The Constant Heart Read Online Free PDF

company. He went to live away from Black Eagle Wharf, and by the time he returned a few years later I was courting Ellie. But Ham still fancied her: he turned her head with his smooth talk and he showered her with presents. He convinced her father that he was a better man than I, and he asked for Ellie's hand in marriage.'
     
'But she married you, Pa. She must have seen him for what he was.'
     
He barely seemed to hear her. 'She was so young and trusting. A sweet and guileless girl.'
     
Edward stared down at his pipe, twisting it between his fingers and frowning. 'It wasn't her fault, poppet. Ham flattered and cajoled her into thinking that he adored her, and then he took advantage of her innocence. He persuaded her to go on a day trip to Southend. He said they had missed the train home, but I know that he planned her seduction. He convinced her that spending the night together was all right because they were soon to be married. I could have killed him – but he seemed intent on standing by her and the wedding date was fixed.' The stem of the pipe snapped in two between Edward's taut fingers. A speck of blood oozed from a small cut on his hand but he did not seem to notice the pain. His voice broke as he continued. 'He was married all along, Rosie. He had a wife in Kent, and a child. It all came to light when his father-in-law turned up at the church to denounce him. There she was, in her wedding finery, my little Ellie, broken-hearted.'
     
'But that's terrible. Why did he pretend that he was free to marry her?'
     
'Ellie's father owned four sailing barges, a couple of lighters and some wherries. Ham had married a penniless girl, and I think that he had simply grown tired of her. He saw that Ellie was not only desirable, but whoever married her would inherit her father's business. He had ruined her reputation, and that made it almost impossible for old man Carpenter to object to the match. He would have gone through with the bigamous marriage if the truth had not come out. Barnum walked away without so much as an apology for the hurt he had caused.'
     
'No wonder you hate him, Papa. But you still loved Mama, and you married her.'
     
Edward tossed the broken pipe out of the window. 'Not immediately, poppet. Ellie was naturally distraught and her father was beside himself with rage. He sent her to the country for a while, to get her away from the gossips. But in the time she was absent he suffered ill health, and he seemed to have lost interest in the company. I was master of the Ellie , and I did what I could to keep the business going, but he was in financial straits, and the bank foreclosed on him. He was forced to sell all the vessels, but one. In the end, I went to the village near Colchester where Ellie was staying with an elderly aunt, and I brought her back to London. We were married shortly afterwards and we took rooms above the milliner's shop in Ratcliff Highway. Bertha had worked for the Carpenters for years and she came to join us to look after your mother while I was away on the river.'
     
'I don't remember my grandfather. Did he get better?'
     
'He was a broken man, Rosie. When my blessed Ellie lost her life so soon after you were born, he simply gave up and died. He left this house to you. You will inherit the property on your twenty-first birthday, together with the ownership of the Ellie May .'
     
She stared at him, too stunned to take it all in at once. 'I don't understand. Why did he not leave the house and the ship to you?'
     
'Your grandfather wanted you to be secure. He had seen his daughter's life torn apart by a ruthless man, Ham Barnum, and he wanted you to have some independence. He knew that I could be trusted to keep the business going, and that I had your best interests at heart. In three years' time you will be a woman of property, my dove.'
     
'Why did you keep all this from me until now, Papa?'
     
'No one knows any of it, except for Bertha and me, and now you, of course. I didn't