Authors: Dilly Court
‘And our adventure will end,’ Rose said, sighing. ‘I’ve never been happier. It may sound silly, but my whole life so far has revolved around Poppa. We’ve moved from town to town and one lodging house to
another
. I think our time with Judy has been the longest we’ve ever been in one place.’
Phoebe came to a halt, staring at her. ‘How selfish I’ve been, Rose. I’ve only been thinking about Teddy and me, even though I knew you had a difficult time with your pa. I’ve seen him when he’s swipey and gets nasty with it, but you’ve always seemed to cope so well.’
‘I’ve had to, and don’t get me wrong. I love my pa, but sometimes I could kill him, if that makes sense. I’d like to have a normal life with a proper home and a nice husband. I don’t think I’d mind if he wasn’t perfect, just so long as he loved me and was good to me. You can’t have everything, after all.’
Phoebe was to mull over Rose’s words during the days that followed. Perhaps she had been too judgemental when it came to the Paxmans. They were certainly no worse than most of the men who governed the ungovernable in London’s East End. In fact they were better than the majority of gang leaders, and Rogue had astonished her when he had admitted that they occasionally worked in conjunction with the police. She had been quick to believe that he knew what was going on in this house, but as time went on she was growing ever more suspicious of the Merrydews. There was nothing she could put a finger on, but she had noticed the sly looks that passed between husband and wife, and their attitude was not one of servitude. It was as if Merrydew considered himself to be the head of the household with his wife
running
a close second. Phoebe made up her mind to keep a closer eye on them.
The days passed pleasantly enough so long as they kept out of the Merrydews’ way. Phoebe spent much of her time exploring the countryside. Most of her life until now had been spent in the filth and squalor of Saffron Hill and the surrounding area, with a couple of winters spent on the banks of Lake Maggiore. But nothing compared to the verdant woodland or the neat fields bounded by green hedgerows where the placid cows munched the sweet grass. The cornfields were filled with ripe golden wheat studded with scarlet poppies and blue cornflowers, and the warm late summer air was filled with the scent of wild flowers and the heavenly song of the skylark. Here she found peace and inner serenity. She wondered what made anyone want to leave such an idyllic place and move into the city. She was beginning to understand why Rogue had gone to such lengths to hold on to his birthright. If the farmhouse and land had been hers she knew she would fight tooth and claw in order to keep it in her family.
Exactly a week after their arrival, Phoebe noticed an air of tension in the house. Merrydew was even worse tempered than usual and Maggie was extra strident in her responses. By the end of the day, when the heat had built up to a sultry threat of thunderstorms, Phoebe was beginning to suspect that there might be another consignment of contraband on its way. She had slept very little since the first night of their arrival, and even when she dozed off she would awaken at the slightest
sound
. It was usually just the old floorboards creaking or mice running around behind the skirting boards, but she was convinced that tonight something was going to happen.
She refused to get into bed despite a reasoned argument from Rose and the suggestion that they should leave well alone. ‘After all,’ Rose said, yawning as she cuddled down beneath the blankets, ‘in a few days you’ll be heading off for Dover and I’ll return to Brighton with Ivy, as Teddy seems happy with cow’s milk and sops and can do without a wet nurse. Pa will have packed up the booth now that summer’s over. I suppose we’ll be back at the theatre, unless he decides that it’s time to move on again.’
‘You’re right, as usual,’ Phoebe said, pulling a chair up to the window and sitting down. She wrapped her shawl around her shoulders as a draught whistled through the ill-fitting casement. ‘But I’m not sleepy. I think I’ll sit up for a bit longer, just in case something happens.’
She realised that she must have nodded off when she woke up suddenly at the sound of hooves on the cobblestones and the telltale rumble of wooden wheels. It was as she had thought: Haggerty and Bollom had brought another load of kegs as well as a few large wooden crates. Merrydew emerged from the scullery to help them heft their cargo of contraband into the house. Not wanting to wake Rose, Phoebe left the room and crept downstairs, hoping that she would not bump into Maggie on the way. As luck would have it she reached the kitchen without seeing a soul, and she
opened
the door a crack so that she could peer inside without being noticed.
Maggie was in her chair by the range, smoking a clay pipe and drinking something out of a stone bottle. Judging by the pungent smell, Phoebe decided that it must be Hollands, and it looked as though Maggie had imbibed more than her fill of the strong gin. Merrydew was grumbling at her as he staggered past with a keg. ‘Get up and do something useful, you drunken bitch.’
‘Go to hell,’ Maggie mumbled, her words slurring. ‘I done me fair share today, looking after them upstairs. I’ll be glad when they’re gone.’
‘Hey, Merrydew. Where d’you want these crates?’ A deep male voice from the far side of the room made Phoebe’s skin prickle with apprehension.
‘Put them down for now, Haggerty,’ Merrydew said, dumping his load on the flagstone floor. ‘We’ll stow the tobacco in the linen cupboard. There’s not much in there since Maggie decided to hawk the master’s bedding round the market.’
‘Well, he won’t be master for much longer.’
It was another man who had spoken this time and Phoebe held her breath, waiting for someone to qualify this statement. She heard Maggie’s loud cackle of laughter and Merrydew’s muttered response.
‘Bollom’s right,’ Haggerty said, chuckling. ‘I’d like to see Paxman’s face when the magistrate summons him to appear on charges of receiving smuggled contraband. The coppers will have him dead to rights, and the Boss will get the farm and all the land that goes with it.’
‘Shouldn’t be surprised if that don’t go for the house in London too,’ Merrydew said grimly. ‘Maggie and me will be in for a nice little nest egg to live on for the rest of our lives. I say we wait for the consignment of silk to be landed in two days’ time and then we alert the revenue men. They’ll nab him and that brother of his too.’
PHOEBE STIFLED A
gasp of dismay. So that was their plan. She had sensed that something was brewing and she had been right. She turned and tiptoed until she was out of earshot and then she ran. She raced upstairs to the bedroom where Rose was sleeping peacefully, and Phoebe shook her until she awakened with a start. ‘What’s the matter? Is the house on fire?’
‘No, but almost as bad,’ Phoebe said in a hoarse whisper. ‘I’ve just overheard Merrydew and his gang plotting to have the Paxmans arrested for smuggling. They’re working for someone they call the Boss, and he’s the one that Rogue has been paying off for years in order to keep the farm.’
Rose sat up straight. ‘How do you know all this?’
‘He mentioned it when he was showing me the house. I didn’t pay too much attention to it then, but now it all makes sense. Whoever this man is he’s going to see to it that the brothers are sent to jail for something they haven’t done. It might be funny if it weren’t so serious.’
‘You do care for him, Phoebe. You’re in love with Rogue Paxman. You must be, or you wouldn’t care what happens to him.’
Phoebe hesitated for a moment, but suddenly she
had
to confess the feelings that she had hardly dared acknowledge. ‘You’re right, but I wouldn’t say that to anyone other than you.’
‘I knew it.’ Rose raised Phoebe’s hand to her cheek. ‘You must tell him how you feel. You can’t marry Gino when you’re in love with another man.’
Phoebe withdrew her hand gently. ‘What I want isn’t important now. The main thing is we have to warn Rogue, and we mustn’t let the Merrydews know that we suspect anything.’
‘What will you do?’
‘I should go to London and warn Rogue, but I can’t do that because of Caspar. He might have given up, but on the other hand he might still be searching for me. He’s certainly mad enough to do anything.’
‘Then I must go,’ Rose said firmly. ‘Ivy has to stay here and look after Teddy. You can’t go in case you run into Caspar, so that just leaves me. We’ll have to think up a good excuse so that the Merrydews don’t suspect anything.’
‘Would you really do that for the Paxmans?’
Rose smiled. ‘Probably not, but I’d do anything for you, Phoebe. I can’t allow you to suffer a broken heart without trying to do something to prevent it happening in the first place. Besides which, it will be exciting. I’ve never travelled on my own before, and I’ve never been to London. It will be a whole lot of firsts crammed into one.’
Phoebe angled her head. ‘It’s a lot to ask of you, Rose. But we’d have to pretend that you’re going home to Brighton. We mustn’t let the Merrydews know that
you’re
travelling to London. Stupid as they are, I’m sure they’d smell a rat and would try to stop you.’
‘It’s like being the heroine in a penny dreadful,’ Rose said, cupping her chin in her hands. ‘I could pretend to fall out with you and demand to be taken to the station. I don’t suppose that Merrydew would wait to see me safely on board the train.’
‘We could stage an argument,’ Phoebe said, allowing herself to be carried away by Rose’s enthusiasm. ‘But not in front of Teddy, of course. And perhaps we ought not to tell Ivy until you’re away from here. She’s a good sort but she might get nervous and spoil the whole thing. We can’t afford to make mistakes.’
‘And if you say there’s only two days until they plan to do this thing, I must leave first thing tomorrow morning.’ Rose hesitated, frowning. ‘There’s just one problem. I haven’t any money.’
Phoebe delved beneath the mattress and extracted a leather pouch. ‘There’s enough here to get you to London and pay your cab fare to Wilderness Row. Don’t, on any account, walk those streets alone. You’ll be set upon and robbed before you know what’s happening. I don’t mean to scare you, but it’s not like Brighton.’
Rose took the purse from her, weighing it in her hand. She looked up at Phoebe wide-eyed. ‘But this is the money you’ve been saving to pay for lodgings in Dover. How will you manage without it?’
‘Don’t worry about that now. The main thing is to warn Rogue about the Merrydews’ plan.’
‘You’d do this for him?’
Phoebe turned her head away. ‘I’d do it for anyone who was in a similar position.’
‘And when I bring him back here, will you promise to tell him how you feel?’
‘It’s not that simple, Rose.’
‘But you love him, Phoebe.’
‘I love my family too. Their honour is at stake here. I don’t expect you to understand that, but it’s everything to them.’
Rose sighed heavily. ‘I hope you’re doing the right thing. I really do.’
‘Go to sleep now,’ Phoebe said gently. ‘You’ve got a long journey ahead of you tomorrow.’
Rose slid down beneath the covers, closing her eyes. ‘And a great adventure too.’
It was surprisingly simple. Perhaps working in the theatre and watching actors perform had made it easy for Rose and Phoebe to stage their carefully choreographed quarrel, but enacted in front of the astonished Merrydews and a tearful Ivy, it was enough to convince their audience that the rift between them was irreparable. With genuine tears running down her cheeks, Rose demanded that Merrydew take her to the railway station in Dover. Surprisingly, he offered no resistance and immediately went outside to harness the horse and hitch it to the cart.
Phoebe waited until they had left and Maggie had gone out to collect eggs from the henhouse before she confided in Ivy, who was seated at the table feeding Teddy with bread and milk. ‘So you see,’ Phoebe
concluded
, ‘all we can do is hope that Rogue gets here by tomorrow at the latest, or he’ll face serious charges that will certainly land him and his brother in prison.’
Ivy stared at her with a puzzled frown. ‘Why should you care? I thought you hated the Paxmans.’
‘I hate what they stand for, but I won’t see them punished for the one thing they haven’t done.’
‘Seems to me they deserve to go to jail, no matter what.’
‘Perhaps, but the Merrydews are just as bad, or even worse.’
‘What if the revenue men think that we’re all part of the plot? We could all be in trouble for aiding and abetting criminals.’
Phoebe felt a cold shiver run down her spine. This was something that had simply not occurred to her, but she realised with a pang of dismay that Ivy might have a point. ‘Surely not,’ she said doubtfully.
‘I think we ought to leave right now, before things start to turn nasty.’
‘We can’t go anywhere at the moment. I gave all my money to Rose. We’ll just have to stay here and hope that she finds Rogue. He deserves a chance to save his home.’
‘I don’t like it. You can’t trust men. They walk out on you in your time of need.’ Ivy wiped Teddy’s face on a scrap of towelling. ‘I should know if anyone does.’
Phoebe rose from the table. Things had seemed so clear last night. She had not thought any further than the need to save Rogue from disaster and disgrace. Now she questioned her own motives. Perhaps she
had
been blinded by her foolish infatuation for a man who could never be anything to her, and she had put him and his interests before the safety of her brother and her friends. ‘Best get our things together, Ivy. If they haven’t returned by tomorrow morning we’ll leave for Dover.’ She fingered Gino’s heavy gold signet which she had concealed by hanging it around her neck on a length of ribbon. ‘I’ll pawn this and it will keep us for a few days. I’ve asked Rose to get a message to Gino to tell him where we are, so I’m sure it won’t be long before he arrives in Dover, and then all our troubles will be over.’
Ivy picked Teddy up and hitched him over her shoulder. ‘Yours will just be starting, if you ask me. I don’t know how I’m going to face Lorenzo after all this.’