The Summer Bride (A Chance Sisters Romance) (22 page)

He laughed. “Settle down, hedgehog, it wasn’t an insult. I’m one too.”

“Oh?” She waited, unconvinced.

“When I first went to sea, whenever we landed, the other seamen headed for the whorehouses and spent what they had on women and drink and gambling. Not me. I liked to pick through the markets and little shops in the Orient, collectin’ anything that took me fancy. Later I’d sell them on in some place where people had never seen such things. Turned out I was good at buyin’ and sellin’—and the rest is history.” He smiled. “See, we’re magpies, you and me—we have an eye for the unusual. Makes us a good match.”

She avoided that one. She usually changed the subject when he brought up marriage. But she loved hearing his stories, learning about his life, picturing him as a young seaman, poking through the markets. And showing young Max the ropes.

Rarely if ever did he mention Ireland, or why he left it, only that he was never going back there. “There’s nothing for me there,” he’d say whenever she pushed to know more, and then he’d change the subject, usually with some funny story.

Then one evening when the air was soft and warm with the promise of summer and they were sitting on the roof, Daisy snuggled up against him, his arm around her, watching the sights below, Flynn stiffened.

She followed his gaze to a woman pushing a cart containing a man who looked to have lost both legs. Behind came five ragged little children, following like a string of bedraggled ducklings, each one smaller than the last. The littlest one was being carried by a girl not much bigger.

Flynn stared for a moment, then with a muttered oath, put Daisy aside and abruptly stood.

“What is it?” she asked, but he left without a word.

She saw him a few minutes later, crossing the road and talking to the man and woman. He passed them something and the woman started weeping.

He left them as abruptly as he arrived and a moment later he returned, seized Daisy, pulled her onto the bed and made love to her with a focused intensity—all without a word—giving her climax after climax before pouring himself into her with a groan that sounded so pain-filled it tore at her heart.

Afterwards he lay with his head pillowed on her breast, silent and withdrawn. She lay stroking the thick dark hair from his face—he needed a haircut—listening to him breathe, hearing the distant sounds of the city coming in through the open door.

It caught him like that sometimes, afterwards, left him bleak and silent and withdrawn. Lost. She felt at the same time closer to him and more distant. He never would talk about it, and most of the time she was content to accept it.

Not this time. “Who were they?” she asked finally.

For a long time she thought he wasn’t going to answer—nothing new there—but then he sighed. “No one—just one of the many poor bastards tossed on the scrap heap, and their whole family with them.”

“Did you know them?”

“No. But in a way, I did . . .” And then he told her about his father, who worked with horses when Flynn was a boy. He’d had a real way with them, like magic, it was, until the day he was kicked in the spine and never walked again. He told her how his mam had slaved to keep them all—five kids there were—fed and warm, and how it was always a losing battle.

The rich man who his dad had worked for was sorry about the accident, but said it was God’s will, and nothing he could do. He’d given Mam a few pounds one day and the next day his agent came with the news they had to leave the cottage they’d lived in all their lives. The cottage was for able-bodied workers and their families, not useless cripples.

“Me mam found us a couple of rooms in a hovel, and after a bit I left home to look for work in Dublin.”

“How old were you?”

“Twelve. I was the eldest, so it was down to me. No jobs in Dublin for a skinny kid, so I became a wharf rat, sent home whatever I could every week through the parish priest—just a few coppers here and there. Not enough. Never enough.”

Daisy smoothed his hair back. “You did your best.”

He shook his head. “After about a year I went home—something wasn’t right, I felt it in me bones, even though the messages came through from Mam the same as ever.” His voice was bitter. “Neither me mam nor I could read or write, you see, so it was the priest writin’ the messages . . . They didn’t sound like Mam at all.”

She waited, holding him, stroking him, feeling the tension, the anguish in him.

“Turned out they’d all perished of the cholera—every last one of them, Mam, Da, Moira, Mary-Kate, Paul, Rory and wee Caitlin. They’d been dead and buried for months.”

The raw pain in his voice shattered her. “And no one had told you?”

He shook his head. “The priest had kept taking me money and making up the messages from Mam—he said he was using it for the good of others but I could smell the drink on his breath.” He swore again. “So I hit him. A mortal sin that is, I reckon.”

There was a long silence. He wasn’t finished yet, she could feel from the tightness in his body.

“I couldn’t even find a grave—they were all tossed in a pit—buried with strangers, dozens of people all together. ‘A cholera outbreak in the slums, you see
,
boy. Nothing else to do.’”

“Oh, Flynn.” She hugged him tight, wishing she could ease his pain. No wonder he said there was nothing for him in Ireland. Just bitterness and grief. And the unreasonable guilt of a thirteen-year-old boy who blamed himself for failing to save his family.

“So I left, walked back to Dublin, down to the docks and sailed away on the first ship that would take me.”

“And you never went back?”

“Never. There’s nothing for me there. I’ll make meself a new life, a good life here, and you’ll be part of it, won’t you, Daisy-girl?”

He meant a new family. Daisy felt the guilt twist inside her. He’d get no family from her. She ought to cut him loose to find a nice girl who’d give him one, but she couldn’t give him up. Not yet. Not when she’d just found him. Selfish she was, she knew it.

“What did you give those people in the street?” She gestured to the window.

“Nothin’ much, just a bit of money to feed the wee ones—that little girl carrying the tiny one—our Mary-Kate used to carry wee Caitlin just like that, and her no bigger than a flea herself.” His eyes had a faraway expression that told her he was seeing his little sisters in his mind. “And I told them to see Bartlett. I gave them a note for him. He’ll find something for the man to do. Just because his legs are gone doesn’t make him any less of a man.”

“You’re a good man, Patrick Flynn,” she whispered, feeling tears prickling at the back of her eyes. She tightened her hold on him.

He turned in her arms and proceeded to make slow, intense, tender love to her, and Daisy found herself tearing up again with the feelings that swelled within her, too full to be contained.

“What’s this?” he said, wiping away a tear with one finger.

“Nothing, just . . . sometimes the feelings get . . . too much.”

“Then marry me and we’ll have a bunch of little feelings together.”

She almost burst out howling at the tender way he said it. Instead she forced herself to say, “Ah, Flynn, why keep asking me? You know I won’t marry you. This is lovely but it’s not going to last. You got to start looking for a nice girl to wed.”

“I know. I’ve found one.”

“What?” Her eyes widened. Not already, surely? She wasn’t ready to lose him yet.

“Jealous are we?” He gave a soft laugh. “No need, me girl’s right here.” He kissed her. And the sweetness of that nearly broke her heart too.

“‘How hard it is in some cases to be believed!’

‘And how impossible in others!’”

—JANE AUSTEN,
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

F
lynn called at Berkeley Square one Sunday afternoon, intending to invite the ladies—Daisy in particular—for a drive, but when Featherby opened the door he held up a finger saying, “Miss Daisy’s in the front drawing room with a . . . a
person
. Someone she knew, from
before
.” The way he said “
person
” and “
before
” spoke volumes. He gave Flynn a meaningful look.

“Someone from the brothel, you mean?”

Featherby nodded, looking relieved that Flynn knew about the brothel. “The Abbess herself, I think. I didn’t like to leave Miss Daisy alone with her, but she insisted.”

“Does she need me?”

“Not at the moment, but she might. Best to just listen.” The two men tiptoed to where the drawing room door stood slightly ajar. Flynn glanced at Featherby with a raised brow. No accident that that door wasn’t properly closed.

Featherby shrugged, as if to say
How else could I keep an eye on things?

Flynn bent his year to the door and listened.

“Yeah, I know I owe you,” Daisy was saying. “You picked
me up and took me in when I needed it—I know all that, and I’m grateful. But gawd knows I’ve paid you back for it a hundred times over—I worked for years for you for no pay—just a tip every now and then from one of the gentlemen.”

There was a muttered response that Flynn didn’t catch. He and Featherby edged closer.

Daisy continued, “And I’d still be workin’ for you if you hadn’t gone off and left me—and all the other girls—in your bloody son’s evil hands.”

“I couldn’t help that,” the other woman said. “He was my son, and—”

“And a vicious bloody thug wiv women—and don’t try to kid me that you never knew it because you and I both know you never let him near your girls while you was running the brothel!”

Flynn wished he could see. He must have made some kind of frustrated noise, because Featherby silently indicated the slight gap between the door and the hinge. Flynn pressed his eye to the gap.

He couldn’t see Daisy, but he had a good view of the Abbess. She was a raddled dame of sixty or more, elaborately dressed in a low-cut dress of satin and lace, her face and well-displayed bosom powdered and rouged. Her hair was elaborately curled and dyed a garish yellow, augmented with clusters of false curls.

“But what else could I do? He was my s—”

“You coulda
warned
us, coulda said you wanted to retire and was gunna hand everything over to Mort. Coulda given us a
choice
.” Flynn wished he could see Daisy’s face.

She stormed on, “But no, you ups and disappeared and the first we know of it there was locks on all the doors and we was
prisoners
. And Mort’s bringin’ in all the nasty customers—the ones who like hurtin’ girls—and then he’s kidnappin’ girls and buyin’ them off ships because he can’t get nobody to work for him.”

“I didn’t know nothing about that,” the woman whined. “And I’m that sorry, Daise. But I don’t want to talk about the past. I miss you something terrible.” She gave Daisy a
pitiful look that sat uneasily on her well-painted, rather hard features.

Daisy snorted. “In a pig’s eye, you do!” There was a short silence, then she continued in a quieter voice, “You were the closest thing I had to a mother, Mrs. B.—you know that? When I was little, I used to pretend you
were
me mother. I thought I’d live with you all me life and look after you in your old age, like a good daughter does.” Her voice hardened. “But then you left me with Mort, and he was lining me up for a customer who had a fancy to beat up a little crippled maidservant, so I don’t reckon I owe you nothing at all.”

“But you
are
like a daughter—”

“Don’t give me that! I
coulda
been a daughter to you but, like me real mother, you threw me away. And I reckon
she
might have been desperate, but
you
sure as hell weren’t.”

The helpless look faded from Mrs. B.’s face, and there was the face of a tough old Abbess who’d spent a lifetime running a brothel in the rough end of London.

“So, you reckon you belong here, do you?” she sneered. “With your posh old dame and your la-di-da friends. Does the old lady know you’re just pretendin’ to be her long-lost niece? What’ll she say when she finds out you’re no relation, a bastard brat from the stews, a brothel-raised skivvy who’s spent her life at the beck and call of whores? And you can’t even read or write.”

“Lady Beatrice knows all about me.” Daisy’s voice sounded calm, but Flynn knew better. His girl was all stirred up, and no wonder. “I never did tell lies, you oughta know that. And I can read and write now. Me sisters taught me.”

“Sisters my foot!” Mrs. B. snorted. “I never realized you was such a fool, Daisy. I dunno what their game is, but they’ll use you while it suits them—you’re a good little dressmaker, I’ll give you that. But a hint of scandal and they’ll drop you like a hotcake.”

“No, you’re the one who dropped me when I was no more use to you. And now you’ve found something out about me—maybe that I got a shop now—and so you’re back, sniffin’ around for what you can get.”

Mrs. B. shrugged. “I keep me ear to the ground.”

“No, you keep your nose in the gutter, where it’s always been.”

Mrs. B leaned forward and made a performance of looking Daisy up and down. She snorted. “So you reckon you’re some kind of lady now, do you, Daisy Smith—born in the gutter, raised in a gutter, crippled and ignorant?” Her voice dripped scorn.

Flynn’s fists were clenched. He’d never yet harmed a woman, but he could happily strangle this one.

“Wake up to yerself, girl! You’ll never make any kind of lady. Come back to your own kind, where you belong.”

“I belong here.”

“Pshaw! Aping the toffs like a little dressed-up monkey is more like it.” She shook her head, setting the false yellow curls bouncing. “You ain’t no gentry-mort and you never will be. Lady Muck and her friends must be havin’ a right laugh at you behind their elegant gloves, watchin’ you trying to ape your betters, hobblin’ along behind them, always trying to keep up. Take you to dances, do they?” And she laughed, a cruel laugh.

He couldn’t see Daisy’s face, but he knew her well enough to know that the picture the vicious old harpy was painting would be cutting very close to the bone. In some areas his Daisy was wonderfully confident, but in social matters . . .

He was about to burst in and send the old witch packing, but a hand gripped him by the arm, long nails digging into him. He turned, ready to shake Featherby’s grip off, and froze. He and Featherby weren’t the only ones listening at the door.

He opened his mouth to say something but Lady Beatrice smacked him with her lorgnette and shook her head, then silently waved him out of the way so she could hear better. Her eyes were cold and glittering.

*   *   *

D
aisy bristled at Mrs. B.’s words. Lady Beatrice might be trying to turn Daisy into a lady—against all the odds—but she wasn’t laughing at her. And neither were her
friends. At that thought something shifted inside her and the hackles raised by Mrs. B.’s taunts settled.

“She ain’t laughing,” Daisy said calmly. “She loves me and I love her. And I love me sisters and they love me too.”

Mrs. B. opened her mouth to scoff, but Daisy continued, “And I’ve learned from Lady Beatrice that being a lady isn’t about being born in a big fancy house with a silver spoon in your mouth, or talking like a toff, or even acting posh. It’s about how you treat other people, being careful of their feelings, and about having self-respect. And being kind.”

“Pshaw!”

Daisy lifted her chin. “I might’ve been gutter-born and gutter-bred, but the gutter ain’t goin’ to tell me who I am. I’m Daisy Chance now. I’ve been given a chance to make something better of meself—and by God I’m going to take it!”

“Brava, my dear gel! And so you shall!” Lady Beatrice swept into the room, clapping. And oh, gawd, Flynn was with her. How much had he heard?

Lady Beatrice raised her lorgnette and raked it slowly over Mrs. B. who’d stood up when she entered. “And who might this be?”

Daisy knew at once she’d been listening at the door.

“Lady Beatrice, this is Mrs. B., my former . . . employer.”

Lady Beatrice curled her lip. “The brrrrothel keeper?” She raised her lorgnette again and peered at the other woman in much the same way as she might inspect a rather nasty insect.

Shock battled with awe on Mrs. B.’s face—she’d probably never met a real titled lady before, and she hadn’t believed Daisy that Lady Bea knew. “Yes I am, yer ladyship, well I was, but I—”

“You may be seated.” Lady Beatrice gestured for Daisy to sit on the
chaise longue
. Flynn sat beside her. She gave Daisy a look as if to say
sit and don’t say a word
then turned back to Mrs. B. “You were saying?”

“I was going to say, yer ladyship—very gracious of you, an’ I’m sorry to bother you—but young Daisy ’ere owes me.”

A finely plucked and pencilled brow rose disdainfully. “She
does?” Lady Beatrice turned to Daisy. “Is this correct, my dear? Do you owe this”—she grimaced distastefully—“this
person
money?”

“No, I bloody do not! She’s a bloomin’ bloodsucker, out for what she can get.”

“A blood. Sucker,” Lady Beatrice repeated. “You don’t mean she’s trying to
blackmail
you, do you, Daisy dear? Because that would surely be a crime, would it not?” She gave Mrs. B. a smile as innocent as a newborn lamb.

“I ain’t tryin’ to blackmail nobody,” Mrs. B said hurriedly. “And if you thought that Daisy, well, ye’re mistaken. Good heavens, a body tries to talk about old times and you call ’em a bloodsucker. Young people today, me lady—so quick to misjudge.”

She eyed Lady Beatrice shrewdly. Daisy caught the look. The cunning old bitch hadn’t missed the
Daisy dear
. “The thing is, yer ladyship, by rights, young Daisy here belongs to me.”

“I bloody do not!” Daisy flashed, ready to jump up and argue. Flynn’s hand found hers and squeezed. She glanced at him, read the message in his eyes and subsided—reluctantly, because she didn’t like the way Mrs. B. was trying to wrap Lady Bea around her finger.

“Oh dear me, does she really?” Lady Beatrice said distressfully, giving an imitation of as fluffy an old dame as ever trod the boards. “I wouldn’t want to be accused of theft. Are you sure she belongs to you, Mrs., er, Bee?”

Daisy shifted restlessly. What the hell was the old lady playing at? It almost looked like she was ready to hand Daisy over.

Mrs. B. sensed it, too. She leaned forward and in a confiding tone said, “She does indeed, yer ladyship. I picked her up out of the gutters when she was just a nipper. Paid good money for her, I did.”

“I see.” Lady Beatrice nodded thoughtfully. “And do you have a receipt?”

Mrs. B. looked a little taken aback by the matter-of-fact response. “Um. Er . . . Yes, yes, I do. Not on me, of course.”

“But you can produce such a document—viz, that you purchased one Daisy Smith—”

“—
viz?
”

“—however many years ago.”

“Twelve years ago, maybe fifteen, me lady. I disremember the exact date—but yes, I can produce a paper sayin’ that she’s mine, all legal and proper.” Mrs. B. gave Daisy a sly look. She’d get one forged in an instant.

“Excellent. We shall need it as evidence.”

Mrs. B. frowned. “
Evidence
?”

Lady Beatrice nodded. “For the court case.”

“
Court case
? Let’s not be so hasty, me lady. I don’t want no court ca—”

“Oh, but it must go to court.” Lady Beatrice smiled. “You cannot be hanged without a trial, you know.”

“
Hanged?
” It came out as a squawk. “What do you mean, hanged?”

“Slavery is against the law, my good woman—and what a misnomer that is! But I can’t very well call you
you ghastly harridan
—though on second thoughts—”

“I ain’t
got
no slaves!”

Both finely plucked and pencilled brows rose. “You just claimed to have bought and paid for my niece, Daisy. And that is slavery.”

“No, no, me lady, you don’t understand. It’s just an expression, just a—”

“You rang, my lady?” Featherby intoned from the door. Daisy blinked. No one had rung anything.

“Ah, Featherby, just the man we need. This
person
claims to have purchased my niece, Daisy.”

Featherby gave a start of artistic horror. “Surely
not
, my lady! Why that would be
slavery,
which is a
hanging
offense, I believe!” Daisy pressed her lips firmly together, fighting a smile. Featherby had been listening at the door too.

Mrs. B. clutched her throat. “No, no—it’s all a misunderstanding, an ’orrible misunders—”

“Unless, of course, it was when Miss Daisy was a mere child,” Featherby added, as if in afterthought. He paused and looked at Mrs. B. who seized on the excuse thankfully.

“Yes, yes, she were a child, not quite ten, weren’t you Daisy, me love?”

“In which case,” Featherby continued smoothly, “to the charge of slavery would be added the procurement of a child for immoral purposes—also a hanging offense.”

“No! I never—Daisy, tell him I never—” But Daisy had stuffed her fist in her mouth and with her face pressed against Flynn’s shoulder, couldn’t say a word.

“
Can
a person be hanged twice, Featherby?” Lady Beatrice asked.

“Not as far as I know, milady—once usually does the trick. The hangman is very efficient, I believe.”

Mrs. B. moaned. “But I never—you ask Daisy, she’ll tell you. I never made her—”

Lady Beatrice raised her lorgnette. “You
were
the proprietress of a brothel at the time, were you not? An Abbess, I believe they call it.”

“Well, yeah, I was, but—”

Featherby shrugged magnificently. “In which case it would make no difference, milady. Either way she will swing.”