Fallen Grace - Mary Hooper [17]
‘But it wasn’t broken at all,’ said Grace, ‘for it’s there in your window on a shelf.’
‘That’s a different one!’ Morrell blustered.
‘I’ve been warned about people like you, who make a pretence that something is broken when it isn’t.’
‘I tell you that that there pot in the window is another one,’ said Morrell. ‘A different one. That one’s quality, that is.’
‘That is our mother’s teapot in your window,’ Grace said sternly. ‘And my brother, who is a lawyer’s clerk,’ she brandished the card belonging to Mr James Solent, ‘says that if you do not return it to us immediately then he will begin a court enquiry into the matter.’
Morrell looked at the card and his jaw dropped so that the pencil fell out of his mouth. ‘Oh, hoity toity,’ he said. ‘No need for that. Court enquiries indeed.’
‘Then I demand that you give it back right now!’ said Grace.
x
Ten minutes later, Grace and Lily were home and Grace was putting the teapot carefully into the crate. Her hands were shaking a little as she did so, for standing up to Morrell had taken more out of her than she had thought.
She’d removed a couple of sheets of newspaper from Morrell’s counter to wrap the teapot and now smoothed out one of these. To amuse Lily and show that all was well between them (for indeed, Grace did feel that a teapot lost and found was nothing compared to other things), she began to read some of the advertisements.
‘For the best treat of the Season, visit Madame Tussaud’s Historical Gallery with a full-length model of the Murderer James Mullins, with a replica of the awful brown paper parcel, the discovery of which led to his capture.’
‘Should you like to go to see that?’ Lily asked her fearfully.
‘No, I should not,’ said Grace. ‘But I should like to see this: Captain Green’s silk balloon shown daily at the Crystal Palace. See the balloon which has made ascents from all the major cities in Europe. Captain Green will be on hand to answer questions and receive your approbations.’
‘A silk balloon?’ Lily questioned. ‘How big would that be?’
‘I believe it’s big enough to have a basket below it which can hold people.’
‘People who go up in the air with it?’
Grace nodded.
‘Like birds!’
‘Yes, like birds,’ Grace said. ‘Oh, there are several advertisements for dogs here: Sociable, first rate and handsome toy terriers. A fine companion for a lady. I should like a nice dog. Wouldn’t you, Lily?’
‘But dogs would need to be fed every single day,’ Lily reminded her.
‘Of course,’ Grace said. ‘We won’t have one, then.’ She glanced down the page. ‘A considerable number of ladies are looking for situations as governesses – oh, and under Missing Friends there is someone looking for a Miss Caroline Thomas regarding a matter both delicate and urgent. I wonder what that can be?’
As she paused to think a little longer, her fingers traced the outline of a small, neat oblong which had been cut from the bottom of the page. ‘Look,’ she said wonderingly, ‘someone has cut out one of these advertisements. Perhaps they mean to answer it. I wonder what it said?’
Lily shook her head impatiently. ‘Never mind that. Read me some more, do! Make me up a story about a toy terrier going up in a balloon!’
x
Chapter Six
The discreet announcement, a neat oblong, had come from the front page of The Mercury. The man holding it, wearing his usual Saturday garments of a loud tweed jacket and yellow cravat, had cut it out before taking several items wrapped in newspaper to sell at Morrell’s, who never asked questions about an item’s provenance.
This man and one other were in Barker’s, a gentlemen’s club in London’s St James’s, and were occupying the largest leather seats in the smoking room. They had paid considerably over the odds to secure their membership to the club, for being ‘trade’ rather than ‘society’, by rights they shouldn’t have been there at all.
The man with the yellow cravat passed the announcement over to his companion, who was much more formally dressed in an immaculate dark suit with handmade