For the next two weeks, Flora kept out of Margaret’s way as much as she possibly could. Since Levi Fallows’s interest in her at the dinner party, Margaret now made no attempt to even be civil to her, and sometimes Alex felt as if she was caught in the middle of a war zone, although Flora’s behaviour was exemplary. Magnus wasn’t much better and Alex was forever trying to placate them.
‘Why we should be landed with her I’ll never know,’ he would growl whenever the opportunity arose. Alex knew better than to argue with him and would quickly try to change the subject but now it was taking a toll on her nerves, which felt as taut as piano wires.
Finally, they were into May and slowly the weather began to improve, so at least Flora could get out and about a little more to explore the area. If she didn’t hop on a tram she spent the day walking the streets and window shopping and didn’t get back to the house until it was time to get ready for dinner.
Sometimes Alex went with her but not often. Magnus seemed to disapprove of his wife spending too much time with her and so mostly she set off on her jaunts alone. Already she had visited Brooklyn and Manhattan but she particularly liked visiting the dockyards along the Hudson River. They reminded her of home. New York had always sounded like such a glamorous place to her but now that she was venturing out and about she had soon discovered that it had slum areas just as there were in London.
These excursions were the only times she felt truly happy because she was away from the cold atmosphere of the house, and time and time again she wished that she had never begun the deception, but it was far too late now and, somehow, she was just going to have to make the best of things. But she missed her family and Jamie and the simple life they had had.
It was funny when she came to think of it. She had always envied people with money but now that she had access to it she realised that money couldn’t buy happiness. Certainly not if Alex was anything to go by. The poor woman seemed to be permanently walking on eggshells trying to keep her husband and stepdaughter happy and Flora thought that if Alex did leave, as she wished she would, they surely wouldn’t care if the way they talked to her and treated her was anything to go by. The one bright spot in her life was her maid, Patsy, who always had a cheery word and a smile for her.
‘The master’s holding another dinner party tonight,’ Patsy confided to her one morning as she tidied Flora’s room. Flora still found it hard not to do it herself and often when Patsy arrived it was already done.
Flora groaned. There had been two others in the last two weeks, each a family with an eligible son in tow, although thankfully neither of them had shown the slightest interest in her, or Margaret, for that matter.
‘Oh no!’ Flora plonked herself down heavily on her dressing-table stool. ‘That will mean Margaret will be watching me like a hawk again.’ She could talk easily to Patsy, just as she once had to Connie, who she still missed terribly, possibly because they were of a similar age and she knew that she could trust her not to repeat anything she said.
Patsy giggled. All the staff were aware that the master was desperate to find a husband for his daughter.
‘Per’aps they should find someone with a blind son,’ she said with a wicked twinkle in her eye. ‘He wouldn’t be able to see how plain she is then. Though that wouldn’t really matter if she was nice, would it? Trouble is I don’t think she’s got anything going for her. She’s fat, ugly and rude and unkind!’
‘Well, I wouldn’t have put it quite that bluntly,’ Flora answered, trying not to grin as Patsy plumped up the pillows on her bed before smoothing them out again.
‘Why not? It’s the truth, ain’t it? But anyway, what are you going to do with yourself today?’
‘Oh, I thought I’d just go out and have a wander about.’ Truthfully Flora was finding having so much time on her hands was becoming boring now.
‘Hmm, well judging by the tangle this bed was in you had another bad night,’ Patsy said observantly.
Flora flushed. The nightmares were getting worse if anything and she supposed it was down to her guilty conscience. The only comfort she had was knowing that her family in England were receiving a monthly payment from her, which she hoped would make life a little easier for them.
After Patsy had left, Flora gathered her hat and coat together and headed out into the street. After a while she found herself outside a tailor’s shop in a gloomy little backstreet. She was admiring the suit displayed in the window when the shop door opened and a tiny man who barely reached up to her shoulders popped his head out.
‘Boker Tov, young lady,’ he said and Flora realised that he was Jewish. ‘May I help you?’
‘Oh no … I was just admiring the suit,’ she explained.
He nodded. ‘It is good stitching, yes?’
‘Very good,’ Flora responded with a smile.
‘And what brings such a pretty young lady to the backstreets?’
Flora lifted her shoulders. ‘I’m staying with my aunt and I was bored so I decided to do a little exploring.’
‘Ah!’ He shook his head making his tiny skullcap wobble dangerously. ‘It is good to walk and exercise but perhaps not in certain areas. There are many bad people hereabouts,’ he warned. ‘They will pick your pockets without you even knowing they have touched you, or worse still they will drag you into a brothel. Avoid Soho at all costs, my dear. There are many ladies of the night there.’
‘Thank you, I’ll remember that,’ Flora said, casting an anxious glance across her shoulder. She would heed his warning and be careful where she walked in future. The little man disappeared into the shop and Flora made her way back to Alex’s house to find Patsy was waiting for her in her room with her clothes laid out across the bed.
As soon as she saw Flora, Patsy whistled through her teeth. ‘Oooh, you cut that fine, didn’t you, miss?’ the girl said. ‘You know what a stickler the master is for punctuality. His guests will be arriving within the hour but I’ve run your bath for you so if you go and pop in it I’ll help you get dressed when you’ve finished.’
Flora sighed and did as she was told. Thanks to Patsy, she was ready on time and as she started down the stairs she heard Alex and Magnus greeting their guests in the hallway. It looked like another dreary night lay ahead. And then as she neared the foot of the stairs she found herself staring into a face that she recognised and she felt the colour drain from her cheeks.
‘Ah, Mr and Mrs Johnson, Tobias, this is my niece. You might have met on the Titanic?’
Flora’s legs seemed to have developed a life of their own as she stared into Toby’s eyes.
‘I believe we did briefly,’ he said with a wicked grin, ‘Although I can’t remember the name …’
‘This is Constance,’ Alex told him and Flora wished that the floor would open up and swallow her.
‘It’s very nice to meet you again … Constance.’ He held out his hand and when she placed hers into it he grinned and held on to it a fraction longer than was necessary, much to Margaret’s disgust.
‘Right, well shall we go and have a drink before we all go into dinner?’ Magnus suggested and they all trailed after him into the drawing room where a maid was waiting for them with glasses of wine on a silver tray.
‘We were all so lucky to survive the sinking of the ship, weren’t we, my dear?’ Mrs Johnson trilled as she stared at Flora but all the girl could do was nod mutely. Seeing Toby again seemed to have robbed her of her voice, for she knew that just one word from him could end her pretence, and then what would become of her? Would she be carted off to a cell somewhere with no one to help her, or would she be turned out onto the streets? She could see that Alex was watching her closely, as if she could sense her unease and she forced herself to give the woman a little smile.
Thankfully, Alex managed to steer the conversation away from what had happened on the Titanic – she knew how much it upset her to talk about it – and for now they began to speak of other things. Eventually they were summoned into dinner and Flora felt faint when Toby offered his arm. She knew it would look rude if she refused to take it so she steeled herself to walk sedately at his side. Once in the dining room, he pulled out a chair for her and when she was seated he sat down right beside her.
‘Your niece and my son seem to be getting along remarkably well, don’t they?’ Mrs Johnson whispered approvingly to Alex, leaning towards her so Alex got the full force of her perfume. ‘It would be so nice if Tobias could meet a nice girl now,’ she continued. ‘I’m not entirely happy with the company he’s keeping at present. I think it’s time for him to settle down.’
Alex smiled. It appeared that Mrs Johnson had her sights set on Flora but what would be would be.
Very soon they were being served with one delicious course after another but the whole meal was torture for Flora, so much so that she found she couldn’t eat a thing and afterwards she couldn’t even remember what they had been served. Then, once the meal was over, things got even worse, if it were at all possible, when Alex suggested to Flora, ‘Why don’t you play a piece on the piano for us, my dear? I seem to recall in one of his letters your father telling us what an accomplished pianist you are?’
Flora gulped. ‘I er … don’t really feel up to it this evening, if you don’t mind,’ she said in a wobbly voice as Toby looked on with amusement. ‘I’m feeling rather hot, as it happens.’ She began to fan herself with her hand as if to add emphasis to her words.
Connie had been a wonderful player but she herself couldn’t play a note if her life depended on it.
‘Then why don’t you take dear Connie out into the garden for a little fresh air, dear?’ Toby’s mother simpered, leaping at the opportunity to push the two young people together.
‘Of course, it would be my pleasure.’ Once more, Toby offered his arm and knowing that she had little choice Flora reluctantly took it and allowed him to lead her away as Margaret glowered at her.
They entered the garden through the French doors in the drawing room and once outside Flora wrapped her arms about herself and shivered; the days were warming up but the evenings still tended to be cold. She stared at Toby warily as he leaned lazily against the wall and grinned at her.
‘So … Constance … how are you?’ His voice dripped sarcasm and she flinched but remained silent. What could she say? She had been well and truly caught out in her deception and she knew that she deserved all that could be coming to her. One word from Toby and everyone would know what she had done.
His hand snaked forward then and she forced herself to remain still as he trailed a finger down her cheek. ‘It must be nice to suddenly become an heiress,’ he remarked. ‘It’s quite a transformation from being a maid, isn’t it?’
‘I … I never intended to do this,’ she answered in a shaky voice. ‘But I was afraid of what would happen to me. I have no one here, I know no one and …’ Her voice trailed away. The excuse sounded ridiculous even to her own ears. ‘So, what are you intending to do?’ she asked then. ‘Are you going to tell them?’
‘That all depends.’
‘On what?’ She stared at him.
‘Well … on a few things actually.’ Dusk was falling now but she could still see his face clearly and she could tell that he was enjoying this immensely. She was like a rabbit caught in a trap and it came to her then that there wasn’t a single thing she could do about it.
‘For a start off I find myself in a bit of a sticky situation at the moment. A gambling debt, you know? And Mother doesn’t seem too keen on bailing me out of it at the moment so perhaps if you could be … nice to me …’
‘What you mean is you’re going to blackmail me!’ she answered sharply and now the smile slid from his face and he glared at her.
‘Don’t you come the injured party with me,’ he growled threateningly. ‘A few gambling debts are nothing like as serious as what you’re doing impersonating a dead girl. I could blow the whistle on you right now and then you’d be out on your ass on the streets and what would become of you then, eh?’
‘So how much do you need?’ she asked dully. He had her tightly in a corner and she knew it.
‘A hundred dollars should do … for now!’
‘A hundred dollars!’ Horrified, Flora stared at him.
‘For now,’ he repeated. ‘But of course … if you’d rather I went back inside and—’
‘No! I’ll get it for you tomorrow,’ she told him in a panic.
He smirked with satisfaction. ‘That’s better. And now … how about a little kiss, eh? We could start where we left off aboard the ship.’ His eyes were gleaming menacingly, and before she could stop him, his hand suddenly reached towards her and brushed across her breast.
Badly shaken Flora stepped away from him so quickly that she almost lost her balance and gathering together what dignity she could she told him, ‘I’ll pay you what you ask but if you want me to do more than that then you’d best go in there right now and tell them what you know and get it over with!’
‘All right, all right, we’ll play it your way … for now.’ He chuckled but the sound held no mirth. ‘I’ll be back tomorrow afternoon for my money. I’ll tell everyone that I’m calling on you. Just make sure you have it ready!’ With that he walked back inside without giving her so much as another glance and once alone again Flora sagged against the wall as her legs threatened to give way beneath her. Her future suddenly looked very bleak indeed.