Lily of Love Lane Read online

  Turning his back on the mirror, he took a deep breath. Clearing his throat, he pulled down his waistcoat. ‘Snap out of it, you daft ’aporth,’ he instructed himself sharply.

  ‘What’s that?’ frowned Reube as he turned back to the bar.

  ‘Nothing – nothing at all.’

  ‘When are you going to drive that old bucket of yours into the river and do some real work?’ Ted Shiner said as he came over to the bar and dropped his empty glass in front of Ernie.

  ‘As soon as you start eating those rotten apples of yours,’ returned Ben with a forced laugh.

  ‘Ah, you’re both in the wrong line,’ said Reube good-naturedly. ‘Antiques and valuables – now there’s money to be made in those.’

  ‘What, your load of old junk?’ Ted scowled, his heavy jaws wobbling. ‘Bet you ain’t even seen a genuine antique, let alone sold one.’

  ‘Had a French clock the other day that Lily sold.’

  ‘Those Frenchies are all con artists,’ Ted pointed out. ‘And anyway I’d buy a clock off Lily any day, just to see that girl’s smile. Now she’s your real asset, chum, not your fancy clocks.’

  Reube aimed a playful punch at Ted’s shoulder and as Ted bought himself ale, the group of men resumed their conversation. But Ben’s mind had wandered again. What did Charles Grey want with Lily? He had to find out. Though he wasn’t quite sure how.

  Chapter Six

  It was Thursday and Lily was in a hurry to get home and call on Hattie. They hadn’t met up on Sunday as Sylvester had had a fit and the doctor was called. When Lily knocked, Hattie opened the door. She was still wearing her coat and hat. ‘Come in.’

  ‘How is Sylvester?’ Lily stepped inside.

  ‘He’s in the parlour with Mum and Dad. The new pills the doctor gave him seem to be working. I’ve just got home from work.’

  Lily followed Hattie into the kitchen. ‘Something smells nice.’

  ‘Mum’s baking a pie for tea.’

  Lily sat down by the stove. She took off her hat and scarf and Hattie did the same. ‘Seems ages since we had a chat.’

  ‘I’ve got a lot to tell you.’

  ‘Is it about this Charles Grey?’

  Lily looked up. ‘What makes you say that?’

  ‘Reube came round last night. Dad was giving Sylvester a wash down by the fire and he was starkers in the tub. He’s been in bed so he niffed a bit but it was too cold to wash him outside. Anyway, Reube and me sat out here and he said . . .’ Hattie suddenly stopped mid sentence and looked round. ‘I’ve got to have a fag, Lil. I haven’t had one all day and I’m gasping.’

  ‘Look, there’s a roll-up on the draining board.’ Lily knew that the Parks were all smokers. Any half-smoked cigarette was always kept in a saucer should anyone want a quick puff. Unlike her own mum, Mrs Parks agreed to smoking in the house.

  ‘Oh yeah, Dad always keeps one or two there in case he runs short.’

  Hattie lifted the papery thin cigarette from the saucer. She found a match and lit up, breathing in deeply. ‘Oh, that’s better.’ She sat down beside Lily with a sigh. ‘Madame Nerys didn’t half get on me wick today. Do this, do that, and make it twice as fast as last time I did it. Which I can tell you, don’t make sewing diamante onto a satin gown very pleasurable.’

  ‘Who is it for?’

  ‘A Mrs Bennet. One of the country set with more money than she knows what to do with. Madame Nerys wants every stitch doing to perfection. Anyway, I did it, but me fingers are like pincushions.’ She spread out her hands and Lily saw the tiny red blisters on the tips of them.

  ‘Oh, Hat, ain’t you got a thimble?’

  ‘Course I have, but for that sort of job you’d need ten. It’d be like wearing gloves.’

  ‘Did you finish sewing them on?’

  ‘Got the dress finished tonight.’

  ‘I think you’re clever.’

  Hattie laughed. ‘If I was clever I’d have me own workrooms by now. Not be slaving for someone else.’

  ‘Is that what you’d like? To be in business for yourself?’

  Hattie nodded slowly as she chewed on a piece of tobacco and picked it from her lips. ‘Yeah, I ’spose.’

  ‘You haven’t said that before.’

  Hattie looked down in her lap. ‘Well, it’s all pie in the sky, ain’t it? Someone like me owning me own place . . .’

  Lily realized they’d never talked like this before. She had known her friend all her life and yet she’d never heard her express these sentiments. ‘You might get your wish one day.’

  Hattie looked up sharply, her neat brown hair was shining and twisted into kiss-curls, her make-up looked flawless even at the end of the day. Lily thought if anyone deserved to get on in life, it was Hattie. ‘Anyway,’ said Hattie, waving aside Lily’s comment, ‘what were we talking about? Oh yes, that bloke from Poplar. Reube told me he came to the market and asked you to go up to town with him.’

  Lily nodded, thinking Hattie looked bored. ‘Yes, to buy things for his house.’

  ‘What sort of things?’

  ‘A lovely pair of figurines. They were perfect, without any cracks. And a chair and a nice big rug.’

  ‘Did you choose them?’

  ‘Of course. That’s what I was there for.’ Lily was beginning to think that no one gave her much credit for knowing about such things.

  ‘So what else did you do?’

  ‘We went into Lyons for a bite to eat.’ Lily was pleased as this seemed to make an impression.

  ‘Lyons!’ Hattie exclaimed. ‘Reube didn’t mention Lyons!’

  ‘I don’t think I told him.’ Reube hadn’t asked much about her day. He’d only really been interested in the three pounds that Charles had given her to pay him.

  ‘Did you go Dutch?’

  ‘No, he paid. The cakes were delicious, Hattie, and all served up so nicely.’

  ‘It seems he has money to burn!’

  Lily shrugged. ‘I wouldn’t say that.’

  ‘Are you seeing him again?’

  Lily was reluctant to say she was as Hattie was scowling suspiciously. But as Charles was coming to call for her this time, she had no choice as his car would be parked in the road.

  ‘Yes, on Sunday.’

  ‘But there ain’t no shops open on Sundays.’

  ‘We’re going to Petticoat Lane.’ Lily felt her cheeks going crimson.

  Hattie blew out a stream of smoke and allowed the silence to lengthen. Eventually she knitted her brow again. ‘Well, you won’t have time to see me, then.’

  ‘Course I will. I told him I always saw my friend in the afternoon.’

  ‘Don’t bother on my account. Why don’t you take all day?’

  ‘One day you might like to meet him,’ Lily suggested.

  Her friend fiercely stubbed out the cigarette. ‘Why’s that then?’

  ‘Because you’re my best mate.’

  ‘He don’t even know me.’

  ‘I’ve told him all about you.’

  Hattie looked at her with her dark brown gaze and said nothing. Lily glanced at the clock above the mantel. ‘Well, I’d better go, then.’ She pushed back her chair ready to get up.

  ‘What about them Blackshirts?’ said Hattie suddenly, the sparkle returning to her eyes. ‘My Reube certainly gave them what for! I’ll say that about him, he ain’t no coward. It takes a lot to light his fuse, but if anyone touches his property or threatens him . . .’ Hattie let her words linger before she raised her eyebrows and giggled. ‘It was a good job his ankle was better to kick with.’

  Lily smiled. ‘His ankle certainly didn’t hold him back.’

  ‘Did you see the fight?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘It must have been exciting.’

  ‘Not really. I felt quite frightened.’

  ‘What’s there to be scared of?’ Hattie said dismissively. ‘Reube told me he’s not going to let thugs like them worry him. He’s put a whopping great stick under the stall in case they co
me back. So you never have to worry, Lil. You’ve always got Reube to protect you.’

  Lily wanted to say that it was Charles Grey who had protected her, but she could imagine Hattie’s response if she did. No, she would just have to let Reube take the credit. It was too late now to tell anyone what had really happened.

  ‘For once I had something to boast about at work,’ continued Hattie, oblivious to Lily’s thoughts. ‘I get fed up listening to Ada Hacket, one of our machinists who comes from Stepney. She’s as old as the hills, but good at her job. Anyway, her dad was a member of the Green Gate gang, if you please.’

  ‘Who were they?’

  ‘They used to come across the water with the Lambeth Boys looking for fights this side of the river. They all wore belts with these sharp buckles on ’em. Their trick was to whip them off and slash their victims, the poor buggers. Course when the law tackled them after they didn’t find no knives, did they? And so they got off scott free.’

  Lily shivered. ‘I’m glad they ain’t around now.’

  Hattie was into her stride now. ‘Then there was the Blind Beggar gang, from the pub of the same name, who were mostly pickpockets, but were known for driving a man’s eye out with an umbrella ferrule!’

  ‘Hattie, you’re putting the wind up me.’

  ‘Oh, I’m just having a laugh.’

  Just then, Mrs Parks came into the kitchen. ‘Hello, Lily dear. I didn’t know you was here.’

  ‘Hello, Mrs Parks. How is Sylvester?’

  ‘Much better. We’ve got some new pills.’

  ‘Oh, that’s good.’

  ‘Would you like to stay for supper?’

  Lily smiled. ‘Thanks, Mrs Parks, but I’d better get home to help Mum with ours. I just popped in to see Hattie.’

  ‘Well, give me love to your mother. I saw her at the doctors last week. Is she better?’

  Lily frowned. She didn’t know her mother had been to the doctors. ‘Er, yes, yes she is.’

  As Lily left the Parks’ she was thinking about her mum going to the doctors and not telling her. What was wrong? Was she ill? Why had she kept it a secret?

  Lily slid her hand through the letterbox to draw up the key string. Suddenly a hand grabbed her arm.

  She jumped. ‘Oh, Ben! You gave me a scare.’

  ‘Sorry.’

  ‘Where are you off to?’

  ‘I’m on me way home.’

  She waited for him to speak. But he just stood there.

  ‘Is there something wrong?’ she asked eventually.

  ‘No, why should there be?’

  Lily pulled up her collar. The breeze was whistling around her ears. She shivered. She needed to see her mum. ‘Well, I’d better go in now.’

  He took her arm. ‘Lily, I—’

  The door suddenly opened and Uncle Noah peered out. ‘Blimey, gel, you’re not courting at this time of the day, are you?’

  ‘No, course not, Uncle Noah, it’s only Ben.’

  ‘Oh, blimey, so it is.’

  ‘Good evening, Mr Kelly. Keepin’ all right are you?’

  ‘Not so bad, son, thanks.’ He turned to Lily. ‘Your supper’s waiting, love.’

  ‘I’m coming. What was you going to say?’ she asked Ben quickly.

  ‘Nothing, not really.’ He moved awkwardly away. ‘Night then all.’

  ‘Night, Ben.’

  ‘You’re late tonight,’ her uncle said as he shut the door behind them.

  Lily hung up her hat and coat. ‘I went in to see Hattie. Where’s Mum?’ she asked anxiously.

  ‘In the kitchen. And before you go along, I’ll warn you. It’s been a ruddy awful day.’

  Lily’s heart sank.

  ‘But I thought you were ill!’ exclaimed Lily as she sat at the table in front of her unfinished meal.

  ‘Me? I’m all right. What made you think that?’

  ‘Mrs Parks. She said she saw you at the doctors.’

  ‘Oh,’ sighed her mother wearily. ‘I thought Flo Parks might be a bit more discreet than that, seeing as how she has Sylvester to contend with and don’t want every nosy parker knowing their business.’

  ‘She only asked me how you were.’

  ‘What did you say?’

  Lily clattered down her knife and fork. ‘What could I say? I would have looked a right chump if I’d said I didn’t know you was ill.’

  ‘You needn’t use that tone with me, young lady.’

  ‘I was worried you had something and didn’t tell me,’ Lily protested.

  ‘Well, it was for your father I went to the doctor. For his cough. But, as I’ve just explained, the medicine didn’t do any good. And . . . well, he was taken poorly at work today and had to come home.’

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me what was going on?’

  ‘Because, like Flo, I didn’t want it spread all over the neighbourhood.’

  ‘But I’m your daughter!’

  Josie nodded impatiently. ‘I know, I know. But you might have said something at the market by accident. I didn’t want to run that risk.’

  ‘I wouldn’t have said anything if you’d told me not too,’ Lily said, feeling hurt that her mother thought she couldn’t be trusted. ‘And what’s wrong anyway with people knowing?’

  Josie sighed again. ‘Don’t you see, ducks? Healthy men can’t even get jobs. Ill ones are discounted completely.’

  ‘But Dad shouldn’t be working on a skin ship with a cough like that. He shouldn’t—’

  Josie jumped up, clutching the towel against her. Her eyes filled with tears. ‘I don’t need you to tell me what’s bad for your dad, Lily,’ she cried in a strangled voice. ‘I was hoping for a bit of support not criticism.’ She turned and bumped into the chair then hurried out of the room.

  Lily looked at her uncle. ‘What did I say?’

  ‘A bit too much, love. Your mum’s very worried. I did warn you.’

  ‘What happened at the docks?’

  ‘They had to carry him out of the hold he was working in. Collapsed, poor bloke, and couldn’t stop coughing. One of the foremen brought him home in his van.’

  ‘Has the doctor been?’

  ‘Not yet.’

  ‘But why?’

  ‘He might get up tomorra.’ Her uncle stared through his pince-nez. ‘A good day’s rest will see him better.’

  Lily knew it was the money. It was always the money. Even a shilling for a doctor’s visit was thought of as extravagant.

  ‘I’ll go up and see him.’

  ‘I should speak to your mother first. And don’t go saying as we should have the doc as she knows that herself. It was your dad that forbade her to call him.’

  Lily looked down. She felt ashamed of herself for getting into a panic. ‘I just wish I’d been told.’

  ‘There was nothing you could do. Your mum didn’t want to heap more worry on your shoulders. Now, calm down and go and make your peace.’

  ‘Sorry I upset you, Mum,’ Lily apologised when she found her mother upstairs.

  ‘And I’m sorry you had to hear what you did from Flo Parks,’ Josie whispered as she stood on the landing. She held a dark blue medicine bottle in her hand. ‘Your dad has had a spoonful of this and he’s resting easier.’

  ‘Will he be all right?’

  ‘Course he will. He just needs rest.’

  ‘Can I go in?’

  ‘Yes, he’d like to see you.’ Josie gave her daughter a smile. ‘But he might drop off. He’s very tired.’

  Lily went into the bedroom. Her dad was propped up by pillows and looked pale and old. His hair was almost grey now, as though it had happened overnight. He looked much smaller, lost under the sheets and covers. His eyes were closed and he was gently snoring. She sat on the chair beside the bed and waited.

  All day Friday Lily wondered how she could get a message to Charles Grey to tell him she couldn’t go out on Sunday. With her dad ill, she was needed at home. But by the evening she still hadn’t come up with an idea. Dewar Street had bee
n half an hour’s drive in Ben’s lorry and the bus would take even longer. She was out at work all day tomorrow. Would Reube let her have time off?

  That night when she got home, her dad was sitting up in his chair by the fire. He wore his dressing gown and slippers and gave her a big smile.

  ‘Hello, love.’

  ‘Should you be up, Dad?’

  ‘I feel better on me feet.’ He laughed and coughed at the same time. ‘Well, on me backside.’

  ‘And he don’t cough so much,’ agreed her mother.

  ‘I’ll be as right as rain next week.’

  Lily sat beside him. ‘Please, Dad, don’t go back on the skin boats.’

  He coughed again and hit his chest with his fist. ‘What’s all this about?’

  ‘Mum and me worry when you’re on that job.’

  ‘It’s the only one I’m likely to get. The dockyards are laying off men by the score.’

  ‘I know, but we’ll manage.’

  He took her hand. ‘You’re a lovely daughter, Lily. I don’t tell you enough. You’re the apple of me and your mother’s eye.’

  ‘In that case, will you do as we ask?’

  He gave a weak chuckle. ‘I let meself in for that, didn’t I?’

  ‘At least take next week off. Get your strength back.’

  ‘Your mother said that.’

  ‘So will you do it?’

  He rested his head back on the chair. ‘I’ll give it some thought.’

  Lily knew that would mean only one thing; by hook or by crook he would get back to work. He just wanted to keep her and her mother happy for now.

  Lily sat back in the chair as the fire crackled and the smoke curled up the chimney. How much coal was there left in the bunker? She hadn’t thought to check this week. And food. What did they have in the larder? Had her mother managed to clear the arrears of the rent? Thank goodness it was pay day tomorrow.

  The warmth of the fire radiated on her cold cheeks. As she gazed into the deep red glow of the fire, her dad coughed every now and then, but he seemed comfortable. They could hear Uncle Noah and her mother in the kitchen. They were behaving themselves for once. Lily felt her eye lids flutter; it was the end of a long week. Tomorrow she would think of a way to cancel her arrangement with Charles Grey.