London is old. London is harsh and gloomy, and the skies above it are foggy and tearful. Evenings on the streets of the city seem dreary and dull, but not for those whose road is illuminated by lanterns of love and happiness.
"Dad, look!" a blond four year old girl babbled a little incoherently, pointing with her finger at a fruit counter, from which persistent fresh and sweet aromas emanated, "I want a pineapple, dad!"
The young, dark-haired man walking next to the girl laughed sincerely and easily.
"You want everything from me, darling. You want fruits, berries, and vegetables in addition, although at home you refuse to eat them."
"It's boring to eat from a plate at home," the baby pouted right there "even cut with forks and knives! I want to do it with hands!" and, emphasizing her desire, the girl shook her hands and grabbed the skirt of a lovely lady walking next to her, "Mom, tell him, I want it so! I don't want to follow the rules of etiquette!"
The young woman shook her head.
"It's impossible, honey, it's rude and inappropriate" and, leaning towards her daughter, she whispered barely audibly, "let's at least wait until we come home, because here, in the street, everyone can see us"
"Lily!" the man pulled at his wife. She only laughed in response to his displeasure.
"Billy, you are too hard on the child, she is only four."
"That's it!" the girl squeaked, sensing that her mother was on her side.
The man glanced at his wife with irritation. The woman caught this look and sighed.
"Okay, Lannie, Daddy said you can't, so you can't. You have to obey Daddy, right?"
"But it wasn't Dad who said "no", it was you!" the girl corrected, widening her eyes "and dad didn't say anything!"
The parents looked at each other and only sighed in unison. The girl, seeing this, immediately made the most affectionate face she could.
"Daddy, Mommy, please! Come on, there are so many delicious fruits, I want ..."
"Okay," the man waved his hand, "we'll buy you a pineapple, and whatever else you want. But we'll eat at home, okay?"
"Okay," Lannie nodded. Lily just grinned at them. She knew that no matter how much she and her husband tried to be strict parents, nothing came of it. They loved their baby too much.
On the way home, Bill and Lily talked quietly as their daughter ran merrily alongside.
"Billy, I'm so happy for you, this promotion is a real blessing! Just think, you'll become a judge, a respected and influential person!" Lily chirped, sincerely rejoicing at her husband's success. He, however, did not share his wife's delight.
"That's just whether I am ready to take full responsibility for the fate of people. It would be better if I continued to remain a lawyer."
"Well, yes, and continued to defend thieves, bandits and murderers," Lily frowned.
"You know that they are not all like that," Bill shook his head, "among them there are just too many unfortunate people who find no other way for themselves but a vicious one."
The woman just sighed. Her husband's too kind and just heart sometimes gave him many problems, and she was sincerely afraid that one day his justice would turn against him. She herself, who lost her parents in the London slums, where those who liked to make money in any way, even bloody, lived, had no illusions about these people. By the way, about this ...
"Bill, where are we going?"
The man turned his head in bewilderment and shrugged his shoulders with a smile – carried away by the conversation, they turned in the wrong direction and wandered into one of the dark alleys. In the next instant, a screech of frightened Lannie, who managed to get a little ahead of her parents, was heard. Bill grabbed his belt, but, as luck would have it, going out for a walk, he did not take a weapon with him.
"Let the child go!" Lily screamed desperately as she watched three ragamuffins emerge from the darkness with eyes burning with greed and malice. The first firmly held the crying girl struggling to escape, the other two moved forward, playing with sharpeners.
"Money, watches, jewelry," the second, tall, but skinny man in scraps of an old uniform, evidently picked up or stolen somewhere, clearly not intending to stir up discussions, hoarsely demanded. Lily hurriedly reached for the lock of an expensive ruby necklace she had inherited from her grandmother. Bill clenched his fists, and the third closest to him, with a short swing, hit him.
The man staggered back, but immediately jumped to his feet again, swinging to strike back, but the second bandit had already joined the fight that had begun, crashing into him, knocking him to the ground. Lily was shouting something, Lannie was crying plaintively, but Bill could barely hear them, struggling to cope with two thugs at once. And the fight ended suddenly.
"Leave him, let's run!" the first man shouted and ran away. Bill only had time to notice how his wife's ruby necklace gleamed in his hands. The other two instantly left their victim and followed the example of the escaped comrade. Bill closed his eyes for a second, trying to catch his breath.
"MOMMY!" a child's cry cut through the silence that had come. Bill turned and immediately became numb with horror. Lily, his young, adorable Lily, was lying on the ground, and around her a pool of red, nauseatingly bright blood was flowing.
"Lily!" the man cried out and rushed to her. The lady breathed heavily and intermittently, her eyes were closing all the time, although she obviously tried to keep them open. Little Lannie was crying bitterly, clutching the sleeve of her mother's creamy pink dress.
"Lannie," the woman whispered hoarsely, reaching out to the child with her hand, "don't cry, my little sweetheart. Mom is not in pain," her voice that was already barely audible, broke off, and she went limp in the arms of her husband who finally came to her rescue.
"No," the man stammered, bewilderedly running his hand over the blond curls of his wife, "no ..."
A terrible thought, which he did not want to admit, suddenly burst into consciousness, and Billy howled like a wounded animal, wild, terrible. Dead. His beloved wife, the mother of his child is dead. She will never smile at him again, shake her head, disagreeing with him in some way, will not dance with him at the ball, dine, fuss at the bedside of her daughter when she's ill ... She left forever.
Lannie no longer cried, but only whined softly, looking at the ugly hole from the sharpening in her mother's chest, and at her father, distraught in his grief. Some people came running to the screams, someone ran after the police, and in the turmoil that arose around them, the little girl suddenly understood clearly: she no longer had a mother.
Time passed, and life was the same for everyone, but them.
"And may the Lord have mercy on your soul!" echoed in the hall, and the young slender boy, caught stealing bread from the shop, trembled like an aspen leaf, trying with all his might not to cry.
William Turpin just looked at him with disdain. For eight years of law practice and six months of judicial practice, he had already managed to see enough of human tears, but they no longer touched his soul. All of them, dirty, ragged bandits, were the same, ready not only to steal, but also to wound and kill for a gold coin, ready to take away the most precious things from others, so as not to die of hunger themselves. Wretched creatures, they will never again receive mercy from him.
Since the death of Lily Turpin, it has been six months. William had taken off his mourning clothes long ago, but in his heart everything remained black and empty. He smiled only occasionally, looking at the daughter who had become too pale and quiet since the day of her mother's death. She was to become five soon.
The judge left the courthouse, intending to head home, but his path was blocked out of nowhere by a poorly dressed woman with tear-stained eyes.
"Judge Turpin!" she cried, holding out her hands with twisted fingers towards him. He recognized her - it was the mother of the young thief convicted today.
"You killed my son!" she screamed, "Murderer!"
The judge disgustedly waved his hand to the guards, ordering to remove the insane woman from his path, but she stopped shouting, and quietly, almost calmly, declared, "Fate itself will judge us. God is great and almighty, he sees everything, and he will punish you. I pray that he will send you the same pain as he sent me! Let it be so!" again turning to screaming, she cried, and the guards dragged her away. William just looked after her indifferently, and headed home.
"Sir, oh, sir," gasped Lannie's nanny, loose, elderly Mrs. Brooks, rushing to the judge who had just entered.
"What is it?" the man asked coldly, pulling away from the trembling woman.
"Miss Alanna is ill, sir," the old woman began to frequent, "she got a fever in the afternoon, I called your doctor right away, he had already come, examined her and said ..."
"What did he say?" Turpin asked sternly when the nanny fell silent in fright. She swallowed and squeezed out in a half-whisper, "He said, sir, that our girl had caught cholera!"
William's eyes went dark. The shrill voice of the convicted thief's mother sounded in my ears again. Not remembering himself, he rushed upstairs.
"Sir, Dr. Robin has forbidden to enter there!" Mrs. Brooks shouted after him, but he only waved her away, already flying into the nursery.
His baby lay on the bed, pale and almost motionless. From the side it even seemed as if she was no longer breathing. Dr. Wesley Robin, who was sitting beside her, jumped up at the sight of the judge and rushed to cut him:
"My lord, Miss Alanna is seriously ill, she needs to be isolated, the disease is contagious ..."
"Out of the way," the judge hissed, pushing the doctor away.
"Dad?" barely audibly squeaked the girl, hearing her father's voice.
"Lannie!" he breathed, kneeling beside his daughter and running his hand over her pale, tired face and over her scattered golden curls.
"Will I see my mommy?" she simply asked, and William froze, feeling his sobs choking him. He did not know how to answer the question posed in this way.
"Everything will be okay, my precious girl," he finally whispered hoarsely, trying to think of something else to say.
She just smiled a quiet, calm smile, so unusual for small children, and closed her eyes.
"Lord Turpin," the doctor quietly, but insistently called out to the man, "you need to get out of here immediately. I will do everything in my power to help your daughter, but you must not interfere with me. The disease is contagious, if it spreads around the house, God help us," he urged the inconsolable father, slowly leading him out of the room, "Pray, sir, and God help you and Miss Alanna!"
The judge only nodded weakly, for all his strength suddenly left him.
Neither prayers nor the help of Dr. Robin helped, and a few days later Alanna Turpin died quietly, never being able to celebrate her fifth birthday. The judge, having burned out, finally closed in on himself, becoming an exemplary mannequin of a person from high society. He continued his judicial practice, not accepting the death of a child as a punishment for his judgment, and many lives were cut short by his words and decisions. He lived, not thinking about tomorrow, not indulging in unnecessary entertainment, but not giving up on them at all, he just lived as he could.
One day fifteen years later, he was returning home after another trial over a beggar who accidentally killed a woman who did not want to give him money. An old acquaintance of his, the beadle Bamford, walked beside him, talking about something that the judge had half-heard. He thought about the upcoming ball the day after tomorrow, which Lord and Lady Cleveland was giving, about the fact that he still needs to review several cases before tomorrow's trial, and...
Casting an indifferent glance forward, the judge suddenly froze, not believing his own eyes. Right in front of him, like a distant vision, a lovely blonde girl with a little girl in her arms stood. Beadle, noticing the strangely burning gaze of the man, chose to shut up.
The girl laughed, rocking the baby, and, glancing towards Turpin, with a smile, waved her hand in greeting. And the next moment a young black-haired guy with a toy in his hands rushed past the judge and the beadle, hitting the latter with his shoulder.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, sir, I didn't mean to bump into you," the stranger apologized with a charming smile and hurried to the girl.
"Lucy!" he exclaimed, "Darling, it's getting colder, let's go home. Johanna is very lightly dressed, she'll catch a cold. And at home we will play with our new friend!" he said enthusiastically, holding out the toy to the girl.
"Okay, Ben," the blonde vision in a creamy pink dress smiled meekly, "let's go. The wind is indeed chilly. Also, it is time for dinner."
Smiling at each other, they walked down the street. The judge followed them, feeling his long-frozen heart pounding.
They reached an old two-story house and began to climb the outer staircase leading to the second floor.
"Ben!" the girl called to the man, "take Johanna, I'll drop by Nellie for a minute."
"Of course," the man smiled, accepting the child and entering the room on the second floor. The girl went downstairs and darted into the bakery located on the first floor, and then from there came the cheerful female chirping about dinner, and dresses, and husbands.
William slowly turned and walked away from this house, already realizing that his life had changed forever, finding its purpose again. He will return here and take what fate has stolen from him. Whatever it cost him.