• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

‘It was the baby, Lily. When a man and a woman do that, it can lead to the woman having a baby. And that’s what happened to me.’

‘And will it happen to me, too?’

Grace managed to smile. ‘No, dearest. If it was going to happen, it would have been before now. You’re perfectly safe, and so am I.’

‘Suppose he finds us?’

‘He doesn’t know where we are – or who we are – because when he visited us it was darkest night. I don’t believe he saw any more of us than we did of him.’

‘And besides, he has the other girls in the home if . . . if he wants . . .’

Grace sighed. ‘Yes, I’m afraid he does. But if we ever see a man with one hand, we will know him.’

‘And then?’ Lily prompted. ‘Then?’

Then she would kill him, Grace thought dispassionately.

x

Between them, the girls decided that perhaps the best way of earning a little money would be for Lily to wait outside shops and offer to carry parcels for lady shoppers. Early the following morning, therefore, after going to market with Grace, Lily set off for Burlington Arcade in Piccadilly, which was known to have the classiest, most opulent shops and, as a consequence, the richest lady shoppers. Unfortunately, this was such a well-known fact that, even by seven o’clock in the morning, a parade of tattered children had already assembled waiting for the arcade gates to be opened so they could take their places outside their chosen shop. Most of them were girls and were all very poor. Only a few of them had shoes, but all had made some attempt at gentility. The boys had battered top hats, while the girls had some form of head-covering, even if it was just an out-of-shape and fraying straw bonnet, or ragged scarf wound around their hair.

Lily approached the wrought-iron gates of the arcade and stared through. Beyond she could see curved, glittering glass windows filled with all manner of delightful things: soft leather purses and handbags, fur tippets, exquisite porcelain, jewellery, perfumes, soaps and lotions. Mama had had a real fur coat, she remembered, and lovely clothes, but all those things had gone years ago.

At half past seven the arcade gates were opened by two uniformed men who tried to scare off the would-be errand-runners by shouting that a couple of burly peelers were on their way and would arrest the lot of them for begging. This made the nervous ones, including Lily, hang back a little, but the threatened policemen never arrived and, after a few moments, she followed the braver ones into the arching passageway. Here she discovered that the arcade had two ends, and that a similar number of children had been waiting at the far one, so that there were already two children waiting outside most doors – three, in the case of the larger shops.

Lily walked through the arcade, pretending to look at the things in the windows, but actually trying to find a shop with a single person outside it. She found one, The Gentlemen’s Shaving Emporium, but standing sentry outside was a hefty boy of about seventeen, with an aggressive stare and large hands already curled into fists. Lily, too scared to speak to him, went on, reached the end of the arcade and walked back again, discovering as she did so that if she slowed down in any way, those already outside shop doors would hiss at her, or tell her in no uncertain terms to move on.

She thought it might be better when the ladies actually arrived and began shopping, but then she remembered that ladies of quality hardly rose before eleven o’clock, then spent the morning putting on their clothes and having their hair dressed before venturing forth in the afternoon to do a little light shopping and make their social calls. And they usually went with companions or ladies’ maids, so wouldn’t they carry the purchases? Lily made one attempt to speak to a little girl of about eight, asking if she might stand with her and take a chance, but the girl turned on her like an angry cat, saying that she’d fought for this place and it was hers and she would kill anyone