Belle - Lesley Pearse [64]
‘What about Annie?’ Noah asked. He’d already been told she intended to go her own way.
‘Annie’s not so easy to like,’ Jimmy said thoughtfully. ‘Do you think she’ll get another brothel?’
Noah gulped. He didn’t feel comfortable talking about such things to such a young lad. ‘I’ve no idea. But I think she’d do better to get some other kind of business so that if she gets Belle back she won’t be drawn into that.’
‘She might’ve already been forced into it.’
Noah looked round at Jimmy and saw his eyes were filling with tears. ‘Let’s hope not,’ he said, squeezing the lad’s bony shoulder. ‘You’ve got the advantage over me, Jimmy – you see, I didn’t get to meet Belle. Tell me what she’s like.’
‘She’s real pretty with dark, curly hair, shiny as wet tar, and deep blue eyes. Her skin’s got a kind of peachy glow too, not like most of the girls around here. She smells good as well, clean and fresh, and her teeth are small and white.’
Noah smiled. That detailed description showed just how badly Jimmy was smitten with her.
‘But it ain’t so much what she looks like as the way she is,’ Jimmy added for good measure.
‘And how is she?’
‘Bouncy, bright, she’s got a mind of her own. I met her the first time on the morning of the day Millie was killed. I asked if she was a whore ’cos she lived in a brothel.’
‘What did she say to that?’
Jimmy smiled. ‘She was very indignant. She said you could live in a palace and still not be a queen. But it turned out she didn’t really know what a whore was then. She only found that out when she saw Millie get killed.’
Noah blushed, for he had a sudden recollection of Millie standing in front of him in just her chemise and taking his hand to put it on her breast. His memories of Millie were all sweet and he didn’t like to hear her called a whore, or think what that word meant.
‘Girls like Millie don’t get much choice in what they end up doing for a living,’ Noah said. ‘Annie was the same, she was forced into it. So speak gently about such women, it is men just like us that turn them into what they are.’
‘I know that,’ Jimmy said with indignation. ‘Anyway, the next time I saw Belle was when we went down to the Embankment Gardens and she told me what she’d seen, blurted it all out, and cried about it. I reckon that’s a real bad way for a girl to find it all out.’
‘Were those the only times you met Belle?’
Jimmy nodded glumly. ‘She made a big impression on me, I was so happy she wanted to be my friend. Then she was snatched before I could get to know her better.’
They were approaching the station now and Noah stopped to buy a paper as he wanted to look at a couple of short pieces he’d written which were supposed to be in there today.
‘Have you been on a train before?’ he asked, glad to change the subject for something lighter as he could see Jimmy had become upset by talking about Belle.
‘Just once. Mother took me to Cambridge when she had to do a fitting for a lady she made clothes for. I thought it was marvellous, but it was a very, very long way.’
‘I don’t think Cambridge is much farther than Dover, that’s about sixty-five miles, but when you’re very young, just sitting for an hour can seen interminable.’
‘I’ve never seen the sea before. Will we be able to see it at Dover?’
‘Yes, of course.’ Noah laughed at the boy’s enthusiasm. ‘Shame it will be too cold to paddle.’
It did seem an incredibly long way to Dover and it was very cold in the carriage too. By the time they got there Jimmy’s nose was as red as his hair.
‘You need a warm coat,’ Noah said. Jimmy was only wearing a threadbare tweed jacket and a grey muffler round his neck.
‘I don’t like to ask my uncle,’ Jimmy said. ‘Mog said she was going to broach the subject, and ask for some new boots too – mine have got holes in them – but I guess she’s forgotten.’
‘I’ve got a coat back at my place that’s too small for me,’ Noah said. ‘I’ll bring it round when we get back. But I wear my boots till they fall apart.’
‘You’re a real dandy dresser,’ Jimmy remarked, looking with admiration at Noah’s dark, knee-length coat, his bowler