Chapter One- The Beginning
"Let it go, Nellie," she sneered. "He'll never love you. He loves me. I'm the one he's married to."
"That doesn't mean anything!" I cried. "I was married for years to a man I didn't love. You may have his name, Lucy, but you'll never have his heart."
Even to my ears, I sounded weak and unsure. Well, I was weak and unsure. Lucy was fair and merry and had yellow hair that men would die to run their fingers through. She was slim but had curves in all the right places, if you know what I mean. Every man she'd ever met had wanted her for his own, but she had gone and chosen Ben. I mean, Mr. Barker. I'd seen him often enough and had fallen in love with him at first sight, but being a respectable married woman, I kept my distance. That is, until he and Lucy turned up on my doorstep, asking if they could rent the room over my pie shop.
My husband had recently died- good riddance, he was a violent drunkard of a man- and there was Ben, just… standing on my doorstep. Looking at me with pleading eyes. "Please, Madam," he said, "My wife is with child and our house has been ruined by fire. We will be able to pay you; I am a barber with many loyal customers. Please let us stay."
Well, how could I say no? I stood there like a fish, my mouth wide open, not able to say anything. Lucy- Mrs. Barker- gave me a strange look. "Not meaning to hurry you, Madam…" she said, and I snapped out of my daze.
"Yes, yes, you can stay. I mean… yes. You can stay. Of course you can stay. I'll need a lot less room now my husband is…" I trailed off. Ben and Lucy looked embarrassed.
"Shall we just… go in?" Ben asked gently, placing his hand on my arm. I looked down at it then looked back up into his eyes. Such honest eyes.
"Yes, sir. Just go in. Up the stairs." Suddenly I realised I didn't know their names; these strange, almost ethereal, handsome beings, who had answered my advert for boarders. They had already started up the stairs when this occurred to me.
"Excuse me!" I called. Ben turned around quickly, and the bag he was holding knocked into Lucy's swollen belly. He gasped and the bag slipped from his hand as he leant down towards her to make sure she was alright. She looked at me and rolled her eyes, as if to say, "What a fuss he makes of me! How tiresome!", and I looked back at her with a neutral expression, pretending not to understand. I'd have given anything to have him fussing over me like that.
"What was it you wanted?" she asked me, as he went to retrieve the bag.
"I was just wondering your names, madam," I said. She smiled a smile that would light up the earth if the sun ever went out.
"Of course!" she said. "How rude of us! I am Lucy Barker, and this is my husband, Benjamin." He was at the bottom of the stairs now and was slightly out of breath, perspiration beading on his brow. He wiped it away and reached out his hand to me, smiling. I took it and we shook hands for what seemed like an eternity.
"Well, Mr. and Mrs. Barker," I said, and Ben interrupted me.
"Please. Ben and Lucy." I smiled pleasantly at this. First name terms already!
"Well, Ben and Lucy, I hope you'll be happy here. It's quite a comfortable little place, gets a bit cold in the winter, but you show me a place that doesn't, eh?" They laughed, she a tinkling laugh like bells, and he a deep, rich laugh that sent a shiver down my spine. He was everything I'd dreamed he'd be when I'd seen him around Fleet Street all those times.