Free A Mother's Secret by Dilly Court Page B

I’ve got to earn money somehow. They need to go where they’ll be looked after proper and nursed when they’re sick.’
    Cassy bowed her head. She knew what he said made sense, but to lose all her little charges in one go would tear at her heartstrings. ‘But they ain’t orphans,’ she protested. ‘Supposing their real mas come for them.’
    ‘Cass, they’ve been abandoned by their mothers. Do you ever remember anyone coming to take their nipper home?’
    ‘My ma came.’
    ‘And she left again, ducks. I don’t want to be cruel but she can’t have you with her any more than the unfortunate women who left their nippers with Biddy. They might as well have tossed their babies in the Thames as leave them to her tender mercies.’
    ‘Ma will come back for me,’ Cassy said firmly. ‘She loves me, I could tell.’
    ‘Of course she does, but don’t set too much store by her coming to take you away, that’s all I can say.’
    Cassy rose to her feet and collected up their tin plates and mugs. ‘She’ll come back, I know she will. Everything will be all right.’
    Bailey reached out to grasp her thin wrist. ‘Don’t be scared, Cass. I’ll look after you, but we must find homes for the little ’uns.’
    ‘And Freddie?’
    ‘Him too.’
    Bailey went out early next morning to seek out an orphanage that would take all four infants and Freddie, should he be well enough to leave hospital. Cassy was left alone with the babies and she took extra time with each one, washing and changing them before giving them their milk. If Ma comes back soon, she thought dreamily, perhaps she could take all of them. Maybe the kind lady who Ma works for would like to adopt a ready-made family, and then they could all live together in a big house up West, or perhaps Ma would take them to India. Cassy’s imagination was working overtime. Closing her eyes she had visions of eternal sunshine, exotic flowers and beautiful ladies with black hair and dark brown eyes. Bailey had once given her a picture book that had fallen off a stall in Petticoat Lane, or so he said. It had been illustrated in rich bold colours depicting women swathed in bright silk saris and handsome men in strange costumes far different to the way men dressed in London. There had been elephants and tigers, monkeys and mongooses. The whole rich tapestry had filled her head with wonder and longing to see her native land.
    Cassy jumped at the sound of someone hammering on the front door. She sat very still, waiting to see if any of the other tenants answered the urgent summons. She had heard Wall-eyed Betty and Edna screeching at each other earlier in the day. They often fought like wildcats and earlier in the morning they had fallen out over one thing or another, and one of them had slammed out of the house leaving the other to retire to bed. Cassy knew that for certain as the groaning bedsprings were an instant giveaway. She held her breath, listening intently, but there was no sign of life in the rest of the house, and if the din continued it would wake the babies and they would start bawling again. Reluctantly, Cassy went to open the door. ‘Who’s there?’
    A booted foot was thrust over the threshold and Nogger Hayes, the rent collector, barged his way in. ‘Where is she?’ he demanded. ‘Where’s the old cow? She owes me a month’s rent and I ain’t going nowhere until I’m paid.’
    Cassy backed away from him. Nogger was notoriously short-tempered and not above cuffing a person round the ear if he felt so inclined. ‘She’s dead,’ Cassy whispered.
    ‘Dead.’ Nogger slapped his thighs and let out a roar of laughter that echoed throughout the house. ‘That’s the best excuse I’ve heard this week.’
    ‘No, really,’ Cassy insisted. ‘She passed away yesterday. If you don’t believe me you can go to Mr Crabbe’s funeral parlour and see her laid out in her coffin.’
    He scowled at her. ‘If you’re lying, it’ll be the worse for