She hesitated at the saloon door, looking back at Noah as if for encouragement.
‘Go on in,’ he urged her.
Belle pushed open the door, her heart thumping so hard she felt anyone passing would be able to hear it.
The smell of beer and cigarette smoke slapped her in the face. She saw people turn to look at her and for a second she wanted to back away.
But then she heard Mog scream out her name, a sound of absolute joy, and tears came so suddenly that Belle was momentarily blinded.
The small figure in a dusty-pink dress pushing her way through the crowded bar didn’t look like the woman who had mothered her. ‘Belle, my beautiful Belle,’ she said, and the mist of tears cleared enough for Belle to see that Mog was crying too, arms outstretched wide to embrace her.
A loud cheer went up, fifty or so male voices raised in welcome. Mog’s arms were round her, hugging her so tight that any trepidation vanished.
‘Let me look at you!’ Mog said.
Silence fell and all faces turned to the two women holding hands, crying and laughing at the same time as they studied each other.
‘Welcome home, sweetheart!’ someone shouted out, and a roar went up with a great stamping of feet.
Belle didn’t recognize anyone, though she supposed they were all men who had seen her growing up. But she knew their delight was really for Mog. The woman she’d loved all her life was loved by all these people too.
Garth came forward then, but he had changed too. He was just as big as she remembered but his red hair and his beard which had been so unkempt were now neatly cut. He wore a dazzling white shirt, the sleeves rolled up above his mighty forearms, and an emerald-green waistcoat with small brass buttons. But the real difference was his wide smile; she’d seen him throughout her childhood, but he’d always looked so sour and mean.
‘My, you’ve grown into a beauty!’ he exclaimed. ‘It’s good to have you home. Now, where’s Jimmy? He’s been pacing up and down all day, checking the time and looking out the door, and now he isn’t even here!’
‘I am here, Uncle,’ Jimmy’s voice rang out, and everyone turned to see him standing quietly by the window where he’d clearly been all along. ‘I just wanted Mog to be able to greet her first.’
His voice had deepened and he was a good three or four inches taller than Belle remembered. His shoulders were almost as broad as his uncle’s, and his once spiky, carroty hair had grown darker and he’d let it grow a little longer which suited him far better.
The picture Belle had held of him in her mind was of a skinny, freckled-faced boy with tawny eyes, a polite manner and the look of a street urchin, but this Jimmy was a man, handsome, poised and confident. Only his tawny eyes were the same.
‘He never gave up on you,’ Garth said, and the look he gave his nephew was one of pride. ‘Well, come on, you great lummox, come and give her a hug!’
Belle felt that the Jimmy she’d once known would have shrivelled up with embarrassment at such an order, but this new one didn’t. He came towards her in three or four strides, swept her up in his arms and swung her round.
‘I thought this day would never come,’ he said as she squealed in surprise. ‘You can’t know how good it is to see you again.’
Garth stepped behind the bar and rang the bell for silence.
‘This is the day we’ve all been waiting for,’ he said, his voice booming out around the bar. ‘It’s time for celebration with our Belle home safe and sound. I only really know her through Mog and Jimmy, but I’m looking forward to getting to know her as family. Before I give the order for drinks on the house for everyone, I just want to offer very special thanks to Noah. Without his help and tenacity Belle would have been lost to us for ever.
‘He isn’t family, he hadn’t even met Belle before she was snatched. But Mog asked him for his help, and he gave it willingly. For two years he’s been our rock, comforting Mog, supporting Jimmy, advising, writing articles, badgering the police and God knows what else. We consider him family now too. And he’s brought our Belle home. So let’s give him a Seven Dials salute that can be heard right back in France.’
The cheering went on and on, so loud that Belle and Mog put their hands over their ears. Noah looked embarrassed, but Jimmy and Garth grabbed him, lifted him up on to their shoulders and joined in the cheering.
For Belle it was both heaven and hell. While it was wonderful to see her return creating such joy, and for Noah to have the appreciation he deserved, what she really wanted was to be alone with Mog, and Jimmy too, to sit down comfortably and talk. Not to be trapped in a smoky bar with a whole lot of strangers making such a din.
Noah was put down, Garth went behind the bar to hand out drinks, and suddenly Jimmy was there, putting one arm around Mog, the other round Belle.
‘Go on through the back,’ he said. ‘You’ve got two years of catching up to do.’
Mog did exactly what Belle had imagined all the way home. She made a pot of tea. The noise from the bar was only marginally quieter in the kitchen but she appeared not to notice it.
‘It feels so strange,’ she said as she got a fruit cake out of a tin and put it on a plate. ‘Since I’ve known you were coming home I rehearsed everything I would say, thought of all the questions I wanted to ask, but now you’re here I can’t think of anything to say.’
‘It’s the same for me,’ Belle admitted. ‘There’s not even the familiar things around from the old house to prompt me.’
‘Don’t you like it?’ Mog sounded so anxious Belle couldn’t help but laugh.
‘It’s much, much nicer,’ she said. She was speaking the truth. The old kitchen had been the only home she’d known, but it had been too big to be cosy, and it had always felt gloomy because it was a semi-basement. It was now dusk outside, but there was still light coming through the large window by the sink, and it looked as if the lemon-coloured walls had only recently been painted. There were yellow checked curtains at the window and a tablecloth to match. By the stove was a rag rug and two easy chairs with patchwork cushions. The dresser was full of pretty china, and even the shelves that held rows of glass jars containing everything from flour to brown sugar and rice had a little scalloped edging that had been painted yellow too.
It was clearly all Mog’s work. Belle remembered she was always titivating things back in the old place for she was a born homemaker, but perhaps because Annie was reluctant to spend money on anywhere which wasn’t seen by her ‘gentlemen’, there could only be small improvements.
‘It was a hell hole when I first came here,’ Mog said. ‘Men living alone are such pigs!’
‘So tell me about the fire and even more importantly about Garth. Noah tells me you are getting married.’
With that the ice was broken, and Mog talked animatedly about coming here to live, cleaning up the place and finally falling for Garth and his proposal of marriage.
‘We’re two of a kind,’ she said with a loving smile that showed how happy she was with him. ‘Or maybe I should say that we were both only half a person until we met and became one. He isn’t the bad-tempered thug people used to claim, and I’ve found that I’m not the doormat I used to be. I never thought I’d ever find love, I just assumed it wasn’t for women like me.’
Belle felt herself getting choked up with emotion and asked when the wedding was going to be.
‘Well, now you’re home we can arrange it as quick as we want,’ Mog said, as she poured Belle yet another cup of tea. She had already offered all kinds of food, but Belle wasn’t hungry. ‘I think I must’ve known deep down that you would be found because I have kind of stalled on it. But my happiness is complete now you are back where you belong.’
‘And what about Annie?’ Belle asked. ‘Noah told me what she was doing, and how you two just went your separate ways. Does she know I’m back?’
‘She knows you were found. I went to see her, but we didn’t know then how soon you were coming home.’
‘And?’
‘She was delighted to hear you were safe, but you know what she’s like. Won’t show any emotion, can’t praise anyone or offer any sympathy. I used to think that it was somehow my fault she was that way, but to be honest, Belle, I can’t be doing with it any more. If she wants to grow into an embittered old woman then that’s her funeral. I’m done with running around for her and making excuses for her. She knows where I am and where you’ll be. We’ll just have to see if she turns up.’
Belle had hoped that her being away for two years would have made her mother softer and more caring, but she supposed that was too much to anticipate.
‘But I want to know about you,’ Mog said, changing the subject. ‘Now, start at the beginning and tell me the whole story. No leaving bits out you think will upset me.’
*
An hour and a half and two more cups of tea and a ham sandwich later, Belle had finally reached the point in the whole sorry story where Etienne rescued her. Mog’s eyes had been as big as saucers for much of it, and she’d broken down in tears several times.
‘How can you still look as fresh and lovely?’ she asked.
‘I have had ten days in Paris to be fattened up again and for the bruises to fade, with the kindness of people like Noah, Etienne and Gabrielle to help me over it,’ she said. ‘And Philippe sent me over a beautiful silk blouse and some French perfume before I left.’
‘Have you been, you know, checked out?’ Mog asked very gently.
Belle smiled at Mog’s reticence to say ‘pox’. She looked and sounded like a little suburban housewife now; no one would ever guess she’d been a maid in a brothel for half her life.
‘Yes, while I was in the nursing home. There was no sign of any disease, but the doctor did warn me that it can be some time before symptoms show themselves. But then, I won’t be going down that road again!’
Mog blushed and Belle laughed at her. ‘We can’t pretend I’m still a little innocent,’ she said.
‘To me you’ll always be my little girl,’ Mog said, her lip quivering. ‘I can’t bear to think of what you’ve been through.’
‘It’s all over now. Telling you all about it was the last hurdle. I’ve got a good bit of money, and I’m going to open a hat shop. The first hat I make will be for your wedding.’
Jimmy peeped round the door. ‘If you want me to go away I will,’ he said.
‘Of course we don’t,’ Belle said. ‘Come on in and join us. Are there many left in the bar? It’s become a lot quieter.’
‘Most of them have staggered home now,’ Jimmy said. ‘Garth said he’s closing up any minute. Noah left some time ago. He said to tell you he had a letter to write.’
Belle grinned at that, and explained about Lisette to Mog and Jimmy. ‘I hope she will come to England, he’s really smitten with her. She deserves a better life, she is a good, kind woman, and very pretty too.’
She could see Jimmy wanted to know her whole story as well, but she knew she’d have to give him a censored version and that would take a day or two to plan. She was suddenly exhausted too, the travelling and all the excitement had drained her. ‘May I go to bed now?’ she asked. ‘I’d like to stay up and talk some more but I’m just too tired.’
‘Of course,’ Jimmy said. ‘Just to know you are safe upstairs is enough for Mog and me. We can talk tomorrow.’
Chapter Thirty-six
Sharp-eyed and brown-toothed Police Inspector Todd and his constable were just leaving the Ram’s Head after interviewing Belle when Todd turned to her.
‘Thank you for your valuable assistance, Miss Cooper,’ he said brusquely. ‘We shall have both men in custody by this afternoon. We’ve had them under surveillance since Mr Bayliss sent us word you had been found.’
Belle’s mouth gaped in shocked surprise. The two men had been questioning her for over an hour, but as if she was a criminal, not a victim of crime. She didn’t understand why they hadn’t told her this at the start of the interview.
Todd had made her explain every last detail of what occurred up in Millie’s room at Annie’s, and kept stopping her with more questions as if trying to trap her in a lie. At one point he even implied she’d hidden under the bed for some reason other than being scared of getting caught upstairs. He clearly didn’t believe she hadn’t really understood what went on there.
When he got her to tell him about her abduction he wore a cynical expression as if he thought she’d climbed into that carriage with two strangers for an adventure. It was only when she finally got to the part about what happened to her at Madame Sondheim’s, and she started to cry, that he softened a little.
He had shown her a long list of other girls’ names and asked if she had met any of them or had heard anything about them. Some of the names were ones Noah had mentioned, but Belle knew nothing about any of them. That was something else he hadn’t appeared to believe.
She was sorely tempted to tell Inspector Todd what she thought of him, but she bit back an angry retort. ‘How clever of you,’ she said, and masked her sarcasm with a brilliant smile.
‘We will need you to make a formal identification of the two men once we have them in custody,’ Todd said, clearly immune to sarcasm. ‘And once your statement has been written up we will ask you to read it through and sign it. Meanwhile, may I say I am very glad you were found in Paris and brought back to your family and friends.’
Belle went back inside, once the policemen had gone, and found Jimmy waiting in the kitchen, an anxious expression on his face.
‘Did it go all right?’ he asked.
‘I can understand why the majority of people around here don’t want to help the police or even ask for their assistance. They sit on their hands for two years, then when I finally get back, after no help from them, they treat me as if I’m a liar,’ she ranted. ‘That man Todd has about as much sensitivity as a cockroach. But he did finally say they are going to arrest both Kent and Sly today. Let’s hope they actually manage it.’
Jimmy looked sympathetic. ‘The word around here is that no one will shield Kent now, not even if he tries to bribe them,’ he said. ‘Not just because of Millie or taking you, but for the terrible conditions he forces his tenants to live under, the other missing girls and the violence he metes out to anyone who stands in his way. He’s had his day – even the men who were once his most staunch allies have abandoned him. He’ll hang, I’m sure of that, and if Sly lives up to his nickname he’ll talk to save his own neck.’
‘I just hope those other girls can be found and brought home,’ Belle said. ‘But I expect most of them are beyond saving now.’ She slumped down on a chair feeling completely dejected.
‘Uncle Garth said I could have the rest of the day off. He thought you’d be a bit down and suggested I took you out somewhere to cheer you up,’ Jimmy said. ‘Would you like that?’
‘It would be lovely,’ she replied gratefully. She didn’t want to spend the rest of the day indoors mulling over how unfairly the police had treated her, or dwelling on the fate of the other girls.
‘It’s such a nice sunny day we could take a boat to Greenwich, or go to Hampstead Heath or even Kew Gardens.’
‘I’d like to go to Greenwich,’ she said.
His face lit up and he said he’d go upstairs and change his clothes as he’d been working in the cellar earlier.
Belle stayed in the kitchen and washed up the tea cups. Mog had gone to the market to buy some vegetables, and she could see Garth through the window stacking up barrels and crates of empties for collection in the back yard. Going out with Jimmy for the day was an ideal way of talking things through with him; she knew she hadn’t been very fair to him so far in avoiding doing so.
Yesterday she hadn’t got up till late, and then Mog had commandeered her for the rest of the day, taking her to a dressmaker to see about getting a dress made for her wedding. Belle could have come home after that and talked to Jimmy, but instead she encouraged Mog to stay out with her for the afternoon shopping in Regent Street. During the evening Jimmy was behind the bar, so they had only had brief, snatched conversations.
What made it even harder to talk to Jimmy was that both Mog and Garth obviously had high expectations for them. She could see it everywhere. A bedroom on the top floor had been prepared for her with pretty flowery wallpaper, flouncy curtains, and the kind of new double bed with a fancy carved headboard that a newly married couple might choose. The room next to her bedroom was empty of furniture, and Belle was sure this was because it had been earmarked as a living room for her and Jimmy if they did get married.
While she knew that these types of assumptions and plans were commonplace in families where there were two young people considered ideally suited for each other, she found it oppressive and unrealistic. She really liked Jimmy; he had every quality that any girl would want in a husband. In fact if she hadn’t been snatched away at such a young age, she had no doubt that they would have become sweethearts and might even have been married by now.
But Mog and Garth weren’t taking into consideration that she wasn’t an ordinary, innocent young girl any longer, and that her experiences had created a huge gulf between herself and Jimmy. She felt Mog and Garth ought to be able to see this for themselves, but because they’d found love, they had this rather sweet but potentially dangerous idea that Jimmy’s devotion to Belle could wipe out her past.
Belle took Jimmy’s arm as they walked down Villiers Street towards the Thames Embankment to catch a boat a little later that morning.
‘Remember that day we came running down here in the snow?’ he said.
‘I used to think about it all the time when things were bad,’ she admitted. ‘It’s so strange to find ourselves all grown up now; we’ve both changed so much in two years.’
‘I don’t think I have,’ he said, grinning at her. ‘Grown a couple of inches, built up a bit of muscle, but that’s all.’
‘No, there’s more than that,’ she said. ‘You are a man now, you’ve developed confidence in yourself. You were still a boy grieving for your mother when I met you.’
He pulled a face. ‘You make it sound as if I was drippy.’
Belle laughed. ‘I didn’t mean it like that. I was fairly drippy too, I didn’t know anything then, I’d hardly been out of Seven Dials.’
They continued to chat as they joined the long queue for a boat to Greenwich. Belle’s spirits were rising because Jimmy wasn’t attempting to make her talk about the two missing years. He was telling her stories about neighbours, some of whom she remembered and some she didn’t, but they were all funny. He was a good raconteur, descriptive, yet veering towards cynicism as if he’d studied the people he was talking about quite closely. She found herself laughing easily, and by the time they got on to a boat and found seats up by the bow, she was feeling very glad that they’d come out, and very comfortable with him.
There was a big mix of people on the boat: young couples like them, families, old people and quite a few foreigners on holiday in England. The sun was very warm, making the river sparkle, and everyone was jovial and friendly in anticipation of a good day out.
‘I always wanted Mog to take me on one of these boats,’ Belle said as the crew cast off and the boat began to chug away downriver. ‘I used to think she was mean because she didn’t, but I suppose Annie never let her have a whole day off.’
‘She told me once that she asked Annie if she could take you on a little holiday to the seaside,’ Jimmy said. ‘Annie refused. She said she thought at the time it was because your mother was just being mean-spirited, but later she realized it was because she was jealous of the bond between you.’
‘I don’t know why Mog didn’t leave, Annie was so nasty to her sometimes,’ Belle said reflectively.
‘Because of you, of course,’ Jimmy said. ‘But I think too she was very attached to Annie. She told me that the woman who owned the place before her was always on her back, but Annie stuck up for her. Mog isn’t the kind to abandon anyone who has been good to her.’
‘I don’t think she had much idea of her own worth, even though she was the one who kept everything together,’ Belle said. ‘Tell me about how they came to split up. Didn’t Annie want Mog with her at her guest house?’
‘Annie just made her plans for herself,’ Jimmy said. ‘At the time I thought it was shabby of her, she didn’t seem to care about Mog at all, but as it turned out, it was for the best.’
‘I wonder when she’ll deign to come and see me. Or do you think she’s expecting me to go to her?’
Jimmy shrugged. ‘She’s a difficult woman to fathom. I’ve never told anyone this before, but I went to see her at the time Noah discovered you’d been sent to America. Apart from relaying that information, I suppose I just wanted to get to know her better, but she was very curt with me. She said that wherever you were, you surely could have written to her. Well, I pointed out you could very well have done so, but as the old place was burned down the letter wouldn’t have been delivered.’
‘I did send a card from New York,’ Belle said. ‘It never crossed my mind that they might not still be there. I used to imagine them in Jake’s Court, Mog hanging out the washing, Mother sitting at the kitchen table over dinner with the girls. And you too of course, running errands for your uncle. I thought about writing a proper letter once I was in New Orleans, but I didn’t because I thought it would be worse for Mog and Annie to know the truth about what had happened to me.’
‘I can understand that,’ Jimmy said. ‘But I couldn’t understand Annie’s attitude, she just made me angry. She turned everything around to make out she was the wronged one. I said as much and she told me to get out.’
Jimmy went on to tell Belle all the different things he’d done to try to trace her. She smiled as he described breaking into Kent’s office and his house down in Charing.
‘Didn’t you think that house was strange?’ she said. ‘I only saw the hall and a living room, but it was so pretty and nice, not the kind of house you’d expect a monster like him to live in.’
‘I thought just the same. I wonder if we’ll ever find out why it was like that,’ Jimmy said thoughtfully. ‘Could he really have been planning to take Millie there?’
Belle got a mental picture of Millie locked in an upstairs room and shuddered. ‘Don’t let’s talk about that, it makes me think of Pascal. I think he and Kent were two of a kind.’
‘I promise that one day you will wake up and see that you gained something from your experiences, however horrible the past couple of years have been for you,’ he said.
Belle raised her eyebrows quizzically. ‘That’s as unlikely as me finding out I’m actually King Edward’s love child,’ she said with a giggle.
Jimmy smiled. ‘Well, it happened to me. I was so upset when you disappeared, you were my only friend, and suddenly you were gone. But miraculously my life got better because of it. Mog came to stay after the fire, my uncle became happier with her around, and trying to find you gave us all new purpose and brought us all together. Even the pub is doing better because of it.’
‘Yes, I can see how it improved your life,’ she said. ‘But I don’t think I’ll ever get to the point where I can say I’m glad I was sold into prostitution.’
‘No, not that, but out of it came other things. I can only see it for myself when I look back. It was awful seeing Mog’s grief, I was beside myself with worry too. It was a dark, horrible time. Yet without it, would I have come to like and respect my uncle? I don’t think so. I gained Mog whom I adore, and found a first-class friend in Noah. They in turn gave me confidence, and I became good at running the pub. I feel I have a real family now and a future. And it isn’t just me, look how happy Mog is now, and Uncle Garth. Three people whose lives were changed for the better.’
‘Then I suppose I shall have to look back and see if I can find something I’ve gained,’ she said.
‘It’s too soon for that yet. You are still dwelling on your lost innocence, the people who hurt you. But I bet there were people you are glad you met, things you’ve seen that have changed your thinking. One day you will wake up as I did and be glad for that.’
‘Maybe,’ she said. The only person who she was truly glad she met was Etienne, but she couldn’t say that, and changed the subject to something lighter.
Belle found Greenwich enchanting with its quaint little old houses and pubs close to the river front, and the elegant Georgian houses further back. She thought the Royal Hospital School and Naval College looked splendid with such lush green lawns before them. After pie and mash from a stall by the river front, they climbed up the hill to look at the Observatory and sat on a bench to enjoy the view of the river.
‘Henry VIII was born here in the Palace,’ Jimmy said – he always seemed to know about history. ‘It burned down though. And where the Observatory is now was Greenwich Castle where he used to keep his mistresses. It must have been quite a sight when kings and queens sailed upriver in the royal barges. And it’s odd to think this is where time is measured, and longitude so people can sail by it all over the world.’
‘Are you happy to carry on running the Ram’s Head, or have you got other plans?’ Belle asked. They had talked about so much. Jimmy had told her about the funeral of King Edward and then the coronation of George V a year later, when he’d stayed up all night to get a good spot to see the royal procession come past. He explained what the suffragettes had been doing in her absence, how many of them were force-fed in prison, and how one was killed when she threw herself under the King’s horse at Epsom race course. He said Mog and Garth had had some very heated arguments about them. Mog admired them but Garth thought they should stay at home and look after their families and leave politics and voting to men.