Velvet by Mary Hooper

Author:Mary Hooper
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2011-07-15T04:00:00+00:00

George didn’t return to Darkling Villa until midday, and from the smell of beer on his breath Velvet knew that he must have called at a tavern on his way home. He looked so woebegone that she would have liked to have pulled his head down on to her shoulder and put her arms around him, but instead she busied herself making him a strong brew of tea.

‘Madame hasn’t asked for me, has she?’ he asked, sinking down on the easy chair by the kitchen fire. ‘Only I couldn’t come back without having something to fortify me.’

Velvet, handing over the tea, assured him that Madame had been ensconced in her rooms with a jewellery designer all morning as she was having some of her old-fashioned rings and brooches put into more modern settings.

‘That’s a bit of a shock to a chap, that is, seeing someone dead,’ George said heavily.

Passed over, she thought, but didn’t say it.

Mrs Lawson had gone out shopping, so Velvet felt free and easy enough to sit herself down on the mat beside George’s chair. ‘Did you know the man? Who was he?’

‘I hardly knew him at all, poor chap, just that his name was Aaron and he came from Brighton. We stayed two nights at a mission house together when we were both very hard up a few years back. In fact, the night we met he only had a ha’penny, which – perhaps as a young lady you wouldn’t know this – meant he could only spend the night in the mission house standing up.’ Velvet frowned, so George explained, ‘If you have only a ha’penny you’re not permitted to lie down to sleep, but may only prop yourself against a wall.’

‘Oh! How awful!’

‘I fear there are many degradations and humiliations which you don’t know about, Velvet. And I am glad that you do not!’ After a moment, George continued, ‘I had a few pence on me, so I paid for Aaron to lie in the next sleeping box to mine, and bought our hot tea and bread in the morning. The lad was grateful, of course.’

‘And did you see him again?’

‘Not really. Things started to go wrong for me after that. The weather turned, my raree-show disintegrated, my clothes were stolen and I thought I was finished – but then Madame came along and saved me.’

‘But how did this chap have your name?’

‘Oh, much later I managed to get a message to him saying that I’d give him a square meal if he came to the house. I think that’s why he had my details in his pocket. He never came, though.’

‘The poor lad.’

‘That body this morning could have been mine, Velvet,’ George said.

Velvet nodded, put out a hand and grasped his.

‘I owe everything to Madame. Everything! There’s nothing she could ask of me that I wouldn’t do.’

Velvet squeezed his hand, then knelt up so that their faces were on a level. ‘I feel the same.’

‘Then we are of one mind . . .’

Velvet lifted her face to his and their lips met, softly, beautifully, a pledge of their feelings.

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