freddy had a way of showing his disgust with all that everyone said or did that was galling to say the least, and this was not the first time he had made it clear that he disapproved of gentlemen calling before the noon hour.

  Not that any of the gentlemen who called to see her were ever of the least interest; this one, she told herself as she peered miserably into her mirror and tugged at her disobedient front hair, was probably just another of those awful creatures Papa persisted in sending to make a try with her. To tell the truth she would have been glad to tell Freddy to deny her, but that would have seemed to the wretched man like a victory over her, and she could not bear that, so see the man she would have to, and she turned to go downstairs as sedately as she could, rehearsing in her head the words she would use to get rid of whoever it was as rapidly as possible.

  Freddy was standing in the hallway at the table in the centre, ostensibly rearranging the flowers which Mama herself had set to rights that very morning and at the sight of her he jumped to mock obsequious readiness and hurried to hold open the morning-room door, but she sailed past him with her head high, refusing to acknowledge his presence at all. If only Papa could be persuaded to send the man packing, how much more agreeable life would be in this house, she thought. I shall have to find some way to convince him that he would be better served by someone else.

  Freddy lingered at the open door after she had walked into the room and went on standing there as she stopped just inside in cold amazement and stared and then felt her belly lurch. For there, sitting in the armchair beside the crackling fire with his feet propped up on the fender and a malodorous butt of cigar burning between his lips, was Ruby.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ she cried as Ruby grinned at her over his shoulder and then got to his feet to stand with his back to the leaping flames, and at the same time felt Freddy standing there behind her at the door, taking in the scene with greedy eyes, and her belly lurched again and she felt sick. There was no possibility now that Papa could be kept in ignorance of all that had happened last night, and for a moment she was filled with such a violent hatred of Ruby and Kid Harris, who had undoubtedly sent him here, that she was dizzy with it.

  Ruby’s bright eyes flickered as he looked over her shoulder and he said loudly, ‘Mornin’ Miss Amberly. I got a message for you from Father Jay, down at ’Oly Trinity. Your man ’ere told me as to wait ’ere for yer –’

  ‘Father Jay at Holy Trinity?’ Mildred repeated, a little dazed, as she stood and stared at him.

  ‘That’s right, Miss, him as you told you would make a contribution to ’is special Mission for us poor East End kids, like. ’E needs all the ’elp ’e can get, does Father Jay, dealing with the likes of us, and ’e said as ’ow you’d promised ’im some money an’ that, to do ’is good works, givin’ of us our breakfusses what our poor muvvers can’t find for us –’ He stood there, his eyes wide and soulful and as full of wickedness as an egg of meat, and it was all she could do not to laugh aloud.

  ‘Of course,’ she managed at last. ‘Yes, of course. Well, now, let us see what we can do for you – Freddy!’ And she turned and looked at the servant still standing at the door but with a much less self-satisfied smirk on his face. Now he looked as though he had been stuffed and boiled.

  ‘Yes, Miss,’ he said after a long moment.

  ‘Freddy, you will go to the kitchen and will bring this young man some victuals. Yes. Good victuals. Milk, you know, and some of that raisin cake Cook
made for the nursery yesterday. And be sure to set it nicely on a tray and bring it at once.’

  ‘In here, Miss?’ Freddy tried to gather his forces, but his defeat had been far too thorough, for she lifted her brows at him and said icily, ‘Of course! Where else? Do you expect me to deal with my affairs of charity in the kitchen, with all of you listening? That is not the proper Christian way to dispense alms, as I would have thought you to know. Now be quick about it, if you please!’ And Freddy, now looking as though he had been carved into slices as well as stuffed and boiled, withdrew with what grace he could.

  ‘Well, a right nasty piece o’ goods that one is an’ no error!’ Ruby said and shifted his cigar butt to the other side of his mouth with a practised twist of his jaw. ‘Tryin’ to come the old acid with me as well, ’e was, but I wasn’t ’avin’ none o’ that! Said as I ’ad no right to come to the front door an’ all. Me! Ruby Marks, no right to come to front doors? Tryin’ to send me down the area to the kitchen door? I should cocoa! Told ’im straight up I did, if you wasn’t fetched on the instant ’e’d be up to ’is nasty little ’ocks in trouble, so off ’e goes, with his nose turned up, for all the world like he’s got a three-week-old ’erring ’anging round his neck for a cravat –’

  But much as she had enjoyed Freddy’s discomfiture, she wasn’t going to allow this outrageously impudent young person to know it, and she lifted her brows and said sharply, ‘Why are you here? I told your – I told Mr Harris last night that if he required the money he was to send me the address to which it was to be dispatched and I would see to it. There was no need to send you dunning me in this fashion.’

  ‘’Oo’s dunning?’ He looked pained. ‘Did I say anythin’ about money? Did I try to suggest I was sent for anythin’ but the best o’ reasons? Did I say –’

  ‘Then why are you here?’ She was beginning to recognize the sort of rhetoric to which Ruby was prone. ‘Is it something to do with that – with Father Jay and the tale you told? And – er –’ She felt a moment of compunction; Ruby with his fast intelligence had realized at once how difficult his appearance here could be for her and had lied manfully for her sake. It was churlish in the extreme not to acknowledge his care of her. ‘– Er – thank you for being so – um – discreet. To speak of churches and priests was really an excellent idea, under the circumstances –’