A Most Insistent Lady by Sarah McCulloch

Author:Sarah McCulloch
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781626814448
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 2014-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

‘Rabble!’ Liam smote a vicious blow upon the front door of their lodgings. It swung open, with a crash. Peg whispered: ‘For God’s sake! Watch what you are about!’

‘Watch what I am about! Watch what I am about!’ He repeated the words, angrily. She put out a hand to restrain him, but too late: he was already lurching over the doorstep, swaying from side to side along the narrow passage towards the stairs. ‘Ignorant, louish, provincial—’

His words were cut short by his missing the first step and coming down with a thud in the darkness. On the other side of the thin wall, Peg could hear, quite distinctly, the sounds of heavy breathing. She knew that it was Mrs. Jarrett in her nightown, ear pressed to the keyhole, debating with herself whether the loss of income resultant upon an eviction (the prospect of obtaining fresh lodgers at this time of the season being not at all a certain one) was likely to be outweighed by the undoubted satisfaction to be gained from a vituperative exchange of Billingsgate culminating in the order to remove themselves forthwith from her premises. Mrs. Jarrett had been spoiling for a fight for the past several weeks. She did not care for players.

‘Nasty, noisy creatures. Unreliable, too. I’ve had more bad debts from you people—and then there’s the hours. They’re not natural. Lying a-bed half the morning, traipsing back again in the middle o’ the night … all very well for the Quality, as has no work to see to, but ordinary folks should be ashamed o’ themselves.’

She had made no objections to their morals, morals being, as she said, none of her business and neither here nor there so long as there was no noise attached to it. But that was it: she would have No Noise. There were other guests beside themselves to consider.

‘Decent, God-fearing folk as do an honest day’s work and need an honest night’s rest at the end of it, so I’ll have no disturbances, if you don’t mind … no disturbances, no drunkenness. No food to be consumed in rooms, no candles to be left burning unnecessarily, no washing of linen upon the premises. No backsliding with the rent: no subletting. But above all, I’ll have No Disturbances.’

She had had none, until now. Every night she had stood behind the door, deep-breathing in her nightgown, hoping to catch them out: every night, on furtive tiptoe, quiet as mice, they had stolen past without her even knowing. Tonight was the very night she had been waiting for.

Peg held her breath: Mrs. Jarrett, on the other side of the door, held hers. Just let them make one more sound, just the one more, and that was it, she was going into action. Late in the season or no, they would be out, lock, stock and barrel, the pair of them, on the streets. She didn’t run a bawdy house: drunkenness was what she would not stand for.

With exaggerated caution, Peg closed the front door.

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