Under the Dragon’s Tail

“I had a lover. A wonderful, handsome prince. My Othello. I was only seventeen, and like Desdemona I loved him for the tales he told. He promised to marry me, the usual malarkey to get what he wanted. I got one in the oven pretty fast, and lo, my adoring lover wasn’t quite so adoring. He’d neglected to mention a wife and family pining for him somewhere in America. He gave me enough money to get by, sent me off to Dolly’s, and slipped away into the night. I went to lie in at her house in Markham, and on February the fourth, in the early hours of the morning, I was delivered of a baby boy.” She stopped and tipped her empty cup, trying to find sustenance in it. “I was just starting on the stage and I couldn’t raise a nipper on my own, so Dolly arranged for the baby to go to a farmer’s family in the village. I only saw him once, never even held him in my arms. Dolly wouldn’t let me.” Unconsciously, she placed her hand at her bosom. “I had to promise I would make payments every month, two dollars for the child’s maintenance. My baby wasn’t easy to place, you see. Dolly said nobody would take him unless I agreed to pay regularly. Coming up with the muck was hard but I did it. Sent her money faithfully. For eight years. When I went to see her for Millie, I asked how the boy was doing. I’d been thinking for a long time that I’d like to visit him. Incognito of course – I didn’t want to disturb his life, which I hoped was a happy one.”

Annie stared into her tea cup as if she could read her own fortune in the dregs. “I mentioned this to Dolly and asked her if I could have the name of the family that took him. She sneered at me. ‘Oh dear,’ said she. ‘Didn’t I tell you? He’s dead and gone to heaven. Sickly little thing he was, didn’t live out the winter.’ Well that was a shocker, I tell you. ‘What about the money?’ I said. ‘What money? You haven’t been sending any money.’ ‘Yes, I have.’ ‘Prove it,’ she said. ‘There’s no record.’ I knew she wrote everything down in that album because I’d seen her do it when I was at the farm. She took it out of the desk and waved it under my nose. ‘I owe you four dollars,’ she said. ‘I’ll take it off your bill.’

“I was in a rage, Mr. Murdoch. That she’d cheated me for all these years. Once she’d even asked for extra because she said the boy had the measles and needed to see a doctor. I went without and sent the money. Always thinking I was helping. You see, I hoped one day he’d know that his…that his mother had cared. That I’d done my best. Dolly was chortling away. I screamed at her and snatched up the bloody album. I dunno, I wanted to see for myself if it was true. I wanted names.” She twisted the handkerchief into a knot. “When I got home I was like a frigging green girl. I got all trembly, couldn’t bear to open the shicey thing. I stuffed it in the drawer…and now I’ll never know for sure if my boy is alive.”

Murdoch felt compassion for her but he had to tighten the line, bring her in. He opened his file and showed her the calling card and the piece of newspaper.

“Tell me the truth, Annie. Was Mrs. Pedlow a customer of Dolly’s?”

She took the card, staring at it. At the neat black script. The respectable name.

“That wasn’t what she called herself then. She was known as Mrs. Brown. But she was there at the same time as me. She delivered two weeks before I did.”

“What happened to her baby? Was it adopted?”

“Not as far as I know. But everything to do with Mrs. Brown was so hush-hush. There was a wet-nurse came in from the village for a few days and Missus left soon after with her infant. A girl it was.”

“There’s a child living with her now but she’s supposedly the Pedlows’ ward.”

Annie nodded. “I know. When I went up there, I asked her and she told me the first infant died.”

“Do you believe her?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s true.”

“She was a respectable married woman, why would she have to hide her pregnancy?”

“Come on, Mr. Murdoch. Don’t be nocky. People can count, you know. Maybe her husband was away at an inconvenient time. Or maybe he couldn’t get his pecker up. He’d know whether he was the baker or not.”

“If he wasn’t the father she’d have to make up some story as to why she had an infant in tow.”

“That’s it.”

“Did Maud Pedlow know you’d been to see Dolly?”

“Yes, I told her.”

Agitated, Annie stood up although there was nowhere to pace in the tiny office. “I told her everything. Not about taking the album but what Dolly had said about my boy being dead. I needed to tell somebody. There wasn’t anybody else to talk to. Even Millie doesn’t know.”

Murdoch hesitated, almost afraid of what he had to say.

“Annie, when I went to interview Mrs. Pedlow yesterday, I told her that Dolly’s record book was missing. Her husband and her nephew were both present.”

“I see.” Unexpectedly, she touched his arm. “Wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know. But it must have been one of them, or a messenger for one of them.”