He came to a decision. “Pack up,” he ordered. “My man will call on you tomorrow with a steamship ticket to Australia – steerage. If he does not find you – let’s say at ten tomorrow morning – I will go to the police. At the least you will get a life sentence of hard labour for this. You will keep your mouth shut. You will not tell anyone. I have spies all over London,” lied Harry. “How do you think I found you so easily?”
“I’ll go, guv, honest. Just give me a chance.”
“Very well. But if any word of this gets out, I shall find you and kill you, and then, I think, report you to the police, who will bury you in quicklime. I do not see why the state should pay for your incarceration.”
When Harry returned home, Becket informed him that Lady Rose was taking a bath and putting on clean clothes. Miss Levine was in the kitchen – “But I think a doctor should be called to look at her wrists.”
“Why?”
Becket told him how Daisy had engineered the escape.
“Call a doctor. What is Daisy doing in the kitchen?”
“Lady Rose says she wants nothing more to do with her.”
“Let’s see about that.”
∨ Hasty Death ∧
Three
As to making a companion of a servant or inviting her to the drawing room to have tea with one, as I have heard is sometimes done, such a thing is simply ruinous to the mistress’s authority in her own household and highly derogatory to her personal dignity.
Mrs C.E. Humphry, Etiquette for every day (1902)
Harry waited patiently until Rose reappeared, bathed and dressed. “Thank you for all you have done,” said Rose. “Have the police arrested that dreadful man?”
“I am making arrangements to ship him off to Australia and I have frightened him into silence. Otherwise society would be delighted to hear of your latest escapade.”
“Being kidnapped and tied up can hardly be described as an escapade.”
“Granted. But the daughter of an earl working in an office would most certainly be regarded as an escapade.”
“You are right,” conceded Rose. “But what was the point of bringing us here?”
“You need to present a respectable appearance before you return to that hostel. You will tell Miss Harringey that you were both the victims of a practical joke. I told her I was your brother, therefore it will seem perfectly in order for me to escort you back. Now to the problem of Daisy. I gather from Becket that you do not wish to have anything to do with her.”
Rose raised her eyebrows. “Of course not. How can you even ask such a question? She put my life at risk. I could have choked on that gag.”
“Nonetheless, you might still be choking on that gag if she had not severely burnt her wrists in helping you to escape. Becket has sent for the doctor. You did thank her, I hope?”
“I did not know her wrists were burnt,” said Rose. “I will see that she is amply compensated when my parents return.”
“Money solves everything, heh? And how will you explain the reason why Daisy must be paid?”
“They will be so glad that I am rid of her, they will pay anything.”
“You are at fault, you know.”
“How, sir?”
“You chose to step outside your class and befriend an ex-chorus girl from the East End. It amused you to do so. You educated her and introduced her to a better way of life and now you want to throw her back again like some toy that had failed to work.”
“That is not the way it was. We were friends.”
“A friendship easily broken.”
Rose’s lip trembled. “I have suffered an ordeal, I am abominably hungry, and yet all you can do is rail at me over a servant.”
“Aha! So Daisy is nothing more than a servant. I suggest we have her up here and ask her to explain what drew her back to her old haunts.”
Harry rang the bell. “Becket, fetch Miss Daisy. Is the doctor coming?”
“He will be here shortly.”
A few moments later, Daisy was led into the parlour. “None of us has eaten, Becket,” said Harry. “A late luncheon, I think, after the doctor has left. Pray take a seat, Miss Levine.”
Daisy sat down on the edge of a chair and Rose turned her head away.
“I am interested to know what took you back to your old neighbourhood,” said Harry gently. “First, some brandy for Miss Levine, Becket. She is looking extremely pale.”
He waited until Daisy took several sips of brandy.
“Now,” he prompted her.
Daisy gave a dry sob, like a weary child. Rose turned her head and looked at her, at the white face and the bound wrists.
“My lady and I were working in a room together, sir, typing out stuff from ledgers. We decided they were just making work for us. Then one of the bosses needed a temporary secretary and Ro – I mean my lady, got the job. So I was on me…my…own. Men kept dropping in for a bit, but when they saw it was only me they left.
“I began to feel that Daisy Levine was really nothing. I began to remember the old days in the theatre, where I was considered attractive. I thought I’d just go back to my own kind, as I thought of them. That’s where I met Billy. I’d known him before, and when he asked me up to that flat for a drink, it seemed all right to go.
“Like a fool, I told him the whole story. I was lonely, you see. You can’t break the barriers of class, sir. It’s flying in the face of nature.”
Harry turned to Rose. “You inadvertently broke the barriers of class, Lady Rose. You joined the suffragettes and then abandoned them. You cannot go around changing the rules and expect things to be easy. So do you want to get rid of Miss Levine and return to your comfortable and privileged life?”
Rose thought of her pride in her job and how she had dragged Daisy along with her into this new life. She remembered Daisy’s gallantry, her spirit, and realized for the first time that she would not have been able to go through with the business of getting a job without Daisy.
“I’m sorry, Daisy,” she said. “Thank you for helping me to escape. We will go on as before…as friends.”
“Thank you, my lady.”
“Rose, please.”
“The doctor is here,” said Becket.
“Take him through to the back parlour. When he is finished, we will have lunch.”
“Very good, sir. Miss Levine?”
♦
The doctor declared the burns to be bad but not serious. Daisy’s wrists were once more treated and bandaged. She was made to swallow two aspirin and told to rest.
After the doctor had gone, Becket produced a meal he had ordered from a restaurant in the King’s Road.
During the lunch, Rose suddenly said, “I am glad now we decided to work at the bank. Please apologize to your secretary for trying to take her job away from her.”
Harry raised his eyebrows. “I beg your pardon?”
“I had this mad idea that it might be fun to work for you and I went round to offer my services.”
“Miss Jubbles said nothing of this to me,” said Harry. “I wonder why.”
“Well, she wouldn’t, would she?” remarked Daisy. A touch of colour had returned to her cheeks.
“Why not?”
“She doesn’t want to lose her job.”
“Miss Jubbles should have known her job is secure.” Harry’s black eyes studied Rose’s face. “I am interested to know why you wanted to work for me. I was under the impression that you neither liked nor approved of me.”
“Daisy and I were of help to you over that murder at Telby Castle last year. I thought it might be fun to work together again, that is all. Do you have many exciting cases?”