The Cockney Angel (37 page)

Irene shot a grateful look at Arthur and he responded with a wink and a smile. ‘See you later, Renie.’

She blew him a kiss as the horse started off at a steady plod, and she turned to Arnold
with
a smile. ‘That wasn’t too painful now, was it?’

He hunched his shoulders and grunted.

She took this for assent and they lapsed into silence for the rest of the short drive to the Round House. As Arnold slowed the horse to a halt outside the gate, Irene prepared to climb down.

‘Do you need some help?’ Arnold murmured with a half-hearted attempt to rise from his seat.

‘I can manage, and you’d best get home before it starts to rain or you’ll get drenched.’

She winced as she attempted to put weight on her injured ankle. ‘Maybe I could use a hand,’ she admitted reluctantly.

‘Someone’s coming down the path,’ Arnold said, peering over her shoulder. ‘And he’s bigger and stronger than me.’

Irene turned her head and her heart lurched against her ribs. For a moment she couldn’t catch her breath. Hope and fear of disappointment merged into one as he drew nearer, and the blood pounding in her ears threatened to deafen her. He vaulted the gate and came to stand by the cart. Even in the half-light she would have known that familiar face. It might be ten years since she had last seen her brother, but there was no mistaking Jim’s grin, which spread from ear to ear as he looked up at her.

‘Strewth, girl, I hardly recognised you.’ He lifted her down from the trap and held her at arm’s length, staring at her in wonderment. ‘You’ve changed so much, Renie. What happened to that little kid who was bawling her eyes out because I was leaving?’

‘Jim – after all this time. I – we thought you might be …’ Her breath caught on a sob as she gazed at him through a veil of tears. The boy was now a man; his round boyish features had been sculpted by maturity but the eyes were still the same. ‘I c-can’t believe it. Is it really you?’

‘It’s me all right. I’ve come to take you home, ducks.’

‘How did you know where to find me? Oh, Jim, I think I must be dreaming.’

‘I’m off then,’ Arnold said sulkily. ‘Seems you don’t need me any more.’

Irene gave him a watery smile. ‘Ta for bringing me home, Arnold.’

Jim took a coin from his pocket and tossed it to Arnold. ‘That’s for your trouble, boy.’

Arnold caught it deftly but he tossed it back at Jim and the coin landed on the soft ground at his feet. ‘I don’t want your money, you great oaf.’ He flicked the reins. ‘Walk on.’

‘You’ve hurt his feelings,’ Irene said, torn between tears and laughter as she watched the cart disappearing into the gloom.

‘Never mind him,’ Jim said, glancing up at the leaden sky. ‘We’ve got ten lost years to catch up on, so let’s get you indoors before the heavens open.’

Irene gazed up into his suntanned face. ‘I can’t believe it’s really you. Pinch me or I’ll think I’m dreaming.’

He pinched her arm. ‘Is that real enough for you?’

‘Ouch! That hurt,’ Irene said, laughing. ‘There’s so much I want to know.’ She had almost forgotten her injured ankle but it reminded her now with a sharp stabbing pain as she attempted to walk and she reached out to grasp Jim’s arm.

‘What’s the matter, Renie? Are you hurt?’

‘It’s nothing – just a twisted ankle.’

He swept her up in his arms. ‘Same old Renie,’ he said, chuckling. ‘You was always getting into scrapes as a nipper. You may look like a lady, but you haven’t changed a bit.’

She clung to him, scarcely able to believe that her long lost brother had really come home. Despite the tingling sensation where he had pinched her, she still feared she might wake up and find it had all been a dream, but when he pushed the back door open with the toe of his boot and the familiar aroma of cooking and wet dogs filled her nostrils, Irene knew that all this was real.

Martha looked up from stirring a pan on the range and her face crumpled with concern when she saw Irene. ‘Lawks, what happened to you?’

‘I hurt my ankle,’ Irene said breathlessly as Jim set her down on a chair by the fire. ‘It’s nothing to worry about, Martha.’

‘We was getting worried. Miss Maude was about to go looking for you when your brother turned up. He said you was always disappearing when you was a nipper and not to worry.’ Martha turned back to watching the contents of the pot. ‘I says you’d come back when you was hungry, but Miss Maude was in a bit of a stew.’

‘Well, she’s here now,’ Jim said, shrugging off his greatcoat to reveal a smart suit that would not have looked out of place on a city gentleman. ‘And I’m sure a cup of tea would go down well, or perhaps something a bit stronger – for medicinal purposes, of course.’ He glanced at Irene with a mischievous twinkle in his dark eyes so reminiscent of their father’s that she felt her throat constrict.

‘Miss Maude doesn’t hold with strong drink,’ Irene murmured, turning her head away so that Jim would not see how she struggled to control her emotions. She did not want to make a fool of herself in front of Martha, and Miss Maude had just walked into the
kitchen
with a look on her face that would have turned fresh milk to cheese in an instant.

‘Oh! So you’ve decided to grace us with your presence then, Irene.’ It was a statement rather than a question. ‘I don’t suppose you gave a thought to the possibility that Martha might be worried sick about you. I don’t allow things like that to put me out of countenance, but you could have shown a little consideration for our – I mean, her – feelings.’

‘Hold on a moment, Miss Greenwood,’ Jim said, laying his hand on Irene’s shoulder and giving it a comforting squeeze. ‘Irene has hurt her ankle and I think she deserves the chance to explain her absence. I’m sure she had no intention of causing either of you any concern.’

Maude’s stern features relaxed a little and she inclined her head. ‘Maybe I was a little hasty.’ She turned to Martha with an imperious wave of her hand. ‘Tea, please, Martha, and fetch the brandy bottle. We’ll take it in the parlour if Mr Angel would be kind enough to help Irene to the sofa. And bring some clean linen and a bowl of cold water so that I can make a compress for her ankle.’

‘Do this, do that,’ Martha grumbled. ‘Anyone would think I was a slave.’

Maude shrugged her shoulders. ‘I don’t want you eavesdropping outside the door, so you’d better join us. Don’t fret, you old
harridan
, we’ll await your coming.’ She whisked out of the room and her footsteps echoed off the polished oak floorboards and she made her way to the parlour.

Jim lifted Irene from the chair despite her protest that she could walk. ‘I’d best carry you, ducks. You should keep your weight off that ankle until it’s been seen to. Anyway, it seems we’ve had a royal command, so we’d best not keep the lady waiting.’ He glanced over his shoulder at Martha, who was still mumbling beneath her breath as she made the tea. ‘I’ll be back to help you with the tray, Miss Martha.’

Irene stifled a giggle at the sight of Martha’s open-mouthed look of astonishment, which quickly turned into a delighted smirk. ‘I see you’ve a way with the ladies,’ she whispered as Jim carried her out of the kitchen and along the hallway to the parlour. ‘You’ve been away for so long and there’s so much I want to ask you.’

‘I’ve been round the world more times than I can count, and seen a great many things. I’m a different person from the wild boy that I was when I left home.’

‘Not too different, I hope,’ Irene said, laying her head on his shoulder. ‘You’re still my big brother and I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you have come back to us.’

He laid her gently on the sofa. ‘It’s been too
long
, Renie. But I’m here now and I mean to make amends for everything.’

‘Not before time, as far as I can see,’ Maude said, brushing him aside and bending over Irene to unlace her boot. ‘Don’t hover, young man. Go and fetch the cold water and linen so that I can put a cold compress on this ankle. There will be plenty of time later for explanations and apologies for the way you treated your family.’

‘Don’t be too hard on him, Miss Maude,’ Irene said when Jim was out of earshot. ‘I’m sure he had good reasons for doing what he did.’

‘Men are all the same,’ Maude retorted, pulling her mouth down at the corners. ‘They follow their own inclinations and be damned to the rest of us. And I’m not apologising for the bad language.’

‘Miss Maude,’ Irene began tentatively, ‘before the others return, I must tell you something.’

‘This will hurt a bit,’ Maude said as she eased the boot off. She stared at the rough bandage that Dora had inexpertly applied to the injured joint. ‘Whoever did this was no doctor.’

‘No, but she was kind and she meant well.’ Irene bit her lip as Maude unwound the makeshift bandage.

‘Can you move your foot?’

Irene wiggled her toes, wincing with pain. ‘Yes, but it hurts.’

‘And I’d say it was your just desserts for poking your nose in where it doesn’t belong,’ Maude said crossly. ‘Don’t put on that innocent face, miss. I can guess where you went this afternoon and I don’t imagine you walked to Romford. Anyway, I saw you drive past with that boy. I’ve seen him in the distance at the market and I’d recognise the Greenwood nose anywhere.’

‘You’re right, but I make no apology for going to Navestock. I wanted to find out if Farmer Kent was related to the people I know in London, but I had no idea that his wife was your sister.’

‘I have no sister. She is dead to me.’

‘And yet you kept her room just as it was when she lived at home.’

‘Sentimental nonsense,’ Maude snorted. ‘You have Martha to thank for keeping the room clean and aired. Dora went behind my back and married the man who should have been my husband. She bore him a son and I remain childless.’

‘But you have a nephew. He is a fine boy, but not a happy one.’

‘That isn’t my problem.’

‘Isn’t it?’ Irene angled her head. ‘I think he
needs
his kind aunt and his cousin Arthur, which is why I made certain that they met. If I have interfered, it was from the best of intentions. I would not deliberately upset you, especially when you have shown me nothing but kindness.’

‘Humph!’ Maude cleared her throat and turned away as the door opened and Martha bustled in with a heavily laden tray, closely followed by Jim.

‘There now, clear the way,’ Martha said brusquely. ‘Let me see to that ankle, Miss Maude, and you can sit down and drink your tea with a tot of medicinal brandy.’ She beckoned to Jim, who stood behind her with a bowl of water clutched in his hands. ‘Make yourself useful and tear that bit of sheeting into strips. We’ll have you fixed up in a trice, Miss Renie.’

Irene met Jim’s amused gaze over the top of Martha’s bent shoulders as she examined the injured limb. He placed the bowl within her reach and began, quite expertly, Irene noticed, to rip the sheet into bandages, which Martha dampened in the water before applying them to the swollen ankle.

Maude sank into one of the chairs by the fireside, adding a generous measure of brandy to her tea which she sipped with obvious enjoyment. ‘Now then,’ she said in a more
mellow
tone. ‘Irene has told me about her visit to the Kents’ farm and her meeting with my sister and her husband, so we don’t need to go through that again. I think it’s time we heard from you, James Angel. I’m sure we are all curious as to the reason for your sudden reappearance after so many years’ absence.’

‘I know I am,’ Irene said eagerly. ‘And how did you know where to find me, Jim? Do sit down and tell all.’

Jim handed the strips of cloth to Martha and he pulled up a chair. ‘Well, it wasn’t easy.’ He sat down opposite Maude and helped himself to a tot of brandy, which he drank neat in one gulp. ‘When my ship docked at Queenhithe I went straight to Wood Street expecting to find Ma behind the counter as usual, selling jars of pickles and bottles of sauce. I found it closed and shuttered and no one in the adjoining shops seemed to know where my family had gone, although they told me that the departure was fairly recent and that they had heard rumours that Pa was in Newgate. I can’t say that surprised me entirely, so I went looking for old Yapp. As luck would have it I spoke to a boy called Danny, who knows you well, Renie. He told me as much as he knew and directed me to Emmie’s house in Love Lane.’

‘And how is Emmie? Has she had the baby?’

Jim shook his head. ‘Not yet, although I
believe
the birth is imminent. She was most insistent that I bring you back to London so that you can be there at her confinement.’

‘But that’s impossible. Josiah would not allow it. He sent me away because of lies told to him by that evil Ras and his stupid brother.’

‘Nevertheless, I think our brother-in-law might stretch a point when he sees how much it means to Emmie. I only met him briefly, but I believe that he is sincere in his affection for her and would not want to see her upset so near to her time.’

‘And Ma,’ Irene said with a hitch in her voice. ‘How is she? How did she take it when you turned up out of the blue?’

‘Like the wonderful mother she always was.’ Jim’s eyes were suspiciously bright and he swallowed hard, taking a second or two to compose himself. ‘She never uttered a word of reproach for the way I left. She said she understood why I ran away to sea, and that almost totally unmanned me, Renie. I had to turn my head away in case she saw the tears that came to my eyes. I would have felt less guilty if she’d given me a piece of her mind.’

‘She is a better person than I,’ Maude said in a low voice. ‘I don’t think I would have been so forgiving.’

‘No, indeed you wouldn’t.’ Martha rose stiffly to her feet and placed the bowl and what
remained
of the cloth on a side table. She poured tea into two cups, adding a tot of brandy and several lumps of sugar in the one she passed to Irene. ‘My aching bones are getting too old for this sort of thing,’ she muttered as she sank down on the nearest chair.

Irene sipped the strong sweet tea and felt the brandy sliding down her throat to warm her stomach. The effect was instant and even the pain in her ankle felt easier. ‘But how was Ma in herself, Jim? Did she seem happy to remain in Emmie’s house?’