Chapter Thirty-Seven
‘You ’ave a safe journey back now,’ Peggy told Annie on the morning she was preparing to go back to London. ‘And just think, the next time you come it’ll be fer the weddin’. Eeh, I’m gettin’ all excited about it now.’
Annie smiled. It was lovely to see Peggy looking so happy.
Apart from the meeting with Reggie, which still left a bad taste in her mouth, the visit had gone really well.
She’d visited Charity daily and a bond was beginning to form between them.
She’d seen Luca, too, and he’d been warm and welcoming.
She had also ordered the flowers for Peggy’s wedding as a surprise.
After all, how could you have a bride without a bouquet?
She had also asked the florist to decorate the pews and put flowers in the church, and she could imagine how pleased Peggy would be when she saw them.
Luckily Adam slept for most of the journey home, which gave Annie thinking time as she gazed from the train window.
She now had two thriving shops, which were showing great profits even after staff wages and overheads.
This, added to the small rent she received from Susan and Tim, meant that she was comfortably off.
She was also coming to accept her birth parents and for the first time in her life she felt as if she truly belonged to someone.
And yet still there was a great restlessness in her.
She sometimes felt guilty that she didn’t spend as much time with Adam as she should.
He was with Nancy most of each day while she was either in the shop or out buying stock, and he often told her that he missed her, which tore at her heart.
After all, she knew better than anyone what it was to feel lonely and she couldn’t bear to think of her son feeling that he came second to her businesses.
Nancy and Jamie were inseparable now and Annie had no doubt that they would soon be setting their wedding date.
And then who would Adam spend his time with while she was working?
Marie would have her own baby to care for soon, so she would no longer be available to help and Annie didn’t like the thought of employing a nanny.
Her thoughts were churning as the train pulled into Euston and, lifting Adam, who was getting heavy now, she left the station and went to hail a cab to take them back to the shop.
She had been so intent on her thoughts and her son that she didn’t notice the dark-clothed figure that had shadowed her all the way.
Nancy and Jamie were in the rooms above the shop when she arrived and were pleased to see her and Adam back home.
They were clearly very much in love. Jamie could hardly take his eyes off Nancy and over the last few months she had blossomed into a very attractive young woman.
Annie couldn’t help but feel a little pang of envy as she watched them together.
She had no doubt that had he lived she and Monty would have grown old together, but it wasn’t meant to be, and the other man she loved was unavailable.
Still, she consoled herself, she had parents and Adam, and that was enough. It would have to be.
‘Did you go to see your mam an’ dad?’ Nancy asked once Jamie had left.
Annie nodded as she put Adam down. He immediately pottered away to play with Alfred and his toys. ‘Yes, I certainly did, but I’d best slip down and check that everything is all right in the shop with Ruth. I’ll tell you all about the visit this evening,’ she promised.
As she’d expected, Ruth had managed admirably, and again Annie felt a little surplus to requirements.
She was now the proud owner of two very upper-class dress shops, so why, she wondered, did she still miss the days when she’d collected rags and bones on old Dobbin?
Somehow the excitement of living in London had long since worn off, especially since she’d been reunited with her birth parents.
She’d only been down in the shop for a few minutes when Simon appeared and she greeted him with a smile, although it was obvious that it was Ruth he’d come to see.
‘I was wondering if you’d be back,’ he said. ‘And I was rather hoping that if you were, you might allow me to whisk Ruth away for lunch?’
‘Of course I will; it’s the least I can do,’ Annie agreed. ‘And don’t rush back. In fact, why don’t you take the rest of the day off? You’ve earned it after taking such good care of the shop.’
The happy couple left just as a new customer entered, and for the rest of the day Annie was too busy serving her clients to think of much else.
She closed the shop at the usual time, and as she was turning the sign to ‘Closed’, she glanced up and saw a shadowy figure in the empty shop doorway opposite.
She frowned. They were dressed in dark clothes but as it was already dark it was impossible to see much more.
Hurrying, she turned the lights off, locked the door and made her way upstairs where Nancy had a tasty cottage pie ready for their evening meal.
‘Jamie was wondering if you’d mind ’im taking me to the music hall this evenin’?
’ Nancy said as she served the dinner up.
Annie had crossed to the front window and was gazing down into the dark street to see if the figure was still there.
It was, and a shiver ran up her spine. There had been no unpleasant incidents for some time now and Annie sincerely hoped it would stay that way.
‘Of course you must go. You don’t need to ask.’ Masking her concern, she crossed to Adam and lifted him to sit at the table with her and Nancy. ‘Once I’ve closed the shop, you know you’re free to do as you please. You’re almost an adult now.’
She sat down at the table, but even though she hadn’t eaten since leaving Peggy’s that morning, Annie found that her appetite had fled as she thought of the figure across the road.
When they’d finished, Annie insisted on washing up the pots while Nancy went to get ready. It was a bitterly cold night and when Nancy emerged, looking very pretty in one of the gowns Annie had bought her, Annie went to fetch her own coat and hat from the bedroom.
‘Put these on, they’re warmer than yours and you’ll need them tonight. It’s cold enough to cut you in two out there,’ she told her.
Nancy beamed with pleasure. ‘Are yer sure?’ The coat was pure wool and a rich burgundy colour.
‘Quite sure. It’s so cold I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t have some snow soon. Anyway, have a lovely evening. I’m going to get his lordship ready for bed now before he falls asleep standing up. Just make sure you lock up behind yourself when you come in.’
Half an hour later, Adam was tucked up in bed.
A quick glance out of the window had assured Annie that the shadowy figure had gone and she began to relax a little.
Lifting the newspaper, she settled herself into the fireside chair and had just got comfortable when she heard someone knocking on the shop door.
Hurrying to the front window she stared down into the street below and sighed with relief when she saw that it was Marie.
‘I thought I would pop around and see how your visit went?’ Marie said when Annie let her in.
‘It went really well.’ Annie went to make them a pot of tea and when they’d settled, she told Marie all about the time she had spent with her mother.
‘It means a great deal to you to know who you belong to, doesn’t it?’ Marie sipped delicately at the tea in her china cup.
‘Yes, it does. But we have so much time to make up for I feel that I can’t see enough of them,’ she confided sadly.
Marie frowned. She’d noticed that Annie seemed restless of late and had guessed that she wasn’t happy, although she’d never said as much.
‘And what else is wrong?’
‘What?’ Annie flushed. Marie knew her so well now that she could read her like a book. She fondled Alfred’s ears before eventually admitting, ‘I suppose I just get a bit lonely sometimes.’
‘But you ’ave Adam and Nancy. And myself of course,’ Marie pointed out. ‘Or is it someone in particular who you are lonely for per’aps?’
Annie sighed. ‘Well . . . there was someone, before I married Monty,’ she admitted eventually. ‘But we could never be together. I did love him, and I think he had feelings for me too.’
‘Oh?’ A hopeless romantic, Marie was intrigued. ‘In that case why did you marry Monty?’
‘Because it wasn’t possible for me to be with this other man.’
‘Ah . . . was the man married per’aps?’
Annie nodded miserably. ‘I knew I could never have him, so I married Monty. I did love him though,’ she excused herself.
‘And this man’s name? Do I know ’im?’
Annie was just pondering on whether she should tell her about Alex, when a thundering came on the front door and Alfred began to bark.
‘I’d better go and see who that is,’ Annie said and hurried away with Alfred at her heels. A few minutes later she was back with a very worried-looking Jamie.
‘And you say she wasn’t outside the music hall when you got there?’
He shook his head and began to pace.
‘Perhaps you didn’t give her time to get there?’ Annie suggested.
‘I waited outside for over forty minutes,’ he insisted. ‘And I even went inside thinkin’ she might have gone in to wait for me because it’s so cold.’
‘Well, she left in more than enough time.’ Annie chewed her lip.
It wasn’t like Nancy to be late, especially for Jamie.
Then making a quick decision she asked Marie, ‘Would you mind staying here to watch Adam? Then Jamie and I can walk the route she would have taken and see if we can spot her. Perhaps she met someone she knew and got chatting.’
‘Of course.’
Annie hurried to put a hat and coat on and soon after she and Jamie left side by side. But despite walking the two different routes that Nancy might have taken there and back, an hour later there was no sign of her.
‘I am going to phone my John,’ Marie told them when Jamie and Annie arrived back looking worried. ‘’E will know what to do!’
John arrived within minutes and raced inside. Jamie had gone back out to continue the search, despite Annie asking him to wait for John.
‘Do you think we should phone the police?’ Annie asked in a wobbly voice. Nancy would never have stood Jamie up for no good reason; something must have happened to her.
John shook his head. ‘Not yet. Just tell me what she was wearing and I’ll go out with Jamie to look for her. I want you two to stay here. It’s not safe for women to be walking the streets at night.’
‘Sh-she was wearing a burgundy coat and hat,’ Annie squeaked. ‘And there was someone loitering in the shop doorway across the road earlier. You don’t think whoever it was followed her, do you?’
‘There’s no way of knowing,’ John admitted.
‘Just wait here and don’t answer the door to anyone until either myself or Jamie get back.
Marie, see if there’s any brandy in the house and if there is give Annie a glass.
She looks like she needs it.’ With that he went back out into the bitterly cold night, pulling up the collar of his overcoat as he went.
It was gone ten o’clock when John and Jamie reappeared.
‘Did you find her?’ Annie asked but they both shook their heads.
‘I think if she isn’t back in another hour, we should phone the police,’ John said, holding his frozen hands out to the fire. Jamie looked dreadful and Marie hurried away to make them all a hot drink.
It was John who made the call to the local police station an hour later and soon after a young constable arrived to take a description of Nancy and what she’d been wearing.
‘Has she ever done this sort of thing before?’ he asked.
Annie almost bit his head off. ‘Of course she hasn’t! Nancy is a decent young woman and she was looking forward to meeting Jamie.’
‘Sorry, ma’am, but I have to ask,’ he apologised.
Annie was tearful by then and fearing the worst.
‘Right, I’ll get this description out to the local officers and we’ll begin searching for her right away,’ the constable promised. ‘In the meantime, if she appears do ring the station immediately and let us know.’
‘Of course.’ Annie followed him downstairs and let him out before finally allowing the tears she’d been holding back to flow.
‘It’s all my fault,’ Jamie said brokenly. ‘If I’d come an’ met ’er like I usually do, none o’ this would ’ave ’appened. But I were out late makin’ deliveries an’ I didn’t want us to miss the start o’ the show.’
‘It’s not your fault,’ Annie tried to comfort him. ‘You should get yourself away home otherwise we’ll have your parents thinking you’ve gone missing too. And you and John should go as well,’ she told Marie. ‘There’s nothing more you can do here and there’s no point in us all sitting up.’
‘I am going nowhere!’ Marie said stubbornly and John nodded in agreement.
‘But you’ve already done all you can,’ Annie pointed out.
Jamie agreed to go home to let his parents know he was safe but vowed to be back soon.
But Marie shook her head. ‘We are going nowhere until we know what ’as become of Nancy, and we would not dream of leaving you alone,’ Marie told her firmly.
And so, after Jamie left, they settled down as best they could to begin what was to become one of the longest nights of their lives.