Now I noticed that the parlour was not lavishly, but comfortably, furnished with two overstuffed chairs, a writing desk with books, and a carpet on the wood floor.
There was a small vase of flowers on the dining table, and Elizabeth Cheney served the coffee in a ceramic pot with two ceramic cups with pink flowers. As she passed one cup to me, she bumped the vase. I steadied it.
She stared at me for a moment, then poured coffee for the both of us with a thoughtful expression.
“Did ye sleep well enough?” she asked.
I nodded. “It was very kind of Inspector Landry to make the arrangement.”
“Aye, kind fer certain. He’s a good man, the best I could ask for.”
That seemed an odd way of describing the inspector.
“Have you known him long?” I inquired.
She laughed. “Since he was a bairn and I looked after him. Now he looks after me since my husband passed.”
She retrieved a plate of warm biscuits and set them on the table with butter and jam.
“He’s me brother. A bit of a knothead at times, but I wouldna trade him if I could. He found this flat for me near enough to his own, and comes by to check on me regular, although I think it’s more for the biscuits. He claims the ones Maggie makes—that’s his wife—are not as good.”
Her brother? He had failed to mention that. Yet, I did notice a faint resemblance in the smile on her face.
“And that’s just like him, keeps things to himself. I suppose that is part of the manner of a police inspector. It was the same with my Seamus.”
“He was with the police as well?”
She nodded. “Aye, four years now he’s been gone. Got caught in a bad situation during an investigation. Will has looked after me ever since, although there is Seamus’s pension, so that I was not put out on the street or forced to live with Will. Och, that would not have gone well.
“Not that I dinna like Maggie. It’s just that we both have our ways, and this is best.”
Elizabeth was friendly and not at all put off by a stranger in her home.
“I occasionally purchase a share or two of railroad stock when I have extra. And I make a few coins when Will brings a guest, unless it’s a child. Not then. It’s a way I can help. We never had children, so it’s my way of helping when I can, until Will finds a place more permanent. Not the foundling homes or the Foundling Hospital if he can find some other place among those he knows.
“There have been a handful over the years when they’re grown that have come back to thank him.”
“Does he have children of his own?” I inquired as the coffee warmed me.
Her expression changed. “Not as now. They had a daughter, but she passed some time ago. There were no other children.” She gave me a thoughtful look.
“She would have been about yer age now.”
My age. I had no way of knowing my real age, or birthday. After I went to London and became the ward of Mikaela Forsythe, she insisted that we celebrate on Boxing Day, the first day of January. A new year, a new beginning, as she called it.
“He did not mention it.”
She smiled. “Nor would he. As I said, keeps things to himself, he does. Not like meself. I put things right out there, makes nosense to keep things inside even if I could. Especially painful things.”
I was curious about something she said the night before when I first arrived.
“‘Oidhche mhath’,”I repeated what she had said the night before. Unexpected?
She looked at me with surprise. “Ye know the Scots. Unusual, considerin’ there are those who want to do away with the old ways, including the old language.”
“I lived here before I went to London.”
“That explains it. It’s good to hold onto the old ways. It helps to know who we are.”
