Chapter 10 #3
The girl had been copying The Lord’s Prayer from a horn book onto a slate, but as soon as Mrs Charles spoke she put down her chalk, bobbed a curtsy and left the room. She was dressed in a grey dress with a mob cap and starched white apron, but Jenny wasn’t sure if she was a maid or not.
‘This way, please.’
It took Jenny a minute to realise that Mrs Charles was talking to her and not to the girl as her intonation had not changed.
Jenny caught Gwen’s eye and was relieved to see her friend looked as taken aback.
Mrs Charles gestured to a door in the wall adjacent to the one they had just entered by.
Obediently, they followed their hostess, with Miss Salisbury behind them.
The room Mrs Charles led them into was smaller and furnished as a sitting room, with straight, upright chairs and small tables.
Every wall was hung with paintings of landscapes that looked foreign.
A fire roared in the grate, piled high with coal, and a large scuttle was full to the brim.
Clearly, Mrs Charles’ chop house was more profitable than running a pharmacy.
‘Thank you for agreeing to see us,’ Gwen began but Mrs Charles held up her hand.
‘No thanks are necessary. I’m not doing this out of the goodness of my heart but because Selina has told me about your remarkable product, and I see a business opportunity. Please, be seated and let’s discuss it.’
Jenny looked at Miss Salisbury who nodded as if she was a mother ushering a reluctant child into the sandpit. The chairs were firmly stuffed and not particularly comfortable, possibly intentionally to put Mrs Charles’ clients on the wrong foot.
The young girl entered the room with a large tray bearing the coffee things and placed it on the table, then spoke to Mrs Charles in a language Jenny thought might have been Italian or Spanish.
The girl was older than Jenny had first thought, her slight frame made her look younger, but she had the narrowing waist and budding bust of early adolescence.
Mrs Charles frowned and replied in the same language.
The girl bobbed another curtsy then left again.
‘Excuse me, but my ward has just told me my presence is needed. Selina, would you be so good as to act as hostess while I go and attend to something. I won’t be more than a few minutes.’
She swept out without waiting for an answer. The sound of raised male voices came from the corridor, then Mrs Charles’ deep but unmistakable female tone. Another male voice answered, followed by the stamping of feet going down the stairs. The three women exchanged an awkward look.
‘The girl is Mrs Charles’ ward?’ Gwen asked.
Mrs Salisbury smiled stiffly. ‘Augusta is quite the philanthropist. She cannot see a young woman in need without offering her a home and employment. Augusta takes in young girls from the workhouse. She trains them and gives them the opportunity for life in a number of well-regarded establishments,’ she explained.
‘I’ve taken one or two myself when they’ve been particularly promising. ’
‘Well, that’s very kind of her,’ Gwen said, though she sounded a little doubtful.
The footsteps returned and there was a low conference, then Mrs Charles’ sharp retort of, ‘Well, see he pays, then!’ and the footsteps receded.
Jenny looked around and spotted that the door from this room to the corridor had been blocked off, though the frame remained.
Other than the door they had come through from the office there was only one other, which led into a room further along.
These were presumably Mrs Charles’ private rooms, linked internally with only one way in and out.
It made the dwelling very secure but also very hard to escape from.
She shivered, not sure why the thought of escape had sprung to mind again.
Jenny looked at Miss Salisbury. She was apparently unperturbed because she was writing in a small notebook with a silver-topped pencil attached to the book by a chain.
To ease her discomfort, Jenny got up and walked to the window. The rooms overlooked the back yard, which was stacked with beer barrels and wooden crates and surrounded by a high wall.
There were more shouts, this time from below and Wolf entered the yard from the chop house, holding a scrawny, ill-dressed man by the back of his collar.
He opened a gate and hurled the man out into the alley.
He kicked the door shut and looked upwards, catching Jenny’s eye.
He leered and she jumped back, startled at being caught looking.
‘I’m not sure this was a good idea,’ Jenny said. ‘If there is trouble, we should leave.’
‘Oh, my dear. Do you think you’re in danger?’
Mrs Charles had spoken, her voice laced with amusement as she stood in the doorway. Jenny jumped a little and Mrs Charles smiled, none too pleasantly.
‘I’m sure you have nothing to worry about, and we shall all become the firmest of friends.’
She strolled back to her seat and sat down, re-fastening one of the black jet buttons on her sleeve, which had come undone. She fixed Jenny with a penetrating stare then transferred it to Gwen, who shrank back in her chair.
‘Now, then, ladies. To business.’