The River Maid

Essie held his gaze and saw a man she could trust. ‘I will help you,’ she said slowly. ‘Just tell me what you want me to do.’

Raven was about to reply, but Alice laid her hand on his arm. ‘Leave this to me.’ She turned a brilliant smile on Essie and the sun seemed to shine inside the luxurious carriage, even though the rain was drumming on the roof. ‘We will take you home and you can tell your papa that you have been offered work in the house of a respectable lady, which will give you an excuse for visiting me in Hill Street.’

‘Take me home?’ Essie shook her head. ‘Are you mad? Begging your pardon, my lady, but if this carriage arrived in White’s Rents it would cause a sensation.’

‘She’s right, Alice.’ Raven’s tense expression melted into a smile. He opened the door. ‘Go home, Essie. I’ll see you later.’

Essie visited Riley on the way, but he had no work for her and she spent the day cleaning the house, attempting to ignore her father’s constant carping. In the end she went to the pub and had a jug filled with ale, which kept him happy. He was soon sound asleep and snoring loudly, and Essie was sitting by a desultory fire in the kitchen, waiting for the kettle to boil, when Raven entered the room.

She jumped to her feet. ‘I thought they’d got you,’ she said crossly. ‘I’ve been waiting all day for you to return.’

He took off his cap and reefer jacket, shaking droplets of rainwater on to the tiled floor. ‘You sound like a nagging wife.’

‘I don’t know who would want to marry a man like you,’ Essie countered. ‘You asked me to help you and I need to know exactly what I’m supposed to do.’

He pulled up a chair and sat down, stretching his long legs towards the fire. ‘Haven’t you got any more coal? That’s a pitiful excuse for a blaze.’

‘No, I haven’t. I bought a bag yesterday and put it out in the yard but someone pinched it.’

‘I’m sorry, I know I’ve put you to a lot of trouble, but you’ll be handsomely recompensed.’

‘If I’m not sent to jail first.’

A smile curved his lips and he nodded. ‘Touché. But I’ll take great care that doesn’t happen.’ He leaned forward and took the poker from her hand. ‘That really is a poor apology for a fire.’

Essie sat back in her chair, eyeing him thoughtfully. ‘Why aren’t you staying with Lady Alice? You’d be a lot more comfortable in her house. She’ll have a servant or two to take care of you, and I’m sure she has coal fires in every room.’

‘My cousin has a large house in Hill Street, as you’ll discover, and she has a small army of servants. Most of them are trustworthy, but there’s always someone with a loose tongue.’ He put the poker down with a sigh. ‘I can’t afford to be caught, Essie. This isn’t a game, which is why I want you to visit Hill Street daily and return with whatever information Alice has for me.’

‘What do you hope to gain from all this?’ Essie asked boldly. ‘And don’t say it’s none of my business, because you’ve involved me and my pa whether we like it or not. Why would you risk everything to return to London now, when you only have to wait for another two years and you could be a free man?’

‘Free, but still a convicted criminal.’ He stared into the pale flames that licked around the damp nuggets of coal. ‘Have you heard of a place called Ballarat?’

‘No, can’t say I have.’

‘You know that fortunes are being made from the goldfields?’

‘I suppose I must have seen something about it in the old newspapers that people leave about, but Australia is on the other side of the world. What has that got to do with us here?’

Raven put his hand in his pocket and took out a gold nugget, which gleamed dully in the firelight. ‘This is what it’s all about, Essie.’

‘You’ve struck gold?’

‘Let’s just say that I’ve found enough to buy back my good name and that of my brother.’

‘It’s hard to believe that something so small can be of such value.’

‘This is not the whole of my find. There’s more.’ He put the nugget back in his pocket. ‘You mustn’t breathe a word of this. People become savages when there is so much money at stake.’

She laughed, despite the seriousness of the situation. ‘Round here they’d kill you for a silver sixpence, let alone a lump of gold.’

‘Which is why no one must find out.’

‘I will help you, but what did Frederick do that caused you both so much trouble?’

‘I suppose it will do no harm to tell you.’ Raven leaned back in his chair with a faraway expression in his eyes as if seeing a world quite different from the poorly furnished kitchen with damp staining the walls and cracked windowpanes. ‘Our family home is in Devon. Freddie had just come down from Cambridge and, for whatever reason, he got involved with some undesirables. Despite the efforts of the preventive officers, smuggling still goes on along the coast and probably always will. Freddie was caught aiding the gang to unload their illicit cargo onto the beach.’

‘What happened then?’ Essie asked anxiously. She could almost smell the salty air and hear the waves crashing on the shingle as the boat laden with contraband was hauled ashore.

‘Freddie escaped and came home, but the revenue officers followed him. I did what anyone would do when their younger brother was in trouble and I said he was doing my bidding. I thought, quite wrongly, that my privileged position could keep me out of trouble.’

‘But you said he’s in Italy. I don’t understand why you were punished instead of him.’

‘We were both put on bail, but I knew that Freddie would admit his culpability and I arranged for him to leave the country. I stood trial and I was punished for my stupidity and arrogance. It was too late to tell the truth and that’s why I’m here now, paving the way for freedom for both myself and Freddie.’

‘But your brother is guilty and he’s escaped punishment. That doesn’t seem fair.’

‘Freddie was young and stupid, but he’s no criminal. You would do the same for a brother if you had one, I’m sure.’

Essie’s eyes filled with tears. Memories of long ago flooded back on a tide of emotion – a smiling face, a playful tug at her hair, a paper poke filled with shards of toffee, a piggyback when her little legs were too tired to walk another step – the older brother ousted from the family home when she was a small child. She gulped and swallowed, turning away so that Raven would not see her tears.

‘What’s the matter?’ he demanded. ‘What have I said to upset you?’

Chapter Three (#ulink_04986fc8-90bf-532a-a677-a792f4cfe5c1)

The need to tell him was too strong. It was a forbidden subject as far as her father was concerned, but love did not fade away on command, and she had loved George. She had hero-worshipped her elder brother, who had alternately teased and spoiled her, but the feeling ran deep. ‘I have a brother, too,’ she murmured, half-afraid to speak his name in case Pa should hear.

‘You have a brother? Where is this fellow? He ought to be taking care of you now.’

‘I should have said that I had a brother, but George left home when I was very young. Pa won’t allow his name to be spoken, and he blames George for my mother’s death. He says he broke her heart and that’s why she died.’ Essie wiped her eyes on her apron. ‘But I know that’s not true. She died of the fever that she caught from me. I am to blame for her death, not George.’

‘That’s ridiculous, Essie. You couldn’t help being ill, and you certainly weren’t responsible for your mother’s death.’

‘I try to believe that, but George left anyway.’

‘To lose your mother and your brother at such a young age must have been hard for you to bear.’

‘It was – it still is – which is why I will help you. Just tell me what to do, and I’ll try my hardest to help you and your brother.’

Next morning Raven gave Essie the money for a cab and she walked to Commercial Road, waiting until she was safely out of sight of prying eyes before she hailed a passing hansom. The cabby looked askance when she gave him the address and demanded to see her money, but the sight of a silver shilling was enough to convince him that she could pay her way.

‘Hop in, but I hope you know what you’re doing, miss. The toffs don’t take kindly to the likes of you knocking on their door, begging for work.’

‘Drive on, please.’ Essie picked up her skirts and climbed in with as much dignity as she could muster. The cab pulled away from the kerb and she settled down to enjoy the luxury of being driven through the city, but the cabby’s words still rankled, and she was beginning to feel apprehensive, especially when they reached the exclusive world of the West End.

The elegant terraced house in Hill Street was as far removed from Essie’s home in White’s Rents as was possible: both were constructed of bricks and mortar with slate roofs, but here the similarity ended. There were no beggars hanging around in doorways or ragged urchins picking pockets. The street sweepers were hard at work keeping the thoroughfare free from the horse dung, straw and the general detritus that buried the East End roads beneath layers of filth. Maidservants wearing black dresses, spotless white aprons and white mobcaps, were busy buffing up the brass door furniture and shaking dusters out of upstairs windows. Even the air Essie breathed seemed different in this part of London, although the smell of fresh paint and polish did not quite mask the stench from the river on a hot summer day. It was like entering another world and Essie’s hand shook as she raised the gleaming doorknocker and let it fall. Moments later the door was opened by a liveried footman.

He looked her up and down. ‘Tradesman’s entrance is down the area steps.’