Page 68 of Murder at the Mayfair Hotel
“Better now that you’re back.” I tightened my grip on the chair arm. “I want to say again how sorry I am for causing so much trouble.”
“It wasn’t your intention.”
“But it happened, and I can’t forgive myself.”
“Please, don’t blame yourself. The fact is, I hired Harry knowing his past and knowing Sir Ronald wouldn’t allow him to work here if he was aware. It was bound to come out eventually. The truth always does.”
“But it wasn’t my place to tell him.”
“Why not? You’re his family. Your loyalty should always be with family.”
“I hardly know them. I’m not even sure I like them, yet.”
He sat forward a little. “Family is family. You can’t change that. Now stop blaming yourself. A young woman shouldn’t be burdened by guilt over something that isn’t of her making.”
“I wish you wouldn’t be so forgiving since Mr. Armitage is not back yet.”
“There is no ‘yet’, Miss Fox. He won’t be coming back.”
“Perhaps my uncle will give in,” I said, desperately hoping it to be true. “He changed his mind about you.”
He shook his head. “He reversed his decision about me because it was in the best interests of the hotel, but it would have been difficult for him. He’s very proud.”
“And it would be doubly hard for him to swallow that pride a second time?”
He merely smiled, always the diplomat. “Harry wouldn’t return anyway. He is just as proud.” He clasped his hands on the desk and regarded me levelly. “I want you to know a little of Harry’s past. It will explain why he was arrested.”
“You don’t have to tell me anything. His past is none of my affair, and I’m sure he had good reasons for stealing.”
“Even so, I want to tell you what I told Sir Ronald. But I would appreciate it if it didn’t go any further.”
“It won’t,” I said on a breath, eager to hear more, despite what I’d just told him.
“You know that Harry found himself in a boys’ home after his parents died?”
I nodded.
“After a year there, he was sent to be apprenticed to a bookkeeper at a button factory. The bookkeeper was not kind to him and would tell the factory owner that Harry made mistakes. He made things up to put Harry in a bad light. I suspect he was jealous of Harry’s quick mind, but it’s impossible to know why he was so cruel. The upshot is, the owner sent Harry to work on the factory floor as punishment.”
“But he was a child!”
“He was tall for his age, and none of the other workers dared go against their employer. Harry had no one to turn to for advice. When you’re a child with no family, no adult friends, then you’re very much alone.” He shifted in his chair, the story making him as uncomfortable as it made me. “The conditions were hard for a boy, the hours long. He endured it for several months until one day he was beaten by the factory owner for something as trifling as dropping a box of buttons.”
“My God,” I murmured.
“Harry ran away. He didn’t return to the orphanage. He thought they’d send him back to the factory. Years later, he discovered that he would have been taken in there again if he’d only told them what happened, but as a thirteen-year-old, he assumed the adult world was against him.”
“So where did he go?”
“He lived on the streets with other children. They were quite wild, but they liked their freedom, so he told me. Unfortunately, they had to steal to survive. He was caught by my brother and arrested.”
“He only served three months.”
“You are well informed,” he said with a hint of irony. “It was his first offense, and his age was taken into consideration. My brother also put in a good word for him. He saw something in Harry immediately. He was quick-witted and intelligent, but generous and kind-hearted too.” Mr. Hobart smiled to himself. “He’d stolen a ribbon to give to a girl he liked and a basket of apples which he handed out to the younger children.”
If he’d told me the story to make me understand Mr. Armitage better, it worked. But it also made me feel so much worse.
“My brother and his wife had no children of their own, so perhaps that explains why he took an interest in Harry’s welfare. He and his wife visited Harry in prison every day and asked him to live with them when he got out. He moved out of their home only when he was given a position here and moved in with the other hotel staff at the residence hall.”
