‘Oh lass, stop your crying. He always has been an awkward old bugger. I know that you’ve not taken his money. George at Dinsdale’s will tell the truth, he’s a good lad.’
Agnes tried to console her daughter as she sobbed in the chair across from her.
‘He never gave me a chance to fight my corner. He thought the worst of me, no matter what I said. How could he, Mam? I’ve worked so hard, I made him so much money and I loved every minute working there when he was away.’
Her mother stood up and put her arm around her shoulders. ‘He’s a bitter, stupid and lazy old man, but it has given you a chance to realize what you can do if you put your mind to it. I just wish we had the money to buy his bakery; you’d be set for life then and I could go to my grave happy.’ Agnes caught her breath before continuing, ‘At least Sarah seems to have found happiness in her work, although she’s coming home every night on her last legs. Her bit of money won’t go far though.’
‘I’m sorry, Mam, I’ve let us down. I’ll try and find something else. Although if Ted Lund has blackened my name, nobody will want to take me on,’ Meg said forlornly.
‘You’ll rise above it, if I know you. You don’t let Ted Lund get the better of you. Everyone knows him for what he is. Now stop your crying, you’ve done nothing wrong and folk will know that. We’ll just have to make do and mend until something comes along for you.’
Daisy hugged her closest friend and tried to console her. ‘Well, I’m not going back and giving Ted Lund my business. His bread has always been rubbish anyway and everybody is missing you and complaining that he should take you back. I keep telling everybody that what he says is not right – and young George at Dinsdale’s is sticking up for you, especially when old Dinsdale had been that drunk he’d not remembered what he’d told him. He’ll not be going on any more lunchtime knees up with salesmen.’
She tried to cheer her best friend up. ‘I know you probably don’t want to hear this but why don’t you go and see your Frankie Pearson and see if he can give you a job?’ she suggested, hoping for her head not to be bitten off in reply.
‘No, Brenda Jones made that as clear as crystal. I’d never fit into his world either working for him or on his arm.’
‘And what did this Brenda Jones know about anything? Anyway, you’re not the only one who has lost their job. I hear your Frankie has given her the push as well. She probably deserved it though, she was a snooty cow from what you told me.’
That put a small smile on Meg’s face. ‘He’s sacked her? He said he was going to. I hated her. She thought herself so much better than anyone else and looked at me like I was scum.’
‘There we are, there’s still an inkling of curiosity and longing in you for that Frankie Pearson,’ Daisy said. ‘Why don’t you go and see him? I think he genuinely had feelings for you from what you’ve told me. He’d give you a job as soon as look at you, I’m sure he would.’ That earned Daisy a glare from Meg.
‘No, I’m not being conned again. I would have given him my heart if he’d asked me for it. As it was, it wasn’t me that he loved, it was what I could get and do for him. I couldn’t work close to him every day knowing that I had once had feelings for him. Just leave it, Daisy, I’ll make my own way in the world, I’ll get myself a job. Besides my mam needs me at home at the moment.’
‘All right, it’s your life, I was only trying to help. I hear Sarah is settling in nicely at Hunslet Mill. At least she’ll be bringing a little money in for you all,’ Daisy said, admitting defeat.
‘Yes, but she doesn’t like parting with it and she could do with a bit better pay, you can tell your fancy man,’ Meg grinned.
Daisy grinned back. ‘Fancy man? I don’t know what you are on about! Tom Askew and I are just casual acquaintances.’
‘Well, that’s one way of putting it, but I think there’s a bit more to it than that.’
‘You do what you have to do in this world to survive, my girl, and if me being friends with Tom gets me by in life, then that is what I’ll do,’ Daisy said firmly. ‘You could do with doing the same with Frankie Pearson but I know that you are too damn proud. Now take care, my love, I’ll see you at the weekend.’
Daisy smiled to herself. If Meg wouldn’t see Frankie about a job for herself then she would go and see him on her behalf. Besides, she was sure that there was more than just baking and business between the two of them, no matter what the spiteful Brenda Jones had said.
Daisy stood on the steps of the patisserie and told Frankie the tale of Meg’s downfall, watching his every reaction. ‘Oh, my poor love. Is she all right?’ Frankie asked immediately. ‘I knew I didn’t like that Ted Lund as soon as I saw him. As for what Brenda Jones told her, it is utterly wrong. Yes, I took an interest in her when I knew she shared the same passion for baking and I was worried that she was competition for my bakery. However, I grew to be fond of her and I admire her passion. I must go and see that she is all right and tell her the truth.’
‘She didn’t meet you when she was supposed to because her mother was ill that day and then of course Brenda Jones made her think the worst of you. It’s not for me to say really, but I am sure she feels the same way about you, but daren’t let her feelings show. She did speak very fondly of you and I can see you feel the same way about her, even though your meetings were brief.’
‘I will go and see her, I will go this afternoon,’ Frankie said. ‘Would you be good enough to tell me her address, she has never given me it despite my asking her more than once. Perhaps you are wrong and she does not feel anything for me?’
‘No, believe me, it’s not that. She really does care for you, I know she does, her face lights up as soon as your name is mentioned. It will be that she is ashamed of where she lives. It isn’t the most desired place in Leeds and I’m sure she won’t mind me saying, her family is very poor. They will struggle without Meg’s wages, no matter how badly Ted Lund paid her.’ Daisy looked straight into Frankie’s eyes. ‘It would mean everything to her at this time if you were to search her out, I know it would.’
‘It makes no difference to me whether she is a princess or a pauper. My heart has gone out to her and that is all that matters,’ Frankie told her, to Daisy’s evident delight. ‘I will look after Meg, you no longer need to worry. In fact, I will go this minute. My girls can run the shop without me – once the baking is done for the day it runs like clockwork. Now please give me her address!’
Daisy did so. ‘As I say, it is not the most salubrious of addresses,’ she added. ‘The family deserves to live in better surroundings. They have worked hard all their lives but of late they have fallen upon hard times.’
She saw the gleam in Frankie’s eyes and was sure he knew what he had to do.
‘Oh Lord, Mam! Who’s that knocking on our door? You don’t think that Ted Lund has sent the peelers, do you?’ Meg stood in the shadow of the net curtains and peered out to the doorstep. She gasped when she saw Frankie standing in his best overcoat and top hat. ‘Oh no, it can’t be! Who’s told him where I live?’
‘Why, who is it, lass? You look as if you’ve seen a ghost,’ Agnes said at the panic on Meg’s face. ‘It’s not the peelers, is it? Ted Lund would not be that heartless, especially when he knows that you’ve done nothing wrong.’
‘No, Mam, it’s worse, it’s Frankie Pearson from the patisserie. He’s come to visit me. How has he found out where I live?’
She hesitated, wondering whether to open the door or not.
‘Well don’t just stand there, open the door. Let me see this Frenchman who seems to have gone to your head and who you have shed all these tears over.… Aye, I’ve heard you crying over him, now if you are doing that you’d better see what he has to say for himself.’
Frankie knocked again, harder this time.
Meg felt flustered, her heat thumping as loud as Frankie’s knocking. She opened the door and looked at the man she knew that she had deeper feelings for than a simple friendship. She blushed as he took his hat off and looked at her with concern.
‘My Meg, thank heavens that I have found you,’ Frankie said and leaned forward to kiss her on the cheek. ‘Daisy has been a true friend to us both and told me of your predicament, so I took it upon myself to come and declare my intentions. How that man could treat you so badly, I just don’t know. You had built his business up from nothing. Besides, I have missed you so much, I hoped that you would show your face in my shop or that I would pass you on the street, but I’ve not seen hide nor hair of you of late.’
‘Oh Frankie, it is so good to see you. I have missed you so much. But when Brenda Jones told me that I was just being used by you and that I was of no consequence to you other than wanting to get your hands on Ted Lund’s bakery, I thought the worse of you. I thought I meant nothing to you.’
Frankie took her hands. ‘Ma cherie, I am not that shallow. Brenda Jones was a wicked snob of a person. You should not listen or believe a word that she says. I knew the first time that I saw you that I was smitten. Forget the baking and bakeries, it is you that has captured my heart and I don’t care where you are from or how wealthy you are. I know with every day our love will grow if given a chance. You will give us a chance, won’t you, my Meg?’
‘I will. I feel the same but I didn’t think that you did.’ Meg wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him, forgetting that the whole world – or at least all of Sykes Yard – could see them.
‘Oh my Lord, on the doorstep for all the neighbours to see. Meg, bring him in for heaven’s sake!’ Agnes called and watched as the couple came into her meagre home. ‘So, you’re the one who’s stolen my lass from me and made this dying woman happy as she’s listened to the words said between you both on the doorstep.’ Agnes smiled at the handsome man in front of her and saw the colour in Meg’s cheeks. ‘I had visions of all sorts of a man courting my Meg. But you look a handsome devil. No wonder she has lost her heart to you. I ask that you look after her, no breaking her heart, she’s so precious to me.’
‘I will. I promise that I will always be true to your daughter, together we will conquer the world.’ Frankie looked at Meg. ‘Things will be all right now, I promise.’
‘I hope so because I do love you,’ Meg said and searched for his hand to hold as they both looked at Agnes like two children in bother.
‘Well, it seems to me that you both have the same interests and that you do both care for one another, so I’m not about to stand in your way of happiness,’ Agnes said. ‘Now, perhaps you should put Ted Lund in his place between you, and show him how a proper business is run.’ Agnes sniggered at the thought.
‘Yes, we will do that. With both of us working together, we can achieve anything,’ Frankie said and held Meg tight.
Meg looked at her mother and then at Frankie. She knew she was loved by both and a new life was about to begin for her and her French baker, no matter where that took her. Ted Lund and his bakery were a thing of the past. He should have trusted her, because now, with Frankie’s love, she would be a true threat to his business.
Together, they would be the talk of Leeds.