Cinderella Sister (23 page)

He glanced down at the white china coffee pot and matching cups and saucers. ‘Some sugar perhaps, Mary. Or is Mrs Lovelace economising again?’

Mary stared up at him devotedly but blankly. ‘I dunno what econo-whatever you said it was is, sir.’

‘Never mind,’ Gabriel said, setting the tray down on a spindly mahogany tea table. ‘I’m sure we can do without.’

Mary cast a curious sidelong glance at Lily. ‘Yes, sir.’

‘That will be all then, thank you.’ Gabriel held the coffee pot poised over a cup. ‘You may go, Mary.’

She backed towards the doorway, blushing and grinning until she very nearly lost her footing as she encountered a stubborn chair. She bobbed another curtsey and fled from the room.

Lily held back her laughter until the door had closed on the unfortunate maid. ‘She’s gone spoons on you, Gabriel.’

He smiled modestly. ‘I have that effect on all women, especially young girls fresh from the country like young Mary.’

‘She’ll learn,’ Lily said, chuckling. ‘One day she’ll
see through your boyish charm and she’ll fall in love with the milkman or the butcher’s boy.’

‘I certainly hope so. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for breaking a young maiden’s heart.’ He held her gaze briefly as he handed her a cup of coffee. ‘I’m sorry about the absence of sugar.’

‘It’s a luxury we often go without nowadays.’ She bit her lip, wishing that she had held her tongue. She had not come here for sympathy or to underline their impoverished state. She changed the subject. ‘I must go soon. No one knows that I came here today and I don’t want them to find out.’

‘There’s something else bothering you, I can tell. You can trust me, Lily.’

She sipped her coffee, giving herself time to think. ‘That reporter, the one who wrote about the fire.’

Gabriel angled his head. ‘Lily in the Flames.’

‘Yes, that’s the one. His name is Smith, Christian Smith, although he doesn’t behave in a very Christian way.’

‘What’s he done? If he’s pestering you, Lily …’

The coffee cup jiggled on its saucer as her hand trembled. ‘Hear me out, please, Gabriel.’

‘I’m sorry, but I seem to remember sending him off with a flea in his ear.’

‘Yes, you did, but he won’t take no for an answer. He’s determined to ruin my family and I don’t know what to do.’

‘Ruin you? I don’t understand. You’d better start at the beginning.’

Placing her cup and saucer back on the tray, Lily struggled to regain her composure. She took a deep
breath and began at the point when Christian had waylaid her in the snowstorm. Gabriel listened attentively. ‘You must be careful, Lily,’ he said when she came to the end of her narrative. ‘Whatever you tell this man will be twisted to suit his own ends. You don’t have to speak to him at all.’

‘But if I refuse to cooperate he says he will write his story anyway, and he’ll say awful things about my grandpa. I can’t let him do that, and I daren’t tell Matt or Mark because they’ll be furious with me for disobeying them and it’s all my fault anyway.’ She bit back a sob and was fumbling for a handkerchief when Gabriel produced one from his pocket. He pressed it into her hand.

‘How is it your fault? You’ve done nothing wrong.’

She blew her nose in the clean white cotton that smelt of expensive soap with a hint of gentlemen’s spicy cologne. ‘I h-have,’ she sobbed, unable to stem the flow of tears. ‘I’ve disobeyed my brothers and Nell by going out sketching and painting when I should have been working, and if I’d been doing what I should have then I wouldn’t have tripped over you on the quay wall.’ She mopped her eyes and sniffed as she struggled to control her emotions.

‘Well, I for one am very glad that we met and it could have happened in any of a hundred different ways. Besides which, Lily, you are a grown woman, not a little girl. You don’t have to do everything your family says. In fact I truly believe that you were right in defying their ridiculous edict.’ He took her hand and held it in a firm grasp. ‘You have talent and it would be a sin to
deny that gift. You should nurture it, my dear girl, and not turn yourself into a drudge just to please your brothers and sisters. You are a person in your own right and you must always remember that.’

She met his earnest gaze with a reluctant smile. ‘I love my brothers, especially Luke, but I wish Matt and Mark were more like you, Gabriel. I would be proud to have you as a brother.’

He pulled a face as he released her hand. ‘I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or not, but I’ll take it as one. I’m more used to young ladies swooning at my feet than telling me I’m like a brother to them.’

His comic expression made her laugh and she shook her head. ‘Now you’re teasing me.’

‘At least I’ve made you smile.’

‘Yes, and I feel better for telling you my problems, but it’s something I have to sort out for myself.’ She rose to her feet, and realising that she was still clutching his hanky she offered it to him, but he shook his head.

‘Keep it, I’ve got a dozen of the wretched things. I have an elderly aunt who gives them to me each year on my birthday.’

Lily smiled and tucked it away in her reticule. ‘Thank you for listening so patiently but I really must go. It’s a long walk to Cock Hill.’

He rose to his feet and went to the window. ‘It’s snowing again. You can’t walk home in this, Lily. I’ll go out and find a cab.’ He paused, his attention seemingly caught by something on the far side of the street. ‘Lily, come here. Is that who I think it is?’

‘Oh no,’ Lily gasped. ‘It’s that dreadful man. He must have followed me here.’

‘I’ll sort him out,’ Gabriel said angrily. ‘Wait here, I won’t be long.’

She caught him by the hand. ‘No, please don’t go out there. You’ll only make things worse. He’s a nasty, horrible person and means to ruin my family.’

Gabriel’s eyes twinkled with merriment. ‘I’m not afraid of nasty men and you mustn’t be either. I’m your surrogate brother, don’t forget, Lily, and brothers should protect their sisters. I don’t speak from experience as I was an only child, but I won’t allow him to upset you.’

‘It’s not for myself that I’m worried,’ she insisted. ‘Christian Smith wants to get his own back on my grandpa, and I truly believe he’ll stop at nothing. Now I’ve made things worse by coming here and the next thing you know he’ll be paying a call on Ma and your father.’

‘My dear girl, they’re used to dealing with the gentlemen of the press. They thrive on publicity because it sells paintings and they revel in being labelled bohemians.’

‘I think he’s seen us,’ Lily said, hiding behind Gabriel
as Christian squinted at them through the driving snow. He made a move to cross the road and she tugged at Gabriel’s arm. ‘He’s coming this way. What shall I do?’

‘Keep calm and we’ll slip out through the back door.’ Gabriel propelled her gently towards the doorway and out into the hall. Taking her cloak from the hallstand he wrapped it around her shoulders. ‘I’ll see you home, Lily. I’m not letting you do this alone.’ He snatched a greatcoat from its peg and shrugged it on. He took his hat and gloves and an umbrella, brandishing it with a boyish grin. ‘If all else fails I’ll impale the wretched fellow on the end of my gamp.’

Lily giggled in spite of her jangled nerves. ‘That I would like to see.’

He took her by the arm. ‘Come on then, Miss Larkin. Forward into battle, Christian soldiers go.’

‘You are funny,’ Lily said, giggling.

‘Yes, I’m a laugh a minute. No one takes me seriously.’ He led her through the house and down the back stairs, where at the end of a long narrow passageway a door opened into a small back garden. The sound of horses neighing and the smell of the stables emanated from the mews on the other side of a high brick wall, and Lily could see the roof of a private carriage with a coachman perched on the driver’s seat. This, she thought, was a totally different place to the rough and tumble of Cock Hill. She clung to Gabriel’s arm as they made their way carefully across the snow-covered grass, leaving a tell-tale trail of footprints like ugly blemishes on an otherwise porcelain complexion. He opened the gate. ‘We’ll cut through
the back alleys. We’ll be sure to find a cab in Tottenham Court Road.’

She hesitated, biting her lip. ‘I think I’d rather walk.’

‘It’s still snowing. You’ll be soaked to the skin and frozen before you’ve got halfway home.’

She did not want to admit that she could not afford the cab fare and she shook her head. ‘Even so …’

‘Naturally I’m coming with you. I said I’d see you safely home and I wouldn’t dream of asking a lady to pay the cabby. It would make me look like a gigolo.’

Tempted almost irresistibly by the prospect of a comfortable ride in a hansom, Lily had a vision of Matt’s face if she arrived home accompanied by Gabriel. Alone she might manage to slip into the building unnoticed, but stepping out of a cab would draw attention to herself and her companion. She realised that Gabriel was watching her intently but she still could not bring herself to admit the truth. ‘I wouldn’t want to risk your reputation,’ she said, forcing her cold lips into a smile. ‘Besides which I love the snow, and walking is good for the complexion.’

‘Very well, I can’t force you to come for a carriage ride with me, but I hope you’re wearing a stout pair of boots.’

‘Yes, I’m perfectly fine.’ She was not going to admit that every step she took let in a little more icy water through gaping holes in the soles of her boots. She had intended to take them to the cobbler but there had simply been too much to do since their hasty departure from the dockmaster’s house. ‘Point me
in the right direction, and I’ll be home in no time at all.’

‘I’ll walk with you part of the way,’ he said firmly. ‘I need some fresh air.’ He settled his top hat on his head with a firm pat and tucked her hand in the crook of his arm. He frowned. ‘Where are your gloves, Lily? Did you leave them in my lodgings?’

‘I forgot to wear any.’ She omitted to say that Molly had borrowed her one and only pair and had not returned them.

He slipped off his fine kid gloves and slipped them over her fingers. ‘My dear little sister, you need a nanny to look after you.’

Lily looked at her small hand swamped by the soft black leather and she laughed. ‘I need a nanny with much smaller hands than yours.’

He peeled off his other glove and gave it to her. ‘Never mind how it looks. You must look after those talented fingers, Lily. An artist is like a concert pianist when it comes to their hands.’

‘An artist?’ She looked up at him in amazement. ‘Do you really think I’m good enough to warrant that title?’

He held her arm as they walked along the snowy pavements. ‘I think that given the right tuition you could be an even better painter than your mother, and she is well respected in the art world.’

‘Is she?’ Lily cast him a sideways glance. ‘I don’t know, you see. No one ever speaks of her at home and anyway we don’t move in those circles. Ma’s family was said to be a cut above the Larkins, but they’d lost all their money when they fled from France. Grandpa
said she was lucky to have married a man like Pa, who was prepared to work hard to keep his wife and children, but it didn’t seem to be enough for her.’

Gabriel squeezed her fingers. ‘That’s just the way it goes sometimes, Lily. My parents were ill-matched like so many others who are forced to stay together either by convention or necessity. It makes me wary of entering into the marriage stakes. I’ve seen too much misery caused by that particular institution.’

Lily slipped and almost lost her footing on a particularly icy patch and she would have fallen if Gabriel had not caught her round the waist. He stopped, peering into the driving snow. ‘This is ridiculous. I’m hailing a cab whether you like it or not. You’ll break an arm or a leg if you try to walk all the way home in a snowstorm.’ He raised his hand to attract the attention of a cabby but there was a passenger on board and the hansom tooled past at a surprisingly brisk pace considering the state of the road.

‘There’s no need really,’ Lily said anxiously. ‘I can find my way perfectly well and I must get home before I’m missed.’

‘It must have taken you an hour or more to walk here. Didn’t you tell anyone you were going out?’

‘No, because they would have stopped me. It’s taken me much longer than I thought it would, which makes it all the more important for me to leave now.’

‘If you think I’m going to let you walk all that way in weather like this, then you’re mistaken.’ Gabriel hailed another cab and this one also drove past them. ‘This is madness. Your teeth are chattering nineteen to
the dozen and your nose is turning blue.’ Without waiting for an answer he took her by the hand, walking on at a brisk pace.

‘Where are we going?’ Lily demanded breathlessly. ‘Gabriel, I must go home.’

‘You’ll die of pneumonia if we don’t get you dry and warm. It’s not far to go and we’ll kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.’

Breathless and having to concentrate on keeping upright in the slippery conditions, Lily had no alternative but to allow him to lead her through the streets. The snow was falling in earnest now, obliterating landmarks and swirling around them in dizzying circles increasing in intensity as a wind roared in with the tide. ‘Where are we going, Gabriel? I don’t recognise this place.’

‘Save your breath, Lily, we’re almost there.’ He led her on for another hundred yards or so until he came to a halt outside one of the tall terraced houses in a well-to-do street. He knocked on the door, hooking his arm protectively around her shoulders in an attempt to shield her from the blizzard that howled around the houses like a screaming banshee.

‘Who lives here?’ Lily asked tentatively, although even before the door opened she knew the answer.

‘Good day, Mr Gabriel.’ A prim housemaid bobbed a curtsey, but her formal tone belied the cheeky grin on her pert face. ‘Come in, sir.’

Ushering Lily in before him, Gabriel stepped into the entrance hall. ‘Are they at home, Prissy?’

‘Yes, sir. Shall I tell them you’re here?’

‘No, we’ll surprise them.’ Gabriel divested himself of his hat and greatcoat, placing them in the maid’s outstretched hands. He helped Lily off with her cloak, taking his gloves from her cold fingers with a smile. ‘Don’t be afraid, little sister. They won’t bite you.’