make ends meet.” His words tailed off. “She hated it, you know,” he said, looking at Nottingham. “There just wasn’t anything else she could do, she had no skills, no one would take her as a servant with a child, especially a fallen woman. So she did the only thing she could. When I started running girls just to get by she started to despise me. I was making money, but she wouldn’t take any when I tried to give it to her. Then she refused to take any comfort in me.” He shrugged. “So finally I stopped coming around where I wasn’t wanted any more. She wouldn’t even let me near.”
When he finished, the only sounds were muffled, only half-heard from other parts of the house.
“The token?” Nottingham prompted him.
“I made it when she was still with your father. Cut the coin and drilled the holes myself. It was our secret, our bond.” He began to cough again, then spat phlegm on the flagstone floor before nodding at the coin. “Take it.”
The Constable hesitated.
“Take it, laddie. I’ve told you the story now.”
Abruptly, Worthy turned and left the room.
Nottingham stood slowly. The muscles in his back ached and he took time to stretch. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected to hear when he arrived, but it hadn’t been this. He reached out and closed his fingers around the token, weighing it lightly, looking at the way time had eroded the design. Worthy had carried it around all the time. His mind felt as if it was tumbling around him, bringing to light things he’d locked away for years. Then he slipped it into his pocket, where it could finally join its mate after so long. He made his way down the hall. Worthy was in the front room, standing over the old woman in the chair.
“Think on, lad. The past is past. You’ll get nowt for dwelling on it. The present is the only thing that counts.”
