Ragamuffin Angel (52 page)
‘What is it?’
They all turned at the sound of Connie’s voice, but it was Wilf who said, before either of the two women could open their mouths, ‘This ’un’ – indicating Edith with a jerk of one thumb which caused the bristling woman to expand still further – ‘is telling this lady to get out.’ The terminology left no one in any doubt as to Wilf’s standpoint. ‘And she’s refusing to leave.’
‘This is Kitty, Wilf.’ The two had never met but she had spoken of Edith’s housekeeper and the fondness Dan held for her several times. ‘And she knows she is welcome in my home at any time.’
‘She followed me here!’ Edith was beside herself, her small body thrusting forward in her rage. ‘How dare you! How dare you follow me, Kitty, and don’t say you didn’t. Get back to the house and we’ll speak of this later.’
‘Aye, I did follow you here.’ There was no vestige of the menial in Kitty’s stance, nor yet in the tone of her voice when she continued, ‘And it looks like it was just as well I did. I’d have thought you were satisfied by the trouble you’ve caused without plotting further mischief.’
‘What?
What did you say
?’ Edith stared at the plump woman in front of her. She had known the warm-hearted Irishwoman for most of her life, and taken advantage of her for just as long, but she would have sworn on her own life that Kitty didn’t have the gumption of a bairn. Soft as clarts, that’s how Edith had always thought of her, and now here Kitty was openly defying her. But what was worse, much worse, was that it was in front of that baggage who had brought such shame to their name, and from the sound of it the two weren’t unacquainted. By, Kitty would suffer for this little lot.
What did you say
?’ Edith stared at the plump woman in front of her. She had known the warm-hearted Irishwoman for most of her life, and taken advantage of her for just as long, but she would have sworn on her own life that Kitty didn’t have the gumption of a bairn. Soft as clarts, that’s how Edith had always thought of her, and now here Kitty was openly defying her. But what was worse, much worse, was that it was in front of that baggage who had brought such shame to their name, and from the sound of it the two weren’t unacquainted. By, Kitty would suffer for this little lot.
‘The restaurant is due to open in a few minutes and I won’t have a disturbance,’ Connie said coolly. ‘If you wish to speak with me you had better come upstairs. You too, Kitty.’
Edith Stewart looked fully at Connie, and the younger woman’s poise and calm had the effect of making her want to leap at the lovely face, to tear and gouge at it with her fingernails. The strength of the desire shocked her; it suggested a lack of control that wasn’t to be borne, and to combat the weakness she breathed deeply, inclining her head in a stiff nod of acquiescence.
Connie led the way upstairs, and once the two women were standing in the parlour she indicated the sofa, saying, ‘Please be seated,’ her heart thudding with the force of a sledgehammer.
‘I haven’t come to sit and chat,’ Edith said sharply. The interior of the flat had surprised her – it showed great charm and taste which further increased the anger and irritation she was trying to master. That this little chit, that whore’s flyblow had risen to this! By, the devil looked after his own all right. And Kitty, standing there as though she had every right to force her way where she pleased. Well, she still intended to say everything she had come to say – that would give her great lump of a housekeeper something to think about! She had always suspected that Kitty had been sweet on Henry and that the silly woman had thought he had a soft spot for her; this would teach the insolent baggage a lesson. No one crossed her and got away with it.
‘Then perhaps you would like to tell me what you have come for?’ said Connie steadily, her face betraying nothing of her inward turmoil.
‘Very well.’ Edith suppressed the rage that Connie’s refusal to be intimidated was causing and allowed a pause, while they stared at each other, before she said, ‘The scandal you have caused will take some living down, you are aware of that I suppose? But it will be explained that John is suffering from shell-shock and that his injuries have turned his mind; people can understand that with our war heroes.’
War hero? John had risen to war hero status now?
‘And of course once Dan is sufficiently recovered to leave the infirmary he will return home to live with me. I understand from the doctors that he is a sick man. All this will be made easier if you leave the district, or perhaps I should say when you leave the district. With you gone people will forget very quickly, and once Dan is well again he can resume his relationship with Miss Rotherington; the two were very close at one time.’
She was as mad as John. Connie found her mouth had fallen open in a little gape and she shut it quickly, blinking twice before she said, ‘Dan was never close to Miss Rotherington and he wouldn’t consider coming to live with you again; you must know that surely? We are going to be married.’
‘Over my dead body.’
‘Now look, Mrs Stewart –’
‘No,
you
look!’ The constraint had gone; Edith’s true colours were flying with a vengeance, and as Kitty stiffened at the side of them Edith’s face was contorted with hatred as she spat, ‘You’ll do as I say, girl, or I’ll destroy you, and Dan with you. Do you want that, eh? He’s not marrying gutterscum, not while I’ve breath in my body.’
you
look!’ The constraint had gone; Edith’s true colours were flying with a vengeance, and as Kitty stiffened at the side of them Edith’s face was contorted with hatred as she spat, ‘You’ll do as I say, girl, or I’ll destroy you, and Dan with you. Do you want that, eh? He’s not marrying gutterscum, not while I’ve breath in my body.’
‘You can’t hurt us.’
‘No?’ Edith stepped back a pace and Connie watched her fight to gain control. Then she gave a short, bitter bark of a laugh as she said, ‘If he marries you it’s as good as dragging the Stewart name through the mud and I’ve fought too hard to get where I am today to let that happen. I’m sure the police would be interested to know a few facts about you and Dan, like the little matter of you being brother and sister?’
Connie stared at her, her face bloodless, as she said, ‘That’s a lie and you know it.’
‘Do I? Prove it. I shall tell them you are my husband’s bastard, and that he had a stroke the night his other children went to the house of his fancy piece to force her to finish the relationship that was splitting their home and hurting their mother.’
‘It was Jacob.’ Kitty took hold of Edith’s arm, spinning the other woman round to face her. ‘You know it was Jacob; Henry was a fine, upstanding man. You can’t sully his reputation now.’
Edith shrugged. ‘John will verify every word I say even now if I want him to,’ she said with dangerous quiet, ‘and even if he can’t, I shall say the knowledge of his brother committing incest is what sent him over the edge and caused the attack on Dan. That will put a different complexion on things, don’t you think? And Matthew and Gilbert will stand by me in this; they are greedy, those two. If I offer them enough, perhaps even my share of the business split between them, they will do as I say.’
‘You can’t prove this, it’s not true,’ Connie said numbly.
‘Maybe not.’ Edith’s eyebrows rose upwards but her voice was cold. ‘But enough mud will stick to soil any union you might have, I shall make sure of that. If you marry him you’re ruining us anyway, I have nothing to lose. And think of any children you might have; something like this would be a dark cloud hanging over them for the rest of their lives.’
‘You would do that? To your own grandchildren?’
‘Nothing that’s part of you has any claim on me. And I swear I shall do all I can to bring you down. If you love my son as you say you do then you will wish to spare him the indignity of a court case with all the ballyhoo that will follow. And it will, I promise you that.’
Connie stared at the small woman in front of her and she found it impossible to understand how her Dan, her generous, warm-hearted, wonderful Dan could have come from such a person. Edith Stewart would do everything she had threatened, Connie had no doubt about that. She and Dan would have to sell up and move far away – if not for themselves then for the future of the children Edith had spoken of – and even then the tentacles of this woman might reach out to wind round their lives again. But they would do it; she would take Dan far, far away, because one thing was for sure – she would never let him get enmeshed in his mother’s clutches again. If Edith thought her threats and omens would make her relinquish Dan then she was wrong. It had only made her all the more determined that Edith would have no place in his life ever again.
‘You dreadful, dreadful woman.’
Connie’s voice was low, and for a moment Edith didn’t seem to take in the softly spoken words, but then she stood stiff and staring as Connie continued, in the quiet, even tone which was more weighty than any screaming, ‘You are a truly low and common woman, do you know that? My grandmother used to say you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear and you are living proof of it. Well, you can do your worst, Mrs Stewart, your very worst, and do you know what? Dan and I will laugh at you! Aye, we will. Because we’ll have each other and that’s all that matters. We’re going to have a good life, Dan and I.’
‘You’ll live to rue this day.’ Edith’s voice was quivering with rage. ‘By all that’s holy you’ll be sorry, girl. You’ll be crawling in the gutter before you’re finished, like your mother before you.’
‘No, I’ll be living with your son, Mrs Stewart, and we shall watch our children and our grandchildren grow up free of any knowledge of you.’ Connie’s stomach was trembling, and as Edith took a step towards her and raised her hand, Connie had no chance to avoid the ringing slap Edith delivered across her face.
Connie’s head jerked back so hard her neck gave a loud crack, but other than raise her hand to her face Connie remained still. ‘Truly low and common,’ she repeated contemptuously, ‘but you can’t win.
You can’t win,
Mrs Stewart.’
You can’t win,
Mrs Stewart.’
Kitty had sprung forward, grabbing Edith’s arms and yanking them back so hard the other woman’s bust was thrust forward like an obscene offering, and as Connie finished speaking Kitty said, ‘Are you mad? Stop this! Stop it, I say.’
There was something of a tussle before Edith wrenched herself free, and through it all Connie was fighting the urge to throw herself on Dan’s mother and beat her fists into the small squat body. She wanted to hurt her, really hurt her, and the force of the destructive hate was so strong her ears were ringing with it. Only the knowledge that-her mental and physical control had to be seen to be superior to that of her enemy prevented her from acting worse than any woman of the streets. She wanted to be sick; she felt chilled inside and out, and through it all every fibre of her being was calling Dan’s name.
Edith was half leaning against the edge of the elegant chiffonier now, steadying herself against the polished wood, and Connie’s voice didn’t falter as she looked at Kitty and said, ‘Would you mind seeing Mrs Stewart out, Kitty?’ for all the world as though the other woman was her housekeeper and she was asking her to show a guest out after a social call.
It was plain that her attitude was further salt in the wound – Edith actually ground her teeth as she straightened herself, slapping at Kitty’s hand which had gone out to help her- and her voice was a low hiss as she said, ‘I’m going, don’t worry, but you’ll be hearing from my solicitors once I get the ball rolling and we’ll see how all your fine words hold up then, eh? You might not mind the filth flying, you were born into it when all’s said and done, but a man’s pride is a different thing. You’ll break him if you go through with this, you know that, don’t you? And the result of it will be on your conscience for the rest of your life.’
Connie knew she dare not speak – one word and all her good intentions would fly out of the window and she would pummel the vicious little woman in front of her to the floor – and so she remained standing quite still in the middle of the room as Edith glared at her one more time before turning and walking to the door, Kitty on her heels.
When was it going to end, all the striving and contending and fighting against the havoc Edith Stewart had incited – and still intended to incite – against her? Connie asked herself as the front door closed behind the two women.
And then, almost in answer, she heard the shrill, drawn-out scream that froze her to the spot for a terrified moment, the fine hairs on the back of her neck standing up in protest. And then she was leaping across the room, wrenching open the front door and coming to an abrupt halt on the small landing to see Kitty – her hand to her mouth and her eyes staring – looking down at the crumpled body at the bottom of the steep stairs.
‘Kitty?’ Connie grabbed at the other woman’s arm, shaking it slightly.
‘She went from top to bottom, lass.’ Kitty didn’t look at Connie as she spoke but continued to lean slightly against the wall, her eyes on the ominously still and twisted figure of her employer. ‘I always said her temper would get the better of her one day; just missed her footing and down she went.’
As they started down the stairs, Connie leading the way, the door to the restaurant opened and Wilf stood framed in the aperture. He took in the situation at a glance, and as he looked upwards there was mingled horror and relief on his face as he said, ‘By, lass, when I heard that scream . . . I thought it was you.’
Edith was lying sprawled across the bottom stair and the floor and from the unnatural position of her head there was no doubt she was dead. Connie looked down at Dan’s mother from two or three steps up. Edith’s head was bent backwards so her face was uppermost, and her features were contorted in an expression which looked to be of shock rather than pain.
‘Dear God . . .’ As Kitty spoke she slumped down on the step on which she was standing, and Connie turned away from the sight of the distorted face to take the other woman in her arms, saying, ‘Come back upstairs, come on, you can’t do anything here. Wilf will see to things, won’t you, Wilf?’
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