Belle - Lesley Pearse [239]
Annie had been the one Belle turned to for advice when Etienne finally wrote to her, because Mog’s loyalty would have been with Jimmy.
Etienne’s letter was an odd one, not just because he found it hard to write in English, but because Belle felt he was hiding his true feelings for her. He said how he had given what evidence he could to the French police about the trade in young girls, and Madame Sondheim and many others in the chain had been arrested and were awaiting their trials. Pascal too was still awaiting his, and Etienne thought there was no doubt he’d go to the guillotine.
Etienne went on to tell Belle about his small farm, and that he had chickens and some pigs and was planting lemon and olive trees, and he had made his cottage more comfortable. He had read in the newspapers that Kent had been arrested, tried and found guilty of murdering three girls, Millie and two others, and he asked how Belle felt now that Kent was to be hanged. He wound up the letter by urging her to put the past away, that she was in his heart, and he wished her every success in the future.
Annie studied every word of the letter carefully. ‘I’d say he does love you,’ she said at length, ‘but he knows he is not the right man for you. He is an honourable man and feels that he can only bring you more unhappiness. I think by the way he describes his little farm, he knows too that he couldn’t settle in England and that you wouldn’t want to live in France. But reading between the lines I’d say he is hoping he is in your heart.’
‘Should I go to him and see?’ Belle asked.
Annie shrugged her shoulders. ‘If you were to do that I’m sure he would welcome you with open arms, and that for a time you could be very happy. But you would have to pay a high price, Belle. He is well known in France, and because of his past you would be tainted with that too. Then there is the problem of his deep sorrow at losing his wife and children. Could you live alone in isolation with such a man and never regret leaving the people who love you here? Or your dream of having your own hat shop?’
Belle was touched that her mother had not ridiculed the idea of her feeding pigs and chickens, of watering Etienne’s trees and living the life of a peasant. She felt that Annie even understood her physical desire for him, yet she didn’t say that was not enough to keep her happy there.
‘I believe you can feel the way you do about Etienne with a man who can give you all the other things you want too,’ Annie said gently. ‘I fear you have shut your mind to that. But you have to open it, be receptive and let love in.’
Kent’s trial had taken place just before Belle moved to Blackheath. She was called as a witness to the Old Bailey, but because of the two other murders, and a dozen or more other witnesses, including Sly who had turned King’s Evidence against his old partner, her role in the trial was less important than had been anticipated. Because of her tender age and being as much a victim of Kent as Millie had been, she wasn’t subjected to rigorous cross-examination, and with Noah’s connections with the leading newspapers, very little was said about her by any of the journalists who covered the trial.
Kent was hanged a couple of weeks after he was sentenced, and Belle made a point of not reading any of the newspapers at that time. She didn’t want to hear his name again, much less read about him.
Now here in the church, listening to Mog and Garth making their vows to each other, all that darkness and brutality seemed a lifetime ago. Belle was the happiest she’d ever been, every day seemed to bring new joy, and she felt her heart was open again.
She looked at Jimmy up ahead in the front pew, straight-backed, his dark red hair looking like burnished copper in a ray of sunshine slanting in. He was several inches taller than the men near him, with wider shoulders, and was stronger and kinder than anyone else. He made