People of Abandoned Character by Whitfield Clare

Author:Whitfield, Clare [Whitfield, Clare]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781838932800
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Published: 2020-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

22

The days passed and I still had no idea where Thomas was hiding. If Mrs Wiggs knew any better, she kept that to herself. I fantasised that he’d killed himself, taken by a fit of guilt after beating his wife and murdering Annie Chapman and the others, or that the police had him, or that he’d tripped, knocked himself out and drowned in the Thames. I rehearsed in my mind the various conversations I would have with the police should they turn up.

The longer Thomas stayed away, the more fearful I was of how things would be should he return. My cheek was bruised and my lip split on my left side. I studied my face in the mirror every day, sometimes every few hours, and convinced myself it was getting better. I wished I could have shown Mabel at least. We could have compared wounds, to measure who was the bigger fool, but I hadn’t heard from her, hadn’t received any letter. Cloistered in my bedroom, I broke up the hours by taking my drops with brandy, abandoning my self-imposed rule of never doing so during the daytime. I thought of Mabel often, and worried what would happen to me. By the end of the week I had taken all the clothes, feathers and frivolous things that Thomas had bought me, dumped them outside my bedroom door and told Mrs Wiggs to get rid of them.

‘Where? What on earth for? What are you going to wear?’ I think she had serious concerns I was about to parade naked through the streets of Chelsea.

‘Give them to charity for all I care.’ I found out later she stored them in an unoccupied bedroom, along with the shrunken head that had made me scream.

From then on I wore my old dresses and hats: dour grey and brown linsey frocks and plain black bonnets. They matched my mood and I felt more comfortable that way.

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