The Constant Heart (26 page)

'I know, and I'm sorry. But you really shouldn't listen at keyholes.'

'And how else am I to know what's going on in this house?'

'It doesn't matter now. I must find out what's happening.' Rosina made for the door but Bertha jumped up with amazing agility for a big woman, and she barred her way.

'Leave it to Harry. Ain't you just got yourself engaged to him? Wait until you got that golden wedding band on your finger afore you begin setting him to rights.'

In spite of everything, Rosina could not suppress a gurgle of laughter. 'Bebe, you are a wicked woman.'

'No, ducks. I'm just sensible and I knows what men are like. You got to handle them right if you wants them to do as you say.'

'I just want Walter to be treated fairly.'

'If he ain't guilty, then he's got nothing to worry about.' Bertha put her arm around Rosina's shoulders. 'If you marry young Gostellow you'll save us all from the workhouse.

You won't get another chance like this, Rosie. There's not many girls from Black Eagle Wharf what could do better, not even young Susan Barnum.'

The mention of Sukey's name sent a cold shudder down Rosina's spine. Sukey had been sweet on Harry: she would not take kindly to the news of the engagement. If only there was a way to see her before she heard about it from someone else.

'That's a good girl,' Bertha said, stroking Rosina's cheek. 'I knew you'd see sense, just as your mama did all those years ago.'

Rosina stared at her, momentarily forgetting everything else. 'What do you mean?'

'I – er – well, nothing.'

'You can't leave it like that. Tell me what you meant, Bebe.'

Bertha slumped down on a chair with a sigh. 'I suppose it doesn't matter if I tell you now. It was a long time ago.'

'Tell me what?'

'Well, your mama was a lovely girl, sweet and good-natured, but she liked her own way. She fell head over heels in love with a man, and it was almost the ruin of her.'

'Do you mean Captain Barnum? Papa has told me about him, but he didn't say that she loved him.'

Bertha nodded. 'She really did love him, Rosie. Oh, I know your papa likes to believe that Ham Barnum was completely to blame, but I think he genuinely loved her too. They were going to elope, but it all went wrong.'

'But Papa said that he was entirely to blame.'

'It was put about, by your grandpa, that Ham was the villain of the piece. That he took Ellie to Southend for his own pleasure, not caring about her reputation. But that wasn't quite true. Your ma was desperate to be with him, and she didn't care a jot for what other people thought.'

'And Captain Barnum really loved her?'

'In my opinion, yes. From what I saw then I'd say he was as much in love as any man could be. Anyway, they went off together telling everyone it was just a day trip. When they didn't return that evening, your grandpa and your dad went chasing after them, and they brought poor Ellie home next day in disgrace. Ham said he wanted to make an honest woman of her. Your grandpa didn't have much option but to agree, and the wedding was all set. Then it turned out that Ham was married after all. You know the rest.'

Rosina closed her eyes, trying to imagine her mother as a young woman hopelessly in love with the wrong man. It was not a difficult leap of imagination. 'So she married my papa.'

'Your pa had loved her for a long time, but she only had eyes for Ham. She was broken-hearted when she discovered the truth. I don't think she cared what happened to her then, but she knew that her reputation was ruined. She didn't have much of a choice but to accept your pa.'

'And my grandfather agreed to the match?'

'The scandal was out. Your grandpa would never have agreed to it in normal circumstances, but he knew very well that no respectable man would want to marry poor Ellie. I think it broke his heart to see his one and only daughter marry beneath her, but I think, in the end, she was happy enough with your pa.'

'And she died giving birth to me. I killed my poor mamma.'

Bertha grasped her hands so tightly that Rosina felt her knuckles crack. 'Don't never say that. Your ma died of the milk fever just a few days after you was born, but that weren't no fault of yours, and she loved you with all her heart. Do you know the first thing she said when she saw you? No, of course you don't. Well, she took one look at your little red face, and she said, "Oh, my beautiful little rose." She looks up at me with tears in her eyes and smiles. I never seen her so happy. "That's what we'll call her, Bertha," she says. "My little Rose. I'll call her Rosina after my grandmother, God rest her soul."' Bertha's eyes filled with tears and her voice broke on a sob.

Rosina was crying too, her heart wrung out with sympathy for the star-crossed lovers, and for her own lost love. He had called her his beautiful rose, using the same words that her mother had spoken all those years ago. The coincidence was almost too painful to bear. She laid her head against Bertha's shoulder and sobbed.

'What's wrong? What's happened?' Caddie rushed into the kitchen and fell down on her knees beside them. 'Why are you crying?'

Rosina wiped her eyes on the back of her hand. She rose unsteadily to her feet. 'It's all right, Caddie. Nothing for you to worry about. Bebe was just telling me about my mother. You see, I never knew her. And now I'm about to be married, Bertha was just telling me things I didn't know before.'

'Married?' Caddie's dull eyes lit with enthusiasm. 'You dark horse, Rosie. You never said nothing about getting married.'

Bertha wiped her eyes on the corner of her apron. 'Well, you know now. Miss Rosina is going to marry Mr Harry Gostellow. She's going to be a lady, so you be respectful, Caddie.'

'Bebe, no! Don't say things like that to Caddie. Nothing is going to change. We'll still be a family, and I'll be able to take care of you all.'

'I knew it was too good to last.' Caddie's face crumpled and tears ran down her cheeks. 'You'll marry him and me and the nippers will be cast out on the streets. It'll be the workhouse for us.'

'No one is going to the workhouse,' Rosina said firmly, rising to her feet. 'Not you, nor your babies, do you hear me, Caddie? If the Gostellows won't look after my family, then I won't marry their son.' She took a deep breath. Caddie and Bertha were staring at her open-mouthed. She tossed her head. 'I mean what I say and I'm going to begin by telling Harry so.' She left the room determined to speak firmly to him. She was still seething inwardly about his cavalier treatment of Walter, and that was another matter on which she meant to challenge him.

The office door was open but Walter was nowhere to be seen. Harry was standing behind the desk rifling through a sheaf of papers.

'Where is he?' Rosina demanded. 'And what are you doing, Harry? You've no right to go through my father's papers.'

'Sweetheart, I've just earned every right to take an interest in the company. Without my financial help, the company does not exist. Your father will be bankrupt in days if I don't step in and pay a few of these outstanding accounts.'

She felt her confidence dissipating like morning mist over the river. 'Outstanding accounts?'

'Sailmakers, chandlers, sackmakers – the list is almost endless. It seems that your friend Walter has been juggling their accounts for months; paying off a bit here and there, but never settling the whole amount. I hope that is enough to convince you of his dishonesty.'

'Th-there must be some other explanation, Harry. Did you give Walter a chance to defend himself?'

He came out from behind the desk and laid his hands on her shoulders. 'My darling, your loyalty is touching, but misplaced. Now, we'll have no more talk about Walter Brown. I want you to fetch your bonnet and shawl, and we'll go to Hatton Garden to buy that diamond ring I promised you.'

'Bother diamonds!' Rosina cried angrily. 'You're not my husband yet, Harry. And you had no right to treat Walter like a common criminal.'

'But he is a common criminal, my love.'

'That is unjust and untrue.' She turned on her heel and made to leave the room, but Harry caught her by the arm.

'Where are you going?'

She shook free from his grasp. 'I'm going to right a terrible wrong.'

'Rosina, I forbid you to go chasing after that person.'

Picking up her skirts, Rosina ran from the office and out through the open front door. She glanced over her shoulder to see if Harry was following her, but he had stopped in the doorway with a look of sheer bafflement on his face. 'If you don't come back at once, I won't take you to choose a ring.'

His voice had the plaintive sound of a seagull mewing overhead. Rosina was too angry and upset to take any notice. Diamond rings seemed unimportant at this moment. A great injustice had been done and she meant to address it as best she could. She slowed her pace as she came to the end of Black Eagle Wharf, aware that she was receiving curious looks from the dockers who were unloading a barge loaded with barrels. Her hair had escaped from the confines of the chignon at the nape of her neck, and it fell in dark skeins around her shoulders. She realised that she must look a strange sight, wandering the wharves unaccompanied and dishevelled like a common street woman. She squared her shoulders and quickened her pace, heading towards Angel Court, where she knew that Walter had lodgings. She had only a vague idea of its location, but she knew that it was somewhere between the High Street and Great Hermitage Street.

The alleyways and courts were dark, dingy places where she would never normally have ventured on her own, but she was driven by her need to speak to Walter. In this maze of narrow canyons between soot-blackened warehouses and crumbling tenements, the people lived in a twilight world where the sun's rays were unable to penetrate, even at midday. Rosina almost tripped over the feet of a man who was sprawled in a doorway, either dead drunk, or he could have been a genuine corpse; she did not stop to find out. She hurried on, dodging the clutching fingers of hollow-eyed street urchins, whose ragged clothes barely covered their skeletal frames. She had no money, but she knew they would have torn the clothes from her back if she had stopped to speak to them. They hunted in packs, like wolf cubs, waiting to attack a drunken sailor or a person stupefied by opium. Rosina knew that Bertha and her papa had done their best to shelter her from the ugly truths that lurked in the shadows, and, even though she had seen much of the sordid side of life when growing up in the Ratcliff Highway, she was shocked by what she now saw, and not a little frightened.

She broke into a run, her breath torn from her in ragged sobs, as a feral dog leapt out of a doorway barking ferociously and baring its teeth. The stench of overflowing privies and unwashed bodies was making her feel sick, and she slipped and slid on the detritus underfoot. Her heart was beating so fast that she was deafened by the blood pounding in her ears, but she had come too far to turn back. Just as she thought that she was completely lost and would never find her way out of this terrible place, she saw the name 'Angel Court' scrawled in red paint on a wooden sign, hanging by a single nail. She stopped, holding her side as a painful stitch made her double over, gasping for breath. It was then that she realised she had come on a fruitless mission: she had been so fired with righteous indignation that she had not given a thought to Walter's address, other than that he lived in Angel Court. But she could not go home without seeing him. Rosina forced her feet to take her into the dark alley. The tall, blank-eyed buildings loomed above her. She thought she saw movements in the shadows, but she could not be sure if it was her imagination or whether danger lurked behind every shuttered window and closed door. The narrow court opened into a cobbled square lined with seemingly derelict houses. The filthy window-panes were cracked or broken into jagged shards. Paint peeled in scabby strips from woodwork and the square was criss-crossed with washing lines, where ragged garments hung liked tattered pennants. Rosina shuddered. 'Walter.' She murmured his name and the sound echoed round the square. She raised her voice. 'Walter.' She stifled a gasp of fear as a man lurched out of the shadows. 'Walter!' Her voice rose to a scream.