Tilly True (25 page)

‘The wedding is booked for next week and we daren't risk little Diamond nor Emmie sickening with the fever. You go to Duck's Foot Lane, love. Emmie said she's done it up a treat and I'm sure she'll be pleased to see you.' A shrill voice piping plaintively from inside the room made Nellie turn her head. ‘Coming, Winnie! You go now, Tilly, afore the bad humours gets to you – and find a dog double quick.' She slammed the door, leaving Tilly standing on the pavement.

Mrs Brown came out of her front door carrying a basket of washing and proceeded to peg it to one of the clothes lines that criss-crossed the street. ‘Best keep away from here until the danger's past, young Tilly. I've laid out young and old alike carried off with the scarlet fever.'

Still clutching the sandwich, Tilly hesitated. ‘You will keep an eye on them for me?'

‘Got six still at home what ain't had the fever, but I'll do what I can, ducks.' Mrs Brown stuck a couple of pegs in her mouth as she pinned up a tattered bed sheet. Spitting them out one at a time, she stared pointedly at the sandwich. ‘I'd find a dog quick if I was you. Can't be too careful.'

In the next street, a mangy cur almost took Tilly's hand off in its eagerness to swallow the hair sandwich. Bolting it back, choking and snarling at the same time, it slunk off into the shadows with its tail between its legs. Feeling sorry for the poor starving creature, Tilly felt she had done something to help her brother and sister, but at the same time she hoped the dog did not suffer too much. Turning east, and with great reluctance, she started walking back towards Wapping. Bert's hovel in Duck's Foot Lane was the last place that she wanted to visit, but it was an even longer walk to Poplar and, much as she disliked Bert, she wanted to make sure that Emily and the baby were all right. It was just possible she might see Clem again; she had been hard on him at their parting and it was a poor way to repay someone who had shown her nothing but kindness. He might not yet have left to join the army; after all, hadn't he said before that he intended to enlist and he had not gone through with his threat? As she trudged through the back alleys and side streets, Tilly tried to imagine what her life would be like if she had accepted Clem's offer of marriage. In spite of everything, she knew he was a good bloke, kindhearted and sincere; she could possibly do worse for a husband than Clem, but she did not love him. There had to be more to life than scratching a living in Wapping or Whitechapel and there were other men than honest, steadfast but unexciting Clem Tuffin. There was one in particular, a well-bred rogue with a twinkle in his eye and a shady past. Barney Palgrave was out of her social class, he was unreliable and unpredictable but he was never dull. He made her pulses race and her heart skip a beat when he smiled; his butterfly kiss had set her heart and body on fire and she had better forget him.

Arriving in Duck's Foot Lane, Tilly was tempted to turn right round and go back home to face scarlet fever rather than the rats' nest that the Tuffins called home. But Emily was here with baby Diamond; her own flesh and blood were incarcerated behind that grim exterior. Lifting her hand, Tilly knocked on the door.

Emily opened the door with baby Diamond asleep in the crook of her arm. ‘Well, if it ain't me sister come to pay a call. I thought you was too grand to visit the likes of us.'

‘Don't talk soft, Em. Of course I wanted to come and see you and baby Diamond.'

‘Best come in then, though I thought Mum would be the first to visit me in me new home.'

‘You haven't heard then?'

‘What?'

‘Winnie and Dan have gone down with the scarlet fever.'

Half closing the door, Emily backed into the hallway. ‘You keep away from my baby.'

‘No, Emmie, I haven't been near them. Mum wouldn't let me in the house. She said I was to come and see you.'

Still suspicious, Emily didn't budge. ‘Are you certain you're not infected?'

‘Cross me heart and hope to die.'

Grudgingly, Emily opened the door. ‘Come in then and wipe your feet on the mat.'

Following Emily through the narrow hallway into the kitchen, Tilly could hardly believe it was the same place. The smell of carbolic, Sunlight soap and Oakey's blacking was almost overpowering. All the previous man-mess had been ruthlessly cleared away and the flagstone floor scrubbed so that the stones glinted in the firelight. The range glowed with black lead and something tasty was simmering on the hob. Bleached bone-white, the kitchen table was set for supper and a loaf of freshly baked bread sent out a delicious aroma.

‘Em, have you done all this by yourself?'

Hitching the baby onto her shoulder, Emily smiled proudly. ‘I made Bertie pay a woman to do the scrubbing and cleaning, but I told her what to do. Sit down and I'll make us a nice cup of tea. Here, you can hold baby, but don't jiggle her or she'll wake up and sick all over you.' Handing Diamond carefully into Tilly's arms, Emily went to make a pot of tea.

Gently rocking Diamond, Tilly couldn't help wondering how an old goat like Bert could have fathered such a pretty baby. Watching Emily bustling about her kitchen, Tilly was amazed at the change in her sister. The petulant, quarrelsome Emmie seemed to have been transformed into a confident, happy housewife and mother and the change she had wrought in the sloppy Tuffin household was little short of a miracle.

‘You've certainly made a difference to this place, Emmie. And Diamond is beautiful.'

‘She is, ain't she? I never seen such a pretty baby or a better behaved one. She hardly ever cries, the little lamb.'

‘And Bert? Is he treating you right?'

Pouring tea, Emily positively gloated. ‘Got him wrapped round me little finger, and Abel too. You just have to know how to handle them.'

‘And Clem?'

‘Weren't so easy. He were a bit shy of me, I think. Anyway, he's gone off to be a soldier and I can't say I'm sorry. Here, I'll take baby and you drink your tea.' Taking Diamond in her arms, Emily sat down opposite Tilly. ‘So why aren't you working? Have you been and gone and lost your job again?'

‘No, I got a few days off. Miss Hattie and the Reverend have gone to visit their country house for a bit and they shut up the vicarage. I can't stay in Red Dragon Passage so I wondered if I could stop here for a night or two?'

‘Well, there's a turn up for the books. You asking me for leave to stay. I'll have to consult me husband, of course.'

‘Of course.'

‘But he wouldn't dare say no. I got him just where I wants him.' Chuckling, Emily bounced the baby on her knee as she woke up with a mewling cry. ‘Is my lambkin hungry then?' Cooing and smiling at Diamond, Emily undid the buttons on her blouse and brought out an engorged, blue-veined breast.

Tilly watched in awe as the baby latched onto Emily's raspberry-red nipple and began to suck greedily. She had seen her mother feeding the younger children, but somehow it was a shock to see Emily, little more than a child herself, taking so easily to motherhood. Sipping her tea, Tilly doubted whether she was cut out to be a mother. Just thinking about the act of conception brought back hideous memories of rape and attempted rape, causing her to shudder. Although being left on the shelf was a disgrace, the life of a spinster suddenly seemed very attractive.

The sound of the front door opening and closing followed by heavy footsteps coming down the hall made Tilly's hand shake as she put the cup back on its saucer, but Emily looked up, smiling happily as Bert breezed into the room. He paused for a second, staring at Tilly, and then his weathered features broke into a grin.

‘Why, it's me little sister-in-law Tilly.'

Forcing her lips into a tight little smile, Tilly made an effort to sound civil. ‘Hello, Bert.'

Emily lifted her face, smiling, and Bert kissed her noisily on the mouth before bending his head to kiss first her breast and then the baby's head. Tilly looked away, embarrassed and feeling slightly sick.

‘Tilly's come to stay for a couple of days, Bertie. You don't mind, do you, darling?'

Standing behind her chair, Bert shrugged his shoulders, stroking her hair. ‘Anything you like, kitten.'

‘There, I told you my Bertie was a darling,' Emily said, reaching up and catching hold of his hand. ‘You had him all wrong, Tilly. Admit it.'

Tilly exaggerated the smile by baring her teeth, making up her mind to find somewhere else to stay and quickly. She could leave with a clear conscience, now she had seen that Emily was well and appeared happy and that by some miracle – or, more likely, a deal with the devil – had tamed the beast that was Bert.

‘So Clem's gone to be a soldier,' she said, desperately wanting to turn the conversation away from the mutual lovey-dovey dialogue that was going on between Bert and Emily.

‘Yes, and gone abroad, so I hear,' Bert said, scowling. ‘Good riddance to him, the ungrateful sod. I give him a good home and he could have had a fine future as a waterman, but how does he repay me? He goes off without a by your leave, never giving any consideration to me what raised him and leaving his brother to cope on his own. Dragging corpses out of the river is hard work for one man, but Abel's a sticker even though I says it meself.'

‘But Abel does get to keep all the money,' Emily said, nodding sagely. ‘Abel's a good son to my Bert.'

‘I don't hold with a son of mine joining the army, but it could have been worse; he could have joined the police. If he'd done that I'd never have been able to hold me head up down the pub.' Fondling the baby's head, Bert's scowl softened into a smile. ‘At least I won't have no trouble with this here pretty one. She'll be her dada's darling, she will, just like her pretty little ma.'

‘Oh, Bertie,' Emily cooed. ‘You are a one.'

Turning away, Tilly set her cup down on the table. It was all she could do not to speak out on Clem's behalf but somehow she managed to keep silent.

Dropping a kiss on the top of Emily's head, Bert shambled out through the scullery to the back yard.

‘See, Tilly. He's a changed man and as good a husband as I could wish for,' Emily said, shifting Diamond to her other breast. ‘I even got him washing his hands and face when he comes in dirty from the streets. How about that?'

‘Good for you,' Tilly said, without much conviction.

When Diamond had drunk so much milk that it overflowed from her rosebud mouth and after she had been duly winded and changed, Emily insisted that Tilly should follow her upstairs, saying that she wanted to show her the rest of her house. Following reluctantly, Tilly had to force herself to enter Bert's bedroom.

‘Come in, Tilly. Don't be shy,' Emily said, as she laid the sleeping baby in a carved wooden crib by the side of the bed. ‘What do you think? Isn't this a grand room?'

Curbing the instinct to turn on her heel and run, Tilly nodded. ‘Very fine.'

‘I haven't finished it yet, but I've made the new curtains. You should have seen the old ones, Tilly. They was so rotten they fell to bits.'

‘It's very nice.' Attempting to look enthusiastic, Tilly could see that Emily had wrought enormous changes. The room was clean and tidy; the walls freshly papered and the bed neatly made up with freshly laundered sheets, but in her mind's eye Tilly could still see it as it was on the night of Bert's attempted rape. There was not enough soap and water in the world to wash away the memory of that horrific night. She could still smell him; see him lying half dressed on the bed; feel his hands groping her body and his foul mouth sucking at her lips. The memory of her terror and revulsion was etched into her soul. She would never forget those dreadful minutes before he passed out from too much drink. Being in this room was almost more than she could bear.

Seemingly oblivious of Tilly's distress, Emily opened the wardrobe door and took out a couple of cotton frocks, flinging them on the bed, followed by a navy blue skirt and a handful of blouses. ‘You can have these, Tilly. They won't go anywhere near me now I've had a baby, but they'll fit you all right.'

Tilly shook her head. ‘I can't take your clothes, Em.'

‘Course you can. If I haven't got anything to wear Bertie will have to buy me some new things.'

‘You really can manage him, can't you? Are you truly happy, Em?'

Emily smiled proudly. ‘I've got me own house and a man what'll do anything for me as long as I cuddle up to him at night and let him have his way with me. I've got a beautiful baby girl and I daresay there'll be another on the way before long. I can eat what I likes and get fat and my Bert will love me for it. Now you tell me who's got the best of things, Tilly. You or me?'

‘I'm glad you're happy, I am really. And ta for the clothes.'

Putting as brave a face on it as she could, Tilly followed Emily in and out of the bedrooms, making appropriate noises. Only Abel's room was untouched and Emily quickly closed the door on that one. Leading the way downstairs, she was practically skipping. ‘Ain't you just the teeniest bit jealous of me, Tilly? I mean, seeing as how I'm a married woman, or I will be by the end of next week.'

‘It's good to see you settled.'

‘Is that all you can say?' Emily stopped halfway down the stairs, turning on Tilly with a frown. ‘Ain't I done an amazing job on this old house?'

‘You have. Indeed you have, Emmie. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.'

‘Good,' Emily said, mollified and continuing down the staircase. ‘And later on, when the house gets too small for us, we'll move up west a bit, nearer to Mum and Pops in Whitechapel or Spitalfields. I got ambition too, Tilly, even if I ain't like you wanting to be a missionary lady and a sad spinster into the bargain.'