Once they were outside, Emma stepped to the kerb and hailed a cab. They were both far too tired to consider walking home.
‘It’s been quite a day, hasn’t it?’ Emma remarked, and then with a sly little grin, ‘And who was that rather handsome young doctor you seem to be on such good terms with?’
‘He’s just a friend,’ Holly answered rather too quickly and Emma changed the subject, sensing that now wasn’t the right time to pry, although she could have sworn she could sense romance in the air. If she was right then she had no doubt that Holly would tell her about him in her own good time. She was clearly far too upset about what had happened to Ivy to concentrate on anything else at the moment.
Settling back in her seat she squeezed Holly’s hand. ‘Try not to worry about her, darling. You heard what the doctor said, it’s just going to take a little time before she’s right again.’
‘That’s the problem.’ Holly chewed on her lip as she stared from the window. ‘What if she goes back to him? And if she doesn’t, who is going to look after her? I have to work and she’s not going to be fit to be left on her own for a while.’
‘We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,’ Emma said wisely. ‘For now we just have to keep her spirits up, and don’t worry, I shan’t be going anywhere until I’m quite sure she’s properly on the mend.’
Holly gave her mother’s hand a grateful little squeeze and they fell silent for the rest of the journey. She was so thankful that her mother had been there to help her through Ivy’s crisis. She wasn’t sure she could have coped with it half as well without her.
She slept fitfully that night and finally fell into a deep sleep just as dawn was streaking the sky. The next thing she knew someone was gently shaking her arm and, blinking, she looked up to see her mother standing at the side of the bed with a cup of tea in her hand.
‘I’m sorry to wake you, darling, but I didn’t think you’d want to be late for work.’
Holly glanced at the little clock on her bedside table and, instantly wide awake, she swung her legs out of the bed.
‘Oh, goodness. Thank you, Mother, I would have overslept if you hadn’t woken me. But what are you going to do all day while I’m at work?’
Emma crossed to the window and swished the curtains aside revealing the smoggy street outside. ‘I shall be perfectly fine. I’ll come in to visit Ivy later.’
‘Don’t come before four o’clock,’ Holly warned as she swallowed some tea and reached for the uniform she had laid out the night before. ‘Matron’s a stickler for visiting times. No one is allowed into the wards one minute before four or one minute after five.’
When Holly entered the lounge some minutes later, looking very smart in her blue uniform and crisp white apron with a large red cross emblazoned upon it, she found her mother toasting bread on the fire. Looking at her, Emma couldn’t help but feel proud of her daughter.
‘Come on,’ Emma said sternly. ‘You’re not leaving here until you’ve got at least one slice of toast inside you.’
Knowing it would be useless to argue Holly quickly took the slice she was offered and after kissing her mother shot away nibbling at it. ‘I’ll be back just after six,’ she shouted over her shoulder before racing downstairs and slamming the door shut behind her.
The first thing Holly did when she got to the hospital was to gain the ward sister’s permission to visit Ivy. She was granted five minutes only.
Ivy was sitting up in bed with her arm strapped in a sling looking as if she had been in a war. There was barely an inch of her face that wasn’t covered in bruises and her lips looked swollen and sore. Even so she attempted a smile as Holly approached the bed and instantly became tearful.
‘How are you feeling?’ Holly immediately felt foolish for even asking such a question. It was obvious how bad Ivy must feel just by looking at her. She placed the bag she had packed with one of her own nightdresses, a hairbrush and any toiletries that Ivy might need for her stay on the bed.
‘Like I’ve done twenty rounds in a boxing ring with someone twice as big as me,’ Ivy answered sheepishly. ‘I’m so sorry, Holly.’
‘Don’t be silly, this wasn’t your fault,’ Holly answered as she gently stroked Ivy’s uninjured hand. ‘At least the baby is all right and when you’re well enough you’ll come home to stay with me for a few days.’
‘We’ll see,’ Ivy answered evasively and Holly’s heart sank. Surely she couldn’t be thinking of going back to Jeremy after this?
Her worst fears were confirmed then when Ivy told her, ‘I’ve no doubt Jeremy will come lookin’ for me today when he’s sobered up.’
Holly shook her head. ‘But surely you won’t forgive him this time? He could have killed you and the baby. I hate to say this because I know you love him, but he’s no good. You must see that now.’
Ivy shrugged, making her wince with pain. ‘He’s not violent all the time,’ she defended him. ‘An’ he can be very lovin’. I bet he’s feelin’ awful today.’
Holly was tempted more than ever to tell her friend what she knew about him but she clamped her mouth shut. Now was not the time. When Ivy had had a few days rest and time to think about it she might see sense, and then she could broach the subject.
She saw the ward sister striding towards the bed then and bent to give Ivy a gentle peck on the cheek. ‘It looks like I’m going to be evicted,’ she whispered. ‘But I’ll try to pop back in my break.’ She hurried away with a heavy heart. It appeared that even now Ivy could see no wrong in Jeremy.
Unfortunately Holly was rushed off her feet that day and it wasn’t until the end of her shift in the evening before she was able to see Ivy again.
She was lying in bed looking towards the door hoping for a glimpse of Jeremy.
‘He mustn’t realise that I’m here,’ she told Holly. ‘He’d come if he did so he’ll probably come round to yours thinking I’m there.’
Holly hoped he would. There was nothing she would have liked more than to be able to tell him what she thought of him and give him a piece of her mind!
‘Your mam came earlier,’ Ivy informed her. ‘But he hadn’t been round by then.’
‘Well, don’t worry about it for now. Things will sort themselves out,’ Holly told her. ‘But now if there’s nothing you need I’ll get off. Mother will be worried if I’m any later. And, Ivy … please take care of yourself. I don’t know how I’d cope if anything were to happen to you, I care about you very much.’
Ivy gave her a weak smile. ‘And I care about you too,’ she said softly.
As she left the ward, Holly bent her head to hide the tears that she’d been holding back while she was with Ivy, but which were now sliding down her cheeks. She was wiping her face with her sleeve so didn’t see Richard, who’d stopped right in front of her. She gasped as she nearly bumped into him, but he grasped her arms gently, looking down at her with a concerned expression.
‘Is your friend all right?’ he asked.
‘Yes, yes, she’s fine,’ she sniffed. ‘But I just hate to see her like this. And that man … How I wish I could set the police on him.’
Richard looked grim. ‘Yes, I know what you mean. I see so many women in her situation, and it makes my blood boil. Any man who would beat up a woman like that, especially when she’s carrying his child …’
His fury and indignation comforted Holly more than sympathy would have done. It was nice to know that there was someone on Ivy’s side.
‘Listen, I can’t stop now, but perhaps we could meet another day? And you can come and talk to me about this whenever you need.’
She nodded and smiled gratefully. ‘Thank you so much, Richard. And it would be lovely to meet when you have a moment.’
He touched her cheek very briefly, but then realising where he was, he snatched his hand away, nodded at her and walked off.
Holly arrived home, still buoyed by Richard’s words and the tender way he had touched her cheek, to find Emma had cooked a lovely meal for them and it reminded her of the evenings she used to share with Ivy.
‘I’ve done you some nice lean pork chops and I’ve made some apple sauce, I know it’s one of your favourites,’ her mother told her. ‘And there’s some lovely buttered winter cabbage and mashed potatoes to go with them. That should warm you up.’
They sat down together and tucked in, chatting easily and very soon the conversation turned to Jeremy.
‘I don’t think even now she’s ready to leave him,’ she told her mother over dinner and Emma nodded in agreement.
‘I know. When I went to see her she barely took her eyes off the door to the ward watching for him. It’s as if he’s put a spell on her. But then love is a funny thing. I should know; I once felt that way about your father,’ she confided sadly. ‘Even when he left me I was convinced he’d come back, but he never did and eventually I had to face up to the fact that he wasn’t the man I’d thought he was.’
‘So what do you think we should do?’
Emma shrugged. ‘I suppose we could give it one more day, then if he doesn’t come here we’ll have to go round to his place and tell him where she is if that’s what she wants. But if it comes to that we’ll go together. I’m not letting you go round there on your own.’
Jeremy didn’t arrive and so on Tuesday evening after dinner, Emma and Holly set off for Whitechapel. A thick smog had settled over London making the drab streets they passed through look even more sinister.
The gas lights they passed cast yellow pools of light into the swirling mist and Emma was clearly nervous. ‘I can barely see a hand in front of me,’ she commented. ‘I hope you know where you’re going. Perhaps we should leave it for tonight and try again tomorrow?’
‘It’s all right, we’re almost there now,’ Holly assured her and, sure enough, minutes later they arrived at the house where Ivy had been living.
Once inside they began the long climb to the attic rooms and as they reached the landing a small boy who was crouched there with his arms wrapped about his knees watched them curiously from eyes that had deep, dark circles beneath them.
‘If you’re lookin’ fer the mister what lived there yer wastin’ yer time,’ he informed them. ‘He scarpered an’ took all his stuff wi’ him a couple o’ nights ago. There were a big to-do an’ his missus come runnin’ out all covered in blood. Don’t know where she went though. He left the next day, probably scared that the coppers were after him.’
‘I see, thank you.’ Holly tried the handle of the door and it opened. The sight that met her eyes made her gasp with dismay. The room had been emptied of every stick of furniture and it looked as if a pack of scavengers had rampaged through it. It hadn’t been up to much before, but now with every stick of furniture and home comfort removed it looked even worse; no doubt the people who had robbed it had sold the lot by now. Unfortunately a quick glance into the bedroom showed that everything Ivy had possessed was gone too, even her clothes.
‘Now what shall we do?’ she asked her mother. ‘Poor Ivy only has the clothes she had on when this happened. They’ve taken absolutely everything she owned.’
‘So we’ll buy her new ones!’ Emma replied stoically. ‘If the ones she was wearing the other night were anything to go by they weren’t up to much anyway.’
They left and slowly made their way home through the fog. As soon as they were safely indoors Emma filled the kettle. ‘We’ll have to tell her that he’s gone now. We have no choice,’ she said.
‘But what will happen to her and the baby? I’d be more than happy to have her back here but Ivy is fiercely independent. And I should let her work know where she is too. They’ll be worried that she hasn’t turned up. I’ll push a note through the suffragettes’ office door on my way to work first thing in the morning.’
Holly did just that the next day and when she popped into the ward later that afternoon to see Ivy she found two of her suffragette friends at her bedside, highly indignant at what had happened.
‘It’s appalling that a man should be allowed to do this to a woman,’ a tall, plump, red-haired woman declared angrily. ‘It just goes to show that we’re right to fight for rights for women and when you’re well enough to come back your job will be waiting for you, Ivy.’
Deeply humiliated, Ivy nodded. She would rather they hadn’t found out what had happened but supposed that this wasn’t something she could hide as she told Holly when the women left.
‘I thought you’d want them to know why you weren’t in work,’ Holly apologised.
Ivy sighed. ‘You did right,’ she admitted grudgingly. ‘They were bound to find out one way or another. But Jeremy still hasn’t been,’ she ended fretfully.
Holly took a deep breath. It was time to tell Ivy the truth, much as she hated to do it.
‘Ah, well … actually me and Mother went round to see him last night to tell him where you were,’ she began and her heart broke at the hope that flared in Ivy’s eyes.
‘An’ what did he say? Is he comin’ to see me?’ Ivy interrupted before Holly could get another word out.
‘Er … I’m afraid not … You see he’s gone.’
‘What do you mean gone!’ Ivy was struggling to sit up and Holly gently pressed her back against the pillows. She knew that she had to be cruel to be kind now.
‘Just what I say, he’s gone. Apparently he left the morning after you were brought in here and no one has seen him since. Your rooms are empty. And that’s not the worst of it, you see …’ She gulped deep in her throat, hating what she was having to tell her. ‘Dora told me some time ago that Jeremy Pilkington-Hughes isn’t his real name. He comes from Whitechapel and his real name is Jimmy Sullivan. He preys on vulnerable women, wealthy ones usually. Lady Hamilton, one of the clients from Miss May’s shop, is the latest one apparently.’
Ivy looked as if someone had thumped her in the stomach as she stared up at Holly disbelievingly. The colour had drained from her face making the bruises stand out in stark relief. She didn’t want to accept what she was hearing and yet deep down she knew Holly would never lie to her.
‘Y-you mean he only ever wanted me fer the money I gave him?’ Her voice was so low that Holly had to lean towards her to hear it.
‘An’ … what about the baby? We was goin’ to get married.’ Slowly her face crumpled as she realised the depth of his deception. ‘He never did intend to marry me, did he?’ she breathed. ‘He were just usin’ me. No wonder he were so angry when I told him about the baby.’ And then she began to sob, great tearing sobs that shook her body and all Holly could do was hold her close and whisper soothing words as tears streamed from her own eyes.