Page 4 of The Return of the Rake

Anne sniffed and looked up, accepting the handkerchief Mrs Fairway held out to her. “What do you mean?” she mumbled, wiping her eyes before giving her nose a hard blow. “What can I do? They’re going to send me away to live with my Great-Aunt Nora somewhere in Cumbria. There’s no one there, no society. She lives on a farm in the middle of nowhere, and I’ll… I’ll be forced to milk cows and—”

“And you’re going to let them, are you?” Mrs Fairway said before giving a shrug. “I thought you had more gumption, to be honest. But I suppose we show our true colours when things go to hell.”

Anne frowned, indignation swelling inside her. She sat up straighter, about to speak her mind when she saw Mrs Fairway smiling at her fondly.

“Ah, there she is! There’s the girl I’ve taken a pride in, though it’s not my place to do so. Now, you eat up that cake and drink the tea. I’ll come back again in a bit, when you’ve had time to think, and we’ll make a plan.”

Anne returned a tremulous smile before her mind snagged on a word that suddenly seemed tremendously significant. “We?”

Mrs Fairway patted her shoulder. “You’ll do what you think best, child. But where you go, I’ll go, if that’s what you’d like. It seems to me that you ought to have someone to look out for you in this wicked world, and if you’ll let me, I’d like the chance to be that person for you. I know I’m only a servant, but I suppose it’s better than nothing, eh?”

“Oh, Mrs Fairway, it’s so… so much better,” Anne said, fighting back tears once more. “But I don’t understand why? Why would you come with me? I only have my pearls and my gowns to pawn, and little money, and I have nowhere to go, and—”

“I had a daughter once,” Mrs Fairway said softly, before Anne could say more. “She never got the chance to become a young woman, but I know a thing or two about men and how they’d prey on a pretty thing like you. Well, fate denied me the chance to see my lovely girl grow up and find her place in the world, but I won’t let it do the same to you. I’ll look after you, miss, no matter what you decide to do.”

“Anne,” Anne said, humbled and touched by the words. “My name is Anne. I’m… I’m so sorry for your loss.”

Mrs Fairway nodded. “It was a long time ago. But this is now, so put that brain of yours to good use, we’re going to need it.”

By the time Mrs Fairway returned an hour later, Anne had recovered her equilibrium and made a plan. It wasn’t a good plan. Indeed, Anne knew it was fraught with problems and more challenges than she could consider all at once, but it had one thing in its favour. It was her plan, for her future, and if Mrs Fairway really was determined to follow her, she would not have to face it alone.

“Tell me, then,” Mrs Fairway said, sitting down beside her on the bed. “We have about two hours before the household stirs, so if you’re thinking of leaving—”

“I am,” Anne shifted to her knees. “You might not wish to come when you hear what I have in mind, though.”

The lady shrugged. “Spit it out and we’ll see.”

“I’m going to run away, and… I shall steal my mother’s jewels,” Anne said in a rush.

Mrs Fairway didn’t so much as blink. “Go on.”

“Well, you see, I have a dowry, but now I can’t marry, my father will spend it to—”

“To pay off his creditors, aye, I know,” she said sourly. “If you ask me, this situation suits him nicely. The perfect excuse, it is; he gets rid of you but keeps your money. So, you’ll take the jewels. It’s a wonder there’s any left, though. Didn’t he sell them all?”

“All except the rubies,” Anne said in a whisper, as if fearing someone might overhear her making such a ruthless plan. “They still belong to my grandmother. Until she dies, Papa can’t sell them. He’s been counting the days now that she is so poorly.”

Mrs Fairway nodded her understanding. “Wouldn’t she help you?”

Anne shook her head. “She would have done, once, but the terrible stroke she suffered last summer left her paralysed. She doesn’t speak, and I don’t think she even recognises any of us.”

“Poor creature,” Mrs Fairway said with feeling.

Anne nodded, regretting that she would never see her grandmother again. Though her father had kept the old lady away from the family as much as possible, having decided she was vulgar, she had been the only kind person in Anne’s life. The idea of stealing from her made guilt bloom in her stomach, but she knew her grandmother would not judge her harshly. She would understand, perhaps even approve. “The rubies are extremely valuable, Mrs Fairway. We could get into a great deal of trouble for stealing them. I don’t even know what to do with them if we take them, how to sell them, for they can’t help us unless I—”

“Don’t you worry about that,” Mrs Fairway said, her expression grim. “Let’s get your things packed up. We’ll not leave anything behind that might be of value. But don’t you trouble yourself about selling those rubies, for I know who’ll buy them off us. Just you leave it to me.”

St Giles, London, 15th March 1809

“Right, miss. You stay here, and don’t you even think of setting a toe outside of this door, you hear me?” Mrs Fairway said, looking surprisingly fierce in the dim lamplight that illuminated the interior of the hackney carriage. “I’ll pay the driver to go round the block as many times as he might need to, and I’ll be back here as fast as I can. But this is no place for a lady like you to be wandering in the dark. Promise me, now?”

“Very well,” Anne said reluctantly. “But what about you?”

“Don’t you worry about me. I know the King,” she said, tapping the side of her nose before she slipped out of the cab and into the darkness.

This hardly settled Anne’s nerves as she wondered what on earth the woman meant, but there was little she could do now. Mrs Fairway had just walked off with a fortune in rubies. Anne wondered if she had just compounded all the terrible decisions she had made of late by handing her grandmother’s jewels over to a woman who would run off with them. Was she laughing at her, even now? But no, Anne reminded herself she had seen truth in the woman’s eyes when she spoke of her daughter, when she had promised to be Anne’s ally. She would not allow the men who had used her so ill to colour her feelings towards everyone who crossed her path.

Mrs Fairway was on her side. She simply had to be. If not, Anne was entirely lost.