See No Evil (Anthony Lockwood)

chapter 6

Lockwood placed Annabel's ring into a small locket, "The ring stays in the basement until we take it to the furnaces."

George set down a cup of tea with ten sugars in it right in front of Violet. His way of comforting her and apologizing for how he acted earlier. Violet gave him a small smile and sipped at the sweet tea.

Lucy's head snapped up, "What? Why would we stop when we're just getting somewhere?"

Lockwood glanced over at Violet, who had one of his jackets draped over her shoulders. He caught a glimpse of the hand-shaped bruises left on her arms and the bright red scratches over her neck. Her eyes were slightly dull from exhaustion. He couldn't put her through that again. Never.

Lockwood placed the locket into the box, "No more pet projects. There's bills to pay."

"Uh, what bills?" George asked.

Lockwood took a paper out of his pocket and handed it over.

George unfolded it and read off the number in shock, "£60,000?"

Lucy snatched the paper from him, "What?"

"In two weeks? What the hell?"

Violet slowly turned to look at Lockwood, "Why would you keep that from us? I could've started scrounging up money by now. Not enough to cover even half, but i've been saving, Lock."

"It's my name on the door. And i'm not taking your savings, Vi. That's money you earned. I don't need it. It's my responsibility. I'll find a way."

"How? We hardly break even when things are going well!" George exclaimed.

"What about a loan? This place must be worth a bucketload," Lucy suggested.

"This place is all that's left of my parents," Lockwood stated firmly.

"Sorry. I didn't realize."

Violet could understand that. If she'd had anything left of her own parents, she would've protected it viciously.

"He's already borrowed against it to set up the business. Jesus, Lockwood, we're screwed!"

"No, we're not. All it takes is a few big cases."

The telephone began to ring in the other room as if on cue.

"Maybe that's one right now," Lockwood grinned and left to go answer the call.

Violet watched him go before she stood up and walked out without a word. She snuck past Lockwood just as he answered the telephone and went up the stairs to the attic. Violet walked over to her bag in the corner of the room and picked it up. She grabbed her pocket knife that she kept under her pillow and used it to cut open a small secret pocket of her bag that she had sewn shut. She reached her hand in and pulled out a thick envelope filled with money.

Violet always kept a large portion of money in that secret pocket just in case she had to leave. She would add small amounts to it once a month alongside another savings pile that she kept in her pillowcase. Violet pulled out the savings in her pillowcase and put the stacks together.

By now, after 6 years of saving, it amounted to about £10,700 all together. She kept this money for emergencies. And this was an emergency. This was her home. Lockwood & Co was her family. She would not allow it to go down so easily if she could help.

Violet shoved the stack in Lockwood's jacket pocket that she was wearing as she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. It was Lucy.

"Lockwood wants us to get ready to go out," Lucy told her, going over to the closet to grab some clothes.