Read Online Birdcage Walk by Kate Riordan - Free Book Online

rendered speechless by the unexpected request and even Mrs. Drew looked embarrassed at this new silence. “Of course, there’ll be something small in it for you,” she said.
    This jolted George into animation. “Oh no, Mrs. Drew. I wouldn’t expect anything for such a . . . for such a trifle.” He gulped that such a word should have issued from his mouth. “I’ll come right away and fetch it down. I’m not too big but I’m strong, so it’ll be no fuss at all.”
    The matter resolved and all parties relieved, they set off purposefully. George found he couldn’t help looking about him, wondering what passers-by thought he was to these two ladies as they walked between the graceful ranks of Highbury Fields’ plane trees.

Chapter Eight

    It was late when Charlotte came to that same Saturday morning, long after George had gone out to meet the day. A thick bar of yellow light cleaved the fireplace in two where the curtain was too narrow to cover the window and, from the position of the sun’s rays on the wall, she knew it couldn’t be far off noon. Throwing off the blankets that clung to her, unbearably stifling now that she was fully awake, Charlotte swung her feet down to the cool, dry floorboards. She thought about pulling back the curtain but the ache behind her eyes stopped her. The bed was a mess, her sister’s clean sheets a creased rumple where she had half pulled them off in her fitful sleep to reveal a portion of the mattress and its collection of ancient stains.
    She crossed to the dresser, which rocked as she bumped it clumsily, and splashed her face. The water had lost the early morning chill she usually resented and now missed. Today it felt thick and dusty, as if a gentle pressure with the tip of her finger wouldn’t break the surface.
    On her way down the stairs, she could hear the ominous sounds of Annie clattering the fire irons and pans about in the grate. Deft and neat around the house, she only made a noise when her ire was up. Perhaps it was Ted this time.
    “Nice of you to honour us with your bleedin’ presence,” Annie cried out before Charlotte had managed to speak, and continued to crash metal against metal as Charlotte sank into a chair and rested her elbows on the table, her head in her hands.
    “You should have woke me earlier,” she muttered at Annie’s back, tightly bound into its uniform of rough grey cotton, the clear outline of spare flesh showing above the line of her corset.
    “Oh, should I have indeed?” Annie exclaimed. “I’ve got better things to do than rouse Lady Muck, you know. And seeing as what time you and ‘im rolled in, drunk as lords, I thought you might well be longer. Do you even know what time it was you come in?”
    Charlotte stayed quiet this time, looking meekly down, knowing that Annie had her own answer.
    “Well, I’ll tell you, shall I? Because there was no mistaking it from where I was, what with Ted falling over the table and smashing ma’s teapot, and you shouting the odds about George never coming out any more. It was gone one in the morning.”
    “I’m sorry, Annie, I am. We didn’t mean to stay out so late, but Ted’s mate Johnny turned up and Ted said we couldn’t just go then, it would look rude, so we stayed for another.”
    “Another half dozen, more like. I was ashamed of you, knowing the neighbours would hear you and think I needed my head looked at for putting up with you both.”
    Charlotte forced herself to get up and reach out to her sister, who shook her off.
    “No, it’s all very well coming on all affectionate now you’re in my bad books but I don’t want to see your face this morning. All I want from you is that overdue rent you owe me. At least Ted, for all his sins, keeps us under this roof. You’ve not paid me any keep for three weeks now and after last night I’ve had it. Either you pay me back what you owe or you’re out and I don’t care if it is Christmas soon. You’ve had enough goodwill from me to