The Passions of Bronwyn (11 page)

‘I’m just going to post this letter for Mrs Brompton,’ she told Mrs Davis, ‘I’ll be back shortly.’

After lunch Wyn and Betty carried on cleaning while Ned and William went with Mrs Brompton to see the Coroner, Dr Jenkins.  The entrance to the Coroners court was in the centre of the High Street and was in a building with the mortuaries and a post-mortem room. They saw Dr Jenkins in a small office next to the court.  He told them what had been found during the post mortem. 

‘On inspection of the body, we found a smaller skeleton inside the larger one which means the person was female and pregnant. It looks like the cause of death was child birth as there is no sign of foul play,’ he said.  ‘Why she had been left in a rug in a strong room we will probably never know,’ he added. 

‘When did she die?’ asked Mrs Brompton. 

‘It would have been at least twenty years ago,’ he told them, ‘although we can’t be absolutely sure. The only way we will ever be able to find out who she was is if you can find some record of her in the house.  The police are looking at all missing persons they have on record from that time but don’t hold out a lot of hope.  As she died of natural causes the Criminal Investigation Department are no longer involved so I’m afraid it’s over to you. If you find anything out, please let me know,’ he added.  Mrs Brompton told him she would be happy to, thanked him and left.  As they were walking back to the car she told William to tell Wyn and Betty to start reading through all the documents thoroughly. 

‘We need to find names of all the female staff around twenty years ago,’ she told him.  ‘As it’s Friday and I’ve given you the weekend off, tell them to start when they have finished their normal duties on Monday morning as Mrs Davis has been complaining that nothing is being done, the washing is piling up and the house is getting dirty.’ 

‘We’ll help them with the normal household cleaning,’ William and Ned told her, ’so that we can get to the more interesting stuff a lot quicker,’ they added.  She smiled and said, ‘I’ll leave it with you then.  Let me know what you find.  I might remember some of them.’

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

They were all up and ready to go early the next morning.  Wyn and Betty were wearing their best dresses and bonnets.  Even William and Ned looked very smart in their best clothes.  ‘Where do you want to go first?’ William asked them. 

‘I’d like to see Portobello Road,’ Ned said, ‘Mrs Davis mentioned it yesterday, she said it was a good place to go.’ 

‘Alright,’ the others agreed ‘we’ll start there.’

They went down to the station and caught a crowded train to Notting Hill.  It was quite a long journey and took a long while to get there
.
They foun
d
Portobello Road to be a long, narrow street which stretched for over two miles.  It was lined with a lot of shops, antique stalls, book stalls and even some food stalls. 

‘This is amazing,’ Wyn said in wonder.  ‘I’ve never seen anything like this before.’ 

‘Me neither,’ agreed Ned. 

They walked slowly down the stalls stopping to pick up items of interest.  William bought them all hot nuts from one of the stalls which they munched as they walked.  There was a lot of shouting especially from the venders selling fruit and vegetables.  Wyn was fascinated by everything she was seeing and hearing.  She grabbed Betty’s hand and they went skipping happily along the road looking at all the stalls with William and Ned running behind them. 

‘Hold on you two,’ William shouted, ‘we can’t keep up with you.’  Wyn and Betty stopped skipping and stood waiting for them to catch up.  They were out of breath and panting but couldn’t stop laughing. 

‘I love it,’ Wyn shouted, ‘I don’t ever want to leave.’ 

‘I’m afraid you can’t stay,’ William laughingly told her, ‘but we can come back often.  Come on, let’s find a tavern, I need a drink,’ he added. 

There was an old looking tavern on the next corner that they decided to try.  They walked into a smoky, crowded, noisy room and squeezed themselves into a corner where there was a small table with, luckily, four chairs.  William pushed through the crowds up to the bar and bought four tankards of ale.  Trying to get back to the table with the ale wasn’t easy and he had to shout to Ned to come and help him.  They were both out of breath by the time they got back. 

‘I think we’ll find somewhere else to buy something to eat,’ William said.  ‘It’s too crowded in here.  Drink this then we’ll leave.’ 

‘If we can,’ Betty put in, looking at another group of people crowding in.  They started drinking their ale but kept being bumped by everyone around them.  It was the last straw when Ned put his tankard to his mouth at the same time that a man was trying to push past and Ned ended up with most of his drink down him. 

‘That’s it,’ he exclaimed ‘I’ve had enough.  Let’s find a less crowded place to get a drink in.’ They managed to squeeze through the crowd and get out of the door.  

‘Phew!’ exclaimed Wyn, ‘I’m glad to be out of there.’ ‘Me too,’ agreed Betty. 

On the other side of the tavern was a stall selling meat pies.  The smell of them was too much for Wyn.

‘Do you want one of these?’ she asked the others.  As they looked really good and they were all starving they told her they’d love one.  Wyn bought one for each of them and they found a bench and sat down.

‘This is better,’ Betty said ‘at least we can move out here.’ 

‘We haven’t got a drink though,’ moaned William. 

‘I can see another tavern down there, we’ll try that one next,’ Ned said. 

Once they had all finished their pies William grabbed Wyn’s hand and pulled her up off the bench. 

‘Come on,’ he said, ‘I’m thirsty, let’s go see what this tavern is like.’  He opened the door and stuck his head in, ‘it doesn’t sound as busy, there’s plenty of room in here,’ he told them.  ‘I think everyone must be in the other one.  This is much better.  Come on girls,’ he said, ‘there’s lots of tables free in here, we’ll be able to relax.’ 

They walked in, found a table by the window and sat down.  Wyn gave a huge sigh of relief.  ‘That’s better,’ she said.  Ned got some drinks and they all just relaxed and chatted quietly.

After their third ale they decided that it wasn’t worth going anywhere else as they were quite happy there and decided that this is where they would spend the rest of the day.  Wyn was looking around with interest as more people were coming in now but it still wasn’t too crowded. 
She was so engrossed with the different people she was seeing, she didn’t notice that William had been talking to her. 

’Hello!’ he said, ‘are you still with me.’  

‘Sorry,’ she replied, ‘it’s just so interesting in here.  Look at that man and woman over there, they’ve been arguing for ages now.’  Just as she said that the woman jumped up out of her chair, slapped the man hard around the face and ran out before he’d realised what had happened.  He looked around sheepishly as everyone was laughing.  He just shrugged and got up to get another ale. 

‘Why isn’t he going after her?’ Wyn wondered. 

The others just laughed and Betty asked ‘don’t you know what that was about?’ 

‘I thought she was his wife,’ Wyn replied. 

‘No, not his wife,’ Betty told her, ‘I think they were arguing about her price.’ 

Wyn went very red in the face.  ‘Oh she exclaimed, I didn’t realise there were women like that in here.’ 

‘I can see at least four of them,’ William told her. 

Wyn started looking more carefully around her.  She saw the four women William was talking about.  Their faces were painted a bit more than usual but they weren’t what she was expecting for a street woman as they were clean and well dressed.  Betty saw her confused expression and told her that these were the more expensive ladies, that’s why they were so hard to spot.  It would be the more affluent men who went with them not men like the one she had just seen slapped.

After a couple more drinks they were all feeling a bit merry so decided that they had better start the journey home.  They managed to get a train more or less straight away.  It was less crowded this time and they all got a seat.  William put his arm around Wyn and pulled her close. 

‘This feels nice,’ he said as she snuggled closer to him.  He put his hand under her chin and pulled her face up so he could give her a tender kiss.  Wyn looked over at Betty and Ned who were both fast asleep.  ‘Look at those two,’ she said, ‘I think we must have worn them out.’  ‘They’ve had too much ale more like,’ he replied.  When they reached the station they had to shake the other two awake, luckily they only had a short walk back to the house.  Ned didn’t even try to talk Betty to going into his room this time as he was so sleepy, he just gave her a quick kiss and left.  Betty walked into the house and straight up to her bedroom.  William took Wyn into his arms and kissed her very passionately letting his fingers run over her nipples.  ‘See you tomorrow,’ he said.  Wyn gave him another quick kiss and walked up to her bedroom.  She got undressed and got into bed naked.  She could still feel William’s lips on hers and his touch as he had rubbed his fingers quickly over her nipples.  She let her fingers touch where he had, which made her body start to throb.  She moved her other hand further down her body to the heart of her sex.  She started moving her finger round and round while at the same time she took a nipple between her fingers and squeezed.  A feeling of pleasure went through her body and she started moving her fingers around her sex faster.  She could feel the sensations in her body intensifying until it felt like her body was exploding in pleasure.  When she came back down to earth, she felt pure contentment and drifted into sleep with a smile on her face.

The next morning they all met in the kitchen.  After Wyn and Betty had cleared away the breakfast things they all sat around the table drinking tea.  ‘Where shall we go today?’ William asked them. 

‘I want to go down Brick Lane,’ Betty told them. There’s a lot of different things to see there.’  I went once years ago and always meant to go back but never got around to it.  She went on to describe all the places she knew down the lane, ‘and when we’ve had enough of that,’ she continued, ‘there is a famous tavern in Wapping called The Prospect of Whitby.’ 

‘I’ve heard of that,’ William interrupted, ‘sounds like a good idea to me.’  He looked at Wyn and Ned.  ‘What do you two think?’ 

‘Fine by me,’ said Wyn.  

‘Yep and me,’ Ned agreed. 

‘That’s decided then,’ said William, ‘when we’ve finished our tea we’ll go.’ 

A few minutes later they were all ready to go.  ‘Have a good day,’ Mrs Davis told them as they walked out of the door. It was a lovely spring day and was quite warm with wispy white clouds in a bright blue sky.  They all felt very happy to be out. They walked down to the station where they were lucky to get a train straight away.  When they got off the train they had trouble getting through the crowds and out of the station.

‘I didn’t realise it was going to be so busy,’ said Betty.

‘Just keep walking,’ Ned told her, ‘it might be better when we get away from here.

When they finally managed to push their way through the crowds, they started walking down a long road with lots of stalls selling all kinds of interesting looking things.  Wyn and Betty couldn’t stop touching everything until Betty suddenly stopped walking and pulled Wyn into a shop selling bagels.

‘I remember these,’ she told them, ‘you’ve got to try one’. 

She walked up to the counter and asked for four salt beef bagels then handed one to the others. Wyn took a bite, ‘ooh this is lovely,’ she exclaimed, we’ve got to take some back home for later.’ 

At the top of the
Lane were the stalls selling antiques, further down there were more stalls selling clothes, furniture, bric-a-brac, books and a lot more. The market was spread out along Brick Lane and spilled out onto the side streets.  At the bottom there were some wonderful fabric stores. Wyn and Betty were still having a wonderful time looking at all the goods on sale but William and Ned were getting bored. 

‘We’ve been here for a couple of hours,’ William moaned, ‘let’s go and find this Tavern you were talking about Betty.’

‘It’s a bit of a walk,’ she warned them, ’but it’s worth it once you get there,’ 

They started walking and ended up in the dockyards of Wapping.  There were warehouses on both sides of the road and it was full of men with carts and wagons moving big bundles of goods.