Page 8 of The Artisan and the Duke
“We can barely get work in the large towns,” Jules countered. “We are not going to get anywhere on foot.”
There was a knock at the door before Gregory poked his head through, “I might have a way to help if you will accept it that is.”
“Who is this man?” Mrs Kelley asked suspiciously at the intrusion.
Gregory stepped inside and shut the door. He bowed deeply to the lady of the house. “Forgive my abrupt appearance. I was told to wait outside,” Gregory said apologetically, “but I could hardly help overhearing your tale of woe. I do have somewhere you can go outside of the city.”
“Don’t listen to him,” Jules said scathingly. “He’s that nobleman who likes to play at being one of us commoners. You remember the one I told you about?”
Mrs Kelley eyed Gregory dubiously. “He doesn’t look like much of a nobleman,” she commented to her daughter.
Gregory shifted and eyed the two women without amusement. He folded his arms. To tell the truth, he had put himself out already, and he did not really need the added ridicule. “I can see the family resemblance,” Gregory remarked as he spun on his heel.
“Wait,” Jules said. “If you could get my mother and sisters somewhere to go, then I would be much in your debt.”
Gregory stopped. He turned his head to look at the young woman. “Where would the advantage be in that?” Gregory eyed the women before he shrugged. “But I really do not have anything planned other than a ball that I wish very much to get out of, so I will see what I can do. I trust that I will be able to find you here again when I return shortly?”
“Yes,” Jules said with no trace of humour. Gregory dipped his head which caused his long blond ponytail to slip over his shoulder. When the man was gone, Jules turned to her mother, “Don’t argue with me on this. You, Tally, and Georgie have to get out of London. If the guards come here to find me, then they could very well throw you all in with me.”
Mrs Kelley grabbed her daughter’s arm with both of her worn hands. She pleaded, “Please come with us, Jules. If this nobleman of yours can help us, then we could be safe, or at least safer.”
“He isn’t my nobleman, Mother, and you will be safe, I promise. I have to stay here, just for a bit. If his Lordship is right, then there is a barrister who could help the boys, and I have to try to help them.” Jules gave her mother a hug. “I’ll go round up my sisters. You just gather what you can.” Jules gave her mother a quick hug before she ducked out the door.
***
Jules raced along the street toward where her sisters were helping to sweep the streets of ash and debris from the fire. “Tally! Georgie!” she shouted to the girls as she spied them.
Tally raised her hand and waved while Georgie gave Jules a curious look. “Whatcha doing here?” Georgie asked in confusion.
“I have a bit of a surprise,” Jules said as she bent down next to the girls and put her hands on her knees. “You and Ma are you going on a trip to the countryside,” she added with as much enthusiasm as she could muster.
Tally whooped in joy, but Georgie crossed her arms and rubbed her nose with slender fingers as she asked, “What does that mean?”
“It means that Ma has gotten a new job, and you all will be leaving the city for some fresh air,” Jules said. “Now come along. Ma needs your help to get everything packed.”
Georgie did not look convinced, but she followed her sister anyway. Jules took Tally’s hand, and they walked back towards their home. Jules felt a hollowness sneak into her heart.
The building was where they had fled to when they had lost the house they had lived in before. They had fled to one of the buildings that Jules’ father had built because Jules’ had known that the building was empty.
When Jules led the two young girls up to the door of their building, she gave them an encouraging smile before she went in to help her mother. She had no idea when the nobleman might make a return appearance, and she wanted everything squared away. As much as she hated to trust the nobleman, there was something forthright about him that struck her as being different from his peers.
Inside, the two little girls ran up the stairs to the room they shared. Jules shook her head at the sudden enthusiasm the two had seemed to develop. Tally’s spirit must have won Georgette over because even the older girl seemed to be more optimistic about their impending move now. Jules listened to the pounding of their feet as they pushed and shoved along the way.
“Jules, could you help me get the bags from upstairs,” Mrs Kelley said from the stairwell, pulling Jules from her thoughts.
Jules nodded. “Of course.” She made her way up. Her mother’s room was the same one where Jules slept. The mattress that belonged to her grandmother was much too cumbersome to move.
An old suitcase, whose material was so worn and coarse that it felt more like threadbare carpet than the once fine piece of luggage that her grandmother had carried on trips abroad, sat next to the door. Jules pulled the heavy piece of luggage down the stairs carefully.
Her mother came up the stairs to help, and together they finished getting the ancient piece of luggage to the bottom of the stairs in one piece. Jules was surprised that the fabric had held together, to be honest. She breathed a sigh of relief once it was resting near the door.
Mrs Kelley went back upstairs to supervise the younger girls. When they all came back downstairs, they sat on some old wooden crates that they had stacked up to use as a table at one point. Jules had gotten them from one of the shops nearby when they had closed down.
Georgie asked quietly, “What are we going to do in the country?”
Truthfully, Jules and her mother had no idea. Mrs Kelley lifted her shoulders and sighed, “Probably housekeeping or some such. It doesn’t suit a young woman to be so overly curious, Georgette dear.”
Jules smiled. She remembered her mother telling her the same thing when she was about Georgie’s age. Then a couple of years later, she had gone to apprentice with her father much to the chagrin of her mother who had assumed that Jules would take over her trade.
