The Best of Sisters (36 page)

Brandon gave a derisive snort. ‘That woman is out of her mind. She threatened to wet herself if
your maid didn’t take her out to the privy. In my opinion she should be locked away.’

‘And your opinion counts, does it?’ Freddie said coldly. ‘Dolly is suffering from an illness, but she is certainly not mad. She is a kind and lovely lady and deserves our respect.’

Eliza could have kissed him, but she managed to contain her feelings. She was about to show Brandon the door, when a splintering crash from the direction of the scullery and a cry for help from Ada put everything else out of her mind. She ran to her aid, closely followed by Freddie. Dolly seemed to be having some kind of fit and Ada was attempting to lift her from the ground where she had fallen.

‘Leave her to me,’ Freddie said, lifting Dolly with effortless strength. He carried her into the living room and set her gently down in her chair, holding her until the spasms passed and she opened her eyes.

‘Are you all right?’ Eliza went down on her knees, brushing strands of wiry grey hair back from Dolly’s forehead.

‘She was took ill on the privy,’ Ada said, straightening her apron that had somehow got itself tangled round her neck. ‘We was stuck in there for half an hour or more. I’d have thought he’d have come to see if he could help instead of loitering about in here,’ she added, glaring at Brandon. ‘Useless toff.’

‘I didn’t come here to be insulted,’ Brandon said, snatching up his hat and gloves.

‘So where do you usually go then?’ Ada’s lip curled with contempt.

As her overwrought nerves threatened to turn into hysteria, Eliza could not look at Freddie. Even though he said nothing, she knew that he was laughing at Ada’s sarcastic remark.

Brandon rammed his hat on his head, glowering at Ada. ‘I’ll choose to ignore that piece of impudence.’ His expression changed subtly as he turned to Eliza. ‘Will you see me to the door, my dear? I have something to say to you.’

Dolly groaned. ‘I need a dose of me medicine.’

‘A nice hot cup of tea is what she needs,’ Ada said, bustling over to the range and picking up the kettle.

Brandon wrenched the street door open, pausing on the threshold. ‘Eliza, a moment of your time, please.’

‘Shut the door, there’s a terrible draught,’ Dolly said in a quite reasonable voice. ‘Where’s me specs? I can’t see a thing. Me head aches something rotten.’

Eliza looked to Freddie for help. ‘Shall I give her a dose of laudanum?’

‘I think a cup of tea would do her more good,’ Freddie said. ‘If you’d be so kind, Mrs Little.’

‘It’s Ada to you, doctor. I’m so glad you’re back. We really need you here. Not like some
people who think they’re too good for the likes of us.’ Ada aimed her last remark at Brandon and, turning her back on him, she stomped off into the scullery carrying the steaming kettle.

‘I’m leaving,’ Brandon said crossly. ‘I’ll speak to you later, Eliza.’

‘Shut the blooming door.’ Dolly took her spectacles from Freddie, who had found them on the floor, and she hooked them on the tip of her nose, peering at Brandon. ‘I don’t know you, do I?’

‘It’s Brandon, Mum,’ Eliza said, stroking her gnarled hand. ‘You know Brandon.’

Dolly shook her head. ‘Never heard of him.’

Brandon hovered in the doorway, seeming unwilling to leave but equally reluctant to stay. ‘The woman is insane and probably dangerous. She ought to be in an asylum.’

‘Don’t be silly,’ Eliza snapped. ‘Of course she isn’t dangerous. Dolly is just a bit confused.’

‘Tell him that toffs shouldn’t come to Hemp Yard, Eliza. Tell him there’s sorts round here what would cut his throat for his bootlaces, let alone a pair of fine leather boots like those.’

‘I’m leaving now, Eliza,’ Brandon said stiffly. ‘But I’ll be back later this evening and I’ll take you out to supper so that we can have a private conversation.’

Her first instinct was to tell him to go and boil his head, but she knew that Freddie was staring
at her. ‘I’d love to, Brandon. But I’m so very tired. I can’t go out tonight.’

‘Then I’ll take you out tomorrow evening. Be ready at seven-thirty and wear something presentable. I don’t dine in cheap taverns and chophouses.’ Brandon shot a darkling look at Freddie, and walked out into the darkness.

‘Masterful, ain’t he?’ Freddie said, chuckling. ‘How did you stumble across a flash cove like him, Liza?’

‘Brandon is a gentleman. He was educated at public school and then Oxford. Without him and his father I couldn’t hope to rebuild the chandlery.’

‘Be wary of his sort.’

Eliza was saved from replying by Ada coming in with a tray of tea. ‘There, just what the doctor ordered,’ she said, chuckling at her own joke and setting the tray down on the table. She glanced down at Dolly, who was sitting upright in her chair but with her eyes closed. ‘She looks more peaceful now. Thank God you come back to look after her, doctor. You’ve been missed, I can tell you.’

‘Have I?’ Freddie shot Eliza a quizzical look. ‘Everyone seems to have managed perfectly well without me.’

Eliza shrugged her shoulders and went to pour the tea.

‘You don’t know the half of it,’ Ada said,
plucking her shawl from the back of a chair. ‘Eliza’s worked so hard to look after all of us. What with my Arthur drinking himself stupid in the old days; then he went and got religion, and now he spends all his time at the mission. If it weren’t for Eliza, me and me kids would be out on the streets.’

‘Is that so?’

‘It is too. She could have sold Mr Enoch’s house or rented it out for the going rate, but no, she wouldn’t do that. Eliza’s let us live there at a peppercorn rent. I can’t tell you what it’s meant to me to have a proper roof over me head.’ Ada wrapped her shawl around her shoulders, casting a grateful smile in Eliza’s direction. ‘She’s a good girl and that’s a fact. Now I’d best stop gabbing and go home to get supper for the boys.’

‘Mind how you go, Ada,’ Eliza said. ‘And thanks for looking after Dolly. I know she can be a bit of a trial.’

‘Never you mind that, ducks. I’d do anything for you, you knows that.’

‘Dr Freddie!’ Dolly opened her eyes and gazed up at Freddie with a look of genuine recognition and a pleased smile. ‘Hello, ducks. Nice of you to call round. Will you stay and have a cup of tea with me?’

‘She recognises you! Oh, Freddie, she recognises you.’ Eliza clasped her hands together, trying not to cry. ‘Maybe she’s getting better.’

‘It’s a miracle,’ Ada said, wiping her eyes on her apron. ‘A blooming miracle. She’s been off in loony-land for so long that sometimes she don’t even know Millie or Liza, let alone me.’

Freddie took Dolly’s hand in his, smiling down at her. ‘How are you, Dolly? You don’t look a day older, my dear.’

She slapped him on the wrist. ‘Don’t talk daft, boy. I saw you yesterday when you brought me my medicine. Anyone would think you’d been away for years. Ada, where’s that tea? I’m parched.’

Ada picked up a cup that Eliza had filled with tea and she took it to Dolly. ‘There now, drink your tea and I’ll see you in the morning.’

‘Ta,’ Dolly said, taking the cup in both hands and peering at Ada over the top of her spectacles. ‘Who are you, ducks? Do I know you?’

An hour later, when Freddie had left the house, promising to return next day with a medicine for Dolly that would gradually lessen her need for laudanum, Eliza came downstairs having put Dolly to bed. She was bone tired and every muscle in her body ached. She glanced at the clock on the mantelshelf and saw that it was almost eight o’clock and Millie had not yet returned. She had supposed that she must be at the mission with Arthur and the Booths, but it was getting late and now she was beginning to
worry. There was a pan of vegetable broth on the hob, but Eliza had no appetite. She made another pot of tea, reusing the leaves from the last brew, and sat by the glowing embers of the fire, sipping weak tea and going over the events of the day in her head. She was, she realised, too tired and numbed to feel any great emotion at the revelation that Aaron had known and loved her mother; too tired even to experience the pain of discovering that Freddie had taken a mistress who was her dead brother’s widow. There was, Eliza thought, one bright shining star in the whole murky firmament and that was Tommy, Bart’s son.

She was sitting and dreaming up ways of getting to know her young nephew when the door opened and Millie came in on a gust of smoke-laden night air. Her cheeks were pink from exertion and she looked pleased with herself. Eliza jumped to her feet, tiredness forgotten in her relief on seeing Millie safe and sound. She hugged her and then shook her. ‘Where have you been, you bad girl? I was worried sick.’

‘I can look after meself,’ Millie said, twirling free from Eliza’s grasp and giggling. ‘I’ve been working, if you must know, Liza. I’ve got a job and it don’t entail grubbing for a few pence selling flowers in the street. And I’m starving.’ Tossing her shawl onto a chair, Millie went to the range and lifted the lid off the black iron
saucepan, sniffing appreciatively. ‘Ada makes the best soup in London. Want some?’

Eliza sat down again as a wave of exhaustion washed over her; she shook her head. ‘No, ta. Tell me about this job. You haven’t done nothing silly, have you?’

‘Of course not.’ Millie danced off into the scullery.

Eliza could hear her moving about the room, the sound of a knife hacking through bread, the clatter of crockery and the jingle of cutlery. Millie reappeared carrying a tray and set it down on the table. ‘It was Brandon’s idea.’

‘Brandon!’ Eliza jerked upright in her chair, her tiredness forgotten. ‘What’s he got to do with you?’

‘He come round this afternoon, looking for you. He asked me how I was and I said I was fine now, thanks very much.’

‘Never mind all that. Please get to the point.’

Millie ladled soup into a bowl and went to sit at the table, picking up her spoon. ‘I told him I was looking for work and he said he might be able to help.’

‘Help? How?’ Eliza could feel her heart thumping wildly inside her chest. She had seen the look in Brandon’s eyes when Millie had come home after being attacked by the street flower sellers. It would have been obvious to anyone that the sight of firm young flesh had aroused
him. Brandon was a sensual man, used to getting his own way with women of a certain class. The memory of his kiss still lingered; Eliza had only to close her eyes to recall the hardness of his body pressed against hers. She had to drag her thoughts back to the present and concentrate on what Millie was saying.

‘Brandon said if I was to go to his home, ask for the housekeeper and tell her that he had sent me, then she would find me employment. So I did and she give me a job as a chambermaid. That’s why I’m so late.’

‘A chambermaid! Oh, Millie, there wasn’t no need for you to go into service.’ Eliza rose to her feet. She went to sit at the table opposite Millie, who was unconcernedly dipping chunks of bread into her soup. ‘The roof is being raised on the chandlery and it will be up and running before Christmas. We can work together, love, just as we did before.’

Millie popped a piece of bread in her mouth, munched and swallowed. ‘I’ll leave the Millers then, and come and work for you. Don’t look so serious, Liza. It will be all right, I promise you. Brandon is such a good bloke – if I wasn’t sweet on Davy, I think I could quite fancy Brandon, but then he is only interested in you. It’s the story of my life.’

Somehow, Eliza managed to keep a straight face as Millie gave a world-weary sigh and then
attacked her dinner with the appetite of a healthy sixteen-year-old. She could do nothing about Millie’s unrequited love for Davy, but she could put a stop to any ideas that Brandon might have with regard to seducing a young chambermaid. She would make her feelings on that point very clear to him over dinner tomorrow, but for now there was Millie to consider, and as Eliza watched her enjoying her food, she felt a rush of protective love. No one, neither man nor woman, was going to hurt her little sister. Millie was just as much part of her family as little Tommy, and she loved them both.

‘What’s up?’ demanded Millie, pausing with the spoon halfway to her mouth.

‘I’ve had the most incredible day,’ Eliza said, smiling. ‘I’m not sure where to begin.’

Next morning, Millie was up before dawn to start her first full day working for the Millers. Although it was usual for housemaids to live in, Millie said that the housekeeper had been agreeable to her residing at home, providing that she arrived punctually for work, and did not complain if her duties kept her at the house until late. It was not a happy thought that Millie would be wandering the streets of Wapping late at night, but Eliza kept her peace, determined to speak to Brandon that evening. Hopefully, the Millers’ housekeeper could be persuaded to find
Millie a bed and allow her to stay in the house on the nights when she was working late.

Dolly was still sleeping peacefully, worn out by the excitement of the previous evening. Although Eliza usually went out every morning to inspect the building work, she had stayed at home today with the excuse of helping Ada, who was out in the back yard, doing the washing. Eliza had convinced herself that she was not waiting in to see Freddie; she was staying in because she was needed here. The weather was mild for late October, but the water in the washtub cooled rapidly and had to be topped up with the kettle from the hob. Eliza did the fetching and carrying, using it as an excuse to look out of the front window to see if Freddie was coming. When there was no one in sight apart from the bare-footed children who were too young to go to school or to send out on the streets selling bootlaces or matches, and the rangy mongrel curs that scavenged for scraps in the gutters, she tried not to feel too disappointed. Freddie had promised that he would bring some fresh medication for Dolly, and she was certain that he wouldn’t let her down.

But as the morning went on, Eliza began to worry. It could be that Daisy had stopped him; maybe she had insisted that he went with her to the furniture warehouse. She left the window with a sigh, and, having tucked the crocheted
blanket around Dolly who was now dozing peacefully in her chair, Eliza picked up the kettle and went out into the yard.