Belle - Lesley Pearse [63]
Annie asked him to thank Mrs Dumas for both herself and Mog, then launched into telling him what had been said at Bow Street. ‘I don’t think the police sergeant would lie about Kent going to France, do you?’ she asked, frowning deeply. ‘But there might be more information to add to that, like the name of his companion, how they arrived at Dover and so forth.’
‘I think the police must be convinced he’s gone to France, but I agree there is probably more we could find out.’
‘I think you could, Noah, after all, you are an investigator,’ Annie said, and went on to offer him a daily rate of pay plus his expenses.
Noah beamed. ‘I can go to Dover and come back in one day,’ he said.
‘Could I go with you, Noah?’ Jimmy piped up from the doorway. ‘We could call at Kent’s house in Charing afterwards, it’s on the way back. I could climb in a window and look around for you!’
Noah smiled. ‘I’d love your company, Jimmy, that’s if your uncle can spare you for a day. But I don’t think we’ll break in anywhere.’
Jimmy looked a bit disappointed at that. The fire had brought it home to all of them that Kent was extraordinarily vicious and capable of killing anyone who tried to cross him. Jimmy was desperately worried about Belle; deep in his heart he felt she was alive, but in a way that was worse for he kept dwelling on what Kent might be doing to her. Having gone as far as searching his office, now he was ready to do whatever else was necessary to find Belle.
Annie and Noah carried on chatting and Mog, still feeling bruised by Annie, went into the bar to see if she could help Garth. There were only a couple of men sitting in by the fire over a drink, and Garth asked her to mind the bar while he nipped down to the cellar.
Another two men came in while he was gone and Mog served them with a pint of beer each. Garth came back just as she was giving them their change.
‘You’re good to have around,’ he said appreciatively. ‘I’m going to miss you when Annie decides to move on.’
Mog was really surprised by the warmth of his remark. The previous day he’d praised her cooking and he’d thanked her for sewing buttons on his shirts, but she hadn’t imagined he was capable of missing anyone.
‘I won’t be moving on with her,’ Mog said sadly. ‘She wants to be on her own.’
‘Well, there’s a surprise,’ he said. ‘What’s she planning to do?’
Mog shook her head glumly. ‘I don’t think she knows yet.’
‘And what about you?’
Mog shrugged. ‘I’d make a good housekeeper, but who would want me when I’ve only worked in a brothel?’
‘I would,’ he replied.
Mog half smiled, thinking he was joking, only so far she hadn’t found him to be one for jokes. ‘Go on with you!’ she said.
‘I mean it. You’ve made it more homely here in the short time you’ve been staying. I like that, and I know Jimmy likes you being here.’
‘He misses his mother,’ Mog said.
‘Yes, he does. I thought he’d spent too much time with her in the past, and said as much, but he’s not namby pamby, he’s a good lad.’
Mog hadn’t expected to ever hear the big, red-headed man compliment anyone, let alone Jimmy, as he was the kind who acted as though he thought compliments were softness.
‘So are you saying you’ll take me on as your housekeeper? I mean, and pay me?’
‘Well, I can’t manage much. Will three shillings a week all found suit you?’
Mog was used to five shillings, and she knew a housekeeper in a big house would get far more, but after what Annie had said this morning, she was just glad to be wanted by someone.
‘It will suit very well, Garth,’ she said with a smile. ‘So as housekeeper you won’t mind if I do some serious organizing and spring-cleaning around here?’
He smiled then, and it was such an unusual sight it was like the sun coming out. ‘You can organize as much as you like back in the house,’ he said. ‘But the bar stays the way it is, I like it well enough.’
‘I’m really glad Uncle Garth asked Mog to be our housekeeper,’ Jimmy said to Noah as they walked down to Charing Cross station the next morning to catch a train to Dover. ‘I like Mog a lot and I didn’t want her