The Gilded Lily

by Deborah Swift

‘No, Ma,’ Dennis’s voice insisted, ‘it wasn’t two girls. It was just the one.’

  Sadie squeezed Ella’s hand tight.

  ‘Only one? I thought you said it was two? One that’s a knotter, and the one from Whitgift’s?’

  ‘No, Ma. You’re mistaken.’ Dennis’s voice was firm. ‘It was just the one. She used to work as a knotter, but now she works at Whitgift’s. She’s very respectable. Shall I get her to come down?’

  ‘Yes,’ the constable said. ‘I’d better have a word with her. Fetch her down, would you.’

  Ella stood up, mouthing silently, ‘What’ll we do?’

  Sadie shook her head.

  ‘Miss Johnson?’ There was a rap at the door.

  ‘Yes,’ Ella called.

  Dennis said loudly, ‘Two gentlemen to see you, the constable and his man. They’re downstairs in the parlour.’

  ‘What do they want?’ Ella called out.

  ‘Something about a burglary, you’d best come down.’

  Ella threw her cloak over her shoulders and unlocked the door. She ushered Dennis inside with a frantic wave of her hand.

  ‘They don’t know about your sister,’ he whispered, ‘you’ll have to go along with it.’ Ella threw Sadie a glance, putting her finger to her lips, and started down the stairs, leaving Sadie alone with Dennis.

  ‘Hide,’ he whispered.

  ‘Where?’

  They looked round hopelessly at the box-like room with its single truckle bed.

  ‘The other room?’ Sadie said.

  ‘No. Sorry. Key’s still downstairs.’

  ‘Dennis?’ His mother’s voice drifted up from below.

  ‘Coming, Ma,’ he called. He gave a rueful look, shrugged his shoulders and followed Ella downstairs.

  Sadie knew that if they saw her, they would know who she was straight away. She struggled to drag the rough brown blanket further over the bed to give a hiding place underneath, but then tossed the blanket aside – it would be the first place anyone would look. In a panic she gathered together the meagre pile of belongings that had come from Westmorland and held them up in her apron. They would be recognized easily as Thomas Ibbetson’s things. She would have to get rid of them, tiptoe down and out of the front door whilst Ella kept the constable talking in the back parlour.

  She rushed to the window and peered out, thinking to throw the goods outside and collect them later. The banks of the Thames were below the level of the street and directly beneath, black oozing mudflats. She hesitated. What if their precious objects sank into the mud and she could not find them again? But she couldn’t leave them here in the room. She’d have to carry them. She tied the corners of her apron to the waist-strings, secured it tightly and supported its awkward bulk in her arms. She tiptoed towards the door and out onto the landing, but paused mid-movement. She heard the downstairs door open, voices, and men’s boots coming upstairs.

  She scurried to the door of the room opposite and pushed it hard but, as Dennis had said, it was locked. There was nowhere to go. She shot back into the room. The window. It was her only hope. From the window she spied a small ledge running around the edge of the building, the ledge formed by the eaves of the room below – wooden rafters sticking out at intervals from the lath walls. She had seen seagulls perch there and heard their plaintive cries at night.

  She hoisted herself up by the sacking at the window and clambered out. For the first time, she thanked the Lord there was no glass in it. The window frame was damp and rotten, but it gave her fingernails a good grip as she swung herself out over the black oily river beneath. The ledge was slippery with damp and bird droppings. She clung onto the window frame and edged herself sideways, out along the ledge, her bare feet skidding on the wooden parapet. She could feel the nailed-up cloth brushing against her fingers. With the other hand she found a beam from the half-timbered wall.

  Someone opened the door inside and she heard Ella’s voice.

  ‘I’ve told you. There’s no need to come in. I have never heard of Mr Ibbetson. You won’t find anything here.’

  ‘Get out of my way. We need to check this room, whether you will or no.’

  Sadie heard the scrape of their boots as they looked around the room.

  The curtain moved over her fingers, a delicate tickling touch, and Dennis’s head poked out of the window. He saw her straight away. He raised his eyebrows at her in acknowledgement, then his head disappeared inside. Sadie sidled further out along the rail, reaching out to grip onto the half-timbering.

  ‘What’s out there?’ said a man’s voice.

  ‘Nothing. Sheer drop to the river, sir,’ Dennis said.

  ‘Let’s look then, boy.’

  The curtain twitched and Sadie held her breath. It had started to rain again. A man’s head in a grizzled wig appeared out of the window and he glanced briefly down towards the mudflats. Sadie clung tighter. But he did not turn to look sideways, just gave a brief grunt and pulled his head back inside. She almost wept with relief. She looked down to see what he was looking at and the height took her breath away. Far below her there was a curly-tailed dog scavenging among the fish-heads and slime. She felt faint and dizzy. She closed her eyes and clamped her numb fingers more tightly to the wooden framework. Pray God she might not fall. The water was thick as syrup; she did not know if she could swim or whether she would drown there in the mud. Her fingers were tired. The wind caught in her skirts and her apron was heavy, the contents threatening to overtopple her.

  ‘There ain’t no one else here,’ said another man’s voice. ‘Sorry, miss, to disturb you. If you don’t mind me saying, miss, it don’t look like your kind of place, this. These two servant girls could still be round here. Slit your throat for your watch chain, they would, so I’m told.’

  Sadie heard Ella say airily in her London voice, ‘Oh it’s only temporary. Till my new lodgings are ready.’

  ‘Good evening, Miss . . . ?’

  Sadie heard Ella reel off the name as if it had always belonged to her. ‘Miss Johnson. Corey Johnson.’

  ‘Sorry to have troubled you, Miss Johnson. Send us word if you come across these two girls. Here is the notice that’s out for them. We’ll be posting these up in this neighbourhood since we’ve been tipped off. As I said, there’s a reward.’

  ‘I sincerely hope I will never need to call you. Good evening, gentlemen.’

  ‘See us out then, lad.’

  ‘Right-o, sir,’ Dennis said. She heard the door shut.

  ‘Sadie?’ Ella hissed. ‘Sadie? Where the hell are you? Come out. They’ve gone.’

  Sadie heard the rustle of Ella’s dress as she moved about inside but she was powerless to speak. The apron full of the stolen goods dragged on her waist. She did not dare move, she needed all her concentration to keep her balance. The icy rain blew in her face and whipped at her skirts. She could not look down and she feared to move a single inch, so she pressed her back against the wall, gripping tight to the window frame.

  She was dimly aware of noises within and then, suddenly, Dennis’s voice.

  ‘She’s out here, help me get her inside.’

  Ella’s head appeared. ‘You little fool,’ she hissed, ‘you could have fallen in! Come in quick, before someone sees you.’

  ‘I can’t,’ Sadie said, hearing her own voice waver.

  ‘You have to. They might see you, out there.’

  ‘I can’t move.’

  ‘I’ll have to help her,’ she heard Dennis say. ‘Bring the stool closer to the window so I can stand on it to reach her.’

  Dennis’s hand was dry and warm. It closed over her cold knuckles and took firm grasp of her wrist.

  ‘Easy now,’ he said, as if he was talking to a frightened horse. ‘Just edge this way a little so I can take hold of you.’

  She swallowed hard and felt with her feet for the slippery beams. Dennis’s arms closed round her waist and she almost fell back in through the window. He swung her down to the ground. He smelt of leather and boot
polish. She wriggled away from him in embarrassment.

  ‘Sit down,’ he said.

  She did not need to be asked twice. She perched on the wooden stool; her legs felt like duck down. Ella hovered, holding the door open, expecting Dennis to leave.

  ‘Don’t just stand there,’ he said to Ella, ‘lay a fire. She’s frozen through.’

  Ella stared at him, then at Sadie. Sadie dropped her eyes.

  ‘Are you going to light a fire then, or what?’ Dennis said, frowning at Ella.

  ‘We’ve no wood,’ Ella said.

  He raised his eyes to the ceiling. ‘Then give her your cloak. I’ll fetch up a bit of kindling, and after I’ll be needing to know the truth from you. Or I’ll be calling them back.’

  ‘It’s none of your business,’ Ella said.

  ‘In that case I’ll be claiming that reward.’ He clomped down the stairs in his heavy boots.

  Ella chased after him. ‘Wait!’

  ‘Keep your hair on,’ he called, ‘I’m only going to fetch up some wood.’ His footfalls carried on down the stairs.

  ‘Now look.’ Ella burst back through the door and rounded on her.

  ‘What? I haven’t done anything.’

  ‘He knows now, doesn’t he?’ Ella paced around the room as if it had got too small for her. Sadie found her legs were shaking under her skirts. ‘Ssh, he’s coming.’

  Dennis carried in an armful of sticks and took a tinderbox from a pouch on his belt to begin making up a fire in the stone hearth.

  ‘Own up. Who’s going to tell me the truth? A murder and a robbery, they said.’

  Sadie looked to Ella, who cast her eyes mutinously downwards.

  ‘It’s not true,’ Sadie said. She shuddered, an image of Thomas Ibbetson’s white face and fish-like eyes flashed into her mind.

  ‘Did you kill someone?’

  ‘Course not,’ Ella said.

  ‘So what did you steal?’ Dennis’s eyes were frankly curious.

  Sadie made to untie and open her apron.

  ‘No –’ Ella took hold of her arm – ‘don’t show him. It’s our business.’

  Sadie wrapped the apron closer to her body.

  ‘It’s all right. I’m not interested in your things. Not as long as you can pay the rent. But it’s going to be awkward now Ma thinks there’s only one girl living here.’

  ‘Yes, that was a daft idea and no mistaking,’ Ella said.

  ‘I thought it would help, if they thought there was only one girl living here. Sorry. But I don’t think they’ll be back – they’re looking for two girls, not one. And best you keep out of sight,’ he said to Sadie. ‘They’re after a girl . . .’ He looked fixedly at the wall. ‘A girl that looks like you,’ he finished.

  Sadie felt the heat rise to her face. Dennis continued, ‘But I want to hear your side of it. I like to hear both sides of a story.’

  Ella sat down, half turned away from Dennis and Sadie.

  ‘Come on, you can tell me. You don’t look much like killers,’ Dennis said.

  ‘Huh. You know nothing about us,’ said Ella over her shoulder.

  ‘They said you killed a gent.’

  ‘He died all by himself.’ She swivelled round. ‘He just keeled over one day with the dropsy. Didn’t need me to help.’ Ella’s voice had taken on a hard brittle edge. ‘But I knew I’d be out flat – with no position and no reference. ’Tis always the same, the relatives toss you out with the old bedding. And I wasn’t going home, not after being housekeeper in my own place. Besides, he owed me. A month’s wages anyways.’

  ‘I thought so. I trust my instincts. You looked that scared the day you first came, like the Devil and all the demons of hell were after you.’ He manoeuvred another stick onto the fire, where it sprang into yellow flame. ‘And anyway, I might not mind it if you were. Killers, I mean. It’d be interesting to meet a murderer. I read them penny chapbooks, but I bet yours is as good a tale.’

  ‘Have they got pictures?’ Sadie said.

  ‘Some of ’em. I’ll bring them up to show you. It’s kind of dull round here. The last lodger was never in. I have to spend a lot of time with Ma, ’cos she needs looking after.’

  ‘What’s the matter with her?’ Sadie asked.

  ‘It’s her lungs, some days she can’t hardly breathe. She used to work at the wash-house, but she’s too weak to lift the laundry now, and her chest can’t cope with all that steam.’

  Ella stood up and turned to face them both. ‘Don’t you understand,’ she said, her voice rising, ‘they’re on our tail. I never thought he’d come after us this far. It’s been months and the bugger’s still chasing us.’ Ella unfolded the notice the constable had given her and waved it at Dennis. ‘You say you can read chap-books. Well, can you read this?’

  Dennis took it, looking embarrassed. ‘Well, I can read a bit, but I’d need some help with this,’ he said, holding it to the candle. ‘There’s long words. Old Tindall the astrologer’s been at the shop a fair bit lately, talking with Gaffer Whitgift. He’s the one for reading. I’ll ask him if he can help.’

  ‘No.’ She snatched it back from him. ‘What if it’s got my likeness written on it? I don’t want that anywhere near the Gilded Lily. Is there nobody else?’

  ‘Can’t think of anyone else with proper book learning. But I’ll see what I can do.’

  ‘We need to see what’s written, who they’re looking for,’ Ella said.

  ‘If them notices are up, I’ll make sure to hide my face when I go out now,’ Sadie said.

  ‘You’ll have to tiptoe past my ma,’ Dennis said, ‘now she thinks there’s only one of you. She’d have you out quick as a lick of butter. She can’t handle trouble, see. The least thing wears her out. I can’t even answer back like I used to – it does for her, arguing. She never used to be like that, she—’

  ‘Dennis?’ A faint voice from below.

  ‘Talk of the Devil. There she goes. I’ll have to go. See you tomorrow.’

  They listened to his boots thump downstairs.

  Ella banged the door behind him so hard that the draught scattered loose ash from the fire over the floorboards. ‘We’re in a right old pickle now.’

  ‘He won’t tell,’ Sadie said.

  ‘I don’t want to be beholden to some clod of a boy. He could put the screws on us, start asking for money to keep quiet.’

  ‘He wouldn’t do that.’

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘I just know. He helped us, didn’t he?’

  ‘Don’t be simple. Only because he wants a cut of whatever we’ve got. I can see straight through him. We’ve got to move on again, find a new place.’

  ‘No, Ella. Not again. We can’t keep on running. If we run, he’ll think the constable was right. And we’ve no money for new lodgings, not till we get paid. We have to trust him, at least for a while. There’s no choice.’

  Ella sat down heavily, resting her forehead on her hands. There was a long pause before she eventually said, ‘Do you think I want to risk my neck? Soon as one of us gets paid, we’re off. But you’ll have to come and go in the dark now. If anyone sees you, with that notice out, we’re done for. You can’t go back to the wig shop either. You’re too easy to spot, and you speak like a country girl.’

  ‘But, Ella, I have to go to work. We need the money. And if I don’t go back tomorrow, and don’t give notice, we’ll get in even more trouble. You know what Old Feverface is like.’

  ‘No. She don’t know where we lodge, so you’ll stay home, it’ll be safer. If there’s a reward out for us, every last beggar will be looking for a girl with a patch-face. You might as well have a bloody sign stuck to your forehead.’ She sighed and threw out her hands in frustration. ‘I shouldn’t have brought you.’

  Sadie bit her lip. ‘Sorry, Ella.’ A moment’s pause, then, ‘How will we manage for things if I don’t go out?’

  ‘You’re not to go out, d’ye hear? It’s too risky. What if they follow you and you lead them here?’
She bent down close to Sadie’s face. ‘And if they find us, we’ll burn.’

  Sadie shoved her away with the flat of her palm. A slap came back instantly.

  ‘Ow. That hurt.’

  Ella walked away towards the window and looked outside before turning to say, ‘It’ll only be for a little while. Just till the hue and cry dies away. Six months from now, everything will be different, you’ll see.’

  Sadie’s voice was small. ‘But, Ella, what will I do, if I can’t go out?’

  ‘I don’t know. Make yourself useful, I suppose, like always. Lay the fire, make clapbread. Mend.’

  She tried to read Ella’s expression. She couldn’t mean it. ‘Maybe that notice don’t mention my face, maybe it don’t give an image of us at all?’

  Ella gave her a pitying stare and turned away without answering.

  Chapter 14

  The next day Ella was irritated to find that Dennis emerged from his downstairs rooms just as she was leaving. He stuck by her side all the way to Whitgift’s, plying her with questions, where they’d come from, who their family was. She’d kept her lips tight-buttoned and let silence answer his questions. Eventually she turned to him and said, ‘Look, whatever you think you’re going to get out of me, you’ll not be getting a bean. So we might as well make that clear.’

  ‘I don’t want nothing. What gave you that idea?’

  ‘You know too much about us.’

  ‘I’d say I didn’t know enough.’

  ‘Oh ha ha.’

  Ella maintained a frosty silence to keep distance between them. She didn’t want him tagging alongside her, heaven forbid. People might think she was betrothed to him. She marched past the tripe shop, which always smelt unaccountably of sweat, dodged round the stalls with fruit and vegetables, strode past the haberdasher’s with its fluttering trails of ribbons and lace, but gave none of them so much as a glance. She was acutely aware of the ring of Dennis’s iron-tipped boots just behind her.

  She sneaked a look at him from the corner of her eye. His hair was pressed flat today with water under his hat, but it did nothing to improve his appearance. His nose stuck straight out from between his eyebrows like a drayhorse. As for his clothes, there were badly matched cloth patches on the elbows of his coat, and even they were worn to a shine. She could not tell from his appearance whether he was trustworthy. She’d have to be nice to him, though, or he might snitch on them. Her stomach churned. Titus Ibbetson must have sent the constable, so he was still after them, just when she had thought they were safe. She glanced round, looking for Ibbetson’s dark hat in amongst the crowd. Each time she saw someone of his weight and build she felt her heart batter against her ribs.