The Orphan's Dream (45 page)

His lips curled in a sardonic smile. ‘You had a husband then, or have you forgotten poor Hubert already? You were no longer the wide-eyed innocent I met in the soup kitchen. I knew I shouldn't have allowed my feelings for you to get the better of me, but you were a respectable married woman with a decent husband, and a home of your own. What had a drunken out of work seafarer to offer a woman like you?'

‘It wasn't just your decision, Jack. I was involved too. You knew that I loved you, even though I wouldn't betray Hubert's trust. You and I could have stayed friends.'

His harsh laugh echoed round the room. ‘You really are an innocent in the ways of men and women, Belle. Do you really think we could have gone on as we were? We aren't Romeo and Juliet, and I wasn't about to wait around for Hubert to shuffle off this mortal coil. I did what I thought was best for you and for me.'

‘Then why did you change your mind?'

‘Bodger changed it for me. He turned up unexpectedly and he told me that you were a widow. I knew then there was only one course for me to take. When Munroe offered me a job I took it.'

‘I understand so far, I think. But why did you send Edric to America?'

‘The underwriters at Lloyd's didn't throw my claim out, as I feared they might. My solicitor advised me to remain in London until matters were sorted, and Edric was the only man I knew I could trust to do a good job for Ethan. It had to be done quickly or not at all. I couldn't let Ethan down.'

‘So you chose to let me down instead?'

He stood up, leaning both hands on the desk and looking her in the eye. ‘I will take over the
Mudlark
, if you'll allow me to do so. I know what has to be done. Edric made me promise to work for you without pay until everything is straight. I'm at your service. I'll do anything it takes to win your trust and maybe one day you'll find it in your heart to forgive me for the way I've behaved.'

She felt herself drowning in the depths of his blue eyes, but she steeled herself to resist. It would have been easy to walk into his arms and lose herself in the passion that they had once shared, but this was not the make-believe world of a far distant shore. This was reality and she had a business to run. She was about to answer when the door opened and Alf entered the office. He came to a halt, staring at Jack beneath a lowered brow. ‘Is everything all right, missis?'

‘Yes, Alf.' Mirabel walked slowly round the desk, placing herself between them. ‘I don't think you've met Captain Starke. He's taking over from Edric who was called away on urgent business.' She turned to Jack. ‘Alf Coker is my right-hand man. He skippers the
Beatrice
, taking anglers on fishing trips, and next summer we plan to run a passenger service on the river. I don't know how I would have managed without him.'

The air vibrated like a taut bowstring as the two men faced each other. ‘How do, Captain Starke,' Alf said grudgingly.

‘Pleased to make your acquaintance, Coker.' Jack shook Alf's hand, but they were still glaring at each other in a gladiatorial manner.

‘Alf and his family share my house in Savage Gardens,' Mirabel said hastily. ‘Why don't you come home with us, Jack? You can meet my adopted family and stay for supper, unless of course you have a prior engagement.' She met his gaze with a challenging look.

‘Thank you. I'd like to do that but I have to look for lodgings first, or at least a place to stay tonight. Zilla put me up in her parlour last night.' He met Mirabel's startled look with a wry smile. ‘That's all it was, I assure you. I went there to say a final farewell. That part of my life is well and truly in the past.'

‘The
Mudlark
has a cabin, Captain,' Alf said before Mirabel had a chance to respond. ‘I'll be happy to show you where she's berthed.'

‘That's settled then.' Mirabel slipped her cape around her shoulders and put on her bonnet. ‘I suppose Bodger did leave on the
Munroe Star
, Jack? Or did he jump ship again?'

‘Not this time. Bodger knows when he's on to a good thing,' Jack said, grinning. ‘Regular trips between Newport News and London or Bristol will suit him very well.' He proffered his arm to Mirabel. ‘I haven't eaten all day, so I'd be delighted to accept your invitation to supper, Mrs Kettle.'

Mirabel slipped her hand through the crook of his arm, experiencing a warm glow as if the sun had suddenly appeared from behind a bank of clouds.

To Mirabel's surprise Jack fitted in seamlessly with the noisy boisterous family who occupied the house in Savage Gardens. He knew Gertie, of course, but was soon on first name terms with Tilda and the boys, and the younger girls were shy at first, but he soon won them over. When the supper things had been cleared away Mirabel showed him the shattered greenhouse, which Alf was slowly restoring. ‘There won't be any more orchids,' she said, holding up the oil lamp to reveal the damage that Wiley had inflicted. ‘But Alf has plans to grow tomatoes and other vegetables under glass, when it's finished.'

Jack leaned against the staging, looking round. ‘Do you intend to have them living with you permanently?'

‘I won't turn them out, if that's what you mean.' She stepped over a pile of splintered wood. ‘I'm seriously thinking of moving back into my old home, and allowing Alf to pay rent on this place. He's a good man and hardworking.'

‘And he's in need of a wife. It can't be easy bringing up a brood like that on his own.' Jack gave her a steady look. ‘You seem to have been like a mother to those children.'

She recoiled, startled. ‘That's ridiculous. There's nothing between me and Alf.'

‘How would he manage if you moved out? Who would look after the younger children? Tilda's little more than a child herself.'

‘Gertie cares for them all, including Alf, and he thinks the world of her. I can't imagine that she'd want to live anywhere else.' Mirabel frowned thoughtfully. ‘I hadn't thought that far ahead. I've had enough to do with getting a business started.' She shivered as a cool breeze whipped through one of the broken windows prodding her with icy fingers. It was, she thought, as if Hubert's spirit still inhabited the place he had loved so much and was trying to warn her to be careful. ‘Let's go inside. I think it's time for Alf to take you to the
Mudlark
.' She hesitated in the doorway. ‘What of you, Jack? What will you do when you get the money from the insurers? Will you buy another ship? Will you sail away and come back only when it suits you?'

‘Would that bother you, Belle?'

‘Hurry up, Jack. It's starting to rain again.'

 

Mirabel was in the office next morning when Jerusha paid her a visit. She looked elegant as usual and her presence made the room seem smaller and shabbier, but she was brimming with happiness. ‘I've come to invite you to dinner at the hotel this evening, honey. It's our last night in London and we're off to Paris in the morning.' She glanced at the sheaves of documents on Mirabel's desk and shuddered. ‘I declare I have no idea how you cope with all this, Belle. I wish I were as clever as you.'

‘Nonsense,' Mirabel said stoutly. ‘You would do the same if you had to support yourself.'

‘I'm not sure I could, but that's not important.' Jerusha pulled up a chair and sat down, leaning her elbows on the desk. ‘I have something exciting to tell you, but don't breathe a word of it to anyone else, not even Jack.'

‘Jack and I work together. That's all there is to it.'

‘Then I guess you'd have no objection to Jack being our guest to dinner as well as you?'

Mirabel shrugged her shoulders, assuming an air of indifference. ‘Of course not. We're on good terms now.'

‘I guess you know what you're doing.'

‘I do indeed. Now what is the exciting news?'

‘It's not for anyone else to know yet, but I'm telling you because you're the nearest thing I have to a sister. Can you guess what it is?' Jerusha's eyes sparkled and her cheeks flushed to a delicate pink.

Mirabel leapt up from her seat and hurried round the desk to give her a hug. ‘Are you certain? Isn't it too soon to tell?'

Jerusha returned the embrace, kissing her on the cheek. ‘You'll know when it happens to you.' She laid a hand on her belly, smiling happily. ‘If it's a girl I'll call her Belle, and I want you to be her godmother.'

‘Of course I will, but I'm so far away.'

‘Ethan plans to buy another ship as soon as he can raise the money. You'll come and visit with us often, and I'll bring my children to see you.' She clutched Mirabel's hand, holding it to her cheek. ‘Promise me one thing, Belle.'

‘Of course. Anything you want.'

‘Promise that you'll give Jack a chance, because I know he loves you dearly.'

Dazed by the sudden turn in the conversation, Mirabel stared at her in surprise. ‘How can you be so sure?'

‘We had plenty of time to talk during the voyage across the Atlantic. Your name came up more times than I can count. You will give him a second chance, won't you? Promise me you will.'

‘I promise to think it over.'

‘Wonderful. Now I can go to Paris with an easy mind.' Jerusha jumped to her feet. ‘Ethan's waiting outside so I must go, but I'll see you this evening. We'll send a carriage for you.'

That evening Mirabel dressed with extra care. She wore the silk gown that Jerusha had given her and the sapphire necklace and earrings that had been her wedding present from Hubert. She picked up a fading daguerreotype of his likeness from a chest in the parlour, and his stern face stared back at her. ‘I'm sorry, Hubert,' she said softly. ‘I love him, but then you know I didn't feel that way about you.' She smiled sadly. ‘And it was Anjuli's name on your lips when you died.' She raised the frame to her lips and kissed the glass. ‘I know you'll understand.' She placed it in a drawer alongside the photograph of Hubert's true love. ‘Together for all eternity,' she whispered, closing it gently.

‘Mabel, the carriage is here.' Gertie's voice rang out from the entrance hall.

As she gathered up her velvet evening cloak Mirabel felt like a girl again. She left the house and made her way down the steps to where Jack was waiting to hand her into the carriage, and as his fingers closed around her hand she knew she had come home at last. It was impossible to deny the attraction that drew her to him like a magnet, and despite the drizzle that had started to fall, and the curious looks of the passers-by, he drew her to him and kissed her on the lips. As if she weighed less than a pennyweight he lifted her into the carriage and climbed in beside her. Once again she was in his arms, and as the coachman urged the horses into a walk, and then a trot, they were cocooned in a world of their own. ‘I love you, Belle. Tell me that you love me.'

‘I love you, Jack.' She leaned back in the circle of his arms, studying his face in the flickering glow of the gas lights as they flashed past. ‘But you'll be off on your travels again the moment you get the insurance money. I know you will.'

‘I'm going nowhere without you, Belle. Could you find it in your heart to leave all this behind and travel with me?'

She reached up to trace the angle of his jaw with the tip of her finger. ‘Would we build a shipping line to equal the Munroes'?'

‘With you at my side I could do anything, my darling.'

She slid her arms around his neck. ‘I'd want equal shares in the business if I'm to invest.'

His answer was an embrace that robbed her of speech, sanity and the will to refuse him anything. He drew away, giving them both a chance to catch their breath. ‘Husband and wife, lovers and equal partners.'

She smiled lazily. ‘I like the sound of that.'

‘How will we break it to the Munroes?'

‘I can keep a secret. Can you?' She drew his head down so that their lips met in a kiss.

Jerusha was the first to spot them as they edged their way between the tables in the opulent dining room at Claridge's. Ethan stood up as a waiter appeared as if from nowhere to pull out a chair for Mirabel, but it was Jerusha who spoke first. ‘I can tell,' she cried, clapping her hands. ‘I don't need Mama's gift of second sight to see that you two have come to an understanding.'

Ethan reached out to shake Jack's hand. ‘I guess there was another good reason for your decision to stay in London.'

Jack took a seat beside Mirabel, taking her hand in his. ‘I took a chance, and I'm glad to say that it paid off. I can't believe my luck.' He raised her hand to his lips and brushed it with a kiss.

‘Well, I want to be the first to congratulate you,' Ethan said earnestly. ‘You'd better treat her right, Jack. Mirabel is like a sister to us.'

‘And the wedding will have to be soon or I won't be in a fit condition to be matron of honour.' Jerusha blew a kiss to her husband. ‘Botheration. Secrets are made to be broken. We have to fit your nuptials in before the baby arrives. There, I've said it.'

Mirabel squeezed Jack's fingers. ‘I think we can arrange something. There's an empty house waiting for us, and I'll have a selection of bridesmaids from little Kitty up to Gertie.'

‘Waiter,' Ethan called, signalling with his hand. ‘Champagne.'

Jack leaned towards Mirabel. ‘Are you sure about this, Belle?'

‘I've never been so sure about anything in my life,' she said, smiling.

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