Recalled (Episode 24 - The Further Chronicles of a Young Lady (and her Maid))

Continued from Episode 23 - Valued

The story so far:  Gwladys and Aefelthrith have started a new life, running a pawn shop, formerly owned by 'Anty Marj', who they managed to convince they were distantly related to.  'Anty Marj', after some typical twists and turns, was persuaded to sell by receiving Aefelthrith's precious ring and went away a happy woman.  Meanwhile, Gwladys engaged a young urchin, 'Arry, to help clear the back garden of weeds, as a means of giving him a bit of income to support his poorly mother and avoid him either going down the pit or up the chimney, much to Aefelthrith's displeasure. Unfortunately, his digging produced a skull, about which  Gwladys swore him to secrecy and quiickly buried the evidence, which gave them a breathing space, until Sergeant Argent of the Watch appeared in the shop.  Fortunately, he was not pursuing his enquiries but was, to her extreme shock and horror, pursuing Aefelthrith, romantically.  Meanwhile, 'Arry revealed that his Mam said the place had always been a shop BUT Anty Marj had originally had a partner, thought to be her sister, whose name was Sarah, who had disappeared.  Coincidentally, Sarah was the name that Gwladys had told Anty Marj was the name of their shared relative.  With this news, Gwladys tried  to persuade Aefelthrith to go out with Sergeant Argent so that they could find out more, to which she eventually agreed but only with the proviso that Gwladys should serve as chaperone.  On their 'date', Sergeant Argent regaled Aefelthrith with tales of the town, much to Gwladys's frustration but he knew nothing about the history of the shop, then Constable John confirmed that there had been a 'Sarah' but that she had disappeared.  Eager to show off his skills of detection, Sergeant Argent insisted on mounting an investigation.  The following day, the Sergeant and his Constable began their search of the premises and were only diverted from digging up the garden by some quick thinking on the part of Aefelthrith.  Meanwhile, Gwladys was surprised to find a rather familiar, and flamboyant, 'sea captain' in the shop, just at the same time that Aefelthrith was dealing with a street urchin with a message for the 'sossij', which turned out to be the Sergeant.  The message revealed that the Watch were needed to apprehend ' a fraud, a trickster and a mountebank', so it was perhaps just as well the the 'Captain' had made himself scarce!  Aefelthrith and Gwladys fell out about the 'Captain' and the torch that Aefelthrith obviously still held for him.  Would he come back, that evening?  When a beggar turned up at the back door, it turned out he had. 'John Thomas' explained that things had not gone well for him, since they left.  Dolly had run off with the Squire's son, the pub had shut as it wasn't commercially viable and their son was now being raised by Dolly's parents, leaving 'John Thomas' to try his hand at fraud again, albeit on his own this time.  And then, just as he was telling them all of this, there came a knock at the door.  It turned out to be the Watch, acting on a tip-off that a beggar had been seen going into the building.  As Gwladys tried to stall them, Aefelthrith tried to get 'John Thomas' to leave but, on discovering he had nowhere to go, smuggled him up to the loft just as the Watch made their entrance.  Gwladys managed to restrict their search to downstairs, by sheer force of character, but she was dumbstruck to learn that Aefelthrith had offered to shelter 'John Thomas' in their loft!  As Aefelthrith was only going to spend her time sulking at Gwladys's reaction, Gwladys decided to train her on valuing items, which was going as well as you might expect, until, out of the blue, Dolly showed up:

“Whatever are you doing here?” Aefelthrith asked, looking extremely surprised.

“I could ask the same question” Dolly snapped, still trying to quieten the screaming child.

“’Ere, give ‘im ‘ere” Gwladys reached over and took the child from Dolly.  After a period of heroic snuffling, he calmed down and started to take an interest in the shop, and Gwladys, in that order.

“As I understood it, you were away doing…other things” Aefelthrith said, airily.

“As you understood it, eh?  That means that cheating, lying scum bag what reckons to be my other half has been sniffing around here, does it?”  Dolly glared at Aefelthrith with her hands on her hips.

“I really could not say” Aefelthrith said in her most regal manner.

“’E’s bin ‘ere” Gwladys nodded.

“Gwladys!” Aefelthrith exclaimed.

“Oh, give over!” Gwladys brushed her aside, “She knows fine well ‘e’s bin ‘ere, ‘ow else wouldjer ‘ave known she were s’posed to ‘ave legged it?”

“Legged it?  Me?” Dolly looked stunned.

“My colleague might describe it in that fashion,”’ Aefelthrith said, haughtily, “I would merely say that, taking up with the Squire’s son and abandoning your child says a great deal about you!”

“Abandoning my…!” Dolly shook her head in disbelief, “Does it look like I’ve abandoned him?”  She pointed to the child, who was busily pulling Gwladys’s hair.

“I really could not say” Aefelthrith sniffed.

“I reckon we need to ‘ear ‘er version of ‘ow things went” Gwladys extricated her hair from the infant and nodded toward Dolly.

“Hang on!” Dolly looked thoughtful, “If you’ve heard his version, does that mean he’s here?  Sniffing ‘round after her, I shouldn’t wonder!” Dolly nodded, disdainfully, toward Aefelthrith.

“Well, really!” Aefelthrith looked shocked.

“Yeah, ‘e’s ‘ere” Gwladys nodded.

“GWLADYS!” Aefelthrith glared at her colleague, “how could you…what’s the term?  ‘Grass him up’ like that?”

“I ain’t grassin’ no-one” Gwladys shook her head, fervently, “she’s the mother of ‘is babby, this one ‘ere” She held the infant as far from her hair as she could manage, “She’s got a right to know where ‘e is”

“So, where is he?” Dolly had her hands on her hips, again.

“I’ll go an’ get ‘im fer yer” Gwladys handed the infant to a distinctly reluctant, Aefelthrith, “Yer’d best come through” She chuckled to herself  “This could be a bit of fun!” 

“You will have to slide over the counter” Aefelthrith advised, “do you need me to help….”

“NO! I can manage, ta” Dolly swung herself over the counter with surprising ease.

As they made their way through the curtaining, they could hear Gwladys’s footsteps as she pounded up the stairs.  Almost immediately, she could be heard descending again.  Dolly and Aefelthrith looked at her, expectantly.

“’E’s done a runner” She announced.

“What?” Aefelthrith and Dolly said, in unison.

“Buggered off!  Gorn!” Gwladys expanded on her theme, “Must ‘ave ‘eard yer voice, Dolly, an’ legged it”

“That git!” Dolly seethed.

“I am sure that there is a perfectly reasonable…” Aefelthrith began.

“Oh, put a sock in it!” Gwladys advised, “’e’s spun us a tale and ‘opped it, that’s the size of it”

“Is that, erm, porridge on the stove?” Dolly asked, in a casual tone.

“Ar, it is” Gwladys nodded, “d’yer want some?”

“To be honest,” Dolly admitted, miserably “we haven’t eaten today…yet”

“What?  Not the kiddy, neither?” Gwladys looked concerned.

“Well, no.  That’s why I came in here, to try and pawn that necklace.  I needed some money to buy food and get us somewhere to sleep, tonight” Dolly looked on the verge of tears.

“Yer poor love” Gwladys put an arm around her, “ger yersen sat at the table. I’ll put some out fer yer, an’ yer can feed ‘im an’ all”

“That’s very kind” Dolly dabbed at her eyes.

“Hmph!” Aefelthrith sat down at the table and folded her arms, studiously looking anywhere but at Dolly and the infant.

“Then, yer can tell us your side of the story, eh?” Gwladys ladled out a generous serving of porridge and sat down at the table, facing Dolly.

“Um, well, I’m not sure what you know?” Dolly managed, between mouthfuls.

“When we cleared off, yer’d got a pub full.  Yer man there was ‘eading off down the cellar when ‘e saw us leavin’.  ‘E asked us to wait so ‘e could try an’ talk us out of it but…”

“He forgot about us, whilst he was down in the cellar, so we left anyway” Aefelthrith snapped.

“No, he didn’t” Dolly shook her head.

“What do you mean?” Aefelthrith frowned.

“He didn’t forget about you” Dolly helped her son to a mouthful of porridge, “What you didn’t know was…look, do you remember the two men who dropped us off at the pub…”

“Jarvis an’ Cocker, the bailiffs?” Gwladys interrupted.

“Yeah, them” Dolly nodded, “Well, they must have snuck back, because they were waiting for him down in the cellar.  They had a knife and they were going to take him back to the coast, ‘cause there was a reward out for him.  Only, when they got him outside, they found their coach had gone”

“Would’ve done” Gwladys chuckled, “we’d nicked it!”

“Get away!  Well, It was just as well that you did” Dolly scraped the remainder of the porridge from the bowl, “You see, I wondered where he’d got to, went outside to look and saw them two scratching their heads and poking him with a knife, so I grabbed a plank and…” She imitated a mighty swing, with her spoon.

“Did you kill them?” Aefelthrith asked, open-mouthed.

“Nah, just gave them a bit of an headache” Dolly grinned, looking at the spoon with fond memories, “We tied them up and dumped them in the woods”

“Ha!  We were in the woods an’ all” Gwladys chuckled, “We let their ‘orses go, p’raps they found ‘em?”

“Well, they must have gotten away somehow” Dolly agreed, “’cause they didn’t come back.  Either that, or they were eaten by wolves!”

“Goodness!  We had no idea” Aefelthrith shook her head.

“’Course not” Dolly agreed, “you would have been long gone” She sniffed and looked at her son and heir suspiciously.  “I reckon I’m going to have to change him, is there somewhere…?”

“Through the back here” Gwladys got up and showed her the way, “I’ll come an’ giver yer an ‘and”

Aefelthrith was left alone to think about the night she and Gwladys ran away from The Crossroads Hotel, ‘John Thomas’, Dolly and the child.  It seemed a long time ago!

You can find the previous adventures of Gwladys and Aefelthrith in both Kindle and paperback formats at The Chronicles of a Young Lady (and her Maid (link is external)