It was only the following week that the incident occurred which was to influence the direction of the rest of Sophy’s life, although she didn’t know it at the time. She had been to a late-night party thrown by one of the actors who was celebrating his thirtieth birthday, held at a supper club close to the theatre. It was two in the morning and she was getting into a cab with another member of the cast, when a woman appeared out of the shadows of a nearby shop doorway, saying, ‘Spare a penny or two?’ before stopping abruptly. With a shock, Sophy realised she knew the heavily pregnant, poorly-clad creature. Harriet Crawford had been one of the actresses working at the Lincoln when she had first started in the business, and more than once they had shared tea and toast at each other’s lodgings before a show.
As Harriet made to turn swiftly away, Sophy sprang after her. ‘Wait. Harriet, wait!’ She caught the other woman’s arm, and it was then she realised that in spite of Harriet’s distended stomach, the rest of her was as thin as a rake. ‘What are you doing here like this?’
Harriet kept her head averted as she muttered, ‘Isn’t it obvious?’
‘You – you’re sleeping rough?’ Sophy knew it went on, of course. Londoners were becoming increasingly aware of the problem of the homeless and unemployed. Many of them congregated on the Embankment at night, making it an unpleasant place. The men and women who crowded the area were attracted there because they knew it offered a chance of food and shelter. The Salvation Army was reported as feeding as many as seven hundred vagrants every night and providing some shelter during the early hours of the morning. There had been talk that the police at Scotland Yard, which was only a few yards away from the squalor, should disband the queues, but this only drove the men and women further afield into shop doorways and dark alleys.
Harriet shook her arm free. ‘I’d better go.’
‘No, wait.’ She couldn’t let Harriet go like this. Throwing caution to the wind, Sophy said, ‘Come home with me for a meal. You could do with something to eat, couldn’t you? And a bed for the night? It’s all right, there’s only me and my housekeeper and she’s a dear soul.’ She kept talking as Harriet collected a pitifully small bundle from the shadows before walking with her to the cab, feeling that if she stopped, the other woman would take flight. Once in the cab, Harriet said not a word. It wasn’t until they had dropped the other actress off at her lodgings that Harriet said, ‘I heard about Toby. I’m sorry.’
‘Thank you.’
They continued in silence, Harriet shrunk in a corner of the seat, her thin cotton dress and stained jacket doing nothing to hide the mound of her stomach.
Sadie had gone to bed, but came downstairs when she heard them in the kitchen. She bustled about, setting a crusty loaf and a pat of butter on the table before frying some eggs, sausages and bacon, and making a pot of tea. Harriet ate as though she was starving, which she probably was. There followed a story which was only too common, a litany involving casting couches, broken promises, licentious actor-managers and finally being thrown out of her lodgings when she became pregnant, lost her job and couldn’t pay her rent. The father of her baby was a married man who wanted nothing to do with her; in fact, he had threatened violence if she approached him again. The baby was due in a few weeks and it was clear that rather than go in the workhouse, Harriet would do something desperate.
Sophy and Sadie talked far into the night once Harriet had had a bath and washed her hair and was tucked up in bed fast asleep in one of Sadie’s voluminous flannelette nightdresses. The next morning, Sophy told her that she was welcome to stay until after the baby was born and she could find a job of some kind to support herself and the child once she was fit again. She could help Sadie in the meantime, Sophy said gently when Harriet burst into tears of gratitude, and she would be company for the older woman. She was away at work for so much of the time and Sadie got lonely.
Sophy had a luncheon appointment with Kane that day. A new restaurant had opened recently on the Strand and the food was reported to be wonderful. He hid his surprise at finding a heavily pregnant Harriet in residence when he called to pick Sophy up, and was charmingly polite and gentle to the embarrassed woman, making conversation as though he had only seen her the other day rather than some thirteen years ago.
Once in the cab, Sophy told him Harriet’s story and how she had come across her the night before. ‘And so I couldn’t just let her leave today,’ she finished. ‘She really wants to keep the baby and she’s done with the theatre. If she and Sadie get on, the answer might be for her to stay on with us. Sadie is getting older, and although she won’t admit it, she feels her age. We’ll just see how things pan out over the next little while.’
Kane stared at her. ‘You’re a remarkable woman.’
Something in his eyes made her blush. To hide her discomfiture, she looked out of the window as she said, ‘Not really. I’m just very aware that, but for the grace of God, and – and you too, that could be me. When I came to London I was very naive, I had no idea it was such a predatory place. I suppose all big cities are the same, but the entertainment business seems especially so – for women, that is.’