Free A Mother's Secret by Dilly Court Page A

dead, they just want feeding.’
    ‘There’s enough for milk and fresh bread too. She can have a pauper’s funeral but we’ll have a proper breakfast for once.’
    The doctor came, and after a cursory examination he exhibited no surprise at Biddy’s sudden demise. He signed a death certificate and advised Bailey to make arrangements with Elias Crabbe. He left holding a clean white handkerchief to his nose.
    ‘I’ll get her moved as soon as possible,’ Bailey said, patting Cassy on the shoulder. ‘We’ll be all right, nipper. We’ll find the rent money somehow, even if I have to go begging on the streets.’
    Cassy gulped and nodded. They might be free of Biddy but she had a feeling that the nightmare was far from over.
    Biddy’s remains had been carted off to the funeral parlour with the help of Eddie, the rag and bone man who lived at the far end of the court, and his son Bob, who was a bit simple but what he lacked in brains he made up for in brawn. Bailey had bought them a pint or two in the pub by way of thanks, and he arrived back at the house in time to share a pie and mash supper with Cassy.
    ‘We’re living like kings,’ she said happily. The babies were well fed for once, and clean. Cassy had been able to boil as much water as she pleased without having Biddy grumbling about the cost of the coal or telling her that too much washing was dangerous, particularly in winter. But Cassy instinctively knew that babies should be bathed at least once a day, and that their rags ought to be changed regularly to prevent the rash that tormented their tender skins. Bailey had fetched a large bag of coal from the merchants in Cripplegate, and an ample supplying of kindling. There were candles burning on the mantelshelf and on the table, and they were fragrant beeswax as opposed to the cheaper and smellier tallow. The floor had been swept and scrubbed and Cassy had consigned Biddy’s urine-soaked mattress to the dust heap. Their surroundings might not have improved greatly in so short a time, but the room was clean and tidy and the worst of the smells had been eradicated.
    Bailey sat back in his chair, grinning and patting his belly. ‘That was good. The old bitch would be mad as fire if she could see us now.’
    Cassy giggled as she ran her finger round her plate, licking up the last of the lovely thick gravy. ‘We’re all right, ain’t we, Bailey? You don’t have to go away now.’
    His smile faded. ‘I dunno about that, Cass. The money’s almost gone and we’ve got all these mouths to feed. Biddy was going to take in a couple more kids, so I believe, and she used to make a bit extra by laying out corpses.’
    Cassy pushed her plate away with shudder. ‘I never knew that.’
    ‘She were up to all sorts,’ Bailey said, shaking his head. ‘I’m certain she used to pilfer things from the dead people and sell the stuff to a fence in Blackfriars. She used to send me there with things although she never let on where they come from.’
    ‘What sort of things?’
    ‘Pocket watches, bits of jewellery, gold chains, silk scarves. All manner of small items that wouldn’t at first be missed, and by the time they was she’d have cut and run.’
    Cassy digested this in silence. Learning about Biddy’s sordid world of petty crime was shocking, but even worse was the fact that Bailey seemed to have been a part of it. She met his frank gaze with a question in her eyes.
    ‘I never stole a thing,’ he said as if reading her thoughts. ‘I was tempted at times, but I wouldn’t want to go down that path. I don’t want to spend the rest of me days languishing in a filthy prison cell.’
    ‘What will we do, then? How will we manage?’
    Bailey rested his elbows on the table, clasping his hands together with a thoughtful frown. ‘Them nippers will have to go to the orphanage, Cass. No, don’t look at me like that. It’s for the best, because we can’t raise babies. You’re not much more than a baby yourself and