The Ragged Heiress (42 page)

‘I’m surprised Dr Richards remembered us when he sees so many cases in a day.’

‘You are not the sort of person a man can forget easily, and paired with your friend – it’s like the old fairy tale of beauty and the beast.’

Lucetta cast an anxious glance at Guthrie whose mouth was open, and his unshaven chin rested on his chest as loud snores shook his whole body. She smiled in spite of her concern for him. ‘That’s not fair. Lennie is not a beast. He saved my life and he has stood by me ever since.’

‘And he took you to that hovel in Black Raven Court. I wheedled your address from James and I went there
in the hope of finding you, but Guthrie said you’d gone out and he didn’t know when you’d be back. It was getting late and so I said I’d return next day and I did, only to find the place locked and shuttered. I went back day after day, but none of your neighbours knew where you’d gone.’

‘Why did you go to so much trouble when I had treated you so badly?’

‘You know the reason why, Lucetta, but in part it was because Sir Hector had received a reply from the British consul in Bali. Sir John Boothby confirmed your identity with a signed affidavit which would stand up in any court of law. You can now prove that you are Lucetta Froy and regain what is rightfully yours.’ He handed her the slice of charred bread, which was still smoking from too close a contact with the fire. ‘And I am little better than King Alfred who burnt the cakes, but all this will soon be a thing of the past, Lucetta. Burnt toast and dirt floors will become a distant memory. You will be able to return home, my dear, where you truly belong.’

His words lingered in her mind long after Giles had left that evening. He had helped her put Guthrie to bed on the straw palliasse which was kept rolled up in the corner of the kitchen during the day and laid out on the floor by the fire at night. She had banked the glowing embers of coal with cinders saved from previous fires, and on Giles’ instructions had given Guthrie a further dose of laudanum before she went upstairs to her room.

She lay in bed staring at the cracks in the ceiling plaster as sleep evaded her. Sam’s declaration of love and his assumption that they would be married was not the wonderful happy ending that she had anticipated. Something had changed, but she did not know whether the difference was in her feeling for Sam, or if she doubted the sincerity of his love for her. She had tried to put aside Dora Cutler’s vituperative accusations and the animosity that Seth felt towards his cousin, but the poison was insidious and Lucetta had begun to harbour doubts about Sam. There was only one way to solve the conundrum and that was to ask him outright if he had fathered Dora’s child and then left her at the altar. Lucetta was no coward, but she was not sure that she wanted to learn the truth.

She tossed and turned but every time she closed her eyes she saw another face and heard a different voice in her head. This time it was Giles who took control of her thoughts. She had left Stockton Lacey hoping that he would turn to Mary who had loved him for years and would make him a good and loyal wife; the ideal partner for a country doctor. But now Lucetta had to face that fact that her sudden departure had done the opposite. Instead of taking up the practice and recognising Mary’s silent devotion, he had left behind a comfortable, settled existence and spent months scouring the capital to find the woman who had spurned his advances. It seemed to Lucetta that she had been the cause of much pain and suffering. Eventually, she lapsed into a fitful sleep and awakened next morning with a headache.

A cold white light filtered through the thin cretonne curtains at her window and when she drew them back she discovered that a fresh covering of snow had fallen during the night. The inside of the windowpanes was frosted with ice and when she went downstairs she discovered that the fire had burned away to ashes. She lit a candle and bent over Guthrie, who was mumbling in his sleep. She felt his forehead and realised to her dismay that he was far from cold, in fact he was burning up with fever. She could not move him in order to clear the grate and anyway there was not enough coal to keep the fire going all day. Sam had not actually given her any money, although he had paid the cab fare, and she had just a few pence left until she received her wages in two days’ time.

She went into the yard and found that the pump had frozen solid. Icicles hung from its lip and she broke them into the kettle, scooping up a handful of clean snow and adding it to the shards of ice. She hurried back to the relative warmth of the house and mixed a few drops of laudanum with the melting snow, waiting until it had turned back to liquid before she held it to Guthrie’s parched lips.

‘I have to go to work, Lennie,’ she murmured. ‘But I’ll come back at midday to see how you are.’ She was not certain whether he had heard her, but she placed a cup of melting ice at his side. Her bonnet and shawl were still damp but she had nothing else to wear. She must not be late for work; Jeremiah had a nasty habit of docking their wages if his staff failed to turn up on time and she could not afford to lose a penny. She did
not want to leave Guthrie in his present state, but it was possible that he might end up crippled for life and she would have to support them both. In any event he would need medicine and good food if he was to make a full recovery.

She arrived at the warehouse on time and set to work immediately. Perks noted her pallor and insisted on making a pot of tea, telling her that if she were any thinner she would slip through the gratings in the street and fall down a sewer. He insisted that she ate the last of Mrs Perks’ shortbread and he flapped around her like a mother hen, until Jeremiah’s arrival put a stop to all communication between them.

Jeremiah was not in a good mood. He stormed into the office, flinging his top hat onto a peg and cursing as it toppled onto the floor. ‘Damnation. As if I have not enough to put up with. Pick it up, girl.’

Lucetta bent down to retrieve the hat and hung it on the peg. ‘Good morning, Mr Froy.’

‘Good? What’s good about it?’ Jeremiah waved a piece of paper in front of her face. ‘This is the estimate for repairing that bloody boat. Does he think me a fool to part with that amount of money to repair a rotting hulk? I’ll challenge it in court if necessary, but I’m damned if I’ll pay out that sort of cash for someone else’s problem.’

Lucetta glanced over the document. She did not know much about the cost of repairing sailing vessels, but it did not seem inordinately expensive. ‘So you will not pay this then, sir?’

‘Not a penny.’ Jeremiah shrugged off his cashmere
overcoat and allowed it to fall to the floor. ‘I doubt if I can pay it anyway. I’ve just had a letter from my father’s agent in Bali. Apparently the old man has had a seizure of some kind and is unable to continue with his tour. He is already on his way home. Hang my coat up, Miss Guthrie, and make me a cup of tea while you’re about it.’

Lucetta was about to follow his barked instructions when Sam breezed in with a jaunty swagger. ‘Good morning, Froy. I’ve come to collect the money to pay for the repairs to my vessel.’

Jeremiah puffed out his cheeks and his eyes disappeared into angry slits. ‘You won’t get a penny out of me, Cutler. This is extortion and I wouldn’t be surprised if you had engineered the whole thing yourself.’

Sam’s smile did not waver. ‘You can argue your case in court if you’ve a mind to do things the hard way, Froy.’

Lucetta shot him a warning glance. ‘I’m just going to make tea for Mr Froy. Would you like a cup, Captain Cutler?’

He put his arm around her shoulders. ‘There’s no need to keep up the pretence, my love. I think it’s time we told your cousin a few home truths.’

She drew away from him. ‘No, Sam. Don’t do this.’

‘What’s all this nonsense?’ Jeremiah demanded angrily. ‘What insane plot have you two hatched together?’

‘Nothing,’ Lucetta said, shaking her head. ‘It’s Captain Cutler’s idea of a joke.’

Sam smiled benevolently. ‘The joke is on you, Froy.
This young lady is your cousin Lucetta Froy. We knew each other in Bali and were engaged to be married. I thought I had lost her when the
Caroline
was sunk, but she was saved, and here she is alive and well as you see. And the bad news from your point of view is that she owns all of this.’ Sam encompassed the warehouse with a wave of his arms. ‘You work for her now, Froy. And you will be working for me too once Lucetta and I are man and wife. What do you think of that?’

‘Sam, how could you do that do me?’ Lucetta stood outside the warehouse, shivering violently with shock and suppressed anger. Jeremiah had refused to believe Sam and had thrown them out on the street. ‘What were you thinking of? I’ve lost my job because of you.’

Sam hooked his arm around her shoulders. ‘My darling, you don’t need to slave away for the Froys. You said that your friends have a letter from Sir John Boothby which will establish your true identity. Once we have that, you’ll be able to walk into your old home as Miss Lucetta Froy, owner of Froy and Son, importers. You are a wealthy woman, my love, and when we are married we will add exporters and shippers to the name of Cutler above the door.’

Lucetta stared at him in amazement. ‘You’re mad. It isn’t as easy as that. They’ll fight me all the way and in the meantime I have no money, and you have no ship. If Jeremiah refuses to pay for the repairs then you stand to lose everything.’

‘Don’t be such a little pessimist.’ Sam’s smile wavered but he recovered quickly. ‘Come; let’s get you back to that hovel you call home before you freeze to death. We’ll talk about our strategy over a glass of hot toddy.’

‘Haven’t you heard a word I’ve said, Sam Cutler? I can’t afford to buy coal for the fire, let alone rum or brandy for a hot toddy. We’re down to our last crust of bread and I’ve only threepence to my name.’

‘I’m not a beggar. I’ve money from my last voyage. We won’t starve.’

‘You will need every penny to pay for the repairs unless I can persuade Jeremiah that it is all a mistake. I think he will believe it if I tell him you are off your head with some tropical fever. If I grovel, he might just give me back my job.’

She made for the office but Sam barred her way.

‘There’s no going back now, Lucetta. The first thing we must do is get hold of that document and then I’ll organise special licence so that we can be married tomorrow. We’ll fight this together, sweetheart. What do you say?’

His eyes were alight with excitement and he grasped both her hands, but she snatched them away. ‘Do you want me or my fortune, Sam?’

‘What sort of question is that? You wanted to marry me three years ago. Nothing has changed.’

She shook her head slowly. ‘Everything has changed, Sam. I am not the same person as I was then, and neither are you. You didn’t even recognise me when you first saw me.’

‘For God’s sake, Lucetta, I thought you were dead. How was I supposed to know it was you?’

‘If you’d truly loved me, Sam, I think your heart would have told you.’

He took her by the shoulders, looking deeply into
her eyes. ‘It’s telling me now.’ Ignoring the shouts of the men working on the wharves and the amused glances of the passers-by, he drew her into his arms and kissed her.

Lucetta struggled at first but his mouth was hot and demanding and she closed her eyes, giving herself up momentarily to the thrill of being held in the arms of a man she had loved so passionately. The years seemed to melt away and she was back in the consulate garden, being kissed by her lover beneath the champak tree. She was breathless and trembling when he released her.

‘There, now tell me you don’t love me.’ Sam’s smile was triumphant, like that of a child who had just won a race.

‘I must go home,’ Lucetta murmured, backing away from him. ‘We can’t do this now, Sam. It’s too soon. I don’t know what to think.’

He caught her by the wrist. ‘Don’t be a goose, Lucetta. You want me, you know you do. There’s nothing to keep us apart now. Your father is dead and his blind prejudice was the only thing keeping us apart.’

‘Don’t talk about my pa like that. He might be alive now if it weren’t for us. We caused him to have that apoplectic fit. If I hadn’t disobeyed him none of this might have happened.’ She walked away, quickening her pace as she realised that he was following her.

‘That’s nonsense and you know it.’ Sam caught up and fell into step beside her. ‘Your father was a sick man. Anything could have brought about that attack, and, if what Jeremiah says is true, your uncle seems
to have suffered a similar fate. We were not to blame for falling in love.’ He stepped in front of her, forcing her to stop. ‘You do love me, don’t you? Say it, Lucetta. Admit it.’

‘I did love you with all my heart, but everything is different now.’

‘What has changed?’

His angry tone jarred Lucetta’s nerves, which were already stretched to breaking point. She met his angry gaze with a steady look. ‘You have a child in Salcombe. You left his mother at the altar. She told me so herself.’

He could not have looked more startled if she had slapped him across the face. His cheeks paled beneath his tan and his eyes flashed with anger. ‘That’s a lie. I suppose she told you that.’

‘Dora told me and I believed her.’

‘She lied and you were a fool to be so easily decieved. Yes, we were childhood sweethearts and we had an understanding, but while I was away at sea she was carrying on with my cousin, Seth. The child is his, not mine.’

‘Why would she lie about a thing like that? I saw the boy. He even looks like you.’

‘Well, he would, wouldn’t he? He is my blood relation after all, but Tommy is not my son. Dora is a spiteful little bitch who wanted to see me cut out of the family business, and what better way than to make Seth think I had fathered her little bastard.’

‘She said you left her at the altar.’

Sam ran his fingers through his hair with an exasperated sigh. ‘Yes, I suppose I did, but it was then I
found out that she had been untrue to me with my own cousin. She only wanted to marry me because I came home on leave with a pocketful of money, which I can tell you soon went by the time I had bought her all the things she wanted. She was quick enough to turn back to Seth after I left. They deserve each other.’