She shouldn’t ask, as it was not her right to pry into their past, and yet she found herself doing it anyway. “From what did he save you, Matilda?”
Fred shot her sister a look.
“Never mind. You do not have to tell me.”
“We don’t mind, and most everyone in society or Crabbett Close knows some of it, so even if you never asked, someone would likely tell you,” Matilda added.
“Our father was a bad man, and society turned on us because of him. It was Aunt Ivy, Uncle Bram, and Mungo who came for us. They took us away from London and the mean people and loved us,” Fred said.
Eliza had known there were secrets in this family, as there were in any, but she’d not fully understood the scandal surrounding the Nightingales until now.
“I’m so sorry you suffered,” she said, looking at the two older girls.
“But we are happy now, and that is what matters. Besides, I think this life is a great deal better than what it would have been,” Fred said. “And Mungo is part of the reason.”
“You have a wonderful family,” Eliza said.
“I love them all,” Anna added softly, but they all heard it.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“Oooh, Mavis is drizzling inside the rotunda!” Anna shrieked, which had them all looking toward the park where she was pointing.
She didn’t know the people in this neighborhood well yet, but Eliza was getting there. It was an odd little street but also a wonderful, caring one.
“And what is drizzling?” Eliza asked.
“Mavis finds tassels, fringes, tapestries, and other textiles and extracts gold and silver threads to sell from them,” Fred said. “Come on, we’ll show you.”
“Not a weather event then?” Eliza said, allowing Anna to take her hand and tow her to the pristine white rotunda.
Fred and Matilda climbed the steps first, with Anna and Eliza following. They found Mavis Johns seated beside a small trestle table. With her was Tabitha Varney and Miss Alvin, who was swaddled up like an Egyptian mummy again. Several tattered scarves were wrapped around her neck and head. She wore a blanket around her shoulders and fingerless gloves.
“Tabitha wants Mungo to marry her,” Fred whispered asthey lingered on the steps. “She started with Leo, then Alex, Ram, and Charles. Gray, too, but they are now all wed, so she is focusing all her attentions on Mungo.”
Eliza studied Tabitha Varney. She always seemed to have her chest uncovered, even on a cold day like this one, and batted her eyelashes whenever a man was near—any man. The first time Eliza had witnessed the brazen behavior, her toes had curled inside her boots. She’d been mortified, but Mr. Hellion, who had been the recipient, had merely smiled and been polite.
“Wonderful. I’m sure they would be very happy together,” she said, stomping on the small kernel of jealousy she had no right to feel, especially after what took place on that staircase recently.
“Mungo calls her a silly woman,” Fred added.
“And here we are,” Eliza said, happy to finish the conversation. The less she spoke about that man, the better.
“Can we sit and help Mavis for a while, Miss Downing?”
“Of course. I think a drizzle break is a wonderful idea.”
Mavis didn’t speak but handed out the materials she wanted them to work with, and Eliza sat back to listen to Miss Alvin and Tabitha gossip, which she knew they would.
“The devil makes work for idle hands,” Miss Alvin said.
“Whistle while ye’re working,
Sing and keep it gay;
If gossip comes a-lurking,
We’ll sew its tongue away!” Tabitha sang.
