by Jean Plaidy
“You have such power … you, a condemned man!”
“Certainly I have power. I have my business associates outside Newgate. I have money! Money is power: it buys me this room; it buys me this food. It buys me your company … There is not so much to fear from law and order when you have money, Carolan.”
“I cannot sit here and eat with you,” she said, her eyes on the chicken. How good it looked! Golden brown! How hungry she was … faint and sick with hunger!
“Did you not hear that my mother is in Newgate with me ?”
“I did hear. We will send for her.”
“She could not walk here… the irons …”
“They shall be struck off, my dear. Yours too. All but the one pair, and that is not so hard to bear when you have had to drag three about with you. Your mother shall come and share our meal.”
“I don’t know how to thank you. It is noble of you, when it was I who
…”
“Hush! There is nothing noble about me. Did you not know that? I will see to it that your mother’s irons are struck off. and that she is brought here at once.”
There is Millie too. And Esther… They must all come, or you must give me that chicken and I will take it back and eat it with them.”
“Hal You would be torn to pieces if you went back with that chicken!”
“II Indeed I should not! I can defend myself.”
“That you can, I swear! Oh, Carolan, Carolan, how I love you, Carolan!”
“This is not the time to talk of love! Nor do I admire your light treatment of the subject.”
“How like you! I offer you release from discomfort or comparative release from it and all you offer me in exchange are harshness and cold words.”
“I do not mean to be cold, Marcus … but your flippancy seems out of place.”
“I never felt less flippant in my life. Do you know the thought of your being here makes me burn with rage. You believe that, Carolan?”
“Oh, remember my own folly has brought me here. Please will you have the irons struck off my mother … and could you do the same for Millie and for Esther…?”
“Esther?”
“A poor girl who has become a friend of mine.”
“What! Making friends so soon?”
“If you could see her you would like her. She is innocent, and her case is far more to be deplored than my own.”
“How I adore you, Carolan, for your anger and your enthusiasms, for your harshness and your kindness!”
“Then please make haste, for every moment spent in those irons is torment for my poor mother … and Millie and Esther are so hungry! But… can you do these things?”
“You shall witness the power of money, darling. But first we will have those irons off yourself, for it makes me very angry to see you fettered, Carolan.”
He went to the door. The turnkey appeared immediately. He must have been waiting there, thought Carolan, speculating on further opportunities of earning money.
In a short while all but one pair of irons were struck off Carolan.
“There!” said Marcus.
“You see my power, Miss Carolan! I am a magician … the magician of Newgate. I wave my wand ..” in this case it is coin… and it is as I say!”
“But Marcus …”
“Perhaps you had better call me William, for Marcus was a flippant fellow, never very much to you, your thoughts being all of a certain parson. But William is a different kettle of fish. He came into your life when the parson had left it…”
“How foolishly you talk!”
“No, Carolan! Do you think your parson will marry a wife who has been the guest of Newgate?”
“What difference does that make?”
“A hell of a difference, sweet Carolan, to a parson!”
“Rubbish!”
“Sound sense, sweetheart.”
“Please do not call me by those endearing names. I find it excessively irritating. I want to know … is it true that you are condemned to die?”
“The fate of all who escape from Botany Bay to be caught again generally.”
“You joke about it!”
“I can afford to, Carolan. It shall not happen to me, I promise you; or I should be very surprised if it did. You see, I have money, and money can buy almost anything a man can desire. It can buy love; it can buy life.”
“I do not agree with you.”
“Of course you do not. You would not be Carolan, whom I love, if you did. But, bless you my child, one day you will learn I am right. Not, I grant you, that it can buy these things in full measure. I can buy my life, but I doubt if I can buy my liberty. And as for buying love … let us not talk of it though, for I see the subject distresses you.”
“Do you think it will be long before the others can come to us ?”
“It will be done as quickly as money can do it.”
“You talk incessantly of money!” She must keep the conversation going somehow, and she averted her eyes from that table, for there was in her a wild longing to sit down and fall upon the food laid out there.
“Naturally! Money, money, money! One thinks of little else in Newgate. Now on my last visit I had no money. That, I said at the time, shall never again happen to me. Here, darling, eat one of these bread rolls while we await the others.”
She said faintly: “I would rather await Their coming. Will they be much longer?”
His eyes glistened, she saw; they were very tender. She was suddenly aware of what an unkempt spectacle she must present to those eyes. She touched her hair.
“What would I not give for a tub of warm water and a change of clothes!” she sighed.
“I wonder you recognize me.”
“I would recognize you, Carolan, whatever the disguise! But do not think of it. Let us sit down and eat while we await the others.”
“I said I would rather wait. The food would choke me when I thought of them in that foul place.”
“You are too sentimental, Carolan. Sentiment is well enough in its rightful place; but never let it stand in the way of common sense. Come, my child!”
There was a tap at the door which flew open without any response from Marcus. Eagerly she turned, but it was not those for whom she had hoped, but two turnkeys with more food which they set out on the table.
Carolan stared at the table.
“Come!” said Marcus.
“These little rye cakes are appetizing.”
He held one out to her; she could not resist it. She seized it and ate it ravenously. He watched her, well pleased. Then he went to her suddenly and seized her by the shoulders.
“Carolan! Carolan! I don’t despair,” he said.
“What do you mean?” she demanded, her mouth full.
“You are so sweetly human, but you were ever one to set yourself impossible tasks. And how I love you when you fail!”
“You talk the most arrant nonsense.”
“Do II Well, now I shall do something useful. I will carve the chicken.”
She watched. She felt faint with hunger. She ran to his side, and he, the carvers poised, looked over his shoulder and smiled mockingly into her eyes. He cut off a piece of the breast and put it into her mouth. Never had food tasted so good.
“More!” he said, and continued to feed her. And as she ate he laughed and kept murmuring her name.
“Carolan! Carolan! Oh, my sweet Carolan!”
“Here!” he cried.
“Wine to wash it down! We will both drink. Here, Carolan. To the future! To our future!”
The wine did strange things to her; made her light-headed. The room swam round and Marcus … Marcus, only was the one steady thing in a topsy-turvy world. She clutched his arm, half laughing, half crying.
“Marcus!” she said.
“Oh… Marcus!”
The door opened. There were Kitty and Millie and behind them, Esther. Carolan was ashamed that they should see her eating, with the glass of wine in her hand. She put down the glass unsteadily, and
went to them.
“Why …” cried Kitty.
“It’s Marcus!”
Millie and Esther could only stare at the food.
“Come along!” cried Marcus.
“Sit down. We won’t waste time on formal greetings; we’ll talk as we eat.”
There he sat at the head of the table, watching them all… smiling queerly.
Kitty recovered herself almost as soon as she had drunk her first glass of wine. The striking off of all save one set of irons had brought great relief to her; she began to see daylight after the long dark night of torment. Marcus was delightfully familiar. To sit here, eating and drinking, the guest of a charming man, was stimulating. She was still in Newgate, she was still a prisoner, but things had changed.
Esther felt she was in a dream which had begun with the coming of Carolan into her life. Anything that was wonderful might happen now she was sure of it. She tried to suppress the unsuppressible desire to eat too quickly and too much.
Millie settled down at the table more naturally than any of the others; Millie was an animal who had suddenly come upon a patch of fertile land where grew the food she needed to keep her alive.
“What I want to know,” said Kitty, ‘is why you, a prisoner, can entertain guests in this manner and with such food and wine in Newgate?”
That is what I have been explaining to Carolan. It is the power of money. I merely send out for the food, and the turnkeys are paid well for their trouble in bringing it in.”
“I always thought you were a wonderful man, Marcus. I always I knew you weren’t what you said. You were always too distinguished to be an inhabitant of Grape Street!”
Too distinguished to be anything but a thief in fact.” he said.
Tell me,” said Carolan.
“Did you set my father up as a receiver of stolen goods?”
“I did. I must tell you both that he was very reluctant to enter into such a life. It was only starvation that drove him to it… not starvation for himself, but for his wife.”
Kitty began to cry softly. Marcus leaned over and filled her glass.
“Do not cry. Mamma.” said Carolan.
“I cannot bear it. Let us forget the past.”
“I am to blame for bringing it up,” said Marcus.
“I am a fool as well as a rogue!”
“I could not bear it,” said Kitty, ‘that he should be dishonest. He had always seemed to me so … noble. And then to know that he … even though he did it for me, which I do not doubt…”
“He was noble,” said Marcus. There are two kinds of roguery -his and mine. He becomes what the law calls a criminal, for the sake of his family; I, for the sake of___myself! Always remember that. This is a cruel world in which we live. For some it is impossible to live, impossible to eat. Those men have a right to have a family, but what can they do? What can they do? There is stealing and stealing. There are criminals and criminals. A society which is indifferent to so many of its members should not feel outraged if those of its members are indifferent to it. That is my law of life. It is wrong. I am wicked. But that is what I think. So, I cheat, I steal. And when I come to Newgate I see to it that I enjoy as much comfort as it is possible to enjoy; and I see that I entertain my friends.”
Carolan said: “I agree, I think. I am not quite sure, but I think I do.”
Esther spoke then for the first time. She lifted her head, and her blue eyes were brilliantly beautiful in her poor emaciated face.
“It is written “Thou shall not steal.” Therefore, whatever the provocation, it is wrong to steal.”
Marcus looked at her, and the colour rushed into her cheeks, and showed momentarily the beauty which health would have put into her face.
“Ah! You are an idealist, Miss Esther; I am but common clay. I adjust myself to the world in which I live; you dream of a society which could never be… at any rate not in our time.”
“It might be, were we all of the same mind,” said Esther.
“Esther,” said Carolan, ‘is a saint. Not all of us have her way of thinking. No, Esther, Marcus is right in a way. I did not think so until I came here, but here I have learned to think differently. A society which can tolerate this vile place…”
“People know little of it.” protested Esther.
“Did we know before we came?”
“Ignorance is no excuse. And come, can we say we had never heard of Newgate? We had, and we chose not to think of it; it was unpleasant. So we went on living our pleasant lives, and it is because of out indifference and the indifference of thousands like us that it exists. And so… innocent people, such as you and Mamma and Millie and I, can be forced to come here, to starve here, to freeze here, and perhaps to die here. We, the innocent, must suffer because we are poor and friendless, while the real criminal…”
Marcus bowed his head ironically.
“I’ll finish, Carolan. A real criminal can buy the best Newgate has to offer. That’s true! Life is a wicked old strumpet; she’s devishly sly and mercenary; but laugh with her and she’ll laugh with you. Even in Newgate, laugh at her and she likes it!”
“Your words hurt Esther,” said Carolan.
“I am sorry, Esther.” His eyes, Carolan noted, were almost caressing as they rested on the girl.
“But it is necessary always to face facts. Where shall we be if we do not? The answer is obvious… in Newgate most likely without a penny piece to buy a bit of extra bread. Carolan agrees with me. Carolan. I think you and I are of the same mind on lots of subjects. The thought warms me. You and I…”
Carolan broke in impatiently: “We are certainly not of the same mind! Do you think I admired your way of life? You are a thief You are … It is that people should be sent to this vile place before they have been found guilty …” She broke off angrily.
“Oh How I hate that creature, Crew.”
“Do not hate him. Carolan. He was following his trade. He probably relies on what he gets by these activities of his. I doubt whether he enjoyed the whole of the forty pounds he got for betraying an escaped convict; or even what he picked up on account of you and your mother and Millie. And he worked very hard for his reward and his Tyburn ticket.”
“You would make excuses for him!”
“For him and for us all.” said Marcus.
“Absurd!”
“Doubtless.”
“You wish. I think to be contrary. You excuse a man who has brought Mamma… to that!”
Tears filled her eyes; all the blazing indignation had left her; there was only hopelessness in her now.
“Carolan!” he said tenderly.
“Carolan…” The door was pushed open slowly, and a tousled head appeared. It belonged to a black-haired, black-eyed young woman with large gilt earrings swinging in her ears, and a red silk blouse stretched tightly across her full bosom. She raised heavy black brows, and surveyed them.
“Hello. Will.” she said in a drawling voice.
“Is it company then?”
“Rather an unnecessary question, Lucy, since I have always been led to believe you have a very sharp pair of eyes!”
His voice,was silky with suppressed anger; hers was rough with it. Instinctively Carolan guessed at the relationship between them.
“Well,” said Lucy, “I was never one to intrude. I will say goodnight!”
“Goodnight, Lucy.”
The door slammed.
Carolan met Marcus’s eyes; he smiled briefly.
“A friend of mine,” he said.
“In for passing counterfeit coin.”
“Obviously a monied friend,” said Carolan.
“Like you, she seems to enjoy her freedom!”
“She seemed angry with us,” said Esther.
“She seemed as if she knew we came from the Common Side.”
Carolan smiled tenderly at Esther. How innocent she was. It would not occur to her that this Marcus, who had been so kind to them, was a rake, a philanderer, a libertine. Poor Esther! He
r upbringing had been such that the bad and the good were divided into two distinct lots all bad and all good. Esther had much to learn.
“I do not think I liked her very much,” said Kitty. Kitty had drunk a little too freely of the wine; she felt pleasantly drowsy. She leaned her head on her hands and closed her eyes. Esther had drunk but little of the wine, but she too was sleepy. Carolan felt wide-awake, excited by the change in her circumstances, by the presence of Marcus who now. more than ever he had. aroused in her mixed emotions.
He twirled the wine in his glass and leaned towards her suddenly.
He said: “Come, Carolan! Out with it! You are thinking with great disapproval of my friend, Lucy, are you not?”
“Why should I?”
“I do not know why. Carolan; I only know you do.”
“I cannot see why I should concern myself with your friends.”
“Darling Carolan,” he whispered, ‘you were so angry; you flew to such conclusion that you made hope soar in my wicked breast.”
“You talk in riddles.”
He caught her wrist; his fingers were warm. She looked down at them; his hands had always attracted her, the hands that picked pockets so deftly, that were his stock in trade.
“No, Carolan. We understand each other well enough. We might understand each other better. Carolan, it will grieve me very much to think of you and your mother and friend Esther, and poor Millie, going back to the foul felons’ side.”
She shuddered.
“Do not let us think of it. It has been a great treat for us to taste real food again, to eat it in comfort.”
“Were you very angry about Lucy?”
“Angry?”
“Sparks flew from your eyes.”
“Ridiculous! How could they?”
“A figure of speech, of course. But I saw all sorts of things in your eyes. I myself was angry with her for coming in like that; and then I was glad she did.”
“You are very imaginative.”
“No … merely observant. See how your mother sleeps. And poor little Esther, she is nodding too. What a difference one meal has made to them! Perhaps, too, it is the quiet of this room. What say you?”
“I am frightened for my mother; she is brighter now, but there is a terrible change in her.”
“I will be frank with you, Carolan, because, although I am a fool and a rogue, I have enough sense to know that one must always be frank with you. Lucy was my friend … a great friend. She is a generous soul, and life has dealt cruelly with her as it has with us. We helped to give each other a few home comforts here in Newgate… do you understand?”
