The Dollmaker's Daughters (24 page)

‘Oh, Rose!’ Ruby covered her eyes with her hands, leaning against the wall as a wave of nausea rose in her throat. She might have been in this sorry state herself after what had happened with Jonas, but she had been lucky; her monthly had come on just days afterwards and she had cried all night with sheer relief.

‘Ruby, come on,’ Billy said, heading for the main staircase. ‘I need you to help me get her into bed.’

Rosetta was asleep almost before her head touched the pillow. Having tucked the coverlet firmly around her, Ruby’s knees gave way and she would have fallen if Billy hadn’t put his arm around her and guided her to a chair.

‘I’m sorry. I don’t know what come over me.’

‘You’ve had a shock. Take it easy for a bit.’ Billy went over to the fireplace and put a match to the pile of coal and sticks laid ready in the grate. ‘Someone should stay with her tonight, just in case.’

Ruby understood only too well what he meant. ‘Don’t say that.’

‘You got to be practical, Ruby. Maybe we ought to fetch a doctor.’

‘No, not yet. I read about … you know what … in my medical books. I think I would know what to do. You done your bit, Billy. I can’t thank you enough.’

Kneeling in front of the fireplace with the flames licking around the kindling, spitting and crackling, Billy looked up at Ruby and a slow smile wiped the worried lines from his face. ‘I love Rose. I’d do anything for her even if she don’t give a damn about me.’

‘Oh, Billy, you’re a good man. Rose is just a girl and she don’t know her own mind, but she’ll need friends and family, especially now.’

‘And I’ll stand by her, Ruby, no matter what. I’d just like to get me hands on the dirty scoundrel who got her in trouble. If that bugger Crowe is the father, I’ll kill him.’

Ruby was about to tell him that the idea of Jonas and Rosetta together was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard, but the words froze on her lips. Why not Rose? She had
been determined to catch his eye and Ruby knew that there was not much that would stop Rosetta when she had her heart set on something. The idea of them together was shocking, nauseating and degrading; too horrible to contemplate.

‘Did you hear what I said, Ruby? I’ll kill Crowe if he’s laid a finger on her.’

Billy’s anxious voice penetrated the red mist that was circling round and round in her head.

‘If it’s true,’ she said, ‘I’ll kill him myself.’

Rosetta woke up with pains shooting through her head as if little men with picks were hammering inside her skull. Her mouth was dry and her tongue felt twice its normal size. The light hurt her eyes and, as she raised her head, she felt sick. The room was spinning in dizzying circles as if she had just climbed off a merry-go-round. She fell back on the pillow, closing her eyes and groaning.

‘Rose, are you all right?’

Opening one eye, Rosetta thought that it was Ruby who was standing over her, pale-faced and with her hair flowing loose around her shoulders. But what was Ruby doing in her attic room? ‘Ruby?’

Ruby laid a cool hand on her forehead. ‘How do you feel?’

‘I think I’m dying. Me head is splitting and I’m parched.’

‘No pain anywhere else?’

Ruby’s face swam in and out of focus. ‘No. I don’t know. Oh, God!’ Rosetta sat up, holding her head in her hands. ‘Tell me it was
a dream. Tell me that Billy weren’t there last night.’

‘He was there all right and lucky for you. You was nearly boiled alive. Who told you to do such a daft thing?’

‘Lottie said it would work. Maybe it has … or maybe it’ll just go away.’

‘Don’t be bloody stupid!’ Ruby said angrily. ‘You got to face up to it, Rose. You got to tell the father and he should look after you.’

‘I can’t. I mean, he won’t.’

‘Who was it, Rose?’ Ruby demanded, shaking Rosetta until her teeth rattled. ‘Was it Jonas Crowe?’

‘No, it weren’t him. I wish it was.’ Shutting her eyes tight, Rosetta could still see Alf’s face leering at her. She could smell him, feel his hands on her body, taste the stale tobacco and whisky on his breath. But Alf already had a wife and six children; he would deny everything and sack her into the bargain. If only it had been Jonas who had wanted her so badly, he would have stood by her, she was certain. Now her life was in ruins, her career on the stage finished almost before it had begun. She wanted to die. ‘Ugh! I’m going to be sick.’

Opening her eyes, Rosetta moved her head cautiously from side to side. Miraculously, the pain had stopped. Ruby had held the washbowl
for her while she vomited, had washed her face and hands afterwards and had dosed her with some of Aunt Lottie’s seltzer. She was so very sorry now that she had ever had bad thoughts about Ruby and that she had teased her about her ambition to become a nurse. Rosetta sank back against the pillows, wondering where Ruby had gone and hoping that she would return soon. The door opened and Elsie came in, carrying a tray. The aroma of chicken broth wafted up Rosetta’s nostrils and she realised that she was starving. Giving her a lopsided grin, Elsie waited until Rosetta had raised herself to a sitting position and then laid the tray across her knees.

‘There’s more, if you wants it. Miss Lottie sent me out to the market to buy an old boiler special and Miss Ruby made the broth, even though I says I could do it, but I peeled the carrots and spuds and the onion too, even though it made me cry.’

‘Thank you.’ Rosetta raised the spoon to her lips. Realising that Elsie was waiting and watching her, eager for praise, she managed a smile. ‘It’s good.’

Apparently satisfied, Elsie shuffled out of the room, but the door had barely closed when it opened again and Lottie swept in, making a grand entrance.

‘So, it didn’t work. What went wrong?’

Rosetta swallowed a mouthful of soup. ‘I dunno, Auntie. I done everything what you told me.’

‘Well, it don’t always work first time,’ Lottie said, swaying a little and leaving a scent trail of lavender cologne and gin as she went to sit in the chair by the fire. ‘But I can give you the address of a woman in Hackney. She’ll get rid of your little problem for you.’

The broth had cooled and Rosetta’s appetite disappeared. She pushed the tray away to the end of the bed. ‘I’ve heard the girls at the theatre talking about that sort of thing. I don’t think I could go through with it.’

Lighting a cigarillo from a spill, Lottie inhaled deeply, exhaling with a sigh. ‘Then you go to tell the poppa and make him take care of you.’

‘I can’t, I just can’t.’

‘You got no choice, cara. Sly and me can’t keep you and the baby. You won’t be able to hide your condition for long and you can’t go on stage looking like a big barrel. I’m sorry, Rosetta, but you going to have to go home to your mama and tell her you been a silly girl.’

Rosetta burst into Alf’s office without knocking. He looked up from his work, scowling. ‘Bloody hell, Rose! Where’s the fire?’

‘I’m in trouble, Alf.’

Alf’s eyebrows shot up into his hairline and his
already florid complexion darkened to brick red. ‘What sort of trouble?’

‘You know what I mean. I’m in trouble. You got me in the family way.’

Beads of sweat stood out on Alf’s brow. ‘So what do you expect me to do about it?’

‘Do about it?’ Rosetta heard her voice rise to a mouse-squeak. ‘You done it. The least you can do is help me out. Take care of me and the nipper.’

Jumping to his feet, Alf leaned across the desk, glaring at her. ‘You can’t prove nothing. A little trollop like you has probably had half a dozen blokes.’

‘That’s not true!’ Rosetta stared at him in horror. ‘You know that ain’t true. You was the first and you got to help me.’

‘I don’t have to do nothing. It’s your little problem, girlie.’

Seeing Alf’s jaw harden in a stubborn line, Rosetta felt panic rising inside her like a stifled scream. ‘I never been with anyone else. What if your wife was to find out? I bet she wouldn’t be too pleased.’

Alf was round the desk before Rosetta could back away towards the door. His hands grasped her throat, pressing, constricting. She coughed and choked, feeling as though her eyes were about to pop out of her head. ‘Don’t threaten me, girlie, or you’ll be sorry.’ He released his grip, throwing her against the wall.

Clutching her throat, Rosetta glared back at him. ‘You bastard. You will help me or I swear I’ll tell everyone you’re the father.’

‘And I’ll see to it that you will never work again. You’re sacked, you little tart. Get out, and if you come near the theatre again I’ll set the police on you.’

Terrified but desperate, Rosetta stood her ground. ‘I’ll go, but not until you hand over me wages, and a bit more to keep me going. It’s the least you can do.’ For a moment she was sure he was going to strike her to the ground and she did not care. He had ruined her, shown her the door, and now her world was crumbling. She was not afraid of him any more. She met his fierce gaze with her chin up, unflinching. ‘I ain’t leaving without what’s due to me.’

‘You’re a one, you are, Rosetta.’ Alf’s face relaxed into a reluctant grin. ‘Pity you wasn’t a bit more careful. I’ll miss you, but you’re no use to me now.’ Opening a drawer in his desk, he pulled out a roll of notes, tossing it on the floor at Rosetta’s feet. ‘Take it and don’t say that Alf Ricketts isn’t a fair man. But come near me again and you’ll be more than sorry.’

When Rosetta arrived back in Raven Street, she found Sly standing on the front step smoking a Woodbine and at his feet she recognised her battered cardboard suitcase held together with a length of string.

‘So you lost your job then?’ He moved the Wood from one side of his mouth to the other. ‘Thought that’d be the case.’

‘I can still pay me way, Uncle Sly. I got money.’

Silas pushed the case towards her with the toe of his shoe. ‘Sorry, ducks. Lottie and me can’t keep you here, not in your condition. Your money won’t last long and then we’d be stuck with you and the kiddie.’

‘Please let me stay, just until I get fixed up.’

‘The truth is that Lottie can’t abide kids, especially babies. Reminds her of the one she left in Italy all them years ago. Take my advice and go back to your mum, there’s a good girl.’

‘Mum will kill me.’

Delving into his pocket, Silas produced a slip of paper. ‘Lottie told me to give you this in case you change your mind. Said to tell you it was the woman in Hackney and you’d know what she meant.’

Rosetta stared at Lottie’s spidery scrawl, shaking her head.

‘Good luck, Rose,’ Silas said, going inside. ‘You’ll need it.’

The door slammed in her face.

Staring at the door for a blank few seconds, unable to believe that this was happening to her, Rosetta scrunched the paper up and shoved it into her pocket. As she turned to go, a bout of
dizziness swept over her and she clutched the iron railings to steady herself.

Down below in the area, the kitchen door opened and Elsie popped out like a small jack-in-a-box. ‘Miss Rose.’ She raced up the steps, sobbing, and flung her arms round Rosetta’s neck. ‘Don’t go. Don’t leave me.’

Pinned against the railings with Elsie clinging to her like a leech, Rosetta dropped the case. It bounced down the steps, spilling the contents on the pavement in a rainbow of bright colours. Breaking free from Elsie’s frantic grasp, Rosetta ran down the steps, snatching up her scattered possessions and stuffing them back in the case. ‘Don’t just stand there, Elsie. Give us a hand.’

‘Let me come with you. I’ll work for you and help you take care of the nipper. I likes babies. There was lots of them in the workhouse.’

Rosetta’s legs suddenly gave way beneath her and she sat down on the bottom step. ‘I can’t take you with me. I’m sorry, but at least you got a roof over your head.’

‘There’s always Miss Ruby,’ Elsie said, pointing to Crowe’s house. ‘Maybe she’d take us both in.’

Ruby! Of course. Why hadn’t she thought of her in the first place? They had patched up their differences and Ruby had been kindness itself when she was poorly. ‘Go and knock on the door, Elsie. Ask for Ruby, or, if she’s not there, ask for Miss Lily.’

Skittering up the steps, Elsie rattled the knocker until someone opened the door. Rosetta couldn’t see who it was but the conversation only lasted a few seconds. When she came scurrying back, Elsie’s face was more expressive than words. ‘It’s Miss Ruby’s first day at the hospital. She won’t be back until late tonight and Miss Lily has gone to the seaside to get better. I asks for Mr Jonas but they says go away, he don’t want to be bothered with the likes of me.’

The world seemed full of closing doors. Rosetta sat with her head held in her hands. Why did Ruby have to be out today, of all days?

Elsie tugged at her sleeve. ‘There’s always Mr Joe.’

‘I don’t know where he is.’

‘But I does.’ With surprising strength for someone so small, Elsie dragged Rosetta to her feet. ‘I had to help him back to his digs one night when he was too tiddley to walk straight. You come along with me, Miss Rose.’

They found Joe in a squalid basement room that he shared with several others in a rat-infested back alley near Spitalfields market. It was well past midday but he had obviously only just awakened from a heavy sleep. Bleary-eyed and tousled, he made them wait in the doorway while he shrugged on his jacket and thrust his feet into his boots. Rosetta could see several
figures sleeping on the floor, huddled beneath coats or bits of sacking. The smell of unwashed bodies, human excrement and stale beer made her retch.

‘This is a disgusting place, Joe. How could you sink so low?’

Joe hustled them outside into the area. ‘You turned me out, remember?’

‘It’s raining,’ Elsie said, shivering. ‘I’m getting wet.’

‘There’s a coffee shop round the corner,’ Joe said, pulling on his cap. ‘Got any money, Rose?’

The scent of the coffee barely disguised the smell of closely packed humanity sheltering in the small café. Joe tucked into a plate of bacon and eggs, munching while he listened to Rosetta. She didn’t spare herself or try to pretend that she was the innocent victim; Joe knew her too well and she had nothing to lose by telling the truth.

Swallowing the last morsel of bread and bacon, Joe licked his fingers, one by one. ‘I’m sorry for you, Rose. But there’s nothing I can do to help.’