Nineteen

T he music hall was mostly deserted at this hour, but in another it would start to fill with patrons. The barman was polishing tables and gave Phoebe a nod. Then he jerked his chin toward the stage, where Maude was chatting with the piano player but her sharp eyes immediately noticed Phoebe.

“Been following me again, have you?” she called out.

“No, I paid the barman to tell me the next time you were here,” Phoebe explained as she approached.

Maude looked reluctantly impressed. “Spending your pennies on me? I’m flattered,” she mocked before addressing the barman. “But I’ll have words with you later.”

“Don’t be too harsh with him. I was very persistent. Alice is important to me. And I think she is to you as well,” Phoebe added softly.

Maude’s lips pursed as she cast a look around the music hall. “Not here.” She then signaled for Phoebe to follow her and they slipped out a back entrance into an alleyway. Maude began to pace while Phoebe waited patiently.

Then she stopped short and shot her a glare. “You won’t give up, will you?”

Phoebe gave her an apologetic smile. “I can be quite tenacious. I assume she is a relation of yours. Perhaps… a sister?”

She had been mulling over the possibilities since Fleur, but it was her brief exchange with Alex that morning that had been the most illuminating. There weren’t many people who would go to the kind of lengths Maude obviously had for Alice, but a sister would.

She heaved a sigh and leaned back against the brick wall. “What gave me away?”

“It was more of a suspicion,” Phoebe said with a shrug. “The way you talked about her, I could tell it was personal for you. I’ve two sisters of my own and we’d do anything for each other—when we aren’t at the other’s throats, that is.”

Maude hummed in agreement. “Sounds about right.”

“Are you protecting her from Fairbanks?” Phoebe then raised her hands in supplication as Maude gave her a hard look. “I won’t say anything. I promise you. He is certainly no friend of mine.”

Maude crossed her arms as she considered this. “I told him she ran off without telling me and I didn’t know where,” she began. “He still suspects something, though. He’s a sneaky bastard, but he won’t find her.”

Phoebe recalled the dark look in the earl’s eyes the other night: Only because I can’t prove it.

They had been speaking of Alice’s disappearance, and his anger was palpable. But the surety in Maude’s voice was a comfort. “How did you meet him?”

The woman huffed and stared past her. “A girl like you wouldn’t understand.” Then she glared at Phoebe. “Not that I’m looking for anyone’s pity.”

“No, of course not,” Phoebe replied. “I’m only trying to understand the situation. Perhaps then I can be more helpful to any students who find themselves in similar positions.”

That seemed to soften something in Maude. She glanced down and scraped her booted foot along the ground. “I suppose. If it could help someone else. Some other girl like Alice. There are so many,” she added bleakly. Phoebe nodded in agreement. Maude was then quiet for so long, Phoebe thought she had changed her mind. But then she began: “Alice and I have different fathers. Mine was gone as soon as my ma told him she was expecting, but Alice’s da was different. Stephen Clarke was a good man. He treated me like his own. Better than my own mother ever did.”

Phoebe’s stomach tightened at the sorrow in her voice. “What happened to him?”

“Accident. His arm got caught in some machinery he was trying to fix at the factory where he worked. Bled out on the floor. Never had a chance.”

Phoebe inhaled a shuddering breath. “I am so very sorry.”

Maude’s jaw tightened. “It was pure negligence on the owner’s part. Everyone knew. The machine was old and needed to be replaced but why do that when you can have a bloke stuff his hand into the gear shaft twice a day. If I had been the age I am now, I’d have done everything possible to get him before a magistrate. There were witnesses. We had a case. But my ma didn’t know anything about that. She was in such a state afterward. Thought the owner was a gentleman because he paid for the funeral and sent over a basket of oranges. As if that could replace a whole person.” Maude’s voice broke. “I still won’t touch the damn things. Ever.”

“How old were you when this happened?”

“Ten or so. My mother had to go back to work as a seamstress, so I left school to care for Alice. We carried on like that for a few years until I found work as a maid for a man called Dr. Langtree. It was such a relief. Mother’s eyes were starting to go by then and she was losing her speed. That meant less work, less money, and Alice was sickly as a child. I’m not sure if she told you. She never complained, sweet thing, but we nearly lost her more than once.” Maude swallowed hard and her bottom lip quivered for a brief moment until she mastered it.

“Anyway, all that’s to say I felt like the luckiest girl when I got the position. And in a doctor’s home, no less.” Maude let out a dry laugh. “We had no idea the man was a quack. He provided all sorts of treatments to toffs with too much money and no sense, so there were always gentlemen hanging about. But I quickly realized it was no ordinary household. I’d certainly never heard of maids who danced on tables in their petticoats, nor any who were encouraged to go to bed with houseguests. I tried to come home the first week, but my mother sent me right back. The money was too good.”

Phoebe did her best to hide her shock, as if she heard such sordid things every day. “And you met Fairbanks at this house?”

Maude shook her head. “The earl is many things, but he is not one for quacks. The doctor would loan out his maids to friends. I was sent to a bachelor’s country house party. We met there. I was already well ruined by then. Becoming his mistress was a great step up in the world for a chit like me, though I couldn’t convince my mother of that,” she added with a bitter laugh. “She could tell her friends that I was a doctor’s maid, but she couldn’t tell them I was an earl’s mistress. Even she had some standards, I suppose. And Alice was older by then and becoming more aware of the world. Ma didn’t want me hanging around, influencing the good daughter, so she disowned me. Though she had no issue living in the flat I got for her.”

“Fairbanks owns the building, doesn’t he?” Phoebe said as the pieces fell into place. “ And the music hall.”

Maude nodded. “When our mother passed, I started visiting Alice again. The poor thing was lonely and needed help. She told me about the school, and you, and your little plan to send her to secretarial school. She was so excited about the idea and I—I got caught up in it. I wanted to help her. To prove that I hadn’t thrown my life away like Mother said,” she said bitterly. “But in my great wisdom, I brought her to meet Lord Fairbanks. By then our arrangement was over and instead I was helping him with a new venture.”

“Fleur?”

“I keep watch over the girls, make sure they’re being treated well. That sort of thing. And I’m damn good at it. I thought if Fairbanks saw how smart Alice was, he would pay for her schooling. But then I saw the way he looked at her, the questions he asked, the way he made her blush… and all it did was remind me of how he behaved the first time we met. Then he told me what he wanted with her, and I couldn’t let that happen. So I sent her outside the city as soon as I could to stay with an old friend of mine. It was only supposed to be for a little while, until he moved on to someone else, but then things became… more complicated.”

“Mr. Felton,” Phoebe answered.

Maude gave her a solemn nod. “I went back to the flat to get some of Alice’s things and he confronted me. Said he followed us the day before and would tell Fairbanks where Alice was unless I paid him for his silence.” Maude’s hand tightened in a fist. “He’d always been a snake. He’d sell out his own mother for a bottle of gin if he could.”

“What did you do?”

“Told him I’d pay, of course. What else could I do?” She glanced away. “But when I came back later that evening with the money, he took it and demanded even more. I realized then that it would never end. That the bastard would bleed me until I was dry. And I had nowhere else to bring Alice, especially if I was paying him to keep quiet.” She looked up and Phoebe’s mouth went dry at the starkness in her eyes. “It was an accident,” Maude explained. “He had been drinking, of course, and started pawing at me, thinking he could have a tumble as well. But I refused. We began to struggle and I shoved him the first chance I got as hard as I could.”

“Then he fell back and hit his head,” Phoebe supplied as she recalled the way the body had been positioned.

“Girls like me know how to defend themselves,” Maude said coldly. “I’ve not killed anyone before, but I’ve certainly had to knock a fellow about now and then. He was so drunk he didn’t even try to catch himself. And with a blow to the head like that, he was gone for as soon as he hit the ground. But I won’t regret it. He was a horrible man. Caused nothing but pain during his life. And I had to protect Alice. I’d do it again if needed,” she added as she lifted her chin.

“I’m not judging you,” Phoebe said quickly.

Maude didn’t look convinced. “Aren’t you?”

“I’ve had my own encounters with Mr. Felton.”

“So I’ve heard. Detective Inspector Holland,” she explained at Phoebe’s confused look. “He and I have discussed you and your friend . I was shocked when Holland said he was a duke. I’ve seen a few in my time and none of them act like he does. Don’t look like he does either,” she added with a lifted eyebrow.

Phoebe blushed and changed the subject. “I didn’t realize you and the inspector knew each other.”

“Since he was a young constable. He’s a good sort. One of the few honest men in the Yard—and the only reason I’m telling you any of this.”

“Then, he knows… everything?”

“I went to him as soon as I knew Felton was dead.” Maude gave her a cryptic look. “The law would have seen me hang for defending myself. Holland promised he would take care of it. But he hadn’t counted on you and your nosy duke.”

He isn’t my duke.

Phoebe swallowed the automatic rejoinder. “I suppose I should thank him then,” she replied instead. “He’s done more to keep me out of trouble than I realized.”

Maude flashed her a wry smile. “I’m sure he would appreciate that. He was getting tired of you haranguing him over Alice and begged me to tell you the truth.”

“And you listened?”

Maude shrugged. “He’s a good judge of character. So, then. Now that you have your answer, will you leave me be?”

“Yes,” Phoebe began. “But I’ve been giving a lot of thought to what you said before about not teaching our students the skills they need. And I want to do more to help.”

Maude cocked her head. “Is that so?” Her tone may have been skeptical, but she couldn’t hide the glimmer of interest in her eyes.

“I’d very much appreciate your input,” Phoebe continued. “If you’re willing to give it.”

The woman was too shocked to hide it. “You want my help?”

“You know this area better than I do,” Phoebe explained. “And understand what these girls are up against. What they need to succeed.”

Maude chewed her bottom lip. “Can I think about it?”

“Of course.” Phoebe then hesitated. “There’s something else you should know, though I’m afraid it may harm your working relationship with Lord Fairbanks.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time, believe me,” Maude said with exasperation. “What’s he done now?”

“He is proposing a bill that aims to close the brothels, and those owned by women will be targeted first. Any violators will be thrown in prison. The rest will be sent to the workhouse.”

“That bastard,” she bit off. “I told him those girls will just end up on the street.”

“I don’t think he cares if it helps Fleur,” Phoebe said. “I know he hides his stake in the club. But if you could give me evidence that proves he is connected to it financially, I can get it in the right hands. Exposing him publicly might be the only way to stop this bill.”

Maude’s eyes filled with determination. “I’ll try.” She then glanced behind Phoebe. “You should go. This place will fill up soon.”

“All right.” Phoebe then stuck out her hand. “Thank you for trusting me.”

Maude eyed her for a moment before shaking it. “I suppose Alice was right about you,” she admitted before heading toward the music hall. But just as she reached the back entrance, she turned back. “Oh, and Miss Atkinson?” Phoebe cocked her head. “Expect to hear from her soon,” Maude said with a small smile, then disappeared through the door.