The Hangman's Child

by Francis Selwyn

  'Silence in the ranks,' said Croaker firmly. 'We do our late comrade disservice by allowing even our murmurs of grief to disturb the discipline of parade.'

  At dismissal, Verity turned aside and faced Sergeant Alford.

  'Seen the new roster?' Alford asked cheerfully. 'They put you back in uniform all next quarter. Waterloo Road, waving traffic about. Someone don't love you, old cock.'

  That night, in the ancient brass bed with the two cradles at its foot, Bella said, 'But if this person Rann never went down in the mud, Mr Verity, you could have took him. Now you gone and told untruth.'

  Moonlight through open curtains illuminated his round face on the pillow, dark hair flattened on a head that was hatless at last.

  'Your old father done a great thing, Mrs Verity, getting them cabmen together.'

  'Only 'cos you let Jack Rann go free and then told untruth.'

  ‘I never told untruth, Mrs Verity. I told the inquiry that he and Mr Fowler both vanished. So they did, only different directions. And when Mr Samson asked if I really saw Handsome Rann go down in the mud, all I did was ask Mr Samson if I'd ever told him a lie. Ain't the same as untruth.'

  Under the sheet, Bella stroked his leg with her toes. The doubt on her face added a new dimension of prettiness.

  'It's not what you was taught in chapel,' she said quietly.

  'Ain't it?' he said thoughtfully. 'We was Methodist and Radicals. My old father and my mother was married when the Reform Bill was in the 'ouse of Commons. I was named for it. William Clarence for old King William that was Duke of Clarence and wanted the reform. I was taught justice. How we got to break the power of the squirearchy and the established church. Even Handsome Rann got a right to justice. You know they was still going to hang him if they caught him? Mr Home Secretary decided. Even after Bragg and Fowler and the knife and the drain! Thanks to what I let 'em think, they ain't even looking for him any more.'

  Bella turned on her back.

  'Then you saved him.'

  'Not really. You was right, Mrs Verity, when you said there's lots of good ordinary people in the world, them that never give a tinker's cuss for Home Secretaries, nor Mr Croakers. You know who saved Handsome Rann? He got saved by a poor starving washerwoman and her baby in Newgate Street. And an old tosher down the Ratcliff Highway. And a penny-dancer from a Monmouth Street gaff. And an old cadger dressed up like a parson. And a young medical chap that could never pass to be a doctor. And an old harlot that watches fallen creatures so they don't run off and sell their fancy clothes. And if Handsome Jack did the Cornhill Vaults and got clean away with his share, they'd dance to hear of it, and bust theirselves laughing.'

  Bella giggled.

  'You ain't never going to let fly with that down Paddington Chapel, Mr Verity!'

  He turned on his side and put his arms round her.

  'P'raps I won't, Bella. But ain't it true? Handsome Rann's the only one got away with his share. His Miss Jolly's back to showing you-know-what down the Chinese Shades. Mag Fashion'll be kneeling to gentry and ladies in some mourning draper's again. Soapy Samuel got to be nothing but a trick-parson. But don't Rann deserve what he got? After all what was done to him? But they'd hang him still! Thank God I never took him on the mud.'

  Bella sighed, as the breeze across the rooftops of the little streets ruffled the curtains at their open window. Then she was confidential again.

  'Even supposing,' she said quietly, 'you was sent for ever and ever down the Waterloo Road, just to wave the traffic about, we got so much to be glad about. We ain't starving. We got a roof. There's even a bit put by.'

  'There's that,' he said philosophically.

  Bella drew him closer.

  'And s'pose you was sent to do nothing but sweep the Waterloo Road the rest of your life. Even then, William Clarence Verity, you'd still be my good brave sojer!'

  He chortled self-consciously.

  'I don't know about all that, Mrs Verity.'

  ‘I do,' she said.