The Passions of Bronwyn (12 page)

‘This is a bit rough,’ Ned commented,

Just keep on walking,’ replied Betty, ‘it’s just over there,’ 

‘They looked in the direction she was pointing and saw the tavern. Wyn was relieved as she was getting tired. 

They could see The Prospect of Whitby in front of them. 

‘Looks alright,’ said William, ‘let’s go in and find out.’ 

They walked in and looked around them. The landlord who served them saw their interest.

‘It’s
an old and historic tavern that was formerly known as the Devil’s
Tavern on account of its dubious reputation,’ he told them.  ‘Unfortunately all that’s left from the building’s earliest period, is the 400 year old stone floor. In former times it was a meeting place for sailors, smugglers, cut-throats and footpads.’

‘What a wonderful story’ said Wyn.

‘That’s not all,’ continued the Landlord.  ‘In the 17th century, it became the tavern chosen by the hanging Judge Jeffreys as he lived nearby, there’s a noose hanging by a window over there commemorating him.  Even Charles Dickens and Samuel Pepys are known to have drunk here. There was a fire here that century and the tavern was rebuilt and renamed The Prospect of Whitby.’

Ned had stopped listening as he’d had enough of the history lesson

‘I’ve started losing the will to live,’ he whispered, ‘I don’t want a history lesson, I just want a drink, let’s just sit down and have a drink.’ 

Wyn thanked the Landlord then they walked to the back of the tavern and sat down at a table overlooking the river.  Wyn and Betty looked out of the window at all the activity on the river.  It was very busy with boats and barges taking people and goods up and down.  There was a lot of shouting and Wyn even heard singing coming from the closest barge.  She saw a woman doing her washing in a bucket on the deck.  She was the one singing. 

‘This is amazing,’ she said, ‘they are living their whole life on a boat.  I’ve never seen anything like it.’

They all jumped as the woman suddenly stopped singing and shouted at someone else on the boat.  ‘What are you doing? You stupid man’.

Wyn and Betty looked in the direction of the person she was shouting at.  They were shocked to see a man, who was obviously drunk, staggering onto the deck totally naked.  He leered suggestively at her and started touching himself.

‘Get your clothes back on you drunken old sod’ she screamed at him.  ‘You’ll be arrested if you’re not careful,’

She walked over to him and pushed him back inside.  There was a loud thud as he landed on his back in the boat. 

‘I think it’s just as well that we can’t hear what he’s saying now,’ laughed Betty.

The woman had followed him down into the boat and a few minutes later the boat started to rock from side to side.

‘Oh my!’ exclaimed Betty with a knowing look on her face, I wonder what could be happening now.’

Wyn, William and Ned couldn’t reply.  They were all laughing too much.

‘Oh my said Betty when she had finally pulled herself together, ‘I’ve never seen anything quite like that before.’

‘Me neither agreed Ned.  ‘You don’t get a lot of that in the country.’

‘No, just murder, kidnapping and attempted rape.’  laughed William giving Ned a shove.

Ned just smiled sheepishly but didn’t reply.

They were all quite sad when it was time to leave as they didn’t know when they would next have time off.  They walked slowly back through the dockyards, fighting their way through the Dockers who had now finished work and were all on their way to the taverns around the docks.  There were the sounds of women from the nearby flats shouting at each other and their grubby looking children who were playing in the street.  William was holding on tight to Wyn’s hand so he didn’t lose her and Ned was doing the same with Betty.  When they finally got through, it was getting dark and they still had quite a way to go to get to the station.  ‘We’d better walk a bit faster,’ William said, 'we need to get the train.’  When they finally got to the station it was completely dark and they were very out of breath.  They had to wait awhile for a train and were all very relieved when they finally got home.  Ned and Betty were whispering by the kitchen door and when William and Wyn were otherwise occupied, they slipped away to Ned’s room over the garage.  Wyn finally realised Betty was no longer by the door and said to William that she must have already gone in. 

‘Come on then,’ William said, let’s go in, it’s getting a bit chilly out here.’  They walked into the kitchen but it was empty. 

‘She must have already gone to bed,’ Wyn told him. 

‘Good,’ he replied, ‘we’re alone at last.’  He pulled her towards him and put his lips on hers.  She opened her mouth to let his tongue in and they started kissing with more passion.  He slipped her shawl off her shoulders and moved his hand slowly over her body.  She moaned as his hand moved up inside her skirt, up further into her knickers until it found her sex.  He started moving his fingers round and round making her moan in pleasure.  He took her hand and put it on to his very erect member.  Do it he urged her, make me come, please do it, I need you.  He moaned as Wyn took him into her hand and started moving it up and down faster and faster.  Ooh that’s it he said, oh yes that’s it.  As she moved her hand harder and faster he was moving his finger the same way.  They both started to feel the pressure building until, as one, they bodies exploded in absolute pleasure.  ‘Oh Wyn, you make me feel so good, I really want you so much.’ 

‘I know but we can’t,’ she replied. 

‘There must be a way,’ he said.  ‘I’ll have to try and find something.’

The next morning when she saw Betty she asked her why she had gone to bed without saying anything.

‘I didn’t go to bed,’ Betty replied, ‘I went back with Ned to his room.’ 

‘Oh Betty,’ Wyn said, ‘what happened? You didn’t did you?’ 

‘Oh yes I did,’ replied Betty ‘and it was wonderful, better than I ever thought.’

Wyn looked shocked so Betty carried on.  ‘It’s alright we were safe, you remember I had to go and take something for Mrs Brompton to Mrs Harvey next door, well, I got talking to one of the maids in there and she told me how to stop yourself ending up with a baby and that’s why I didn’t stop Ned, it was getting harder to stop anyway, we both wanted it so much so when we got carried away, I let him.  I didn’t mean to but couldn’t help it. Oh it was so wonderful, I didn’t realise just how nice it would feel.’ 

‘Well tell me then,’ said Wyn, ‘how do you do it?’ 

‘I’ll tell you later,’ Betty replied, ‘all I will say for now is that it involves water and a sponge.’

That sounds a bit strange, Wyn thought, I’m not sure that sounds very safe.  I think I’ll wait to see what happens with Betty before I say anything to William. 

‘Come on Wyn,’ Betty said, ‘stop dreaming, we’ve got to get back to work and then look through the documents again. 

Wyn followed her out of the kitchen and asked, ‘was it really that good?’ 

‘Ooh yes,’ replied Betty dreamily.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

When they had finished their household tasks, Wyn and Betty went back to the study and started looking through the documents they had found to see if they could find any information about who the body in the basement could have been.  They were looking at documents that were dated about twenty years ago as this was when the coroner said the body was probably from. 

‘There aren’t so many,’ Wyn said, ‘we should be able to find her.’ 

‘Here’s one,’ exclaimed Betty, ‘her name was Mary Childs, she was only sixteen years old and disappeared twenty one years ago. 

‘This is her,’ said Wyn, ‘there can’t be any doubt, we’d better tell Mrs Brompton about her.’  They went to the drawing room where Mrs Brompton was sitting doing her correspondence.  ‘Excuse us Mrs Brompton,’ Betty said, ‘we’re sorry to disturb you, but we think we may have found out who the body in the basement was.’ 

‘Come in,’ they were told, ‘tell me.’ 

‘Her name was Mary Childs and she disappeared twenty one years ago,’ Wyn told her. 

Mrs Brompton repeated her name quietly to herself, thought for a few minutes and then said ‘she must have been here before I was because I don’t remember her. We need to find out more about her so I think maybe you should keep searching through the documents and also get William to do a further search of the basement.  What was the document you found that mentioned her?’ she asked. 

‘It was a copy of a letter from George Brompton to her family telling them that she was unwell so couldn’t go home for the weekend,’ Betty told her. 

‘I wonder what he had to do with it,’ Mrs Brompton pondered, ‘Oh lord!’ she exclaimed as she had a sudden thought, ‘I think it must have been his baby.  It makes sense, that’s why I didn’t know anything about him.  The family must have pretended he never existed, but did they know she was in the basement? Where was she before she died? They wouldn’t have let her stay in the house. It means that there could be somewhere else down in that cellar where he kept her until she was in labour.  Tell William I want to see him now please,’ she asked Wyn. 

Wyn ran down stairs to find William.  ‘Mrs Brompton wants you right now,’ she told him.  ‘What for?’ he asked. 

‘Just come on, you’ll see,’ Wyn told him. 

They both ran back upstairs to the drawing room.  ‘You wanted me Mrs Brompton?’ William said as he walked in. 

‘Oh yes William, I would like you to do another search of the basement, there must be another room down there somewhere. If you find one, I want to see it, I owe it to that poor girl’s family to let them know what happened to their daughter.  Start right now,’ she added, ‘take Wyn with you.’  She turned to Betty and told her to go back to the study and find as many references to Mary Childs as she could.  ‘Go on then,’ she said as they all were still standing there. 

Wyn and William went downstairs to the basement.  ‘Alone at last,’ William said, giving Wyn a quick kiss.  ‘Now, now none of that,’ she said laughing, ‘there’s work to be done.’  William gave an exaggerated sigh and winked at her.  ‘Alright come on then,’ he said.  They walked down past the strong room where the body had been found and further into the basement. 

‘There’s a door here,’ Wyn told him.  William opened the door but there was nothing in there. 

‘Not this one,’ he said, ‘keep going.’  They walked through a long room with odd pieces of furniture in it.  ‘There’s nothing else here,’ William said. 

‘Hang on a minute,’ Wyn told him, ‘bring the light closer over here, there’s another door hidden in the very back of the room.  Look you have to turn the corner to find it.’ 

William walked over and opened the door.  They walked into a large room that had rugs on the floor and wallpaper on the walls.  There were tapestries and paintings all around the room.  In the middle there was a large bed with a very fancy bedspread hung over the bottom of the bed.  They went closer and noticed that the sheet on the bed was covered with large stains that could possibly be blood. 

‘I think we’ve found where she lived before she died,’ Wyn exclaimed. 

‘I think you’re right,’ William agreed.  ‘Come on, let’s go and get Mrs Brompton.’ 

They left everything exactly as it was and went back upstairs to tell Mrs Brompton what they had found. 

‘We’ve found a room they told her, it’s definitely where she was.’

‘Show me,’ she said. 

They led the way back down to the basement and took her to the room.  She walked in and looked around.  ‘I can’t believe he did all this and none of us noticed,’ she murmured.  ‘How did he get it down here, he must have had someone helping him.  What do you think?’ she asked William. 

‘I agree with you,’ he replied, ‘he couldn’t have done this alone.’ 

‘Poor girl,’ Mrs Brompton said, ‘living down here all by herself and then dying alone.  Alright I’ve seen enough,’ she said, ‘I’ll let Dr Jenkins know tomorrow.  He should be able to arrange an Inquest then.  Come on shut the door and go and have your dinner.’

The next morning Mrs Brompton asked Ned to take her to Dr Jenkins office again and told Wyn, Betty and William to keep going through the documents once they had finished their household duties.  They rushed through the cleaning and then went up to the study and carried on looking through all the papers. 

‘Put anything with Mary Childs name in one pile and everything else in another one.  It will make it easier to go through,’ William told them. 

A couple of hours later they had finished.   The pile with Mary Childs name mentioned was a large one.  Wyn started looking through it. ‘Oh my!’ she exclaimed, ‘there are letters here from her to her family telling them that she couldn’t go home because she was now working as nanny to the children and couldn’t leave them.’ 

‘I don’t think there were any children here at that time,’ William said. 

‘Good excuse though wasn’t it?’ Wyn replied.  ‘There’s other letters here from her telling them all about her fictitious life but never mentioning anything about having a baby.’ 

‘Poor girl,’ Betty said, ‘she was probably only doing what she was told.  Just think she was stuck in that basement for months not seeing anyone other than George Brompton, never going outside for any fresh air.  I wonder why the letters were never sent.’

‘I expect George didn’t want her family to even know she was still here,’ said Wyn, it’s so sad.  Oh my, she suddenly exclaimed.’ 

‘What is it?’ William asked.

‘Mrs Brompton isn’t going to like this,’ Wyn told them, ‘it looks like Charles Brompton helped his brother get the room in the basement ready for Mary and looked after her when his brother wasn’t around.  There’s a letter here from Charles to George when he was on a visit to the plantation in Jamaica telling him how she was and that George should probably start thinking about coming back as it wasn’t too long before the baby was due.’

‘I’ve got another one,’ Betty said,’ it’s a bit later and it’s from George to Charles.  George was back in London and Charles was at the country house.  It’s telling Charles that the baby had got stuck and Mary had died and asking him what he should do.’ 

‘Are there any more?’ William asked them. 

‘I can’t see any,’ Wyn told him ‘but there’s still a few more to look through.’  A bit later Wyn said, ‘here’s one, it’s from George to Charles telling him that he had taken care of the problem and that Charles was to put it completely out of his mind.’

About an hour later Mrs Brompton was back.  William took what they had found up to her.  She told him that Dr Jenkins would be back at the house the next day and William was to take him down to the basement and show him the room they had found. 

‘Oh, and while I remember,’ she told him, ‘I am expecting a visit from The Right Honourable Frederick Huxley-Chadwick some time so if he does come, please tell him I’ll see him.’  William showed her the letters they had found.

‘I don’t believe it,’ she exclaimed, ‘Charles knew about this all along but didn’t tell me anything, that poor girl has been lying down there all this time and her family know nothing.  I wouldn’t of thought that Charles was capable of doing anything like this.  When Dr Jenkins comes tomorrow, bring him to see me before he goes down to the basement,’ she told William, ‘there is no doubt that  this is Mary and we have to let her family know so they can bury her properly.  Go down to the kitchen now and tell Wyn and Betty that the Coroner will be here tomorrow.  If he wants anything from them, they are to help him as much as they can,’ she added. 

William turned and walked down to the kitchen.  ‘What’s happening?’ Wyn asked.  William told them what Mrs Brompton had told him.  ‘I don’t know how much we can help him,’ Wyn said, ‘we only know as much as you do.’

The next day the Coroner arrived and William took him up to see Mrs Brompton.  ‘Wait outside,’ she told him.  ‘I won’t be long and then you can take Dr Jenkins down to the room in the basement.’  She shut the door and William could hear a faint murmur coming from the room as Mrs Brompton explained what she knew to Dr Jenkins.  It was only a few minutes later when the door opened again and Mrs Brompton told William to take Dr Jenkins downstairs.  Once they were in the basement room, Dr Jenkins gave William a large bag and told him to put all the bed clothes in it.  William looked at the blood stained sheets and then looked at Dr Jenkins.  ‘It’s alright,’ Dr Jenkins told him, ‘you won’t catch anything.’ 

‘Urgh,’ William thought as he gingerly picked up the first sheet and quickly put it in the bag.  After that it got easier to do and in no time all, the bedding was in the bag. 

‘Tie it up with this,’ Dr Jenkins said handing him a piece of string.  William tied the bag up and gave it to Dr Jenkins.  ‘If you thought that was bad,’ said Dr Jenkins, ‘it’s about to get worse.  I’m going to take this upstairs and put it in my motorcar.  When I come back I want you to help me carry the mattress up.’  William looked at the very badly stained mattress and shuddered, but didn’t say anything.  While he was waiting for Dr Jenkins to come back down he looked around the room.  Hmm, he thought, once everything is out of here it would make a very nice room for me to bring Wyn when we have some free time.  I could make this look quite nice.  When Dr Jenkins came back he threw a blanket over the mattress in case anyone saw it and took hold of one end while William held the other end.  They carried it carefully up the stairs to the motorcar.  William looked at the car doubtfully.

‘Will it go in here?’ he asked. 

‘I hope so,’ was the reply.  Dr Jenkins put his end in the front of the car while William was still holding it.  ‘Push it right down,’ said Dr Jenkins. William pushed the mattress right down into the well of the car.  It stuck out a bit at the top but Dr Jenkins told him that it would do.  ‘Go and get the pillows,’ he said, ‘and then we are finished.’  William went back down to the basement, picked up the pillows and went back to the car. 

‘Right that’s it,’ said Dr Jenkins, ‘I’ll take these with me now but if I have any further questions I’ll come back.  Tell Mrs Brompton I’ll let her know when she can contact the family so that they can bury her. 

‘Can I ask you a question?’ William asked.  Dr Jenkins looked at him and nodded. 

‘Can I clean the room up now?’ 

Dr Jenkins gave him a look as if to say I don’t know why you’d want to but replied, ‘yes it can be cleaned up now.  I don’t need anything else from there.’  William thanked him and Dr Jenkins then squeezed into his car and drove off.

William walked up the stairs, knocked on the drawing room door and went in to tell Mrs Brompton all that the Coroner had said.  ‘See if you can find Mary’s family’s address,’ she told him.  ‘I want to be ready to write to them once Dr Jenkins says I can.  That girl has been unburied for too long already.  Ask Wyn and Betty if they found anything when they were looking through the study,’ she added. 

William went down to try and find Wyn.  He found her cleaning the scullery on her own.  ‘Where are Mrs Davis and Betty?’ he asked her.

‘Mrs Davis isn’t feeling well and is having a lie down and Betty is cleaning Mrs Brompton’s bedroom,’ she told him. 

‘Oh so we are alone,’ he said seductively.  He put his arms around her and kissed the back of her neck.  Wyn laughed and shivered as a tingle ran down her back. 

‘Get away now,’ she told him. ‘I’ve got work to do.’ 

‘Alright,’ he said reluctantly, ‘it’ll keep.  Mrs Brompton wants to know if you found any address for Mary’s family when you were going through all the papers.’ 

‘No,’ she replied, ‘but there are a few more letters to go through.  I’ll have a look this afternoon when I’ve finished cleaning.’  William pulled her close, gave her a long kiss then sighed and left.

Wyn finished her cleaning and then prepared lunch.  While they were eating she asked Betty if she had finished her cleaning.  ‘Yes why?’ asked Betty. 

‘There are still a few letters to look through in the study,’ Wyn told her.  ‘Mrs Brompton wants the address for Mary’s family so that she can let them know what happened to her.  Do you want to help me look?’ 

‘Oh yes,’ Betty told her, ‘I feel so sorry for that poor girl, I’d like to help her to rest in peace.’  Once they had cleared all the lunch dishes away and washed them up, they both went up to the study and started looking through the remaining papers.  There were letters from a lot of people Charles Brompton owed money to and ones to people who owed him money.  Wyn suddenly dropped a letter she was reading.