‘You look nice.’ Agnes had to keep the surprise out of her voice and from her face on seeing Pearl as she bustled into the kitchen.
Pearl stopped and looked down at the faded blue dress that Agnes had loaned her. Agnes had told her she could keep it for as long as she wanted and just to give it back when she had no more use for it.
‘I dinnit knar about that,’ she huffed. ‘Still, it does the job.’ She grabbed her handbag and boxed-up gas mask.
Agnes dried her hands on her pinny. ‘I’ve got a really nice shawl that goes with the dress, if yer want? It’ll keep the chill off, if it gets a bit nippy.’
Pearl hesitated. ‘Aye, go on then.’
Agnes disappeared upstairs and returned with a cream-coloured crocheted shawl.
Pearl looked at it. Normally, she would never have even considered wearing something so old-fashioned and fuddy-duddy, but it was perfect for today.
Agnes draped it over Pearl’s shoulders and stood back. There was no denying that Pearl had made a real effort to look smart and respectable. She’d kept her make-up simple and hadn’t plastered it on like she normally did, and her hair had been pulled back into a neat bun, only a few dyed-blonde strands managing to break free.
‘You and Bill going anywhere special?’ Agnes asked as Pearl put her cigarettes and lighter into her handbag.
‘Seaham,’ Pearl lied.
‘Well, have a lovely time,’ Agnes said as Pearl walked down the hallway.
Turning around at the last moment, Pearl looked at Agnes.
‘Thanks,’ she said, ‘yer knar, for the lend of yer clothes.’
For the second time that morning, Agnes tried to keep her surprise from showing.
‘Yer all set then?’ Pearl said to Bill as she reached the entrance to the Tatham.
‘I am indeed,’ Bill said, tipping his trilby and putting out his arm.
Pearl batted it away. ‘We dinnit have to get into character until we’re there, yer daft bugger.’ She looked over Bill’s shoulder and saw that Geraldine was taking chairs off tables. ‘Yer sure yer can trust her?’
‘I’m sure,’ Bill said, turning and giving Geraldine a mock salute. ‘We’re off now. Patricia will be in at midday to give yer a hand.’
Geraldine’s mouth dropped open on seeing Pearl.
Unlike Agnes, she didn’t try to hide her astonishment.
As the train pulled out of Sunderland station, Bill felt ever so slightly nervous. A good, exciting nervous. A first-date kind of nervous, which was ridiculous for a man of his age, and even more ridiculous because this wasn’t even a date. Much as he would have wanted it to be. No, today’s trip had been Pearl’s call. She had been the one to ask him to accompany her on a day out to Ryhope, not Seaham as she had asked him to tell everyone.
Suddenly remembering that he had brought something to aid today’s subterfuge, Bill started to fidget around in his pocket.
‘What yer looking for?’ Pearl asked, touching her bun self-consciously, then smoothing her dress out.
‘Here we are,’ Bill said, unfolding a white handkerchief to reveal a gleaming gold wedding band. ‘If we’re going to pretend to be married, then you’d best be wearing a ring.’
Pearl eyed it suspiciously. ‘Where did yer get that from?’
Bill laughed. ‘I didn’t nick it, if that’s what yer thinking.’
‘So, if yer didn’t nick it, where did yer get it from? It’s too small to be yers.’ Pearl picked up the ring from the folds of the starched white hanky.
‘It’s the ex-wife’s,’ Bill said, watching Pearl as she held up the ring and inspected it.
Now it was Pearl’s turn to be shocked.
‘Yer ex-missus?’ she said, staring at Bill. ‘I didn’t knar yer’d been married.’
Bill laughed, enjoying seeing Pearl’s disbelief.
‘There’s a lot yer don’t know about me, Pearl.’
‘She’s not dead, is she? I’m not wearing owt that’s been taken off a corpse.’
Pearl’s lack of sensitivity made Bill laugh loudly, causing a few passengers to stop their own conversations and look at the couple sitting opposite each other in the rear of the carriage.
‘I didn’t have you down as superstitious,’ said Bill.
‘I’m not,’ Pearl said, still pinching the ring between her thumb and index finger. ‘It’s just bleedin’ ghoulish. Wearing something off a dead person.’
Bill chuckled. ‘Don’t worry, the ex is very much alive and kicking. The ring was tossed back at me with quite some velocity when she walked out. I kept it. Knew it would come in handy one day.’
‘Aye, well, it has. Silly mare should have kept it, she’d have got a few bob for it,’ Pearl said, sliding it on her wedding-ring finger and holding her hand out to look at it.
‘Suits yer,’ Bill said with a smile.
‘Fares, please,’ the conductor boomed as he stepped through the connecting door and into their carriage.
Pearl scrabbled round in her bag and fished out their tickets. The conductor smiled at Pearl and tipped the peak of his cap.
‘Thank you, ma’am,’ he said, clipping their tickets and handing them back.
‘You both have a good day,’ he said, nodding at Bill and moving on to the family of four in the seats further down the second-class carriage.
Pearl leant forward and whispered, ‘So, this is how yer get treated if yer a respectable married woman?’
Bill looked at her. He wanted to say it might have more to do with the fact that she looked lovely in her blue dress, which showed off her pale blue eyes, and that her hairdo and the lack of heavy make-up highlighted her naturally attractive face. But he didn’t.
‘So, what’s the plan?’ he asked instead.
Pearl sat back and took a deep breath.
She wished there was a plan as such, but there wasn’t – other than to find out the truth: had Henrietta known about Charles, colluded with him in order to satiate his perverted needs? Underneath that veneer of eccentricity, was Henrietta as rotten to the core as her husband? And why was she now incarcerated – under a false name – in the local asylum when she was meant to be six feet under? Normally, Pearl would have left a situation like this well alone. She had spent her whole life running away from her past – away from everything to do with the Havelocks – but not now.
Not now she could see her daughter’s need for retribution growing steadily day by day, week by week.
She needed to find the truth – whatever that might be.
When the train pulled into Ryhope station, Pearl and Bill got off. This time when Bill put out his arm, Pearl took it. A few minutes later, they’d walked to the bus stop just up from the Railway Inn.
‘We’ll pop in on the way back?’ Bill suggested.
Pearl nodded. ‘Our reward, eh?’
‘Definitely,’ Bill said, looking at Pearl and thinking she had the look of a woman on her way to the gallows.
Once they’d got on the bus and sat down, Pearl turned to Bill. ‘What if the auld cow in reception recognises me?’
‘She won’t,’ Bill said. ‘Remember, the last time she saw yer, you’d been scrabbling about bomb sites looking for me.’ Bill felt his chest puff up at the thought of Pearl charging all over town, from one bomb site to the next, trying to find out if he was alive or dead. ‘From what Bel told me, you looked like one of the inmates rather than a visitor.’ He looked at Pearl, but she wasn’t laughing. ‘Yer look totally different, Pearl. And yer didn’t even talk to the receptionist. Bel said you’d been that rude to the one at Monkwearmouth that she forbade you from doing any of the talking when you got to the asylum.’
This time Pearl did laugh.
‘She can be a reet bossyboots that daughter of mine.’
Bill breathed a sigh of relief.
‘Anyway,’ he said, changing the subject. ‘You’ve not told me how Polly’s doing. How far along’s she now? I’m guessing the bab’s all right?’
‘Aye.’ Pearl knew Bill was trying to take her mind off what she was about to do. ‘She’s seven months gone – give or take – and looks every bit of it. Every day I see her I swear she’s got bigger. I’m betting it’s a boy ’n it’s going to be a bruiser.’ Pearl was quiet for a moment, suddenly thinking of when she had been expecting Bel. She’d bled on and off and hadn’t even realised she’d been with child until it was too late to do anything about it.
‘Sounds like she’s being well looked after,’ Bill said.
‘Aye, she’s got some posh doctor. Must be costing a fair whack.’
‘Who’s picking up the tab?’ Bill asked, knowing the Elliots, like most families, struggled to make ends meet.
‘The Havelock girl’s paying for it,’ Pearl said. Why did everything seem to lead back to the bloody Havelocks?
Seeing their stop, Bill rang the bell and they both got up.
Within minutes of getting off the bus, they were walking through the main gates of the Sunderland Borough Asylum.
Bill took hold of Pearl’s hand.
‘For appearance’s sake,’ he explained.
Pearl raised her free hand and looked at her watch.
‘We’re reet on time fer visiting hours.’
‘Remember,’ Bill said as they fell in behind another couple who were making their way to the main entrance, ‘we’re a respectable married couple, come to see your mother’s cousin who’s not been well for a while. We’ve visited dozens of times,’ he said, slowing down as they walked up the stone steps. ‘So there’s no need to ask directions or even acknowledge the receptionist.’
Bill let go of Pearl’s hand to open the door. As soon as they were in the main foyer, he took hold of it again. They walked on, passing the receptionist, who was answering a call. They took the corridor to the left. Bill kept his fingers crossed that he was right. He’d got to know the layout of the asylum during his short stay after the air raid. From what Pearl had told him, he thought he knew where it was in the hospital she needed to go. He hoped so.
Reaching the end of the corridor, they turned left, then walked down another corridor and went right. Halfway down, Pearl stopped outside a room, the door of which was slightly ajar.
She stood and listened.
She could hear a gentle, bird-like voice singing a song she recognised from many years ago.
‘This is it,’ Pearl whispered. ‘Remember, two loud knocks if yer see the fat ginger nurse. And remember, if anyone asks us, we’ve got lost.’
Bill nodded and Pearl slipped into the room.
‘Henrietta.’ Pearl kept her voice low, not wanting to risk anyone in the rooms on either side hearing that there was someone visiting. She knew it unlikely that her old employer received many visitors, if any.
As she walked over to her former mistress, Pearl had to fight to stay in the here and now, but it was hard, made harder still by Henrietta looking exactly the same as she had back then – just older. Her thick make-up showed up the creases in a face that had once been youthful and smooth. Pearl worked out that she must be in her sixties, although she only looked to be in her early fifties.
‘Oh!’ Henrietta dropped the book she was reading and put both hands to her rouged cheeks. ‘My Little Match Girl!’ She was obviously overjoyed to see her unexpected guest.
‘That’s right,’ Pearl said, walking over to her so that she wouldn’t feel the need to shout. She sat down on the bed, which was next to where Henrietta was sitting, her feet touching the end of Henrietta’s long, plum-coloured taf-feta skirt. Her waist was still as tiny as Pearl remembered, clearly nipped into place, as it always had been, by a tightly laced corset.
‘You came back!’ Henrietta exclaimed, a smile illuminating her face.
Pearl winced. Henrietta’s sing-song voice could be quite high and seemed to resonate around the room. She put a finger to her lips. ‘Shush. I dinnit want anyone to knar I’m here.’
Henrietta mimicked Pearl’s actions and put a finger to her own lips.
‘Yer said yer wanted me to come back and see yer, remember?’ Pearl said.
Henrietta nodded; as she did so, a strand of dyed red hair from her chaotic updo fell across her face and she brushed it away.
‘Well, I can come ’n see yer,’ Pearl explained, ‘but only if yer dinnit tell anyone.’ She looked at Henrietta. Her eyes were still like saucers, but she could see the brown in them this time.
‘Do we have a deal?’ Pearl put her hand out for Henrietta to shake.
Henrietta nodded excitedly and took Pearl’s proffered hand.
Looking down, she spotted Bill’s gold band on Pearl’s wedding-ring finger.
‘My Little Match Girl got married!’ she declared.
Pearl took a deep breath and nodded.
‘She did.’
Taking hold of Henrietta’s other hand, Pearl forced her to have eye contact.
‘Henrietta, I want to talk to yer about the old days? Is that all reet?’
‘So, come on, tell me all about it.’ Bill put the drinks on the small round table in the corner of the Railway Inn and sat down. He had purposely picked the quietest table so they could talk in private.
‘Eee, Bill, I feel exhausted,’ Pearl said, taking a sip of her whisky.
‘Did you find out what you needed to?’ he asked.
‘Not really.’ Pearl lit up a cigarette and blew out smoke. ‘But I didn’t expect to, if I’m honest.’
‘Does that mean you’re gonna have to come back?’ he asked.
‘Aye, I think so. Might take a few more visits to get to knar what I want.’ Pearl looked at Bill to gauge his reaction.
‘Well, I’ll be happy to be your partner in crime until you do,’ Bill said.
Pearl smiled for the first time that day.
‘Ah, Bill, that’d be brilliant. It’ll help me out no end. And I reckon it’ll be easier next time. Not so fraught, if yer knar what I mean?’
‘I know exactly what yer mean,’ Bill said. He felt like throwing his hat in the air with pure joy.
‘So, did you manage to get any sense out of her?’ he asked, before taking a mouthful of beer.
‘Mmm, a bit. I mean, the woman’s barking, but she didn’t seem quite as bad as the last time I saw her. Mind you, I dinnit think I was all that reet in the head myself.’ Pearl took a sip of her drink. ‘The good thing is she’s not that gone that she can’t remember the past. I got her talking about the other servants that was there when I was, ’n she seemed to remember them all.’
‘That’s good,’ Bill said. He had a glug of his beer. ‘Makes you wonder what’s wrong with her, doesn’t it?’
‘Dunno,’ Pearl said. ‘She was always a few shillings short. But I never thought she was bad enough to end up being carted off by the men in white coats.’