Sea Mistress (11 page)

‘Have you any children, Mrs Hopkins?' He tried to sound business-like but it was difficult with her looking down at him so appealingly.

She shook her head, ‘I've no children.' She regarded him steadily for a moment, assessing him, and he met her gaze knowing that he wanted to learn more about her.

‘This is my first assignment,' he blurted the words, his intentions of appearing confident, in charge of the situation, disappearing, ‘I want to get it right, I want to do you and the deceased gentleman justice by what I write.'

‘I understand,' Ellie spoke softly. ‘Perhaps it would be best if we look at the family Bible, I think you'll find all you need in its records.'

They stood together leaning over the large open Bible resting on the table, he could smell her fragrance and was moved by it. Ellie seemed unaware of his feelings as she ran her finger along the dates written in careful hand.

‘There, see, Jubilee was born in September 1824 to Mary and Jasper Hopkins.' She turned and looked over her shoulder, her eyes were large in her pale face. ‘It seems such a long time ago.'

‘Indeed,' Daniel wrote the date in his notebook, ‘but then Mr Hopkins was a good age.'

‘I know he was past eighty but he seemed so much younger to me.' Ellie's voice quivered and on an impulse, Daniel rested his hand on her shoulder.

‘Excuse me!' The voice was sharp with scarcely concealed anger and Daniel looked towards the doorway in surprise. A man a little older than himself stood, hands bunched menacingly, staring at him as though he would like to stuff his fist down Daniel's throat.

‘Yes?' Daniel's voice was equally sharp, this man stank of the tan pits, he was clearly a working man, someone of no account. Daniel didn't consider himself snobbish in any way but it was impertinent for a rough labourer to intrude on a private discussion and to so address himself to a visitor invited in by the mistress of the house.

‘Matthew,' Ellie spoke clearly, ‘when I want you to come into my front parlour I will invite you. What is it?'

‘I just wondered if you were going to work in the grinding house today, that's all,' the man's tone had become sullen. ‘I don't know if I should put one of the men in there with Boyo, I haven't had any instructions from you.'

Daniel forced himself to remain calm, how dare this upstart address the lady of the house in such familiar terms?

‘Perhaps you should know your place,' he found himself saying. ‘Mrs Hopkins is in no mood to work anywhere, her husband is not yet buried, have some respect man.'

Matthew's face grew red, he recognized a man of quality when he saw one, knew a tone of authority when he heard it and yet his pride had taken a knock and that was something he couldn't permit.

‘I'm Matthew Hewson, shareholder in this business, I have a say in how the place runs.' Why was he explaining himself to this young sprog? Yet Matthew felt compelled to make his position clear.

‘In that case you should take decisions yourself and spare Mrs Hopkins any worries.' This was stating an incontrovertible fact and Matthew knew it. He twisted his cap in his hands and backed towards the door.

‘I'll speak to you later,' Ellie said, her voice giving nothing away. ‘For now, put someone else in with Boyo, we'll sort it out when I've had time to think.'

With one last glare in Daniel's direction, the man left the room and Ellie's shoulders sagged.

‘You do not care for that man, shareholder or not,' Daniel spoke before he had time to think and Ellie looked at him, her expression telling him that he was right. She shrugged.

‘My husband liked Matthew, he thought I'd be cared for by him, thought he would be married before long. Jubilee imagined that what he was doing was for the best.' She sank into a chair. ‘But Matthew is a single man, it seems he has no intention of getting married in the foreseeable future. It's not right he and I should be thrown into close proximity, people are bound to talk, to draw the wrong conclusions.'

Daniel sat opposite her, his writing forgotten. ‘Surely that thought would have occurred to your husband, too?'

Ellie shook her head. ‘I think Jubilee felt he was invincible. In any case, Matthew lied to him, told him he was about to be married. Jubilee did his best for me.'

‘Well you shouldn't be alone with the man. You have a maid?' Daniel said though looking round at the sparsely furnished room, he could scarcely believe a maid had worked here for some time, the dust lay thickly on the good furniture, the whole room held an air of neglect as though the occupants of the house barely used it.

‘No,' Ellie looked at her hands, ‘we have no money for such luxuries as maids.'

‘Surely the business must be profitable,' Daniel felt obliged to go on, ‘from what I understand, Mr Hopkins had a substantial amount of capital.'

‘I think you have been misinformed. Though Jubilee will have left me well provided for, he didn't have a fortune, I'm sure.'

‘My editor . . .' Daniel stopped speaking, this really was none of his business. There was one thing, however, he felt he must say. ‘Employ a companion, a lady who will stay here with you, a needy but respectable widow who like yourself has been left alone unprotected. I think you'll find you have more money than you realize.'

‘Perhaps,' Ellie said doubtfully, ‘and I see that it would preserve my husband's good name but . . .' She shrugged.

‘Your own good name needs protecting, I think you'll find people are only too ready to talk about a woman alone, especially a young and beautiful one like you.'

Ellie rose suddenly and moved to the door. ‘Thank you for your interest but if I can't help you any further then I'll say good day to you.'

He looked at her steadily for a moment, she spoke like a lady, she had clearly been well brought up and yet her husband had allowed her to work like a common labourer, it was all very strange.

He picked up his hat. ‘I think it will suffice for now,' he said but there was regret in his voice. ‘I offer my condolences on your loss, Mrs Hopkins, and my sincere hope that you will find a suitable companion as soon as possible.'

As Daniel left the house, the stench from the tannery seemed to permeate the very clothes he was wearing. How people and especially a lady as delicate as Mrs Hopkins could live in such an environment, he failed to comprehend.

As he walked away from the tan yard, he was aware of Hewson watching him, every line of his body suggesting aggression. That was the way all labourers handled matters, with brute force. Daniel was surprised that the man had been given any part of the business let alone been made a shareholder.

Whatever Ellie believed to the contrary, there was a substantial amount of money coming to her. Arian Smale had her contacts and they were all a hundred per cent solid, if she said Jubilee Hopkins was a man of wealth then it was so.

Still, he must remind himself it was none of his business, he'd come here to do a job, that was all. Yet he couldn't rid himself of the vision of young Mrs Hopkins, her pale face looking up into his as though, silently, she was asking for his help.

Paul's behaviour, since the scene on the docks, had improved somewhat. He sat now in the chair at the opposite side of the fire from Bridie, ostensibly reading his charts, though Bridie doubted his attention was fully on them because the light from the window had grown rather too dim to read by.

A coal shifted in the grate and Paul looked up and caught Bridie's eye. He smiled and rolled the charts neatly before tying them with a ribbon.

‘I'm neglecting my lovely wife,' he said. ‘Come here and sit on my knee, let me make a fuss of you.'

Even as she wondered what he was up to, she obeyed him. She found her husband as fascinating as the day she first met him. It seemed a long time ago and yet she remembered every detail of it.

‘It was Sarah Frogmore who brought us together, do you remember, Paul?' She smoothed back his hair. ‘I fell in love with you the moment I saw you, at her supper party, did you realize that?'

Paul kissed her lightly. ‘Of course and for my part I fell in love with your glorious red hair.'

Bridie felt inordinately pleased, she and Paul had become like any other married couple, she supposed, taking each other for granted. Well she had learned her lesson, she would make sure she looked after her husband in future. She was well aware of his need for flattery. In that he was like a small boy, desiring approbation. And, as a precaution against any more temptations, she would take pains to see that women the like of Ellie Hopkins didn't get their claws into Paul. Even if she came to the office, Elias had instructions to turn her away. Paul was her husband, the father of her sons and she would guard what was hers with her life if need be.

For a moment hate filled her as she thought of Paul walking along the docks side by side with that girl in her rough working clothes, with her red, chapped hands. Oh, she might speak very nicely but she quite clearly was no lady, hadn't she been cast out by her own family? But then, that was the sort men went for. Oh, they wouldn't want her in their homes, rearing their children, decidedly not, but in between the sheets was a different matter entirely. Men were ruled by their sexual needs and it was as well for a wife to recognize it.

‘You're very silent, suddenly, what are you thinking?' Paul nuzzled her neck, his lips warm. Bridie was too clever to reveal her true thoughts.

‘Remembering happy times when we were in the first flush of our love.' Then she hadn't really known him, hadn't realized that he would be tempted to stray. And yet, there had been something that cautioned her, an innate feeling that she must keep the reins of the business her father had left her firmly in her own hands.

‘We are still in the first flush of love, my sweet, don't be such an old cynic.'

Was she cynical? Perhaps so, and perhaps it was just as well, that way there wouldn't be any more nasty surprises coming her way. But for now she would bask in the warmth of his attention, there weren't many such moments any more and it was just as well to make the most of them when they came.

The following week, Paul shipped out with the
Marie Clare
on a trip across to Ireland. He would be away only a few days and Bridie intended to make the most of the time at her disposal. She had loads to oversee, cargos to direct to the Indies and to China, she must build up her fortune for her own sake and for that of her sons.

She missed the usual contact with her sons, they were in the hands of their strict tutor now and she scarcely ever saw them. They were being prepared for boarding school and, though it would hurt her to send them away, it was something she recognized needed to be done.

She took up
The Swansea Times
, studied the tide tables and saw to her relief that by now the tide would be out and any shipping would be well out into the channel. That distanced Paul from any tempting entanglements, at least for a time.

Bridie turned the pages of the broadsheet and stopped at the obituaries. There, plainly written was an account of the unremarkable life of one Jubilee Hopkins. The name was enough to make Bridie feel sick. So the whore was widowed now. Bridie read on and suddenly whistled inelegantly through her teeth as she read the amount of the estate left by Hopkins. It was sizeable indeed, who would think that a tannery, however successful would yield such an income?

But wait, the man had been endowed with a huge inheritance by his father, left a fortune which he had, apparently, salted away. And now Jubilee Hopkins was dead and that hussy, that fancy piece he'd married in his dotage was a very rich widow.

Bridie resisted the urge to crush the paper between her hands, she hated Ellie Hopkins with every fibre of her being. She had sold herself to an old man and now she had designs on a younger man, on Bridie's husband. Why else would the whore have been down at the docks that day, walking side by side as bold as a new penny piece with Paul?

Bridie clenched her hands into tight fists. She knew the type, mealy-mouthed, innocent-eyed monsters who prayed on decent men. Well Ellie Hopkins had made an enemy, and one day, she would regret it.

‘But I can't be rich.' Ellie looked at the lawyer as he sat in her sun-filled parlour. ‘Jubilee has never said anything about owning a fortune.'

‘I expect he had his reasons.' Mr Telforth had been a contemporary of Jubilee Hopkins, had known him since childhood, knew a great deal about him, perhaps too much. He coughed and returned his attention to the matter in hand.

‘You may sell the tannery but only when you have worked it for a year after Jubilee's death. In the meantime, might I suggest you employ the services of a housekeeper and a maid.' He looked round him with some distaste. ‘Perhaps you could refurbish the house, I can release you enough funds for anything you might require.'

‘Yes, I should have someone, here, it's been suggested to me already.' Ellie spoke almost absently and Bernard Telforth thought he recognized the signs of real grief in the young lady. Perhaps Jubilee had not been such a foolish old man after all.

‘You will naturally observe the usual year of mourning.' He smiled at her and she gave him the full blast of her beautiful eyes; she was a sweet, innocent young thing, no wonder Jubilee thought so highly of her.

‘You must beware of fortune hunters and the like.' He realized he sounded grave. ‘Jubilee asked me to keep an eye on you, he had your interests at heart my dear.'

‘Yes, I can see that.' Ellie bit her lip and her eyes filled with tears and old as he was, Bernard Telforth could feel the attraction old Jubilee must have felt. What a great pity his friend could not get heirs by this girl, just think what children would have been spawned from this delicious creature.