Drive The Cold Winter Away

For many years, the name "Ebenezer Scrooge", or sometimes merely "Scrooge", had been the byword for 'cruel', 'miserly', 'ill company' and 'cold-hearted'.

When that name began to change its connotations to 'generous', 'charitable' and 'kind', Belle could hardly credit it! Even when the younger Ebenezer that only she remembered had been just starting out in his profession, 'handsome', 'shrewd' and 'a good head for business' had been the most complimentary things said about him. Ebenezer and Jacob had possessed the makings of good men, back in those days, but they'd enabled each other's worst tendencies, even as family tragedy hardened them, and in a city full of businessmen, eventually there had been no room for anything but keeping their fledgling business ahead of the bountiful competition.

Poor Belle might have been, with a meagre dowery that she knew only love could augment to marriage, but she knew she deserved better than a cold home and colder husband. She would not become another regret at a missed opportunity; Ebenezer had enough of those already. Breaking an engagement was a woman's prerogative, and Belle had done so, refusing to allow herself to look back.

She'd wondered, in the years immediately after, about what might have happened if she'd stayed. Might her presence and that of their hypothetical children, have softened him, kept him from becoming so infamous? Or might concerns about the expense of a growing family made him more bitter, more absent as he strove toward wealth that would never be enough to satisfy him?

Such knowledge could not be granted by earthly powers, she knew, and Belle was no-one so exceptional as to be granted answers by supernatural powers.

The years rolled on, and life continued, as much for the Poor as for the Peer. Belle found work as a schoolmistress in one of the better-funded of London's many orphanages. God knew that many of the poor souls who found themselves there would have no help in life but for themselves, and if a basic education was all Belle could give them, at least it was something.

Some of the children left and made something of themselves, in the army or navy, who were forever short of warm bodies, or as delivery boys and maids, working their way up the ranks. Some even married and started families. Those who found success sometimes remembered their roots, sending money and gifts to the orphanage when they could.

Far more of the orphans ended up on the streets, and found nothing but an early grave, doors closed to them at every turn. Prisons and workhouses were their lot, until Death came for them, lives cut short too soon.

Belle, too, grew old before her years, and enjoyed the good health granted by her privileged youth, achieving a respectable age of years. She managed to save enough to afford food and lodgings in a small boarding house in the poorer part of town, once she grew too old to work, her hands shaking and too stiff to hold chalk, and eyes no longer as keen as they were.

Still, she could organize and host charitable events for wealthy donors, as long as she had some of the orphans to run errands and write lists on her behalf. It gave her something to do with her days, and a few extra pennies that she could hand out to old women less fortunate than herself. London had plenty of those, too.

It was at one such event that Belle's twilight years took an unexpected twist...

It was almost two full years since Ebenezer - always Ebenezer to her, no matter how many years passed - had displayed his sudden change of heart and mind, reverting back to the good man Belle had once known.

Belle had been hosting another Charity Dinner, hoping to coax open a few more pockets and perhaps afford some new clothes from the pawn shop for the children about to age out. Absently, she wondered if it might not be time to pass the torch to a younger lady, but put the thought aside for tomorrow, making her way to the door to begin farewelling the older guests. Edging her way around the makeshift dance floor - a group of siblings, new to the orphanage, possessed a gift for music, which their parents had encouraged before their untimely deaths, and had offered to play that night - Belle dodged a tipsy gentleman, and in doing so, bumped into another. "Oh, pardon me!"

The gentleman turned, "No, excuse me... Belle?"

The years had aged him as much as her, but Belle could still see traces of the young man he had been, in the piercing eyes and proud bearing, in the smile that had once been so rare, but was now offered freely. "Good evening, Ebenezer. I hope you are well."

Paltry words, for a reunion so long in coming! Yet, it was all she could offer, as longer sentences jumbled in her head, each vying to come out first, competing with a thousand memories for her attention. His smile grew tentative, as if remembering the happy days of their courtship, marred by their bitter parting. "I am. I confess, I often wondered..."

Wondered what might have been, as she had? Wondered what had become of her, a dowerless girl with no prospects but her youthful beauty and an education to recommend her? Had he come here deliberately, or was it mere chance that led him to this orphanage in particular? Belle swallowed, and pushed hope aside in favor of practicality. "I must farewell some of the guests, before I can hand off the duty. If you like, we can talk more then."

He mirrored her, "I will await your company."

Belle was not in haste to return to the boarding house, and accepted Ebenezer's offer to return home with him for a warm drink.

In younger years, such an offer would have been terribly improper, but they were both too old now for such things to matter as much. A warm fire blazed in the hearth, a pitcher of mulled wine kept warm nearby. Ebenezer poured for them both, his hands still steady, as they settled into the soft armchairs, the remains of a small Christmas Pudding on a table between them. Silence fell between them, more comfortable and contemplative than awkward, both hesitant to break it.

If he took offense and turned her out, Belle would prefer that it happen while the hackney cabs were still out and about. "I heard of your change of heart, but I was not sure that you would wish to see me, after how I parted ways with you."

If Ebenezer was hurt by her words, he did not recriminate her for them. "I have been... making amends, I suppose. You were not an easy woman to find, but when I heard of a Belle working at an orphanage, I had to try. It always was a cause close to your heart, and I hoped..."

It was like their first Christmas together, halting yet hopeful, but at the same time so different. "Life brought many trials, but I hope to have helped others by the end of it. You appear to be doing the same."

Ebenezer smiled, a touch rueful, as though remembering the man he had been for so many years. "Fate required drastic measures before I turned my life around, but yes. Of all the actions I regret, my neglect of your heart was one of the greatest."

Belle could not have been what he thought he needed, then, but Christmas was, after all, a time for new beginnings and second chances. "I was right to leave then, rather than force you to honor a promise you no longer wanted, but that does not mean I didn't regret it."

Ebenezer toyed with a ring on his smallest finger, and Belle recognized it as the one she had returned to him so many years ago. "I have even less to offer you now than I did then. I have become more generous in my business dealings, and gave much of my fortune to charitable endeavors. I have taken on a junior partner, who does much of the day to day work. But I can offer an open heart that is even more yours than it was all those years ago, if you still wish to accept it."

Throughout her life, with all its joys and sorrows, Belle had never quite stopped loving him. Even when his name had been all but a curse, she had mourned for the good heart that was buried deep inside him. "I would love nothing more."

They loved each other for as many years as were left to them, surrounded by the friends and loved ones they had gathered around them, a new kind of family. Belle loved the Cratchitt brood as her own grandchildren, to care for and dote upon.

When finally Mr and Mrs Scrooge departed this life for the next, they did so surrounded by love, and with no regrets.

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Title inspired by Heather Dale's cover of "To Drive The Cold Winter Away", which you can listen to at the link below.