Death at Dawn - Caro Peacock [116]
‘I’m sure of it. But Paris?’
‘A message came for me one day, to go to a certain address in Burlington Gardens and meet a gentleman. I went to the address, a very respectable-looking house. The man who spoke to me there wasn’t quite a gentleman – more of a gentleman’s steward, I should say – but quite polite and agreeable. He said there was an English lady expecting her confinement in Paris who particularly wanted my services. I asked him her name – wondering if it was one of my ladies – and he said it was not in his power to give it. But if I agreed I was to have ten guineas in my hand in advance, all the travelling arranged and paid for, and a further twenty-five guineas when the lady was safely delivered.’
‘Were you not suspicious at the secrecy?’ Daniel asked.
‘It happens sometimes, sir. A lady – for one reason or another – may not wish to have her condition known in London. Usually it will be a matter of going down to some house in the country, but sometimes ladies do go abroad.’
‘Had you been to Paris on other occasions?’
‘Twice, sir.’
‘So the circumstances did not alarm you?’
‘No, sir. Only the money offered was higher than usual. Still, that was no reason to refuse.’
‘So you accepted?’
‘I said there was a lady I must see through her confinement in the next few days, but after that I was at the other lady’s service. I was to send word to this steward the moment I was free. So a livery carriage came to collect me and take me all the way to Dover. I was given a ticket for the steam packet and told to look out for a tall coachman with a blue-and-gold cockade in his hat who would be waiting for me on the French side.’
‘And you met this coachman?’
‘Yes. He was in a terrible hurry, would hardly allow me time to eat and drink when we changed horses at the inns and wouldn’t answer any questions, didn’t seem to understand English. But I supposed the lady must be near her time and that was the reason for the hurry. So we got to Paris. The house wasn’t as grand as I expected, but then if the lady wanted to be secret perhaps it wasn’t surprising. A manservant took me to a room upstairs and I said I’d have a wash and be with the lady directly. I took my hat and cloak off and I washed and I waited. And I waited, and I waited. After a while, I started to worry that the lady might need me and there I was, sitting up there on my own. So I tried the door handle and the door wouldn’t open. Bolted on the outside. Only of course I didn’t know that at first, I thought it had just stuck, so I started knocking on the door and calling out, quite polite at first then more loudly because I was starting to be alarmed. Then there were footsteps, the sound of a bolt being drawn back and the fat devil walked in. “What is this?” I said. “The poor lady might be having her baby at this very moment.” The fat devil shook his head. He had a sneering kind of smile on his face and you could smell the brandy reeking off his breath. I can see him now and hear his voice saying what he said, quite quietly: “There really is no hurry, Mrs Martley. The baby we’re interested in was born twenty years ago.”’
Maudie Martley looked terrified remembering it, like a woman seeing a ghost. Even though I’d expected it, I felt myself shivering and instinctively moved closer to Daniel.
‘Did you know what he meant by that?’ he asked her.
‘Of course I did. It was the worst night of my life.’
‘What did he mean?’
She whispered, ‘The princess, of course. Poor Princess Charlotte.’
‘Were you midwife to the princess?’ I said.
That brought me a warning glance from Daniel, but it seemed to be the cue she needed.
‘Not midwife, just midwife’s helper. I was only twenty-two at the time, but already married and widowed with a baby of my own. My aunt was a midwife, very well thought of, and she was training me up as her assistant, so that I should have a trade to provide for my baby. Of course, with the princess, it wasn’t only a midwife. There were three great doctors there. One of them was Sir Richard Croft,