‘I JUST CAN’T believe it. I can’t.’
‘And why ever not? Didn’t I say there would be more orders?’ Smiling, Laura passed Lizzie’s filled cup across and trained the teapot on her own.
‘You did, aye, but … Eeh, love. I can’t believe it,’ her friend said again in wonder, and they both laughed.
A guest at the wedding of the trader’s wife’s son for whom they had made the royal replica bake had approached them earlier to ask if they would create one similar for her soon-to-be-married daughter. If she was happy with the product, she’d be sure to use them again for another daughter’s birthday cake, she’d promised. Things were moving swiftly – business was definitely on the up. Lizzie could hardly contain herself.
‘I’ll fetch in our Mary to help us this time, shall I?’ she suggested now. ‘It fair killed us last time trying to do it all ourselfs – what d’you think?’
Laura agreed. ‘That’s a good idea, aye. We could make it a regular thing, if your sister stands up to muster.’
‘Eeh, us taking on staff.’ Lizzie chuckled in awe of their success. ‘We’re going places, us, love. We are that. In fact, I’ve been pondering … Nay, forget it.’
‘Go on,’ Laura urged, warmed by Lizzie’s growing ambition. You’d never have believed she was the same woman who had been too terrified not so long ago to even contemplate giving their venture a try. ‘What had you in mind?’
‘Well … A shop. A proper one, like.’
‘Our own confectioner’s?’
Lizzie nodded then pulled a face. ‘It’s a daft idea, in’t it?’
‘Nay,’ said Laura quietly. ‘Nay, it’s not.’
‘Only you see premises to let all t’ time and, well, if business keeps up the way it is …’
‘And my kitchen’s hardly roomy, is it? And if we were to take on Mary …’
‘It’d be more cramped still,’ Lizzie finished for her, her enthusiasm mounting. ‘Happen, in time, if we saved really hard, we could see about renting summat. Just think of it, all that space. And we could set out everything in t’ window all nice, like. That would get the cakes noticed better, draw in more sales. We could take on extra orders on t’ side, as we are now, mebbe even employ a couple more hands besides my sister when things really pick up.’ She stopped for breath and grinned. Then: ‘Even Frank reckons it’s a sound idea.’
That the market trader’s name had cropped up didn’t surprise Laura – every conversation you had with Lizzie of late she’d inadvertently fit his name into it somehow. Had Lizzie’s fondness of him grown into something deeper? she mused, as she’d frequently found herself doing of late. But she adored her fiancé, didn’t she, had since being a young lass? Besides, as with Daniel, Lizzie would never go back on her word, whatever happened, was too decent a person, Laura was certain.
‘’Ere, one day, we might even own our very own confectioner’s,’ her friend continued. ‘Mebbe a string of them all over Manchester … Fancy that.’ Rolling her eyes, she let out a guffaw. ‘Aye, in our ruddy dreams, eh, love!’
Laura laughed along, though, inside, she was secretly trembling with excitement. That her friend had had the idea, too! But no, what was she thinking? She’d talked herself out of it, had she not? Throughout all those sleepless nights and right into the mornings, she’d told herself she couldn’t touch that haul. It wasn’t hers to spend. But oh, imagine …
No. It could never be. Yet what was she to do with it? It couldn’t stay buried up in her bedroom for ever. Why had she even fetched it here? She should have left the tin and all it represented where it was. Every cursed thing that had gone wrong in her life stemmed from that money. It was tainted, evil. She wanted no part in it; not now, not ever. No good could possibly come from it.
She was still agonising over what to do later as she walked the few yards to Joyce’s house for dinner. If she was honest, she’d have preferred to stay at home with her troubled thoughts, but her mother-in-law had been insistent – it was her way of making sure that Laura got a proper meal inside her; she was convinced she wasn’t eating right, what with her working every hour God sent – and she hadn’t the heart to turn Joyce down.
As the three of them tucked into rabbit pie Laura tried her best to make small talk with mother and son, but it was useless; she couldn’t turn her mind to anything but Lizzie’s words and the money sitting in the drawer across the way. By the time the meal was finished and Joyce left to go and fill the kettle at the pump for a last cup of tea, Laura was at her wits’ end; she turned to Daniel, saying in a rush, ‘I need to speak with thee, lad. Will you come to mine after when it’s quiet?’
‘What’s afoot?’
‘Please, not here. I must see thee alone.’
Hearing his mother returning, he nodded, frowning, and Laura breathed a sigh of relief. God willing, Daniel would know what to do.
She was sitting darning by her own fire later, though with only half her mind on the task, when the tapping came at the door. Flinging the sock she’d been mending into her sewing bag, she rushed to open it.
‘Hello, lass.’
‘Oh. It’s thee.’ Her face fell. No amount of trying could bring the semblance of a smile to her lips.
‘Can I come in?’
‘Well, now’s not really a good time …’
‘Please, Laura.’
Inwardly wincing at the hurt lurking behind his eyes, she nodded. Holding the door wide, she let Edwin Howarth inside.
‘Tea?’
He shook his head.
‘Please, sit down,’ she said after a long silence, and he pulled out a chair at the table. She did likewise then trained her eyes on her clasped hands in her lap.
‘I’ve called a few times since … but ain’t been able to catch thee in.’
‘Sorry,’ she murmured.
‘I know it ain’t proper to drop by so late in t’ evening, only I figured I’d have more luck this way.’ He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. ‘We need to talk, lass.’
‘Aye.’
‘Have you given thought to my offer?’
She’d done barely anything else. She nodded.
‘And?’
‘I don’t know.’
His swallow was audible. He blew out air loudly. ‘Well, least it’s not an outright nay.’
‘I need more time, Edwin.’
‘How much more?’
‘I don’t know, I just …’ She lifted her eyes to his with a sigh. ‘I don’t love thee. And if you were to be honest, you don’t love me neither, not really. It’s companionship you seek and, if I were to agree to marry thee, it’d be for the same reason. It works for some couples, aye, I’m sure, but I’ve come to realise it’s not for me. I can’t live like that, I can’t, for it’s not enough. If ever I wed again, it must be for love. D’you see?’
‘Aye,’ he admitted dully after some moments. ‘I understand.’
‘I’m so sorry, Edwin.’
‘Ay, now. Eeh, come here.’ He put his arms around her and held her close. ‘Don’t you dwell on it no more, you hear? It were but a silly owd man’s wishful dreaming is all.’
‘You really don’t hate me?’
‘Nay, nay!’
‘But I’ve messed thee about summat rotten, and for so long, I have, I—’
‘And now you’re being honest and have had the decency to put me from my misery. I blame thee not. It were a selfish thing I did, putting thee in such a situation as that.’
‘We can still be friends?’ she asked, savouring the comforting feel of the fatherly embrace, so very much like Amos’s.
‘You just try and stop me.’
‘Eeh, Edwin.’
Soon afterwards, standing on the step waving the coal merchant off, she spotted Daniel leaving his house. She let him in and, after closing the door, turned to see him rooted in the centre of the kitchen, his face a picture of misery. She walked towards him and he watched her from beneath hooded lids, his shoulders hunched as though in dread of what was to come.
‘That was Edwin Howarth just now.’
The man in front of her didn’t respond.
‘He wanted an answer to his proposal. I … I turned him down.’
‘Laura …’ Daniel closed his eyes. ‘You’ll never know what this means to me. Lass, I can’t, I must …’
She tried to resist, but her soul cried out for him just as ardently – going against all she’d sworn must never be, she let herself be swept up in his strong arms.
He rained kisses on to her neck then pressed his cheek to hers. ‘I’m not a weak man, but by God. The struggle to keep my hands off thee … it’s unbearable.’
‘Lad, oh lad …’
‘The night … let me stay. Let me love thee. Say aye. Please.’
One little word. That’s all it would take to have what she’d dreamed about, yearned for with every inch of her, for so very long. One word.
‘Lass …’
‘And what of the morrow?’ she forced herself to whisper. ‘You’ll leave, shall have to. You don’t belong to me, Daniel. You’re promised to Lizzie. Nowt can or will change that. Were I to take thee in my bed … I’d not have the strength to let thee go. I’d not have the strength to live with my sin of betrayal against her, the dearest friend I’ve ever known. We can’t. It can never be.’
‘But … the coal merchant. I thought—’
‘I said nay to Edwin for me, Daniel, not you. For I can’t wed unless for love, not again.’ She nodded when he frowned quizzically. ‘Aye, that’s right. I didn’t love Nathan in t’ beginning. Glory be to God, I grew to, but what if I hadn’t? What then, if he’d lived and discovered the truth? That’s no basis for a sound marriage, is it? I could never put another – put myself – through that again.’
‘Like me with Lizzie?’ He covered his face. ‘Why haven’t I your backbone? Why can’t I be honest with her, call the whole thing off, be with thee?’ Slowly, he lowered his hands. ‘I’m going to do it.’
‘Do what?’
‘Tell Lizzie how I really feel.’
‘But … you can’t. You’ve a duty, will break her heart, you said so yourself— Daniel, wait!’ she cried as he brushed past her and strode from the house. ‘Lad!’
He paused outside Mrs O’Brien’s. Turning towards a frantic Laura, who had followed him across the cobbles, he nodded, and she sagged in relief, believing he’d seen sense. Then: ‘I must.’
To her horror, she could only watch as, lifting his arm, he rapped purposefully at the family’s door.
‘Can I speak with Lizzie?’
‘Oh, er … ’Tis rather late, lad—’
‘Please, Bee. It’s important.’
The Irishwoman frowned slightly. Then she nodded and stepped aside.
Having followed him in, Laura scanned the kitchen’s sea of occupants – spotting Lizzie, she made a beeline for her, skirting past Daniel before he could reach her first. ‘Lass …’
‘What’s all this in aid of?’ Lizzie looked from one to the other. ‘Has summat happened?’
Daniel nodded. ‘Aye. You see, it’s like this—’
‘The shop!’ Laura burst out in her desperation, cutting him off. ‘I, I have the brass, lass. I’ve enough to buy summat outright, I do, and, and me and Daniel couldn’t wait to tell thee the good news.’ She turned her head to plead at him with her eyes. ‘Ain’t that right, lad?’
‘I …’ He stared back in stunned confusion.
‘Come next door, lass, will thee, and I’ll explain,’ she told an equally stupefied Lizzie.
The girl and Daniel followed her wordlessly to number five. Inside, Laura set the kettle to boil then sat facing them at the table. She took a deep breath to steady her racing heart, though it did nothing to quieten the lambasting of herself in her head. What had she done? However, she’d had no choice, none. She couldn’t have let Daniel blurt a confession, shatter Lizzie’s heart. She’d plucked at the first thing to come to her mind: that blasted money. There was no going back on her declaration now. She had to tell them.
‘Love? Lad?’ Lizzie pressed finally, flicking her eyes at them in turn. ‘Will one of youse please tell me what in heaven is going on?’
Folding his arms, Daniel raised an eyebrow to Laura in agreement.
She drew in another deep breath and began. She explained about her dreams, of Adam and her father’s whisperings of the initials. How Lizzie’s passing remark about their latest cake last week had sparked a long-forgotten memory, a possible clue to the mystery of the missing brass, that on impulse she’d journeyed to Bolton to find out if she was right.
‘You mean you’ve really found it, the loot them brothers were searching for?’ asked Lizzie in wonderment.
Laura nodded. ‘Three hundred and fourteen pounds, eight shillings and sixpence.’
‘Wha—?’ her friend croaked.
‘Aye. So there you have it. We’ll start looking around for premises next week, if you’d like?’
‘If I’d …? Oh, love!’ She leapt up, tears spilling, and threw her arms around Laura’s neck. ‘I’d like nowt more. Nowt at all!’
Gripping on to her friend, Laura hid her face in her shoulder and closed her eyes in despair.
When a still-dazed Lizzie had finished her tea and left for home, Laura put her head on her arms resting on the table and burst into bitter tears. ‘See now what you’ve made me do?’ she cried to Daniel.
His voice was low with disbelief. ‘You went there alone? Are you insane? Owt could have happened to you, the child. What if Dotty Cannock had seen thee?’
‘It didn’t. She didn’t.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘I tried to earlier, was desperate for advice. But Edwin turned up, then … Why did you do it? Why did you threaten to tell her? And now, to halt your confession, I’ve gone and promised her summat I can’t provide. You’ve forced my hand in this, you! Just what am I going to do?’
Thrown by her distress, he came to kneel in front of her, his face wreathed in concern. ‘What is it? What’s wrong? Were what you told Lizzie an untruth?’
‘Oh nay. I have the funds, all right.’
‘Then I don’t understand—’
‘I’ll not touch it, lad, can’t! It’s dirty money, that’s what. So much destruction has been wreaked for that haul. I don’t know why on earth I took it, weren’t thinking straight. I want no part of it, nay never!’
‘Laura, Laura.’ Daniel lifted her up to force her to look at him. ‘Listen to me. All that’s happened was wrought by the greed of man. The money itself ain’t played a part in any of it, it’s not. The Cannocks owe thee this. Nay, hear me out,’ he told her when she made to argue. ‘What that trio put you through. All you suffered at their hands. Then there’s the child. Yours and Nathan’s.’
She lifted her eyes to his with a frown. ‘What about it?’
‘They’ve left that innocent babe in yon belly fatherless. Does it not deserve summat back? Take the brass and use it wisely, make a success of your life, for its sake as well as your own. Call it compensation for the child.’
‘No amount could ever be enough! Anyroad, however you dress it up, it’s still wrong. It ain’t the Cannocks’ money or mine, is it? They stole it, remember?’
‘But there’s no way of ever knowing who it belonged to or where it came from. The brothers were vague. They mentioned only that their target was miles away. They could have lifted it from anywhere; a different county, even.’
‘It’s still not right, lad. I feel awful just thinking about taking it.’ A thought occurred and she nodded slowly. ‘Perhaps I could hand it in to the police. They’d surely be able to trace the owners—’
‘Don’t talk daft, Laura. It would raise too many questions. You’d have to give them at least some details to work on, and what d’you think would happen? You want to chance them linking the money – linking thee – to the Cannocks’ deaths, do you? Nay. It’s too risky. You’ve the babby to think of.’
For an age, Laura was silent. Finally, she raised her gaze to meet his.
‘Well?’
‘All right. All right.’
‘You’ll use it?’
‘I ain’t got much choice, have I? Besides, I can’t very well let Lizzie down, now. Mind, if I do agree to this, I need two promises from thee. The first is you must put from your mind telling Lizzie what you almost did earlier. Promise me, lad,’ she pressed when he sighed. ‘You’ve made your bed; you can never breathe the truth to her, it’d break her heart.’
His tone was flat with sadness. ‘Aye.’
‘As for the second thing.’ She nodded decisively. ‘Before I touch a single farthing of that brass, I need you to take a little trip to Breightmet, too …’