Belle - Lesley Pearse [59]
‘You’ll do no such thing,’ he said firmly. ‘Someone tried to kill you tonight, and there’s no prizes for guessing who that could be. You need to be somewhere safe, and you will be safe with me.’
People were drifting away now, for the firemen had the blaze under control and it was too cold to hang around. Mog saw that all the girls had gone – she supposed neighbours had kindly offered them a bed for the night. But she did think they might have come and asked how she and Annie were.
‘Come on, you’ll catch your death out here,’ Garth said impatiently, and picking Annie up in his arms as if she weighed no more than a small child, he began to walk towards the Ram’s Head.
‘Come on, Miss Davis.’ Jimmy smiled at Mog, putting the cashbox down on the ground and holding out Annie’s fur for her to slip into. ‘Home with us? Your feet must be frozen!’ He picked up the cashbox again and offered her his arm. Mog was glad to take it, for after the shock and exertions of the night it felt good to be able to leave decision-making to someone else, even if he was only a young lad.
Three days after the fire, Mog stood at the side of the bed, looking down at Annie in despair. She had steadfastly refused to have a bath, so she still stank of smoke and her hair fell in greasy rat’s tails on the shoulders of her soiled nightdress. Apart from getting up to use the chamberpot occasionally, she hadn’t left the bed since the night Garth put her in it.
‘I’m ruined,’ she sobbed. ‘What’s going to become of me?’
Mog automatically put a comforting hand on her friend’s shoulder, but she was finding it hard to feel much sympathy, for physically there was nothing wrong with Annie. She ate everything put in front of her, and she’d stopped coughing. Mog had lost her home and livelihood too, but she wasn’t lying around crying and wailing, in fact she was trying to make the best of a bad situation by making herself useful around the Ram’s Head.
The room they were sharing was grim, very small, dingy, and until Mog got to grips with it, very dirty. But even if it didn’t have the comfort and style they’d been used to, it was very kind of Garth to take them in.
In return, Mog had turned to cooking and cleaning from the first morning in the Ram’s Head. And although Garth was a man of few words, and not given to praise, she sensed he was enjoying the home-cooked meals, and having cleaner living quarters. Jimmy had confided in her that his uncle had been much easier on him since they’d arrived and Mog had made it feel like a real home.
Mog liked being there. Jimmy was such a nice lad, and it was good to live without all the petty squabbles she’d been used to with the girls. But with Annie refusing to pull herself together and not even making a decision about her future, it was very likely Garth would soon feel he was being used, and would ask them to leave.
‘What do you mean, “What’s going to become of you?” ’ Mog retorted. ‘You’ve got your life. You will also get something from the insurance company. And there’s the cashbox!’
Mog had no idea exactly what the box contained, but it was heavy, and she knew Annie well enough to be sure she wouldn’t have risked her life to go back for it unless there was a considerable sum in it.
‘You wouldn’t understand, you’ve never had to furnish a house or take responsibility for the running of a business.’
‘I don’t recall you furnishing it either. Aside from the chandelier and the Persian rug, mostly everything else was left from the Countess,’ Mog snapped back. ‘As for me not running it, I’ve been there night and day, organizing the food, the laundry, cleaning the rooms, making the girls toe the line and looking after you and Belle. If it hadn’t been for me you would all have perished in your beds. So how can you suggest I know nothing of running a business?’
‘You’ve only ever been a maid.’
Mog looked hard at Annie. She had never been a beauty. She had been attractive, with a good figure,