Ettie recognized Michael immediately although she could not quite believe her eyes. She raised her hand and called out his name. But the noise around them swallowed her cry and he continued to drive in the opposite direction.
‘Ettie!’ a voice said and she turned. ‘Who were you calling?’ Mary enquired as she stood hand in hand with Jim.
‘Oh!’ Ettie faltered, ‘just someone I thought I knew.’
‘Well, we’ve something important to tell you.’ Mary blushed as she looked up at Jim.
Ettie tried to compose herself. Had she really seen Michael or was it a figment of her imagination? Had he only been a few feet away?
‘You tell her, Jim,’ Mary said breathlessly.
‘Well …’ said Jim hesitantly, ‘it’s like this …’
‘Oh, for goodness sake,’ Mary burst out, ‘I might as well say it meself. Ettie, we’re going to elope!’
‘Elope?’ Ettie repeated. ‘What do you mean?’
‘We’re running away to get married,’ Mary confirmed.
’But your jobs,’ Ettie blurted. ‘You can’t leave them.’
‘Rubbish,’ Mary replied. ‘I’ve had enough of the toffs. And so would you if you’d been slaving away for ‘em for nigh on six years.’
‘But Lady Marsden took you off the streets, Mary.’
‘I didn’t ask her to, did I?’ Mary snapped.
‘Why don’t you ask permission to get married to Jim?’
‘They’d never allow it,’ Mary insisted. ‘They’d stop us somehow.’
Jim put his arm around Mary’s shoulders. ‘Ettie, you’ve got to understand the way it works. Lady Marsden only took Mary in as a charitable cause. To impress her friends and the society she moves in. But you’ve seen the way these people live. They all show off to each other and don’t give a monkey’s uncle for us lowers.’
‘But where will you go?’ Ettie tried to reason. ‘You both have a good home at Chancery House.’
‘In reality I’m just a groom and they come ten to a penny,’ said Jim sourly. ‘Mary will never be more than a downstairs lackey. So we’ve decided to marry in Scotland.’
‘Scotland! But that’s so far away,’ Ettie gasped.
‘Far enough away to start a new life.’
‘It’s what I want Ettie,’ Mary said softly. ‘And what this little ‘un wants, too.’ Blushing, she placed her hands on her belly.
‘Mary, you’re not …’
‘I am – and proud to be,’ her friend boasted. ‘I love Jim and he loves me. And we’ve made something of our very own.’
Ettie knew by the resolute looks on their faces she could do nothing to stop them. But what could the future hold without money or connections and a little one on the way?
‘Are you sure?’
Jim drew Mary close. ‘I’ve saved a little. Enough to get us to Gretna Green where they will marry us, no questions asked. I’ve heard tell they need men on the fishing fleet. That’s a life I wouldn’t mind. And, we’d have plenty of fish for supper.’ He gave a chuckle. ‘Life can’t be any worse for us there than it is here. And it might be a good deal better.’
‘I’ll pray for you and the baby,’ Ettie said, close to tears herself. ‘I know how much you love each other and I wish you luck.’
‘I’m sorry again for being such a cow,’ Mary said softly.
‘When are you leaving?’ Ettie managed to ask.
‘We’re leaving London by coach in an hour,’ replied Jim. ‘The stable lad will drive you home.’
‘Jim left a letter for Mr Gane,’ Mary confirmed. ‘Not that I would have bothered. I say good riddance to bloody Mrs Powell forever! But Jim felt it was the decent thing to do.’
‘There’s bound to be a bit of a ruckus,’ Jim warned. ‘If we’ve dared to leave our jobs, they’ll be worried the others might, too.’
‘Please keep what we’ve told you a secret,’ Mary made Ettie promise. ‘I can’t write so I won’t be able to send you a letter. Mrs Powell would only open it anyway. But somehow I’ll get a message to you when we’re settled.’
After a final, tearful embrace, Ettie stood amidst the celebrating crowds, watching the couple make their way to the Marble Arch exit. Would she ever see or hear from them again? Somehow, she didn’t think so.
It was a lonely walk back to London Bridge for Ettie, despite the excitement that was consuming the city. Today might well be the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee but for Ettie it would always be the day in history that would remind her of her two dear friends, Mary and Jim. Emboldened by love, they were determined to seek a better life for themselves and their child.
Might her own life have been very different, Ettie wondered, if she had gone with Michael that day in Victoria Park?
Chapter 65
It was growing dark as the stable lad drove the cart packed with exhausted but jubilant lowers back to Poplar.
‘Where’s Mary and Jim?’ everyone wanted to know.
Ettie said nothing and tried not to look guilty. She was relieved when it was suggested that no doubt they were still celebrating, both a bit worse for wear.
‘They’ll get a pasting,’ a footman suggested, ‘if they don’t show up bright and early tomorrow.’
‘Doubt they’re bothered,’ decided a chambermaid. ‘All over each other they were.’
Ettie pretended to doze, as the cart rocked along. But interest was soon lost in Jim and Mary as the glow of the bonfires on the hill south of the river took everyone’s attention. Ettie’s thoughts, however, were no longer on the celebrations that would continue deep into the night. All she could think of was Michael, sitting up high on the open carriage seat with his two young passengers in the rear. Neither of them, it appeared, had noticed the clumsy pedestrian with whom they had nearly collided. Yet the man who had called out to warn her had said it was because of the driver’s quick action that disaster was averted. Perhaps Michael had recognized
