The Christmas Wedding by Dilly Court

Author:Dilly Court
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2019-08-21T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Green Dragon Yard had obviously seen better days. Dimly lit by a couple of gaslights, the cobblestones glistened with an oily sheen after the last sharp shower. The tall terraced houses had a dilapidated appearance with many of the windows boarded up or broken, water dripped from broken guttering. There were few signs of habitation, apart from the flickering light of the odd candle in an upstairs window, and the occasional banging of a door. On the other side of the street there was a hotchpotch of two-storey cottages squashed between workshops. Billboards advertising the services of cabinet makers and cobblers lay drunkenly on the narrow pavements, and feral dogs fought over scraps of food in the gutters. It was not the sort of place for a young woman to walk unaccompanied in the daytime, let alone at night, but Daisy was determined to find Hilda’s children.

She had come straight from work, even though it was getting late, and she made her way through the detritus that littered the narrow pavement, almost treading on a tabby cat. It spat and hissed before disappearing through a hole in one of the front doors. She found the house number that Hilda had given her and knocked, but it was some time before anyone answered. Daisy had a feeling that she was being watched and she glanced round anxiously, wondering if there was anyone lurking in the shadows, but the noise of traffic from Whitechapel Road would have drowned out any sound of approaching footsteps. She held her breath and knocked again.

This time she was answered by a small voice. ‘Who’s there?’

‘Is that Judy?’

‘I don’t speak to strangers.’ The child’s voice quavered and sounded on the verge of tears.

‘Are there any grown-ups in the house, Judy?’

‘It’s just me and me sister, Molly, and the two little ’uns; Pip and Nate.’

‘Please open the door. I have a message from your mother.’

There was a scuffle and the sound of younger children crying and the door opened just an inch. A large brown eye underlined by a bruise-like shadow peered nervously at Daisy. ‘Who are you?’

‘My name is Daisy Marshall and I’m a nurse at the London Hospital.’ The moment the words left her lips Daisy knew she had made her first mistake. A loud howl was followed by sobbing.

‘Ma’s in hospital?’

‘Let me in, please, Judy. Your mother is in hospital because she broke her leg, but she’s on the mend and she asked me to come and make sure that you are all right.’

This seemed to convince Judy and she opened the door just wide enough for Daisy to slip into the narrow hallway. The first thing that hit her was the stench of damp and the overpowering smell of an overflowing privy. It was too dark to see very much, but Judy was standing with her arm around a smaller girl and two younger children, still in petticoats, were hiding behind them.

‘You ain’t going to take us to the workhouse,’ Judy said fiercely. ‘My pa will be home soon and he’ll tell you that for nothing.

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