A Place Called Home (45 page)

Christelle put her arm around her daughter's waist. ‘I think motherhood suits me, don't you, Pascal?'

‘It has been a shock, of course, but I am a man of the world.'

‘Of course you are, my love.' Christelle treated him to a beaming smile, but he responded with an ominous frown.

‘You should have told me before, but I am content to have a delightful stepdaughter. Even so, there is a problem, Christelle, as you are well aware.'

‘What are you talking about, Pascal?'

‘The shooting to death of that man in the circus, chérie. You were involved, and the publicity will do your career no good. We must return to France immediately. Anyway, I have a concert booked for you in Paris, next week, and after that Madrid and then Rome. You cannot afford to have scandal attached to your name.'

‘Paris.' Christelle closed her eyes. ‘That child, Lucy, your friend whose parents live in Paris. What was her name?'

‘You mean Dora Northam.'

‘Yes, dear Dora. She promised me an introduction to the British Embassy. I've always dreamed of being asked to perform at one of their balls.' Christelle glided into the parlour and subsided onto a chair by the fireplace.

Lucy hurried after her, followed by Pascal. ‘But you can't go yet, Mama. You've received offers to tour England. You said you wanted to come home. Please don't leave me so soon.'

CHRISTELLE SIGHED, SMOOTHING
her crumpled skirts. ‘So tempting. I don't know what to do.'

‘You could start behaving like a mother, my girl,' Eva said crossly. ‘You abandoned your child in order to follow your dreams, and now you've got a chance to make amends. I'm not going to be here forever.'

Christelle shot her a withering look. ‘You'll outlive us all, Ma.'

‘Look out of the window,' Froniga suggested, pointing to the faces pressed against the windowpanes. ‘That's your public, Christelle. Are you going to disappoint them by running off to France?'

‘
Pardon, madame
.' Pascal's moustache quivered with suppressed emotion. ‘Is it any of your business?'

‘Don't speak to her like that.' Eva rose majestically to her feet. ‘Christelle, are you going to let your man insult our friend?'

Lucy heard the rattle of teacups on their saucers and she hurried to open the door for Bedwin. ‘I'm sure we'd all feel better for some refreshment,' she said brightly.

Bedwin placed the tray on a side table. ‘We've got the coffee but Hester said she's forgotten how to make it.'

‘
Oh, mon Dieu
,' Pascal said, throwing up his hands. ‘This is an uncivilised country. I can't wait to go home. We're leaving right away, Christelle.'

She regarded him calmly. ‘You may go, but I've decided to stay and accept the offers I've received.'

He puffed out his chest. ‘I am your husband. I'm ordering you to obey me.'

‘I'll return to France when it suits me, Pascal. In the meantime I want you to instruct my maid to pack my costumes and bring them to England. Give her this address.' She turned to Lucy. ‘If it's all right with you, my dear girl.'

‘Of course it is, but only if you're sure. I mean, perhaps you ought to listen to your husband.'

‘Christelle's never listened to anyone in her whole life,' Eva said with a knowing wink.

‘I will remain in England as long as it suits me.' Christelle glared at her husband as if daring him to argue. ‘Don't try to bully me, Pascal.'

Lucy had been about to pour the tea but she handed the pot to Bedwin, who was hovering at her side. ‘Do the honours, please, Bedwin. I'm going to get Mama's room ready.' She shot a sideways glance at Pascal. ‘Do I take it that you won't be staying? You'd be most welcome, and it would give us time to get to know each other.'

‘Thank you, Lucy. Your kindness is much appreciated, but . . .' His moustache quivered and drooped and the bravado seemed to desert him, leaving him helpless in the face of an apparently overwhelming burst of emotion. He grasped Christelle's hand and pressed it to his lips. ‘I am sorry, chérie. I meant none of the things I said. I am bereft without you. Please come home.'

Christelle's cheeks reddened and her full lips trembled. ‘You're just saying these things, Pascal. It is a ploy to make me do as you wish.'

‘No, chérie. On my honour, I swear it is true. I love you and I need you. My life is nothing without you.'

‘Men will say anything to make you do what they want,' Eva muttered, frowning. ‘I was never fool enough to let a man put a ring on my finger. I loved Abe, but he never owned me.'

‘That's enough, Ma,' Christelle said sharply. She leaned forward to brush her husband's lips with a kiss. ‘You silly old fool, Pascal. You know I'll come home when it suits me, but for the time being I want to stay in London and get to know my daughter.'

He bowed his head. ‘I can't live without you, ma belle.'

Lucy looked from one to the other, torn by the desire to beg her mother to stay with her forever and pity for the man whose devotion was beyond doubt. ‘I think we ought to leave you to talk this over,' she said softly.

Froniga stood up. ‘Lucy's right. I'd like to go to my room anyway. Come along, Eva.'

For a moment Lucy thought that her grandmother was going to argue, but Eva rose slowly to her feet. ‘You was always a fool when it came to men, Christelle.'

Lucy found Bram in the kitchen helping Hester to make coffee. He looked up as she entered the room and greeted her with a sunny smile. ‘This is how we made it in camp,' he said, stirring the ground coffee into a pan of boiling water. ‘I don't suppose it's the way they do it in coffee houses, but it works after a fashion.'

‘All this fuss for a foreigner,' Hester said, crossly. ‘A good strong cup of tea would do him the world of good.'

Maggie looked up from her plate, munching a mouthful of cake. She gulped and swallowed. ‘That funny little man with a curly moustache makes me laugh.'

‘I didn't like him,' Bertie said, reaching for another slice of seed cake and receiving a reproving look from Hester. ‘Just one more small piece, Hester, darling. I'm a growing boy.'

‘You'll have to earn your keep, young man.' Hester shook the wooden spoon at him. ‘You can bake the bread tomorrow. What's the use of having a baker's apprentice in the house if he doesn't help in the kitchen?'

‘Quite right.' Bram abandoned his attempt to make coffee and pulled up a chair for Lucy. ‘I'm a tea man myself. Can't abide coffee.' He sat down beside her. ‘What next? We need to have a long talk.'

‘The first thing I'll do is get the room ready for my mother. Even if she only stays for a short time it will give me time to get to know her properly, and then I must see Mr Goldspink.'

He frowned. ‘Are you still going to ask him to represent Stella in court?'

‘You're mad.' Hester slapped a lid on the saucepan. ‘That woman tried to kill you according to what Vicky just told me.'

‘It's true,' Vicky said earnestly. ‘We saw it all, didn't we, Maggie?'

Maggie nodded, rendered speechless by a mouthful of cake.

Hester made a move towards the table. ‘You've all had enough to eat. Bertie, you can go and fetch some coal for the range and you girls can help Lucy. Your days of idling with the circus people are over. You're home now.'

Grumbling, the children left the table and drifted off to do Hester's bidding. Lucy sipped her tea and smiled. ‘You've got them well trained.'

‘Years of practice,' Hester said, taking a seat at the table. ‘Now, while they're out of the room you can tell me exactly what's been going on in the wilds of Essex.'

Even though Lucy was eager to be alone with Bram, a suitable opportunity never seemed to arise. The house was buzzing with activity after Pascal left, apparently on the best of terms with his wife. Christelle admitted with a wry smile that she had promised to return to France when her prospective tour of the English music halls came to an end. ‘Love is a complicated emotion, Lucy,' she said, sighing. ‘Alas, I am the sort of woman who cannot live without a man, but he does not get things his own way.' She winked and tapped the side of her nose with an impish grin. ‘You have to know how to handle them, my dear. Now where is my room? I wish to change out of these travel-stained garments.'

As soon as they had snatched a quick breakfast next morning, Lucy and Bram set off for Goldspink's office. He did not seem surprised to see them. ‘I read the newspapers,' he said by way of explanation. ‘I knew you would arrive sooner or later.'

‘How do I stand regarding Marriott Park?' she asked anxiously. ‘Is it really mine?'

‘It's yours, as is the house in Leman Street. Had Linus's life not been terminated he would have faced criminal charges for his attempt to defraud you of your inheritance, and he still had outstanding gambling debts. He must have been a desperate man.' He rested his elbows on the desk, looking from one to the other with a wry smile. ‘We have a satisfactory outcome, and that concludes our present business.'

‘Not quite,' Lucy said hastily. ‘I'd like you to consider taking on Stella's case.'

His eyes widened, magnified by the pebble lenses of his spectacles. ‘The young woman who shot Linus? Surely there's no question as to her guilt?'

‘She was driven mad by jealousy. At the very least she'll plead insanity, and in actual fact she saved my life. Linus clearly intended to harm me and I think he would have killed me there and then if she hadn't intervened.'

‘I'm very glad she did.' Bram grasped Lucy's hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. ‘But I can't say that I agree, because that woman was intent on harming you, Lucy.'

‘But she's not right in the head,' Lucy protested. ‘I thought you understood that, Bram.'

‘I suppose I do, in a way. But that doesn't alter the fact that she was prepared to go to any lengths to get rid of you. She was responsible for you breaking your arm, and you might easily have broken your neck when you were thrown from that horse. Or had you forgotten?'

‘No,' Lucy said angrily, ‘of course not. I knew that Stella wanted me out of the way, but Monty was partly to blame. He used her and then he abandoned her. I still say Linus might have killed me if she hadn't intervened.'

Bram frowned, shaking his head. ‘I can see that we're never going to agree on this, and yet you expect me to pay for her defence.'

She snatched her hand free. ‘How could you bring this down to money? I thought we had an understanding, and we both felt the same about everything, but obviously I was wrong.' She rose to her feet, leaning her hands on the edge of the desk. ‘Mr Goldspink, I want you to represent Stella Smith. I'll be responsible for the costs.' She shot a sideways glance at Bram. ‘After all, I'm a woman of property now.'

Goldspink reached for a pad of paper and a pen. ‘Give me the details, Miss Marriott, and I'll see what I can do.'

‘We'll discuss it later, Mr Goldspink. I have to go now.'

‘Lucy, for God's sake be reasonable.' Bram leapt to his feet, but Lucy had reached the door and she wrenched it open.

‘I can find my own way home.' She raced down the stairs, blinded by tears of humiliation and hurt pride. She would have entrusted her life to Bram, and she had never imagined that they would disagree so fundamentally about something that was so important to her. Stella was a spiteful, calculating woman, but it was her obsession with Monty that had turned her into a murderer, and the least she deserved was for her side of the story to be heard in court. It was not a question of forgiveness; it was a matter of fairness.

‘Lucy, stop. Please.' Bram caught up with her as she reached the foot of the stairs. ‘I didn't mean to upset you.'

‘I thought you were on my side,' she said angrily.

‘I am, of course I am.'

‘You brought everything down to money – your money. You sounded just like Pascal when Mama said she wasn't going to do as he wished. You men are all the same.' She headed for the main entrance, but Bram caught up with her in two strides.

‘This is ridiculous. You mistook my meaning.'

She turned to face him. ‘I think it was perfectly clear. You didn't want to spend your money on paying for Stella's defence.'

‘The woman tried to kill you. Why would I want to save her from the law?'

‘Because I asked it of you.'

‘You're being unreasonable.'

‘If you really loved me you'd understand how I feel.'

‘I do love you, Lucy. I've always loved you. What's mine is yours, little though it may be.'

‘That's not what you said in Goldspink's office.' She opened the door and stepped outside into the crowded street, covering her nose with her hand as the stench of unwashed bodies, horse dung and overfull sewers took her breath away. ‘Leave me alone, Bram.'

‘I'm not leaving you on your own. You'd be set upon and robbed for your hanky let alone your purse by this rabble.'

‘You're forgetting that I was once one of this rabble, as you call them.' She tossed her head. ‘I can look after myself. I've been doing it all my life and I don't see the need to change now.' She marched off, head held high. She knew he was following her but she did not look back.

‘Let me hail a cab. I'll see you safely home.'

‘I'm going to see Dora. It's not far and I'll walk, on my own.'

‘You are the most stubborn woman I've ever met.'

She quickened her pace and did not look back until she reached the Strand. Bram was nowhere in sight.

‘Lucy. You're safe.' Dora dropped her embroidery hoop and leapt to her feet, holding out her arms. ‘I've read all about it in the newspapers, but I didn't know when you were returning to London.'