‘I can see that.’ Lucy’s expression softened when she took in the young girl’s distress. ‘Look, my dear, you’ve come to the right place. You can confide in me and Nella and we’ll help you if we can, but first I’m going to make a fresh pot of tea, and you can tell us all about it while I start doing my hair.’
Alice remained completely silent while Lucy made the tea and then she watched in awe as the older woman began to untie the rags in her hair and drop them on the table.
‘Come along then,’ Lucy said. ‘What’s the matter? Are you in the family way?’
Alice shrieked and half rose from her chair. Nella thought the lass was going to run from the room, and she grabbed at one of her hands and tugged until she sat down again. ‘It’s all right, Alice,’ she said, and the girl shot her a wide-eyed look of panic which made her add, ‘I think you’d better answer the question.’
‘No, I’m not,’ Alice said defiantly. ‘I’m a good girl.’
‘Well, thank goodness for that,’ Lucy said drily. ‘So what is it? Has some little errand boy broken your good little heart?’
Alice pursed her lips and looked sulky.
‘Give over, Lucy,’ Nella said. ‘The girl’s upset. You shouldn’t tease her. Now, come on, Alice, we hevn’t got much longer before I’ll hev to go.’ Alice glanced at Lucy, who was still taking out her rags and Nella continued, ‘Don’t be fooled by her manner. Lucy Lovekins has a heart of gold. Who else would look after me the way she has? Now, come on, you can trust her.’
‘So, it isn’t a man?’ Lucy prompted.
‘Yes, it is, it’s him ... it’s Master Gerald ...’
‘Gerald Sowerby ...’ Nella breathed, and her anger rose in her throat like bile to choke her.
Chapter Twenty-one
‘Who is Gerald Sowerby?’ Lucy asked.
‘Dr Sowerby and Mrs Sowerby’s pride and joy!’ Nella said and when she saw Lucy raise her eyebrows she added, ‘The son of the house where Alice works - where I used to work.’
‘And I take it you have cause to dislike him?’
‘I hate him!’
‘But why? He didn’t ... I mean ... surely he wouldn’t ...’
‘Fancy me?’ Nella laughed, but it was a dry, cracked sound. ‘No, he didn’t try anything on with me. But he did with a friend of mine.’
She realized that Alice was looking at her curiously and she brought her thoughts back to the present problem. ‘But it’s this poor bairn we’re concerned with now.’ She looked straight at the girl. ‘What did he do to you?’
Alice flushed crimson. ‘Well ... he’d been following me about for days.’
‘Following you?’
‘Well, you know, catching me at the top of the stairs when I was carrying a pile of clean linen - or standing watching me when I filled up the coal scuttles, or saw to a fire.’
‘But he did more than just watch or you wouldn’t be sitting here telling us all this,’ Nella said.
Alice’s lower lip began to tremble and the tears spill from her eyes again. But this time she went on with her story. ‘Just last week I was cleaning the bathroom ... I didn’t even hear him come in ... I was bending over the bath when I thought I heard something. I looked up and saw his reflection in the mirror and I nearly died of fright.’ The girl’s eyes widened and she bit on her lips so hard that Nella thought they might bleed.
‘He was standing behind me,’ Alice went on, ‘so close that I couldn’t have moved back without bumping into him. I tried to straighten up but he pushed me down over the bath and kept me there with one hand and then ... then he started to lift my skirt—’
‘Why didn’t you yell blue murder?’ Lucy asked.
‘I was going to. I took a deep breath and he grabbed at my hair and pulled it and said that if I made a noise he’d kill me.’
‘Oh, Alice ... Alice ...’ Nella said.
‘I believed him! You should have heard the way he said it! I thought if he didn’t get me there and then he’d get me later.’
‘All right, pet,’ Nella said soothingly. ‘What happened next?’
Alice blushed scarlet, then she dropped her head and looked fixedly at the carpet. ‘He pushed my skirt up ... and he was pulling at my ... at my drawers ... you know ... and at the same time he was moving sort of funny ... sort of pushing himself against me.’
‘Dirty bastard!’ Lucy exclaimed.
Alice looked startled and Nella said, ‘Lucy! Language! She’s only a bairn!’
‘That’s why he’s a dirty bastard and so’s any man that’ll try to have his way with children!’
‘It’s all right,’ Alice blurted out. ‘He didn’t - I mean it didn’t come to that.’
‘What happened?’ Nella asked.
‘Miss Annabel ... she came into the room and she shrieked—’
‘I bet she did!’ Nella found herself laughing with relief.
‘Master Gerald cursed something awful and he went chasing after her and ... I heard him shouting her name but I don’t know what he said.’
‘So who’s Annabel?’ Lucy asked.
‘Gerald’s little sister,’ Nella told her. ‘And I bet he’ll hev persuaded her not to tell on him. Has he bothered you again?’
‘I’ve been dodging him,’ Alice said. ‘But I just don’t know how long I can keep out of his way.’
‘Don’t worry, you’re not gannin’ back there tonight - nor ever again,’ Nella said.
The girl’s eyes filled with hope. ‘Do you mean I can stay with you? That’s why I wrote to you. You were so kind to me when I started working at the Sowerbys’ that I was sure you would help me.’
Nella remembered how she had been so upset at losing Constance that she had had to force herself to be even civil to the poor lass; and yet the girl had remembered her as a friend. Well, she would be her friend, and she would help her.
‘You did right. You can stay here—’
‘Wait a minute—’ Lucy began.
‘Mrs Small, our landlady, needs a housemaid,’ Nella said. ‘Would you like me to arrange for you to get the job, Alice?’
The girl stared at her. Relief at not having to go back to Rye Hill fought with fear of the formidable Mrs Small and Nella laughed.
‘Ee, don’t worry, pet. She’s a bit of a tartar but she’s good at heart, and if you work hard she’ll treat you right. And the grub’s better than you’d ever get at Rye Hill,’ she added.
And that seemed to do it. Alice’s smile was like the sun coming out. ‘Oh, thank you, Miss Nicholson, I’ll stay - that is, if she’ll have me.’
‘Don’t worry, she will. But you’ll be starting work tomorrow. Tonight Lucy and I are taking you to the theatre.’
‘He looks so happy.’ Madame Alvini smiled as Valentino and Jimmy Nelson made their way downstairs from the family apartment at the top of the old building in the Haymarket. A cab was waiting at the door of the restaurant to take them to the station and here they would catch the train for Shields.
‘Of course he’s happy,’ Frank said. ‘He’s going to the theatre to see his sweetheart. He goes to the theatre to see her every night and never mind that it’s costing us a fortune.’
Frank regretted his words the moment he had said them and he regretted them even more when he saw the smile drain from his mother’s face. She turned her beautiful eyes on him with a look of anguish. ‘But, Frank, we can afford it, can’t we? I mean, we have sufficient money to be able to make your brother happy?’
He reached for his mother’s hands and held them as he spoke. ‘I’m sorry, Mamma. Of course we can afford it. Valentino asks for so little in life whereas I—’
‘You are talking about the cost of your studies. That is something I would pay for even if I had to go out scrubbing floors. I will be so proud of my son the doctor!’
Frank laughed. ‘You go out scrubbing, Mamma? My father would rise from his grave and haunt me if ever I allowed you to spoil these beautiful hands in such a way.’ He raised them to his lips and kissed them. ‘Now, come in and sit down. You have nothing to worry about. Jimmy will take good care of Valentino, and I have some studying to do.’
Frank sat at the table and spread out his books, and a little later his mother brought him a pot of coffee and a slice of almond cake. ‘When they are married Valentino will not have to pay for his tickets,’ she said.
With an effort Frank tore his eyes away from the page in front of him and frowned up at his mother. ‘Not pay for his tickets? What are you talking about?’
‘Mr Bodie explained to me that once Valentino and Miss Nicholson are married there will be complimentary tickets - and probably for Jimmy, too.’
‘That’s good. But, Mamma, I was wrong to complain about the cost of the theatre tickets. It really doesn’t matter.’
‘So what is it that does matter?’
‘Mamma?’
‘Something is worrying you, Frank. Making you angry.’
His mother pulled out the chair opposite to him and sat down. He knew that his studies would have to wait. He sighed. ‘Very well.’ What should he say? He didn’t know how to begin to express his worries for his brother’s future without causing his mother distress. ‘I’m not angry. I want Valentino to be happy just as you do,’ he began cautiously, ‘so I would like to be sure that it is correct for him to marry.’
‘Are you worried that Miss Nicholson isn’t a Catholic? She has agreed to take instruction. The children will be brought up in our Church.’
Frank struck the edge of the table with both hands and his mother’s eyes widened. ‘Mamma, you know there won’t be any children!’ he said. ‘You know that this will not be a proper marriage.’
His mother flushed but her reply was spirited. ‘And what is a proper marriage? I thought a marriage was when two people promised to love each other and look after each other and make each other happy for the rest of their time on earth!’
Frank stared at her. Her cheeks were flushed and she was breathing quickly. ‘I’m sorry, but you know what I mean,’ he said.
There was a silence as his mother’s breathing returned to normal. ‘I know what you mean, Gianfranco.’
Suddenly she looked so sad that he wished he could change the world for her. He wished that he could turn the clock back to the time of his brother’s birth and somehow perform some miracle of modern medicine that would either make Valentino normal, or prevent him from being born at all.
Frank groaned when he realized what he had been thinking and his mother got up and came round the table. She rested a hand on his shoulder. ‘I know that there will be no children and I know why. It is just that I am a foolish old woman and I like to pretend sometimes that ... that...’
He heard the sob in her voice and he turned towards her and looked up into her face. ‘I know, Mamma, I know.’
His mother took his face in her hands and bent down to kiss his forehead. ‘You are a gift from heaven, Gianfranco. A good son. I don’t know how I could ever carry my burden without you.’
After that she left him to get on with his studies but Frank found it difficult to concentrate when he knew that his mother would be sitting alone at the kitchen table determined not to do anything further to distract him.
A little later he realized that he had turned page after page and couldn’t remember one single word that he had read. He rested his head in his hands. It was true that he had reservations about his brother’s marriage - but that was natural in the circumstances, wasn’t it? But he shouldn’t have worried his mother ...
He sighed and closed his books. He would go into the kitchen and ask her to warm him some soup, then sit with her for a while. She was always so pleased to do anything for him. Thank goodness she could have no idea of the other cause of his distress: his hopeless longing for a woman he had met only once and who could never be his.
Constance didn’t know what it was that had awakened her.
It was late and the room was shadowy. It had been warm and she’d asked Polly to leave the window open and not to draw the velvet drapes. So now the moonlight filtered in through the lace curtains that moved like pale ghosts in the breeze.