A Mother's Wish (3 page)

Effie had not been sorry to leave the Prince of Wales tavern when she married Owen. Even though he must have suffered strong opposition from Maggie, Ben had given them a good send-off. The bar had been garlanded with wild flowers and there had been food aplenty. Ale had flowed like the River Lea in full spate and Morris men had danced on the green. It had been midsummer and Effie had spent her wedding night lying with her husband on the deck of the
Margaret
Grey
with a canopy of stars above their heads. She would never forget how gentle and tender Owen had been on that magical first night, or the joy she had experienced in their rapturous union. It had been a long, hot summer and they chose to sleep on deck rather than in the close confines of the cabin, making love in the moonlight with the musical sounds of the water and the nightingales singing their sweet songs above their heads. But as the days grew shorter so Owen’s life had begun to ebb away.

It had been a cold and frosty night, but
Owen had insisted that he wanted to sleep beneath the stars once more. Effie had wrapped him in a patchwork quilt and lain beside him, holding him close. He had died in her arms, slipping away so peacefully and silently that he might have been asleep. It was then that she had felt the first flutter of their child in her womb, and even in the depths of her grief she had taken comfort from the knowledge that the love they had shared would produce a son or daughter who would carry something of Owen into the future.

‘Well now, what’s that sad face all about?’ Toby demanded, setting Georgie down on Effie’s lap. ‘You’ve not finished your breakfast, Effie. Are you all right?’

Jolted out of her reverie, Effie wrapped her arms around Georgie and received a sticky kiss on her cheek.

‘Honey,’ Toby said, chuckling. ‘The woman who does the cooking took a fancy to young Georgie and gave him some honeycomb to suck.’

Effie smiled. ‘That sounds like Betty. She was always good to me.’

‘She said she remembers you well, and you were a lovely bride. I only wish I’d been here to drink your health, or maybe I don’t. I always thought you were too good for this place and should have thrown you over my
saddle when I had the chance. I should have spirited you away to live the travelling life with me.’

She shot him a sideways glance. She had always found it hard to tell whether Toby Tapper was serious or merely teasing her, and today was no exception. His flashing smile and good-looking face had no doubt charmed many a young maiden into his bed, but she had always thought of him as a friend and nothing more. She was about to make a suitable rejoinder, putting him gently but firmly in his place, when a commotion outside made everyone in the taproom stop talking.

A youth stuck his head round the door. ‘There’s a man drowning,’ he cried excitedly. ‘Fell off the barge he did. Come quick or you’ll miss the show.’

Effie was on her feet instantly. Clutching Georgie to her, she ran out of the pub.

A SMALL CROWD
had gathered on the canal bank and someone was thrashing about in the water. Effie could just make out Tom on the deck of the
Margaret
and to her horror he was leaning dangerously over the side with a boat hook in his hand. She broke into a run, pushing between the onlookers.

‘There’s a man overboard,’ one of the draymen said calmly, as if watching someone drowning was an everyday occurrence.

Georgie began to wail and Effie held him even closer, murmuring words of comfort even as she felt panic rising at the sight of Tom so perilously close to falling into the filthy water. Her heart seemed to miss a beat as she saw the top of a head break the surface, and it was even more of a shock to realise that it was Jacob who was in the water. The question as to how such an accident could happen froze on her lips as someone jumped into the cut and swam towards the drowning man. It was only when she turned her head to speak to Toby that she realised he was not there. A cheer
went up from the onlookers, and it was Toby who towed Jacob towards the steps, holding his head above the water until two hefty draymen climbed down to lift the half-drowned man to safety.

Effie saw Tom collapse onto the deck, burying his face in his hands. She was torn between the desire to comfort her brother and her duty to her father-in-law.

‘Here, let me take the little ’un.’

Effie turned to see Betty, the cook from the pub, and as Georgie obviously recognised the kind person who had given him something nice to eat Effie had no compunction in handing him to her. ‘Be a good boy, Georgie. Mama won’t be long.’ Flashing a smile at Betty, Effie edged her way through the crowd to where Jacob lay on the towpath, gasping for air like a landed pike.

‘He’ll live,’ Toby said, wiping his dripping forehead on an equally wet sleeve. ‘He might spew up a bellyful of dirty water, but I don’t think he’s badly hurt.’

‘How did it happen, cully?’ A drayman kneeling beside Jacob helped him into a sitting position. ‘How did you come to fall overboard?’

Jacob coughed and brought up a copious amount of fluid. ‘He tried to kill me,’ he said, raising his hand and pointing to Tom. ‘That boy tried to murder me. Fetch a constable.’

Effie threw herself down on her knees beside him. ‘It must have been an accident, Father-in-law. Tom would never do such a thing.’

‘He pushed me, I tell you. You both want me dead, so don’t deny it.’ Jacob hunched his shoulders, glancing around at the curious faces with a calculating look in his eyes. ‘You all saw it. The boy tried to kill me. I’m a poor defenceless cripple.’

‘Hold on there, mate,’ Toby said sternly. ‘If you’re a cripple how did you move about on a deck packed with barrels? I don’t think the boy could carry a man of your size.’

A murmur ran through the crowd with much nodding of heads.

Effie took off her apron and began to dry Jacob’s face, but he snatched the cloth from her. ‘Leave me be, you wanton harlot. I’ll warrant you put the boy up to this. You want to get rid of me so that you can claim my boat and take up with your fancy man.’ He jerked his head in Toby’s direction. ‘A didicoi. That’s who she’s after.’

Toby seized him by the shoulders. ‘Why, you evil old man, I should toss you back in the cut for speaking to her like that.’

Effie rose to her feet. ‘How can you say terrible things, Father-in-law? Haven’t I looked after you well? I’ve cooked and cleaned and
slaved away on your wretched boat, and never received a kind word or a penny piece for my labours.’

Jacob pointed a shaking finger at her. ‘You’re a Jezebel. I’m afraid to eat in case you put rat poison in me food.’

‘You take that back,’ Tom shouted, raising himself from the deck and leaping ashore. ‘I never tried to kill you, but I wish you’d drowned.’

‘Condemned out of his own mouth.’ Jacob’s face twisted with malice. ‘You’ll hang for this, Tom Sadler. They’ll string you up outside Newgate for all to see.’

The crowd was growing and Effie reached out to clutch Toby’s hand. ‘Do something for God’s sake, or he’ll have Tom arrested.’

Toby gave her fingers a comforting squeeze. He raised his other hand, commanding silence. ‘This man is out of his head with shock. I say we all need a drink, and I think it should be on Mr Grey in thanks for being saved from a watery grave. What do you say to that, my friends?’

Jacob’s demand that the police should be summoned had been disregarded in favour of free ale, and a cheer rang out as the crowd surged back into the pub.

Effie took Georgie from Betty with a grateful smile. ‘Thank you for looking after my boy.
You were always very kind to me, even when I was in trouble with Maggie.’

‘Think nothing of it, ducks, but I’d best get back to work.’ Betty kissed Georgie on the cheek and backed away, waving to him and chuckling when he copied her.

Toby hooked his arms around both draymen’s shoulders. ‘Thanks for your help, mates. If you’d be good enough to carry the old man back on board his boat, I’ll stand you a round of drinks.’

‘You’re on, cully.’

Despite Jacob’s protests, the draymen picked him up and carried him on board the
Margaret
.

‘I wish the old bugger had drowned,’ Tom said bitterly. ‘He’s a fraud, Effie. The cook lady asked me to fetch his dirty plate but he was out on deck when I got there. He’d managed to get himself right up to the bows and he was leaning over the side, trying to cast off. Don’t ask me why, unless it was the pint of ale that he’d drunk making him crazy in the head. But when I tried to stop him he took a swing at me and lost his balance. I never pushed him. You got to believe me.’

‘Of course I believe you, Tom,’ Effie said, placing her arm around his shoulders and giving him a hug. ‘But if he can get about on his own the old man must have been having us on all this time.’

‘If he’s a cripple then I’m the Prince of Wales,’ Tom said with a rueful grin. ‘What are we going to do, Effie?’

‘We’ve no choice but to go on to Limehouse Basin. Mr Ellerman will be waiting for us and we’ve already stayed too long. Fetch Champion and we’ll cast off right away.’ Effie climbed on board, setting Georgie down on deck while she went to the bows to stow the mooring rope. She could hear the babble of voices and shouts of laughter emanating from the open pub door, but there was no sign of Toby. She knew she ought to thank him for saving Jacob but she was anxious to be away in case anyone had sent for a constable. Life, she thought, would have been much easier if Jacob had drowned in Limehouse Cut. She was immediately ashamed of having such wicked thoughts and a shout from Tom was a welcome distraction.

‘Ready to go, Effie.’

‘All right, Tom.’ She hurried along the deck to where Georgie was absorbed in trying to pick up a large cockroach that had found its way on board. She scooped him up in her arms and made her way to the stern, sitting him down with a warning not to move as she took the tiller.

Soundlessly, gliding over the water like a swan, the
Margaret
moved on towards
Limehouse Basin, leaving the Prince of Wales tavern far behind. So many memories were contained within its walls, but it was only now that Effie realised how carefree she had been in those days. She had worked hard from dawn to dusk but she had not minded that, and when Owen came onto the scene her life had changed forever. If only he had lived . . .

Jacob’s head and shoulders appeared suddenly above the cabin roof like a malevolent jack-in-the-box. ‘You think you’re very clever, don’t you? But your plan didn’t work.’ He shook his fist at her. ‘Try something like that again and I’ll see both of you clapped in jail.’

‘You’re mad,’ Effie said, keeping her voice down so that she did not alarm Georgie. ‘You fell overboard. It was an accident.’

‘It’s my word against his, and who do you think would believe scum from the workhouse?’

‘Why are you being like this, Father-in-law? Haven’t I looked after you these past two years or more? I’ve waited on you hand and foot and worked the barge even when I was carrying Georgie.’

‘You’ve been fed and had a roof over your head, haven’t you? Well now it’s all going to change. I’ve hired a man to take your place and I don’t need you any more.’

Effie stared at him in horror as the truth began to dawn on her. ‘You planned all this, didn’t you? You wanted Tom to be arrested for attempted murder and you were going to say that I put him up to it. Why, Father-in-law? Why would you do something so wrong and so cruel?’

‘Use your head, girl. I never wanted my boy to marry you. He should have chosen a boatman’s daughter, a girl born to the job instead of a puny little thing like you. I could’ve snapped you in two like a twig when I was in me prime, but now I’m lame I have to depend on a slip of a girl and a lazy lout of a boy.’

‘You never were crippled, were you? It was all an act.’

‘Shut your face. I don’t have to explain myself to you. When we get to Limehouse Basin you and the boy are leaving my boat. Ellerman has found me replacements for the pair of you, but the child stays.’

‘What?’ Effie’s throat constricted with fear. ‘No, you can’t mean that. I won’t leave Georgie with you.’

‘You’ve no choice, girl. Young Georgie is Owen’s son and the
Margaret
will be his when he’s a man. He’ll carry on the tradition and you can go to hell.’ Jacob disappeared as quickly as he had come.

Effie clutched the tiller, unable to let it go for fear of running the boat into the canal bank, but with her free arm she reached down to pick up Georgie who had begun to cry, frightened by the sound of his grandfather’s raised voice. ‘There, there, darling. Mama’s here and she’s never going to leave you.’

There was no stopping until they reached Limehouse Basin and Effie’s thoughts were in a whirl. She was still getting over the shock of discovering that her father-in-law had been exaggerating his infirmity and must have planned his apparent accident down to the last detail. She needed to talk to Tom and warn him about Jacob’s plan, but he was trudging on ahead, leading Champion along the towpath. She sat Georgie on the deck beside her, keeping an eye on him while she steered the boat. His face was still sticky with honey and he was smiling up at her with such love and trust that Effie felt her heart contract. If Jacob thought he could take her son from her then he was very much mistaken. There was nothing in the world that would persuade her to abandon her precious boy to his care. Nothing.

Ellerman was waiting for them, pacing the wharf with a cheroot clenched between his teeth. As they approached, he took a silver
watch from his waistcoat pocket, tapping his fingers on the case as if to underline the fact that they were late.

Before Effie had a chance to explain or to warn Tom what was afoot, Jacob limped out of the cabin and leaning heavily on his cane he managed to climb ashore without too much difficulty. Effie could see the astonished expression on Tom’s face as he unhitched the horse but she was powerless to do anything until the narrowboat was secured and the unloading began. She had to keep Georgie well away from the activity on deck and she held him in her arms, watching Jacob and Ellerman who appeared to be deep in conversation.