Belle (14 page)

‘Only a maid!’ Mog said with a deep sigh. ‘Thank you for that, Annie. It’s nice to know I’m valued. I have dealt with the police for you since the fire, I’ve emptied your chamberpots, brought you meals, got you clothes, and all the while I’ve been grieving about your daughter too, as if she were my own. Yet I haven’t heard you say one word about her!

‘Only a maid, you say! Well, I sure as hell don’t know any other maid who has done all I’ve done for you. So maybe it’s time I looked out for myself, and stopped fretting about you and yours.’

‘Oh, you know I didn’t mean it like that,’ Annie said with a toss of her head. ‘I’m down, what do you expect?’

‘I hoped you might be glad we’ve still got one another,’ Mog retorted. ‘I expected that you’d start to think about what we can do to that bastard who took Belle and burned us down. Young Jimmy, Garth and Noah are all on your side, but it’s time you got yourself up and looking good again, and fought back.’

‘I can’t,’ Annie whimpered. ‘I’ve got no fight left in me. I wish you’d left me to die in the fire.’

‘There’s far worse things than losing a house,’ Mog said in bewilderment. ‘Having Belle snatched by a murderer was one. But you didn’t fall apart with that – surely the house don’t mean more to you than her?’

‘You don’t understand.’ Annie looked up at Mog with tear-filled eyes. ‘Owning that house compensated for all the other horrible things that were done to me. When the Countess left it to me it healed my wounds. I could stop dwelling on the men who raped me, and all the men I had to pretend to want because they were paying me. Now it’s gone, all those memories have come back. I’m nothing now.’

‘You
are
nothing if you can’t fight for your Belle,’ Mog retorted, tempted to slap some sense into Annie. ‘You should be down at Bow Street now making a fuss about the fire, not lying here festering. Demand to see the most senior man there, insist he investigates the fire and Belle’s disappearance. Why not use some of that money in the cashbox to offer a reward for information? There’s bound to be some little weasel around here who knows something – money always brings them out of the woodwork.’

‘The Falcon will just do something else to me,’ Annie said weakly.

Mog rolled her eyes in exasperation. ‘What else can he do? He’s already done the two worst things I can think of, there is nothing else to do.’

‘He could kill me.’

‘Well, you said you wished I’d left you to die in the fire, so that won’t be so bad,’ Mog said tartly. ‘Now, I’m going to fill up a bath for you down in the scullery. If you don’t get up to have it then I’m afraid you and I will have to part company.’

Chapter Twelve

Mog leaned across the counter and aggressively stuck her face up close to the police sergeant’s.

‘Why haven’t you been to Kent’s house or office and questioned him?’ she demanded to know. ‘He’s murdered a young woman, abducted a child and burned our house down. What more does he have to do before you act?’

It was two days since Mog took Annie to task for not fighting back, and finally this morning Annie had agreed to come down to Bow Street to stir the police into action. But as she wasn’t being anywhere near assertive enough, Mog felt she had to take over.

‘We have already called at both Mr Kent’s home and office. He’s out of the country, so he couldn’t have set the fire.’ The fat, red-faced sergeant smirked as he relayed this information, clearly thinking that would make Mog back down.

‘Oh really!’ she sneered. ‘As if I’d believe that!’

The policeman’s face darkened. ‘You should believe it because we have evidence he was a passenger on a boat leaving Dover on the fourteenth of January.’

‘That’s the day after Belle was snatched,’ Annie exclaimed. ‘So he took her out of the country! Where to?’

‘He was travelling to France with another man, no child with them,’ the sergeant said airily.

Mog gasped. ‘Then he must have killed her,’ she said.

‘There is absolutely no evidence that he abducted the girl, killed her or set the fire.’ The sergeant rolled his eyes and looked wearily at the ceiling. ‘Mr Kent’s rent collector confirmed he is still out of the country. Now, be off with you, I’ve got work to do.’

Annie turned away, but Mog wasn’t going to give up that easily. ‘Have you got a heart?’ she asked. ‘How would you feel if your daughter was stolen and your house burned down? It is a fact that Millie was murdered by this man Kent, an act witnessed by our Belle. So don’t you try to tell us he didn’t take her, or that he didn’t burn our house down to try and scare us into silence. And what is even more frightening is that you are taking the word of a man who owns some of the worst slum properties in London. He’s hardly likely to be reliable!’

‘Whores are even less so,’ the sergeant snapped back at her. ‘Now, get out before I think up something to charge you both with.’

If Annie hadn’t grabbed Mog’s arm and pulled her out of the police station, Mog would have tried to slap the policeman’s face.

‘Did you hear what he said?’ she spat out as they reached the street. Her face was purple with fury.

‘Yes, I heard it, and I didn’t like it any more than you did,’ Annie said, taking hold of both Mog’s arms and shaking her gently to try to get her to snap out of it. ‘But he was spoiling to lock us up for something, and that wouldn’t help anyone. Noah will be round later, let’s talk to him and see what we can do next.’

Mog slumped against Annie. She knew she was beaten for now and getting herself arrested would serve no purpose.

It was another very cold day and the icy wind whipped even more colour into Mog’s cheeks as they walked back towards the Ram’s Head. Annie glanced sideways at Mog and saw by the way her mouth was set in a straight line that she was still angry, and that some of that anger was directed at her.

Annie knew that Mog didn’t think she felt as deeply as she did about all the recent events, but she was wrong. It was just that Annie found it impossible to talk about her feelings. She wished she could be different, she would have liked to be able to spill out her anger and fear, but she couldn’t. Instead, Millie’s murder and Belle’s abduction were locked inside her head, going round and round, paralysing her so she felt unable to do anything. That was the reason why she stayed in bed for so long following the fire.

If everyone thought she was suffering from shock at being trapped by the fire, she was glad of that, for she certainly didn’t want to admit how guilty she felt that she’d failed to protect her own daughter. Not once, but twice. She’d failed to check where Belle was on the night of the murder, and then failed to foresee that Kent might try to silence her permanently because she’d seen it.

Why on earth did she try and hush it all up instead of reporting who killed Millie immediately and sending Belle away to a place of safety?

There was no real answer to that question. She’d behaved like an ostrich, hiding her head in the sand, imagining it would all blow over, and she would always feel ashamed of that. But she wished too that she was able to tell Mog that she loved her like a sister. She was always so constant, kind, honest and loyal, which was astounding when Annie was so often nasty to her. But then, she could always justify her nastiness by telling herself that Mog had a charmed life. She’d never been forced to sell herself, she’d always had a secure home and job where she was valued, with no real responsibility. Furthermore, Belle had always loved her too, far more than she did her own mother.

But deep down Annie knew Mog had earned that love, and she had to concede that Mog was also right to lay into her for staying in bed feeling sorry for herself. So she had made herself get up, take a bath, wash her hair and put on the clothes that Mog had so thoughtfully been out and bought for her. And as soon as she saw herself in the mirror looking much the same as she had before all her troubles began, she felt more like her old self too.

She was very grateful to Jimmy for rescuing her beautiful red fox coat along with the cashbox. An admirer had bought the coat for her five years ago, and now that her future looked so uncertain she couldn’t help but wish she’d taken him up on his offer of marriage too. But that was all water under the bridge, and she was determined to pull herself out of this abyss she’d sunk into. Yesterday she’d spent a whole pound on a little russet velvet hat which went perfectly with her coat. Mog probably saw that as an entirely frivolous purchase, and would claim that she could have got a second-hand one for less than sixpence, but then Mog didn’t have a reputation for elegance herself, and she certainly wouldn’t understand Annie’s desire not to lose hers.

‘Do you think the two men really went alone to France?’ Mog asked, suddenly breaking the silence.

‘I’m sure that was what the policeman was told,’ Annie said. ‘But then Kent could’ve bribed someone to say it. They might even have smuggled Belle on to the ship. I’d be interested to know who the other man was.’

‘How can we find out?’ Mog asked.

‘I could ask Noah to take the train down to Dover and ask in the shipping office,’ Annie said. ‘He seems to be a resourceful young man, I’m sure he’d be glad to go.’

Mog seemed a little cheered at this and it was some time before she spoke again. ‘What are we going to do for ourselves, Annie?’ she asked. ‘I mean about making a living, and a new home. We can’t stay with Garth much longer.’

Annie had been asking herself similar questions earlier that morning. It would be some time before she could expect any insurance money, and she doubted she’d get enough to rebuild the house or buy another. But putting that aside, she didn’t feel able to make any decisions about the future yet. She needed time on her own to consider all her options.

‘Maybe you should just make plans for yourself,’ she replied. ‘I’m not going to be able to keep a maid, at least not in the immediate future.’

The moment the words were out of her mouth, Annie realized she had implied that Mog wasn’t first and foremost a trusted friend, but just an employee.

‘If that’s how you feel,’ Mog replied, her tone revealing how hurt she was.

Annie tried to rephrase what she’d said, but she could see from Mog’s expression that it made no difference.

Mog didn’t speak to Annie again that morning. Each time Annie tried to start a conversation she pretended she had something to do in another room. But at noon, when Noah arrived at the Ram’s Head, Mog appeared to forget her grievances.

Noah had called the day after the fire to offer his sympathy and to ask if there was anything he could do for them, but this time he’d come laden with a bag of clothes, bed linen and towels from his landlady.

‘How very kind!’ Mog exclaimed, asking him to come through from the bar into the small parlour behind and offering him refreshments.

‘Mrs Dumas is a very kind lady,’ Noah said. ‘She felt very sorry for you and hoped these things might prove useful. She also wished she could offer you both a room in her house, but sadly they are all taken.’

Annie asked him to thank Mrs Dumas for both herself and Mog, then launched into telling him what had been said at Bow Street. ‘I don’t think the police sergeant would lie about Kent going to France, do you?’ she asked, frowning deeply. ‘But there might be more information to add to that, like the name of his companion, how they arrived at Dover and so forth.’

‘I think the police must be convinced he’s gone to France, but I agree there is probably more we could find out.’

‘I think you could, Noah, after all, you are an investigator,’ Annie said, and went on to offer him a daily rate of pay plus his expenses.

Noah beamed. ‘I can go to Dover and come back in one day,’ he said.

‘Could I go with you, Noah?’ Jimmy piped up from the doorway. ‘We could call at Kent’s house in Charing afterwards, it’s on the way back. I could climb in a window and look around for you!’

Noah smiled. ‘I’d love your company, Jimmy, that’s if your uncle can spare you for a day. But I don’t think we’ll break in anywhere.’

Jimmy looked a bit disappointed at that. The fire had brought it home to all of them that Kent was extraordinarily vicious and capable of killing anyone who tried to cross him. Jimmy was desperately worried about Belle; deep in his heart he felt she was alive, but in a way that was worse for he kept dwelling on what Kent might be doing to her. Having gone as far as searching his office, now he was ready to do whatever else was necessary to find Belle.

Annie and Noah carried on chatting and Mog, still feeling bruised by Annie, went into the bar to see if she could help Garth. There were only a couple of men sitting in by the fire over a drink, and Garth asked her to mind the bar while he nipped down to the cellar.

Another two men came in while he was gone and Mog served them with a pint of beer each. Garth came back just as she was giving them their change.

‘You’re good to have around,’ he said appreciatively. ‘I’m going to miss you when Annie decides to move on.’

Mog was really surprised by the warmth of his remark. The previous day he’d praised her cooking and he’d thanked her for sewing buttons on his shirts, but she hadn’t imagined he was capable of missing anyone.

‘I won’t be moving on with her,’ Mog said sadly. ‘She wants to be on her own.’

‘Well, there’s a surprise,’ he said. ‘What’s she planning to do?’

Mog shook her head glumly. ‘I don’t think she knows yet.’

‘And what about you?’

Mog shrugged. ‘I’d make a good housekeeper, but who would want me when I’ve only worked in a brothel?’

‘I would,’ he replied.

Mog half smiled, thinking he was joking, only so far she hadn’t found him to be one for jokes. ‘Go on with you!’ she said.

‘I mean it. You’ve made it more homely here in the short time you’ve been staying. I like that, and I know Jimmy likes you being here.’

‘He misses his mother,’ Mog said.

‘Yes, he does. I thought he’d spent too much time with her in the past, and said as much, but he’s not namby pamby, he’s a good lad.’

Mog hadn’t expected to ever hear the big, red-headed man compliment anyone, let alone Jimmy, as he was the kind who acted as though he thought compliments were softness.

‘So are you saying you’ll take me on as your housekeeper? I mean, and pay me?’

‘Well, I can’t manage much. Will three shillings a week all found suit you?’

Mog was used to five shillings, and she knew a housekeeper in a big house would get far more, but after what Annie had said this morning, she was just glad to be wanted by someone.

‘It will suit very well, Garth,’ she said with a smile. ‘So as housekeeper you won’t mind if I do some serious organizing and spring-cleaning around here?’

He smiled then, and it was such an unusual sight it was like the sun coming out. ‘You can organize as much as you like back in the house,’ he said. ‘But the bar stays the way it is, I like it well enough.’

‘I’m really glad Uncle Garth asked Mog to be our housekeeper,’ Jimmy said to Noah as they walked down to Charing Cross station the next morning to catch a train to Dover. ‘I like Mog a lot and I didn’t want her to leave.’

‘What about Annie?’ Noah asked. He’d already been told she intended to go her own way.

‘Annie’s not so easy to like,’ Jimmy said thoughtfully. ‘Do you think she’ll get another brothel?’

Noah gulped. He didn’t feel comfortable talking about such things to such a young lad. ‘I’ve no idea. But I think she’d do better to get some other kind of business so that if she gets Belle back she won’t be drawn into that.’

‘She might’ve already been forced into it.’

Noah looked round at Jimmy and saw his eyes were filling with tears. ‘Let’s hope not,’ he said, squeezing the lad’s bony shoulder. ‘You’ve got the advantage over me, Jimmy – you see, I didn’t get to meet Belle. Tell me what she’s like.’

‘She’s real pretty with dark, curly hair, shiny as wet tar, and deep blue eyes. Her skin’s got a kind of peachy glow too, not like most of the girls around here. She smells good as well, clean and fresh, and her teeth are small and white.’

Noah smiled. That detailed description showed just how badly Jimmy was smitten with her.

‘But it ain’t so much what she looks like as the way she is,’ Jimmy added for good measure.

‘And how is she?’

‘Bouncy, bright, she’s got a mind of her own. I met her the first time on the morning of the day Millie was killed. I asked if she was a whore ’cos she lived in a brothel.’

‘What did she say to that?’

Jimmy smiled. ‘She was very indignant. She said you could live in a palace and still not be a queen. But it turned out she didn’t really know what a whore was then. She only found that out when she saw Millie get killed.’

Noah blushed, for he had a sudden recollection of Millie standing in front of him in just her chemise and taking his hand to put it on her breast. His memories of Millie were all sweet and he didn’t like to hear her called a whore, or think what that word meant.