‘CON! CON!’
Two whirlwinds of fair curls and gap-toothed grins hurtled down the passage. Four small arms wrapped around his legs and sweet giggles rang through the house.
‘That’s a grand welcome, so it is!’ Taking a twin in each arm, he swept them into the air.
Maggie smiled from the kitchen doorway. ‘Let him over the step afore you pounce on him,’ she called over their squeals then blushed when Con winked at her.
‘How’s yourself, Maggie?’
‘Besides these terrors running me ragged, I’m all right.’
He flashed his slow smile. ‘Sure, ye don’t look a bit ragged. You look grand, so.’ Carrying the children upside down, much to their delight, he crossed the passage. ‘Is Sally ready?’
Flustered from the compliment, she could only nod. Self-consciously, she brushed a curl from her face and stepped aside to let him pass.
He lowered the twins into a heap at his feet and wiggled his fingers. At the threat of a tickling, they pelted for the kitchen, helpless with laughter.
Watching them go, she smiled softly. ‘You’re good with them. Since their father passed on, they’ve missed … Well, they enjoy your visits.’
‘So do I.’
Their eyes locked. She froze as he reached out and, ever so slowly, brushed his thumb across her cheek.
‘Flour.’ He showed her, smiled, then stepped past her into the kitchen.
Groaning inwardly, she cursed her thumping heart and returned to her baking.
Sally nodded grimly when Con entered, glad he’d insisted he accompany her. She’d need every ounce of strength and support she could find to see this through.
Despite glimmers of spring, it was bitter out and she wrapped her shawl around herself tightly. Then she kissed Jonathan in Ellen’s arms, took a deep breath and headed for the door.
‘Good luck, Sally.’
‘Aye, good luck, lass.’
The smile she gave Maggie and her mother was of pure gratitude. Since hearing of her meeting with Anna yesterday, both agreed she must find out whether Dicksy was still alive. They also agreed that, if so, the house and remaining money were rightfully hers.
Sally couldn’t have been more thankful for their understanding. This could mean homelessness for them all, yet they understood completely her need to discover the truth, and she loved them all the more for it. As for herself, a possible reunion with her dearest friend took her breath away. She’d give anything, everything, in a heartbeat to have her back.
That Pru was Dicksy’s mother had shocked her senseless, but now she accepted it as though she’d always known. Such gentle dispositions, caring, sweet-natured – they possessed the same qualities entirely.
Though Pru had clearly registered Dicksy’s birth under a false surname to uphold the pretence of widowhood, and Dicksy didn’t share her looks, she should have made the comparison earlier. On reflection, Pru’s company had felt familiar, like stepping back in time.
She and Con were approaching Miller Street when panic began to churn her guts. The streets throbbed with daily life but she saw and heard little, senses gripped by the sinister-looking building ahead. She’d spent years fleeing the memories of that place. Could she really re-enter the darkness within?
‘Are you sure about this, acushla?’
She gritted her teeth and nodded. For Dicksy, she’d do anything.
Gripping Con’s hand, she set forth for the gates of hell.
Whatever hopes Sally harboured were shattered in less than twenty minutes.
It was true, all of it. For once, Agnes had been telling the truth. Her Dicksy was dead.
She walked blindly from the master’s office, down the dreary corridors and into the weak sunshine, pushing aside anyone who was in her path. Gasping with sobs, she picked up her skirts and ran for the gates.
‘Sally. Sally, wait. Sally, stop.’ Con caught her in a tight embrace and she crumpled.
‘It’s not true, Con, it’s not true! He’s lying!’
‘Shhh. I know it hurts but it must be; the master confirmed it. Sure, the extra money you offered would have loosened his tongue if nothing else,’ he added, tone hardening. ‘He wants reporting to the Board of Governors, so he does, and will be before the week’s through if I have anything to do with it.’
She buried her face in his chest. ‘I thought she’d gone for ever, that she’d been sent into service. Yet she’d merely been assigned other duties and moved to another ward. All the time, she was but blocks away and I had no idea.’ Her grip on his jacket tightened. ‘Did she suffer? Does the typhus fever bring painful death? The truth, Con, please.’
‘No, acushla. No, she didn’t suffer.’
Then why had he breathed a Hail Mary before answering? For her. He’d lied for her. She raised her head to look at him. Then, stretching on tiptoe, she pressed her lips to his.
‘Take me home, Con.’
From the workhouse shadows, Joseph watched them leave. When they disappeared through the gates, he snatched up the woman leaning heavily on Nancy and hissed in a voice that trembled with fury:
‘Follow them.’
Sally folded her arms against the cold. Evening was drawing in, splintered rays slowly sinking beyond the rooftops.
‘Go on in, you’re shivering. Try to get some sleep.’
‘Con, wait.’
He turned back and she closed the lodging-house door and motioned to an alleyway. He followed wordlessly.
‘Thank you for accompanying me. I still cannot believe …’ Tears thickened her voice. ‘Listen, Con … that kiss—’
‘’Tis all right. You were upset.’
‘Nevertheless …’
Leaning against the wall, he peered down at her. ‘Sally, I’ll not deny it was nice. And I’ll not deny that I love you, because I do. Sure, I love all of you. You’re as dear to me as my own family. Do you remember the day I kissed you?’ She flushed and he laughed softly. ‘Aye, you do. My feelings for you were like nothing I’d known. But it wasn’t love, acushla, I see that now. Lust, desire, call it what you will, but it wasn’t love.’
‘I did try to tell you, if you recall.’
‘Aye, you did. Stubborn as I am, I couldn’t see it. I do now and I’m sorry.’
‘Sorry?’
‘For trying to force you to love me back. Sure, you must have despaired at times but you never gave up on me and for that, I thank ye. I value our friendship, Sally. There’s something about you I’m drawn to, have been since the day I saw you on that platform at Bolton. You have a way about you, something within that makes folk want to care for you. And I do, always will—’
‘But as a friend,’ she finished for him, eyes twinkling.
He smiled. ‘As a friend.’
‘Con?’
‘Aye?’
‘Tell me to mind my own business … Do you have feelings for Maggie?’ His embarrassed laugh brought a wicked grin to her face. ‘Mr Malloy, are you blushing?’
‘Does she …? Has she said anything?’
‘She’s mad about you! Surely you’ve noticed?’
‘Mebbe. I wasn’t altogether sure.’
‘Talk to her, Con,’ she urged, a warm glow spreading through her. ‘Tell her how you feel before another man beats you to it. She’s a good woman. She won’t be alone for ever.’
‘Ye wouldn’t mind?’
‘Mind? I’d be delighted! I love you both so very much. I wish you nothing but happiness.’ She smiled gently. ‘Do you recall that day at the pie shop when you said that us meeting as we did was fate, that it was meant to be? Well, I agree. I believe we were meant to meet to enable you and Maggie to meet. It’s a queer old world, isn’t it, Con?’
‘And what of you? Will you one day take your own advice?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Come on, Sally, you know what I’m talking about. The Morgan fellow you’ve been in love with since before we met.’
‘How …?’
It was his turn to grin. ‘Because it’s obvious to anyone with eyes in their head, so it is. And what he feels for you … That’s love, Sally. I knew whatever designs I had on you weren’t, when I looked into his eyes; they shone with something I’ve never seen before in a man, for any woman.
‘Sure, that fellow would tear out his beating heart if he thought it would make you happy. Take your own advice, tell him ye feel the same. Aye, you’re married still, I know, I know – oh, to hell with it, live in sin!’ He grinned when she slapped his arm, chuckling, before finishing earnestly, ‘You, above anyone, deserve happiness.’
When they parted, she returned to the lodging house with mixed feelings: hope for her friends’ blossoming romance and sadness at Con’s blindness. He’d guessed her feelings. Yet he was as wrong as it was possible to be if he believed Tommy reciprocated them. Dolly was proof of that.
The hum of Maggie’s and Ellen’s voices, intermingled with Jonathan’s babbles and the twins’ laughter, drifted from the kitchen and she forced a smile. She’d burdened them enough with her tears for one day. She was midway down the passage when a knock came at the front door.
The woman on the step looked vaguely familiar but for the life of her, Sally couldn’t think why. ‘May I help you?’ she asked.
‘I hope so, Sally.’
That she knew her name took her aback. ‘Do I know you? You do look familiar but I’m afraid …’
Her visitor smiled broadly. ‘I’m Nancy Skinner, Percy’s daughter.’
‘Percy?’
‘Aye, runs that little shop at Spring Row.’
Her own face creased in smile. ‘Percy, yes, of course. Nancy, did you say?’
‘That’s right.’
‘What can I do for you, Nancy? Oh, where are my manners? Please, come in.’ She held the door wide but Nancy shook her head.
‘Nay, I can’t stop. I need thee to come with me.’
‘Come with you?’
‘Aye. It’s Ivy.’
Her knees went weak. ‘Mrs Morgan? What’s happened? Is she all right?’
‘I’ll explain on t’ way but you must come now and you must come alone.’ With that, she turned and scuttled away.
‘Wait, I’m coming!’
With nothing in mind but her friend, Sally hurried down the darkening street after Nancy.