Dolly Pleasance by C.W. Lovatt

Author:C.W. Lovatt [Lovatt, C.W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Historical, General, Mystery & Detective, Women Sleuths
ISBN: 9781907954795
Google: 0AGezgEACAAJ
Publisher: Wild Wolf Publishing
Published: 2021-09-09T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve:

On top of everything else, I was late arriving home that evening, and my mood so reduced that poor Fanny was forced to walk about on tiptoe so as not to risk raising my ire any further. She must have wondered why I made straight for the pantry as soon as I walked through the door; although she may have guessed it was for the bottle of gin we usually kept there, just for days like this. She might also have wondered why I was muttering to myself while peeling potatoes, and what it was that I was muttering about, although she never actually asked. Instead, she left me to myself, saying nothing, while she watched over me from afar, as it were. She was always wise that way.

As it turned out, she did have to step in once. Peeling potatoes might not have been the wisest course of action in my present mood, for sure enough, I’d cut myself twice before I’d much more than started, then cursed and railed most foully the second time, and hurled the knife at the wall … where it stuck, quivering in the plaster.

After a tense silence, Fanny retrieved it with some difficulty, and murmured that, if it was all the same to me, she would peel the potatoes herself, and why didn’t I enjoy my drink at the table?

There was another tense moment when I stood undecided as to whether I should slap her or meekly do as I was told. In the end, realising I was, perhaps, not behaving in a rational manner, I chose the latter.

But bloody hell, I thought, punishing the gin, who can blame me?

Viciously in my mind, I cursed Esmeralda’s prying into my life with all the passion that was in me. What right had that gypsy sow to interfere with what had taken so much pain and suffering to put in my past? Bloody do-gooder, that’s all she was, and may she burn in Hell for it, too.

Left to my own devices, I’m the calmest of people, with nary an unkind thought, or word, to say about anyone, but that meddling bitch had gone too far. Just who in the bloody Hell did she think she was? It was quite bad enough for her to track me down, but then to corner me and speak of something so ridiculous as love, and to me of all people, was enough to make you weep.

I had tried so hard to put everything into perspective. We were worlds apart, Smithers and I – my life in the theatre, and his to his damned duty. What I knew of the toffs was what I knew of any man - which was hardly flattering to either of us - while Smithers lived his life in the midst of them, moving with ease among those who held the sort of power of which I was incapable of even dreaming. He would never have to worry about where the next month’s rent was coming from, while I had given myself to men just to keep a roof over my head.

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