Page 93 of The Laudanum Ladies' Society

‘Give me a home and a wage and I will look after Ruth. Bella, too, if you’ll take her in. I think she needs a new start away from the life she’s lived so far.’

It was the new start she needed, too.

‘That is all you want from me?’ Danny asked.

Gwen swallowed her nerves down. ‘Is there more I should want?’

Danny raised his eyes slowly. His face was solemn. ‘More than I can express eloquently. I knew the moment I saw you in the street that my feelings for you never ended. When you told me you were still married, it crushed me. I want you to come because I love you. I cannot bear the thought of losing you again and spending what remains of my life, wishing I had spoken out.’

He held her hands tightly and raised them to his lips, causing flames of desire to rush through Gwen’s arms and into her chest.

‘Even if Ruth had not found herself in those circumstances, I would have found a reason to beg you to return with me. Gwennie, will you please come home with me? My offer is open without conditions, and you may take the cottage, but any time you wish to appear at my door it will open to you, as will my heart.’

A bubble inside her popped, but all it released was joy.

She put her hands around Danny’s waist and shifted them upwards across his back, firm and slender with muscles that could have belonged to a man ten years his junior. A little stab of lust darted through her and made her smile. She could enjoy getting to know this body. One day, when the time was right for both of them, she would.

She raised her head up and parted her lips, keeping her eyes on Danny’s and watching them fill with eagerness. The kiss that followed was one they both instigated, and felt more equal than anything she had remembered doing with Archibald. Her heart fluttered but she felt no guilt at the prospect of becomingan adulteress. It would give Archibald the reason he needed to divorce her. If she returned to Swansea, even as a tenant in Danny’s cottage, the rumours would no doubt start, and her reputation would be ruined, so she might as well enjoy herself. Augusta had told her she would be happier if she stepped outside the expectations of society, and Gwen realised she didn’t really care.

‘We’ll take things slowly. Neither of us are too old that we need to grasp our last years.’ She grinned at him. ‘You are not in your dotage yet, Daniel Parry.’

He laughed. ‘You are remarkable.’

‘I am starting to believe that,’ Gwen said.

Chapter Twenty-Six

It was late the following afternoon before Jenny received a message from Gwen asking her to meet at the same coffee house where they had met the previous morning.

Gwen was sitting beside Mr Parry. Their chairs were close together and there was something in the way their arms brushed and their shared glances that told Jenny they had reconciled.

Ruth was apparently still being defiant, but had been persuaded to take care of Bella who, now she was free from Augusta’s clutches, had become almost catatonic through exhaustion. The gentleness Ruth showed the younger girl, Gwen said, gave her hope that Ruth might become a little more amenable.

‘I intend to do my utmost to prosecute everyone involved and shut down the establishment,’ Mr Parry said forcefully.

Gwen coughed subtly. He acknowledged the sound and briefly reached for her hand, brushing his thumb over the back.

‘Nearly everyone, I should say. I believe that the pimping of girls as young as Bella is in itself enough, without needing to complicate matters by introducing the existence of the tincture.’

Jenny let out a sigh of relief, wondering what Gwen had said or done to persuade him.

‘I have a horrible feeling that you can add murder to the charges,’ she said. ‘I suspect the poor girl who was hauled out of the canal basin might have been one of their girls, from the description that the woman who remained gave me.’

Mr Parry drummed his fingers on the table. ‘Ruth will be able to bear witness to what happened in The Rook and Wren. Bella, too– and Sally, if she can be persuaded. Perhaps when you talk to Miss Sandler you can broach the subject.’

‘I assume you will be speaking to her,’ Gwen asked calmly.

‘I will.’ Jenny fumbled with her napkin.

‘The judiciary will not take the word of a young woman, much less one who has been indulging in prostitution,’ Gwen pointed out.

Mr Parry blanched.

‘I’m sorry for speaking so frankly, but there it is,’ Gwen said, sitting back, and eyeing him sternly. Jenny was impressed. She’d never seen Gwen challenge Mr Walters’ words and her confidence was a welcome change.

‘My niece is respectable, that should speak for itself. And they will take her word if I back her. A man’s word always counts, and the tale of a young, innocent, motherless girl who has been preyed upon will melt the hardest heart.’

He was probably correct, though it boiled Jenny’s blood to think how the word of a man who had had little involvement counted for more than the girls who had been affected.