"The Widow" Bertha

"What do you want with Thomas?"

Bertha stepped forward. She was very tall, but with her head held up slightly, she made an arrogant gesture of looking down at the two uninvited guests.

For other people, this might seem too rude, but Bertha is good-looking, with her eyelids slightly folded, but she shows a rather fierce style.

This made the two women, one older and one younger, stunned.

"lady."

Taking advantage of this time, the gang accountant Ned Morrison hurried forward and said in a low voice: "This is Mrs. Latton and Katie, er, it's the one—"

"—He came from the red-light district. No one knows anyone in this street. Is it necessary to cover up like this, Morrison?" The middle-aged woman with heavy makeup said unceremoniously.

"You are Mrs. Raton."

"That's right, I came here today just to ask for an explanation!"

Upon hearing Bertha's question, Mrs. Raton immediately pinched her waist and said aggressively: "Even if my family is in the skin and meat business, then the business is business, and if you put on your trousers and pay for it, you can get both money and goods. Thomas Thames, what is he?" You have a wolfish heart, you insist on saying you want to marry my girl, and you turn your back on her when it's over? If you don't have that heart, don't provoke our people!"

"..."

Bertha couldn't help turning her head to look at the girl who kept her head down and said nothing.

"I'm Thomas Thames' sister," she said, raising her eyebrows. "He's going out today, and I can make the decision for him. Go upstairs and talk."

After she finished speaking, she went straight to the stairs with her skirt in her hand, and she still didn't forget to tell Ned: "You can do whatever you need to do." It seemed that Mrs. Raton, who scolded the whole office without speaking, was not a threat at all.

——Of course it's not a threat, it's just the bustard and prostitute who came to the door.

Ned and the other boys looked like they were going to die. It was nothing more than the old bustard who was "famous for his teacher". This kind of open-minded woman always has a concept of "I don't have the same knowledge as women".

But Bertha is not a man, she is still the one who has the final say in the office, so she is naturally fearless.

Bringing Mrs. Raton and Katie to the second floor, Bertha didn't even invite each other to sit down, but she unceremoniously leaned on the sofa and raised her legs arrogantly: "You said that Thomas and this Katie made a private decision?" What evidence do you have?"

The words were addressed to Mrs. Raton, but Bertha looked at the girl behind her.

When Bertha first entered the door and hadn't made a sound, the girl named Katie kept her head up. When she saw Bertha, she lowered her head again, as if inexplicably cowardly.

"What are you doing in a daze?" Mrs. Latton urged, regardless of what she was thinking, "Speak up!"

"I, I have a token of love." Katie whispered.

"Ok?"

Bertha seemed surprised: "What token?"

Only then did Katie unfold the veil tightly clutched in her palm, and she took a step forward cautiously, showing Bertha what was in the veil.

That's Thomas Thames' crucifix.

Sherlock Holmes had used this pendant to determine his Irish identity before, so Bertha was extremely impressed by his cross.Catholic crosses do belong to Thomas Thames. That's right.

"It really belongs to Thomas," Bertha said with emotion. "You look up."

"what?"

Bertha raised her chin: "I said, raise your head."

Hearing Bertha's commanding tone, Katie had no choice but to look up into the eyes of the woman on the sofa.

She was a pretty girl, even a bit too pretty.

Don't think that being a prostitute requires such a beautiful skin. Bertha had not been in contact with this shady "industry" before she traveled through time. She had never seen a few beautiful girls in the bottom society.Where is Whitechapel?slums.Those who hang out with Mrs. Raton like Katie are still organized and disciplined "office workers".

More prostitutes just stop on the street and lift their skirts for money.

Beautiful girls always have one more way out, if it is not a last resort, how can they become prostitutes-of course, high-class prostitutes are another matter.

The girl in front of her, Katie, looks to be only about 20 years old, her teeth are intact, her hair has not fallen out, her pair of jewel-like black eyes are bright and agile, and she is a clever person at first glance.Thinking about it, she must be the most precious "employee" under Madam Raton.

It wouldn't be surprising if Thomas fell in love with such a beautiful girl.

only……

With such a pair of bold eyes, who is she pretending to show?Bertha was secretly amused in her heart, and no one knew that she had traveled here. Just looking at her appearance, Bertha was not many years older than Thomas or Katie.

A young skin, on the contrary, made the clever prostitute look down upon her.

"Morrison called your wife," Mrs. Latton said, seeing that Bertha was silent, "I'm afraid you are Mrs. Thames. With all due respect, madam, you can overthrow old Jesse overnight. A capable man too. We all live in Whitechapel, who looks down on each other, and the street gang is more noble than my whorehouse?"

"You can talk about that later."

Bertha raised the corners of her mouth and smiled at Yanyan, but her mouth was blunt: "Before I even opened my mouth, put a hat on me for looking down on prostitutes. Is this a question of who looks down on whom? It's not that I married a wife, Katie wants to marry Thomas Thames, and that's only with his own consent."

"Then it's a big deal."

Mrs. Latton spoke an authentic London dialect with a stronger accent than Mickey the coachman: "It's not that we Katie are going to marry Thomas Thames, but you Thomas is going to marry us Katie and backtracking. What's the matter? He comes over and lets himself respond!"

Bertha had to guess to hear exactly what Mrs. Latton was talking about—it was okay to ask Thomas to confront him, wouldn't he be afraid of being exposed?

I don't know what bargaining chip this Katie is holding, but Bertha understands that once Thomas shows up, this matter will definitely not end.Who else can be ashamed to compare with prostitutes?

She stared at Katie for a while, and the unabashed scrutiny made the girl bow her head again.

"Okay," Bertha said after a long time, "he was rescued after finishing his work, but..."

"Do you still have conditions?" Mrs. Raton said in a bad tone.

"There is no condition, but there is a problem."

Bertha tilted casually to the armrest of the sofa, withdrew her scrutiny, and began to open her right hand: "How long have you been planning?"

Katie couldn't hold back immediately: "W-what plan? I didn't—"

"——I want to find a new backer and win a relationship. This is normal. After all, I fell from the sky. No one in the Whitechapel district has heard of Mrs. Thames before. You have reasons for your concern."

Bertha didn't even look at Katie, and interrupted her slowly: "But Mrs. Latton, since you're eyeing my brother, do you think she's worthy?"

Katie's face turned extremely pale.

"Don't worry too."

It hurt, even to a whore.But Bertha was never polite to people who plotted against her. She looked at Katie again, and her tone softened imperceptibly: "Miss Katie, I don't have anything else here. There are many men of your age. Do you think As a woman, I can understand putting on the clothes I took off."

Bertha paused at the end.

"But I'm not happy with Mrs. Latton plotting against us. If you rely on Thomas today, even if he marries you, I can still give you a good face in the future? It seems that I have the final say in this office. I To tell you the truth, if you want to form alliances and win relationships, you should sit down and talk about it seriously. Otherwise, I am short on time, and I don’t have time to deal with such rotten millet. "

Now, Mrs. Raton and Katie were silent.

Bertha knew it was so.

Is it important to marry Thomas?He is good-looking and promising, but Thomas Thames is not the only one in Whitechapel.According to Katie's beauty, she can't marry Thomas Thames, but she can marry other men who are not bad.

The only thing Thomas is different from other men is that he is the second in command of the gang.

If it can be exchanged for further protection from street gangs, it doesn't matter who Katie marries. Can Mrs. Raton make things difficult for her?

"Tell me," Bertha said calmly, "What's the matter with the cross? I don't like to expose other people's lies. It's embarrassing. To be honest, we still have something to talk about."

"...I stole it."

Katie responded in a low voice: "The last time Thomas came to us to inform the gang that the gang had changed, I asked a few sisters to help me pester him and do it myself."

No wonder Thomas came back to the office smelling of makeup, or Bertha misunderstood him!

When this happened, Katie stopped pretending: "Ma'am, can I ask you a question?"

Bertha: "You ask."

"How do you know I'm lying?"

"I don't know," Bertha smiled, "but I know Thomas wouldn't do such a thing."

"All men are confused."

"I agree with this sentence, but well," Bertha tilted her head and said indifferently, "I know my brother better than you, don't I?"

In fact, the reason is very simple: they came to the door because they believed in advance that I would not agree to my brother marrying a prostitute.

But Bertha didn't care who Thomas wanted to marry.As long as he doesn't get into trouble, he can marry anyone he wants.

However, Bertha underestimated the character of her younger brother. She really thought that he was caught because he did something absurd in the red light district.

Unexpectedly, Thomas showed no interest, in fact, he was really not interested.

"The red-light district is really useful to me," Bertha said bluntly when she saw that the two were no longer so aggressive and no longer took Joe, "I'm a widow, and I don't talk about etiquette and morals with you, Mrs. It is very clear how many valuable shocking secrets were revealed from the bed naked. Of course, you are willing to cooperate, and I will not use you in vain, but if you want further protection, go back and think about it first. What sincerity?"

After finishing speaking, Bertha got up without waiting for Madam Raton's reply, "I'll send the two of you downstairs, and pretend that today's incident never happened."

……

None of the young people on the first floor of the office knew what Mrs. Thames and Mrs. Latton had said. In short, the women in the red-light district came like shrews, but left silently and with complicated expressions.

It's Mrs Thames!

Many young people whose tinnitus had been scolded by Mrs. Raton subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.

"lady!"

Ned Morrison called Bertha in a low voice, and she turned her head to find another lady sitting in the corner of the office.

This lady was also over middle age, but she was cleanly dressed and had a kind face.She probably recognized that the two who left were not serious people. She seemed a little surprised, but she didn't say much. She just followed the accountant Ned forward: "Mrs. Thames? I'm Randa Butts, Frans Butz's wife."

This was the lady Bertha wanted to meet today.

Bertha was somewhat satisfied just because she noticed that Bertha was in contact with a prostitute but did not respond with any disgust.

The smile on Bertha's face was a bit real: "It's just in time, Mrs. Bartz. Ned, come with us."

Ned: "Where are you going, ma'am?"

Bertha: "Go back to South Bank Street. Mrs. Bartz is applying for the bar manager job, so naturally she will go to the bar to have a chat."