Belle - Lesley Pearse [216]
‘We think Kent got someone to set it,’ Noah said. ‘But of course we couldn’t prove that, and such is the man’s power that the police took little interest.’
Belle’s eyes filled with tears. ‘It must have been so sad for them losing their home and all their belongings. But why did Garth take them to his place? He was said to be an unpleasant man.’
‘Like most people he can be something of a surprise,’ Noah said, and he reached out and dried her eyes with her sheet. ‘I’ve got to know him well in the last two years, and underneath that brusque exterior he’s a kind and decent man. Of course Mog has turned him and the Ram’s Head round since she became his housekeeper.’
Belle looked astounded.
‘It gets better,’ Noah said with a grin. ‘He and Mog want to get married. And when they get my telegram to say I’m bringing you home they are going to be dancing with joy and I’m sure the wedding will be a double celebration with you there.’
‘Oh, Noah!’ she exclaimed, her eyes filling with happy tears. ‘That is such wonderful news. Mog deserves all the happiness in the world. I thought she was destined to become an old maid.’
‘Love and being wanted has made her blossom,’ Noah said gleefully. ‘All that was missing from her complete happiness was finding you.’
Belle asked many excited questions about Mog and Jimmy, but then her face clouded over.
‘You haven’t said anything about my mother.’
‘She’s doing just fine,’ Noah said hastily and went on to tell Belle about Annie’s boarding houses. ‘She hasn’t fallen out with Mog, they’ve just gone in different directions. Really, the fire was the best thing that could’ve happened to them both. They are respectable now, living comfortably. Work has even started on a new building where the old one was. Annie’s Place is just a distant memory for most people around there.’
‘And I’m a distant memory to Mother too?’
Noah took Belle’s hand in his. ‘You must know Annie is incapable of articulating her feelings,’ he said gently. ‘That doesn’t mean she has none. I talked to her at length one day and because she was so upset about your disappearance, she told me about her past. She too was forced into prostitution when she was even younger than you. She is badly scarred by it, yet she kept you, and let Mog give you the mothering she felt she was incapable of. But I know she loved you, even if she couldn’t always show it.’
‘But she hasn’t been frantic about me?’
Noah shrugged. ‘She is a deep woman, Belle. It’s difficult to read her. Mog, to all intents and purposes, is your true mother, Annie has always known that. But I think that now you have so much more knowledge about the world she brought you up in, you should be able to see evidence that she did her best for you.’
Belle sniffed. Noah felt it would be best to leave it there for her to mull over.
‘How do you feel about seeing Jimmy again?’ he asked.
‘I don’t know,’ she said with a glum expression. ‘We were just innocent children really when we met. I liked him a great deal too. But I’m not that same girl any more, am I?’
She looked so sad that a lump came up in Noah’s throat.
‘We’ve all changed,’ he said. ‘I was such a prig when I met Millie, but through the last two years I’ve learned not to make judgments about people, or the way they live. Jimmy has grown in every way, even Garth has mellowed.’
‘But Jimmy will be hanging on to the memory of me as I was, just as I have of him. We won’t be able to go back to that point.’
‘No, you won’t. But in all the excitement of you being welcomed home, and Mog and Garth’s wedding, maybe you’ll discover a new starting point.’
‘Etienne told me you liked Lisette,’ she said. ‘Can I hope for something to come of that? She was so kind to me.’
‘Gabrielle has gone out there today to visit. They are old friends, you see. Along with telling her you are safe, she hopes to make some arrangements for us to meet. It would be folly for me to call there, the people Lisette is afraid of might hear of it. But the last time I saw Lisette I did offer to get her and her son away to safety. Gabrielle will tell her that