Cinderella Sister (38 page)

‘Why don’t you go upstairs and put something warm on?’ Gabriel said, taking Lily by the shoulders and pointing her towards the stairs. ‘Come into the kitchen, officer.’

Frustrated and frightened, Lily was about to go up to her room, but curiosity got the better of her and she tiptoed along the hall to stand outside the kitchen with her ear close to the keyhole. The constable was speaking in a low voice and she could not make out the words, but then Gabriel uttered an agonised cry. ‘My father’s dead? You must have it wrong, constable. He wouldn’t have taken his own life.’

Forgetting her state of undress, Lily pushed the door open and rushed into the room. ‘Gabriel.’ She flung her arms around him. ‘It can’t be true. There must be some mistake.’

He did not respond to her touch. The colour had drained from his face and his lips moved but no sound came from them.

In desperation, Lily turned to the young policeman, who was looking thoroughly discomforted. ‘It can’t be Everard. He wouldn’t do such a thing.’

‘I’m sorry, miss. I just came to bring the message. I don’t know nothing more. Mr Faulkner must accompany me to the prison to formally identify the body.’

‘Speak to me.’ Lily gave Gabriel a gentle shake. ‘Please say something.’ She gazed anxiously into his
face but still he did not respond. At the sound of footsteps pattering across the flagstone floor, Lily looked round to see Prissy hurrying towards her.

‘It’s all right, miss. I heard it all from upstairs. Just leave Mr Gabriel to me.’ Gently disengaging Lily’s arms from around Gabriel’s neck, Prissy gave her a hug. ‘Go upstairs and get dressed or you’ll be next on the slab.’

‘Oh, Prissy. It can’t be true. Everard was the kindest person I’ve ever met. He can’t be dead.’

‘How’d he do it, constable?’ Prissy demanded. ‘Or was he done in?’

‘Hanged hisself, miss.’ The constable’s face flushed a deep shade of red. ‘I’m sorry to tell you so, but you did ask. I can’t say no more, and I’m directed to bring Mr Faulkner to the prison as soon as you like.’

‘I’m so sorry, Gabriel,’ Lily said softly. ‘Perhaps there’s been a tragic mix-up and it’s not your pa.’

Her voice seemed to penetrate somewhere deep in Gabriel’s mind and he blinked, dashing his hand across his eyes. ‘I must go with the constable.’

‘You’ll go nowhere until you’ve had a nice hot cup of tea,’ Prissy said firmly. ‘And you too, officer. You look worse than him.’ She shooed Lily towards the door. ‘Upstairs I said. Now.’

Gabriel had been gone all morning. Lily had wanted to tell her mother straight away but Prissy suggested it would be better to wait for Gabriel’s return. If it was a case of mistaken identity they would have upset the missis for nothing, she said, nodding her head sagely.
It would be best all round to let her rest and regain her strength before she had to hear the tragic news. Lily knew she was being cowardly, but she took Prissy’s advice, and making an effort to appear as if nothing untoward had happened she took her mother’s hot chocolate to her.

Charlotte opened her eyes, blinking owlishly at her daughter. ‘Where am I, Lily? This isn’t my room.’

‘We had to leave Keppel Street, Ma,’ Lily said gently. ‘Don’t you remember?’

Charlotte’s face contorted with pain. ‘My poor darling Everard.’ She closed her eyes and tears seeped from beneath her lids to run unchecked down her cheeks. ‘I’ll never be able to hold my head up in public again. We’ll be ruined if this gets out.’

Lily plumped the pillows and made her mother comfortable. ‘Don’t upset yourself, Ma. Everard wouldn’t want you to make your face all blotchy with crying.’

‘How will we manage, Lily?’ Charlotte glanced round the room with a shudder. ‘I can’t live like a pauper. I’ll die in this dreadful place.’

Lily placed the cup of hot chocolate in her hands. ‘You won’t die, Ma. Drink this and you’ll feel better.’

‘My poor darling will be drinking filthy water and eating gruel for breakfast. We must find a good solicitor straight away. I don’t care what it costs.’

Lily knew there was no point in arguing. Ma was refusing to accept the fact that they were virtually bankrupt. How she would take the news of Everard’s suicide was too terrible to contemplate. She took the
brown-glass medicine bottle from the mantelshelf and poured a few drops of laudanum into a glass of water.

Charlotte handed her the empty cup. ‘I’ll have my medicine now, Lily. Then you may tell Prissy to run my bath, and ask her to lay out my lilac watered silk morning gown. I must look my best when I visit Everard. He likes to see me turned out well.’

‘Yes, Ma.’

Charlotte drained the mixture of laudanum and water, sinking back against the pillows with a sigh. ‘I think I’ll take a little nap. Wake me when my bath is ready, darling.’

Lily nodded her head. If she spoke now she knew she would break down and cry. She hurried from the room, satisfied that Ma would have a few more hours of peace before she had to face the news that would inevitably break her heart.

Downstairs, Lily found Prissy in the kitchen talking to a strange-looking woman who appeared to be wearing the costume of a milkmaid from a past century. The odd garments sat incongruously on her skinny limbs. She was neither young nor beautiful and her grizzled grey hair hung about her head in tight corkscrew curls. Her cheeks were rouged and her eyebrows blackened with soot so that they looked like two hairy caterpillars resting above her china-blue eyes.

‘This here is Mrs Magnificent,’ Prissy said by way of explanation. ‘We was just about to have a cup of tea.’

‘Mad Mary they call me.’ The woman bobbed a curtsey. Her wide smile revealed bare gums except for
one large top tooth which stuck out like a blanched almond. ‘Mad Mary Preston. Me old man is Magnus the Magnificent and he said I should call and make meself known to you, seeing as how we’re neighbours and you are our new tenants.’

‘Pleased to make your acquaintance.’ Lily was unsure how to treat this extraordinary creature and looked to Prissy for inspiration.

Mad Mary did not seem aware that she presented a comic figure. Her bodice was cut low, exposing rather too much of her wrinkled prune-like flesh. She wore a kirtle looped to expose a scarlet flannel petticoat which ended just above her twig-like ankles, and her over-large feet were encased in black patent-leather shoes with enormous silver buckles.

Without waiting to be invited, Mad Mary took a seat by the range. Producing a clay pipe and a tobacco pouch from somewhere about her person, she proceeded to smoke while speaking at length about the act that she and her husband performed onstage. When at last she came to an end, having drunk several cups of tea and puffed on her pipe until she had created a fug, she rose to her feet and announced that she must hurry if she were to catch the midday boat to Cremorne Gardens. ‘Good day to you, ladies,’ she said airily. ‘I’m glad to be the first to welcome you to Cock and Hoop Yard. You’ll find us a friendly lot, but don’t let Silly Sally into the house. She’s not all there, but there’s no real harm in her.’

She left the room and Prissy ran to open the window even though it was raining heavily. ‘That’ll wash some
of the paint off her face,’ she said, chuckling. ‘Seems to me they’re all a bit mad round here, but at least she made you smile, miss. So she ain’t all bad.’

‘I shouldn’t be laughing,’ Lily said, hanging her head. ‘I feel like crying but I keep hoping that Gabriel will come home and tell us it’s all a mistake, and some other poor man has taken his own life. Although I know that’s a wicked thing to say.’

‘You think a deal too much,’ Prissy said severely. ‘Now you listen to me. I found your paintbox amongst Mr Gabriel’s bags when I was unpacking and putting things away. I suggest you go in the front parlour and do what you like doing best. It’ll take your mind off you-know-what.’

‘But I can’t,’ Lily protested. ‘What if Ma wakes up and calls out?’

‘Lor’ love you, ducks. This house is so small you could hear a mouse sneeze. If she calls out I’ll be up them stairs in a flash. Now go on and do us a pretty picture to hang on the wall. This place could do with a bit of cheering up.’

Lily went into the front parlour and found her paintbox laid out waiting for her with a stick of charcoal and a sheet of paper. Her feelings of guilt vanished as she set about sketching the view from the window. The houses opposite were identical to the one they now occupied, and although they were somewhat rundown in appearance, the green shutters and doors gave them a certain raffish charm. A woman with a small child was standing at the pump on the corner, and there were slightly older children chasing each other in a
game of tag. They were shabbily dressed but looked reasonably well fed and healthy, if slightly grubby. Lily found herself sketching away as if her life depended upon it. Lost in a creative world of her own, she barely touched the slice of bread and scrape that Prissy put beside her for her midday meal with the promise of something more substantial later.

‘I should go upstairs and check on Ma,’ she murmured, half rising from the wooden stool placed in front of the window.

‘No need. I went up just now and she’s sleeping like a baby. Best leave her like that until we know for certain.’

Lily nodded in agreement. She prayed silently that Gabriel would return and tell them that Everard was alive and well, but she knew it was a slim hope and her fears were confirmed later that afternoon. She had just finished painting a slender girl in a blue cotton gown that was far too flimsy for the winter weather. Seemingly oblivious to the cold, the girl danced about the yard holding her skirts out and kicking her bare legs up in the air. Her flaxen hair was matted and soaked by the falling rain but she appeared to be enjoying every moment. It had to be Silly Sally, Lily thought, feeling almost envious of the girl in her simple state of mind where nothing appeared to matter. The fact that her feet and lower limbs were almost as blue as her stained gown did not seem to worry her, and she might look as though she had never had a square meal in her short life but she was laughing, and her lips moved as though she
was singing. Lily was tempted to rush outside and give Sally the untouched food on her plate, but she was distracted by the sound of someone knocking on the front door. She emerged from the parlour to find Gabriel standing in the narrow hallway shaking raindrops from his hat, while Prissy fussed around him demanding that he take off his sodden overcoat. His grim expression confirmed Lily’s worst fears.

‘He’s gone,’ he said simply. ‘Poor Father, it was all too much for him to bear. He couldn’t face the disgrace of bankruptcy and what it would do to Charlotte. If only I’d been a better son I might have done something to prevent this terrible thing happening.’

Lily’s hand flew to her mouth. ‘Don’t say that, Gabriel. It wasn’t your fault.’

‘Of course it weren’t,’ Prissy said firmly. ‘Mr Everard was a grown man and he and the missis lived like lords even though they hadn’t the means. If Mr Everard chose to take his own life then it was his decision and his alone.’

A scream from the top of the staircase made them all look up in horror as Charlotte swayed and made a grab for the banister rail. ‘Tell me it isn’t true.’

Lily and Gabriel exchanged agonised glances. He was the first to speak. ‘I’m afraid it is only too true. I am so sorry.’

‘Catch her, Gabriel,’ Lily cried as her mother crumpled slowly to the floor in a flutter of silk and Brussels lace.

Gabriel leapt forward as Charlotte tumbled head
over heels, bumping painfully off each tread until he caught her in his arms just before she hit the stone floor.

‘Is she dead?’ The girl Lily had seen dancing in the rain had entered the house unnoticed. Silly Sally came to a halt in front of Gabriel. She cocked her head on one side, eyeing Charlotte’s limp form without any apparent emotion other than curiosity. ‘I saw a dead cat the other day. It looked all limp and floppy, just like her.’ She reached out to finger the material of Charlotte’s elegant peignoir. ‘It’s lovely. Is she a bride? Did she marry you, sir?’

‘Get her out of here,’ Lily cried, unable to bear it any longer. ‘Please, go away, girl.’

Prissy moved swiftly to take Sally by the hand. ‘She’s not dead, love. The lady took a tumble and she’s not very well. You go home, there’s a good girl.’

Sally smiled happily. ‘I’m glad the lady ain’t dead. Things smell something awful when they go off. I’d like her dress if she don’t need it no longer.’

Gabriel jerked his head in the direction of the doorway. ‘Take her home, Prissy. Maybe one of the neighbours knows where we could get hold of a doctor.’

‘Don’t worry, guv. I’ll fetch a pill-pusher even if I has to drag him by the hair.’

‘I know where the doctor lives,’ Sally said dreamily. ‘I’ll take you there, missis. Come on. Don’t dilly-dally.’ Without waiting for an answer, she dragged Prissy outside into the rain.

‘Help me get Charlotte into bed,’ Gabriel said gently. ‘She’ll be all right, Lily. I don’t think she hurt herself
when she fell, but we’ll get the doctor to look her over anyway.’

Lily followed him upstairs as he carried Charlotte back to her room.

Ever resourceful, Prissy returned twenty minutes later with a doctor who tut-tutted over Charlotte’s hysterical condition. There were no bones broken, he said after a cursory examination, just bruising from the fall which would fade in time. He prescribed arnica for the bruises and laudanum to sedate the patient, and having charged a fee of half a crown for his professional services he departed.

Drugged and semi-comatose, Charlotte lay in her bed staring at the ceiling, but Lily knew it was just a shell of a woman lying there like a corpse. Charlotte’s heart and soul were somewhere else, searching for the man she loved more than life itself. Lily had never before witnessed such heartbreak and she felt completely helpless in the face of her mother’s agonising grief. She wished she could take some of the pain on herself, but she knew that this was a journey her mother must make alone.

Gabriel was also suffering and Lily wanted to help him but did not quite know how. She managed to catch him alone the next day after he had returned from the prison with his father’s few possessions. Prissy had gone out to the market to buy food and Charlotte was sleeping, sedated by laudanum. ‘You look tired,’ Lily said, pouring tea into Gabriel’s cup. ‘When are they releasing your father’s body for burial? I need to know so that I can prepare Ma well in advance.’