Lily of Love Lane Read online

  Lily arrived at market out of breath. She had run most of the way and being Friday, it was very busy already. All the stalls were surrounded by shoppers. Cox Street Market was the last port of call before Poplar, the tiny hamlet next to the Isle of Dogs. People were out and about after being confined to home over Christmas. The kids still hadn’t returned to school and were playing amongst the stalls or gathered under the railway arches nearby. Since the end of the war in 1918, the market community at Cox Street had thrived.

  But it wasn’t Reube James who Lily saw behind the stall this morning, it was Ben, his brother. His tall, slim figure, quite the opposite to Reube’s short and stocky build, was busy putting out the items for sale. A large iron bedstead stood as a backdrop, in front of which were two brass candlesticks, half a dozen rolls of brightly coloured cloth, a battered brass coal scuttle and fender and a dozen other objects piled beside it. The smaller items were placed on top of the stall: saucepans, tarnished silver cutlery, bone-handled carving knives, old leather boots, a multitude of umbrellas, walking sticks and chinaware.

  As Lily approached a young girl passed by, smiling at Ben. He was very quick to smile back, calling out, ‘Can I interest you in anything this morning, Miss? Got a lovely bargain here – a quarter of the price to you.’ He held out a large feather duster, and the girl went away laughing.

  ‘A married man like you with six starving kids to feed should be ashamed of yourself,’ Lily teased as she walked up. He wasn’t married or even attached, but Lily enjoyed the fun. They had known each other so many years, he was like her older brother.

  Ben removed a carnation from his buttonhole and slid it under the ribbon of her hat. ‘I was just getting into me patter an’ all.’ He was over six foot tall and lean as a beanpole. When he smiled, he showed lovely white teeth and employed his quick, cockney wit to charm the females. At twenty-six, two years younger than Reube, he drove a big, dirty lorry, delivering to all corners of the country.

  ‘Get your beauty sleep, did you?’ he asked with a chuckle.

  ‘Sorry I’m late. Uncle Noah got stuck in the closet again. Dad hasn’t had time to fix it.’ This was half a truth as her father wasn’t very quick at repairs.

  ‘I’ll pop across with me tools. Won’t take long and it gives me a chance to see you.’ He winked flirtatiously, his grey eyes sparkling with humour as he took out a comb and ran it threw his thick brown hair. As the James’ lived across the road, Ben often helped her dad out with repairs.

  She touched the flower in her hat. ‘Don’t try your patter on me, it’s wasted.’

  ‘Why’s that?’

  ‘Your head is big enough. I can see it growing by the minute.’

  ‘Me?’ he spluttered. ‘I’m the modest type, I am.’ He elbowed Lily gently. ‘In fact I’m fading away from being ignored.’

  ‘You? Ignored? Don’t make me laugh.’

  ‘You’re lovely when you laugh.’

  Lily rolled her eyes. ‘Why isn’t your brother here?’ Ben sometimes stood in for his brother if he wasn’t busy with his lorry.

  ‘He’s gone to buy stock. Hattie got the day off and went with him.’

  Lily removed her hat and tucked it under the stall, shaking her hair loose. ‘She didn’t tell me she had a day off.’

  Ben tapped the side of his nose. ‘She’s got a toothache. The sort that needs urgent attention.’

  ‘Oh!’ Lily smiled as the penny dropped. ‘That sort of toothache.’

  Lily knew it was unlikely that Madame Nerys, Hattie’s boss, would be so generous as to give her a day off right after Christmas. Hattie worked in a prestigious dressmakers at Aldgate and had a responsible job, cutting the patterns. Hattie was very good at this and Madame Nerys paid her well, but she made sure that Hattie worked hard for the money.

  ‘Anyway,’ said Ben, giving another wink to Lily, ‘Reube and Hat seem to be rubbing along all right, don’t they?’

  Lily nodded as she reflected over the Christmas holiday. Apart from Christmas morning when the Parks and the Brights had walked to church together, she hadn’t seen much of Hattie. Reube and Hattie had spent a lot of time going to the cinema to watch the new talkies. Living in the same road, she and Hattie and Ben and Reube had known each other all their lives. The James boys were older by six and eight years, but not a lot wiser, her mum always joked. Reube and Hattie shared a mutual interest in the cinema whilst Lily occasionally accompanied Ben to a dance, but he was too much of a flirt to take seriously. Now Lily wondered whether the reason Hattie was saving up so hard was to get married.

  ‘Here, take a gander at this,’ Ben lifted a large white chamber pot from under the stall.

  Lily giggled. ‘Watch what you’re doing with that. You don’t know where it’s been.’

  ‘Matter of fact I do. I’ve just bought it from an old girl up Manilla Street. It was her dear departed hubbie’s. She said she wanted to get rid of it quick.’

  ‘Why’s that?’

  ‘It’s haunted. In the middle of the night she still hears him using it.’

  ‘You’re joking!’

  ‘Cross me heart, that’s no word of a lie. Said her hubbie had a bladder like an elephant.’

  The two friends burst into laughter again. ‘Anyway, I ain’t heard a tinkle in the last ten minutes.’ Ben placed the pot at the front of the stall.

  ‘Where’s the handle gone?’

  ‘It’s broken off.’

  ‘What use is a chamber pot without a handle?’ Lily queried. ‘How much did you give her?’

  ‘Two bob.’

  ‘Daylight robbery.’

  ‘She was down on her uppers. I hadn’t the heart to say no.’

  Lily frowned as she studied the broken article. ‘Let’s put this in it.’ She took a neglected looking aspidistra from a metal vase and lowered it into the chamber pot, arranging the broad green leaves over the edges, she stood back. ‘What do you think?’

  ‘I think if what that old girl says is true, that aspidistra is going to grow into a tree.’

  Laughing, Lily placed it in the middle of the stall. The next few hours passed very quickly as the customers seemed determined to start the New Year buying bargains.

  Halfway through the afternoon a man came up and stared at the chamber pot for some while.

  ‘Can I help you?’ Lily asked eventually, noticing how good looking he was. He had very dark hair and wore a good quality overcoat. He smiled at her. ‘I need something for my house, a touch of greenery to cheer it up after Christmas. The plant would do nicely, but that’s not a vase is it?’

  Lily blushed. She wasn’t sure why, normally she would make a joke but for some reason she felt tongue-tied. ‘No, it’s a chamber pot but the plant goes very well inside it.’

  ‘How much is it?’

  ‘Three and six.’ Lily calculated quickly. They would make one and six profit on the original two bob.

  ‘That’s reasonable.’ He smiled again and Lily felt his dark eyes rove over her.

  ‘You won’t be sorry, if you buy that,’ said Ben coming up behind her and placing his hands on her shoulders. ‘Nice piece of pottery that. Unique I’d call it.’

  Lily blushed again. She felt quite strange as she stood between the two men and they looked one another up and down.

  ‘I’ll take it, though I would like it to be delivered. I’ll pay for the trouble, of course.’

  Ben was quick to agree.

  ‘Sunday will be a good time. My name is Charles Grey and I live in Poplar.’ He gave his address to Lily who jotted it down on a pad of paper.

  Ben nodded. ‘There’s no market on Sundays, so I’ll drop it round.’

  The man glanced at Lily, ‘Will you be coming too?’

  This time Lily’s pale cheeks went very red. ‘I don’t think so.’

  ‘A pity, as a woman’s touch would be quite helpful.’

  ‘Haven’t you got a—’ Lily stopped, feeling as though she was being too forward in asking if he had a wife.


  ‘That’ll be three and six, thank you,’ said Ben loudly.

  Their customer handed over the money. Gazing into Lily’s eyes once more, he wished them good day.

  Lily watched him go, wondering who he was and what he did for a living. He was tall and upright, not as tall as Ben, but distinguished looking and much older. He had something about him that was very mysterious. She would have liked to talk more and usually she would have, but Ben had been looming over her and she hadn’t felt quite at ease.

  ‘That was a good deal,’ she said to Ben, who was dropping the change in the cash box under the stall.

  ‘Not bad at all. Specially as it was broken.’

  ‘What time are you going on Sunday?’

  ‘I don’t know. Before dinner I expect. Why?’

  ‘Oh, I thought I might come with you after all.’

  Ben frowned. ‘What would you do that for?’

  ‘Because I’m curious.’ He shook his head slowly. ‘I’ll never understand women.’

  Lily laughed. ‘What makes you say that?’

  ‘It’s obvious he’s a bit of a charmer,’ Ben dismissed, ‘trying it on with that smile of his and long looks.’

  Lily giggled even more, ‘Well, you should know, Ben James, as it takes one to know one.’

  He didn’t deny it, which left Lily even more curious to know more about the mysterious stranger.

  Chapter Two

  The light was fading when Lily and Ben began to pack away. It promised to be a typical foggy London night. Beyond the lights of the market, every alley and by-way was threaded with mist. Lily knew that it would be treacherous around the murky waters of the docks. In these conditions, the edge of the wharves were invisible; only the river lapping at their mossy walls hinted at the lethal drop. The air was thick with salt and the sickly sweet odour of a ship’s hemp cargo as Lily counted the day’s takings. Business had been good. After they had sold to Charles Grey, a dealer from the West End had bought the marble clock. Although labelled at six shillings, they had settled on five. The dealer knew it was a bargain, as the clock would treble in value when sold in the City. But as long as the stall turned over a profit, Reube would be happy. Ben threw on his heavy coat as he packed away the stock. ‘Don’t reckon Reube and Hattie will be coming back.’

  ‘I wonder where they went?’

  He smiled. ‘Somewhere nice and quiet.’

  ‘I wouldn’t mind going home now.’ Most of the shops along Cox Street were shut, the lights of their windows extinguished. The only life came from the fish and chip shop and Mr Mole’s pie and pease pudding shop, both of which were counting on cold weather to increase the appetite. In all conditions, people ventured out to buy their mouth-watering fish and chips or boiled beef and faggots. The steam on their windows was already announcing the start of trade.

  ‘All right,’ agreed Ben, rubbing his hands together for warmth, ‘let’s finish packing this lot up.’

  Lily helped him dismantle the stall and stow the unsold stock in the lock-up behind the bolted and barred confectionery shop. When all was done, they left for home.

  ‘Don’t you two lovers stay out late,’ yelled Ted Shiner from the fruit and veg stall.

  ‘Chance would be a fine thing,’ returned Ben, linking his arm through Lily’s. ‘If I was only taken seriously, Ted, but the girls just play with my affections.’

  There were more insinuations from Ted as he chucked the damaged apples, pears and oranges to the street urchins.

  Next to Shiner’s pitch stood the jewellery and curio stall. ‘Oiy my friends, how is it that you are knocking off so early?’ joked Elfie Goldblum, wrinkling his weathered face.

  ‘I’m late for me champagne and caviar!’ returned Ben. ‘The taxi arrives at seven to take me and me girl here up to the Savoy.’

  ‘I wish it was,’ Lily sighed as she pulled up her collar, hugging herself to keep warm. ‘Just imagine a taxi arriving outside our house, and me wearing this lovely dress, all long and flowing, and there I am ready to dance the night away . . .’

  ‘With me beside you in me top hat and tails—’

  ‘Now you’ve spoilt it,’ Lily laughed.

  ‘See what I mean? You never take me seriously.’

  ‘I’ve just remembered,’ Lily said suddenly, ‘there’s something I have to ask Reube. But I s’pose it can wait.’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘I was wondering if he’d let me work Saturday afternoons for a while.’

  ‘You’re an eager beaver.’

  ‘Dad’s out of work again. He went to try a skin ship this morning, but I hope he doesn’t get it.’

  ‘Do you want me to ask for you?’

  ‘Would you?’

  ‘And I’ll come over and mend that latch on Sunday.’

  Lily smiled. ‘Don’t forget you’ve got a delivery on Sunday.’

  ‘Yes, to lover boy.’

  Lily laughed again. ‘You sound as if you’re jealous.’

  ‘Why would I be jealous of him?’

  ‘Can I come with you? It would be a nice ride out.’

  ‘I don’t want you heading for a broken heart.’

  ‘Why do you say that?’

  Ben frowned as he took her arm and they hurried through the foggy street. ‘Because it’s types like him that break hearts. Anyway, I’ll be there to see he minds his manners.’

  ‘I don’t need looking after.’

  He looked down at her and grinned. ‘That’s true. You’re only little but you pack a punch, as I found out when you gave me a dirty great black eye once.’

  ‘When was that?’

  ‘A long time ago.’

  ‘You mean when I was a kid?’

  He grinned. ‘You was always bashing that football around. One day I was walking along the street and you nearly knocked me head off.’

  ‘I don’t play football any more, in case you hadn’t noticed,’ Lily giggled.

  ‘I’m pleased to hear it.’

  Beginning to hum a tune Ben slid his hand around her waist and waltzed her over the cobbles. Following in the wake of a horse and cart, he twirled her onto the pavement, narrowly missing a bicycle. He was humming ‘’S Wonderful’ and Lily joined in, knowing the words off by heart as he’d sung them to her so many times.

  ‘You’re not a bad dancer, I’ll give you that,’ she teased, as he straightened his jacket and they fell into step again.

  ‘Thanks for the compliment. S’pose it’s the only one I’ll get tonight.’

  When they turned into Love Lane, the rows of terraced houses were covered in a yellow-grey mist. From out of the James’ house, came her friend, Hattie Parks.

  Lily noted how smartly she was dressed in a tailored grey coat and scarf. Her dark brown Eton Crop was the height of fashion.

  ‘Did the dentist pull out a tooth?’ Ben asked.

  ‘No, it’s not me in the wars, it’s your brother.’

  ‘What’s he done now?’

  ‘He thought he’d broken his ankle, but it’s only sprained.’

  ‘How did he do that?’

  ‘You’d better go and ask him.’

  He rushed off and as Hattie watched him go, she began to laugh. ‘Oh, Lil, you should have seen Reube today. It was so funny.’

  ‘What, spraining his ankle?’

  ‘It was the way he did it. We went to this big, posh house where this woman showed us round. She’s going abroad and needs to sell her stuff. Reube would have liked to have had a butchers at what was downstairs, but she asked him go up in the roof first where the good bits were.’

  ‘Funny they was in the roof and not on show,’ Lily commented.

  Hattie nodded. ‘They was packed away, she said. Anyway, Reube was up above and we could hear him moving around when all of a sudden a foot comes through the ceiling. Finally, he lands at me feet with the biggest thump you ever heard. Half the blooming ceiling came down with him!’

  ‘Was he hurt?’

  ‘Only his ankle
but with all the moaning he was doing you’d think he’d broken it.’

  ‘What did the woman say?’

  ‘She was really annoyed. Called him a clumsy oaf. He was in pain but she didn’t care. She was yelling at him saying he’d have to pay for the damage and he was yelling at her, saying she’d have to cough up for the operation on his broken foot.’ Hattie trapped her bottom lip with her little white teeth in an effort not to laugh. ‘He had to slide down the stairs on his bum and she never stopped with the insults. For a rich woman she had a mouth like a sewer.’

  ‘That doesn’t sound very ladylike.’

  Hattie’s brown eyes twinkled. ‘We managed to get on a bus and Reube was huffing and puffing. He claimed to all the passengers he’d probably broken his leg. The conductor said he’d have to charge him for two as he had his foot up on another seat! It was like one of them Laurel and Hardy films. But I daren’t say so as he ain’t seen the funny side of it yet.’

  ‘And there was us thinking you were having a romantic interlude.’

  Hattie looked scornful. ‘My Reube romantic? You must be joking. It’s all figures of the wrong sort with Reube. Drives me barmy with his mental arithmetic, how he’s going to make a fortune on that stall of his. Talking of which, did you sell much?’

  ‘Yes, quite a few things. Amongst them a valuable clock and an aspidistra standing in a broken chamber pot.’ Lily began to tell Hattie the story of Charles Grey, how he had smiled at her charmingly and given her a long, mysterious look.

  ‘What’s he like?’ Hattie asked curiously.

  ‘Tall and dark, with nice clothes.’

  ‘Will you be seeing him again?’

  ‘Only if I go with Ben to deliver the pot on Sunday.’ Lily hesitated. She didn’t want to sound too eager. ‘He said he would value a woman’s opinion on where to put the plant.’

  ‘Hasn’t he got a wife then?’

  ‘Didn’t like to ask.’

  ‘How old is he?’

  ‘Quite a bit older – about thirty?’

  ‘You want to watch it. The old blokes think they are the cat’s whiskers sometimes.’

  Lily didn’t say how she had felt when he looked at her. ‘It would be nice to ride out in the lorry.’