Fallen Grace - Mary Hooper [24]
Amid the throng, it was some moments before the owner of the dog realised that he was holding half a lead with no dog on the end of it, and by this time Lily had the dog grabbed out of her hands by Billy, the second Pope boy.
‘Give ’im ’ere!’ he said urgently. He grabbed the beagle and turned in order to drop him over the fence, where a third brother was concealed.
‘Where’s my money?’ Lily asked.
Billy pressed a coin into her hand and Lily scrutinised it. ‘Is this a shilling?’ she asked, for she didn’t think she’d ever seen one before.
‘’Course it is!’ Billy held the dog high above the fence and the obliging ‘Scout’ was dropped over with a yelp to George, the third brother. As George fled with the dog under his arm, Billy turned back to Lily, smiling genially, for all the world as if they were there just to enjoy the show. ‘It’s one of the new shillings,’ he said.
‘Oh,’ said Lily.
‘They changed, see. When did you last see one?’
Lily shook her head. ‘Don’t know.’
‘There you are, then. That’s a shillin’ all right!’
Suddenly, from the area in front of the magician there was a cry of ‘My dog! Someone’s taken my dog!’ and half of the crowd left the Magnificent Marvo (for anyway, he was about to pass his hat round) to seek out the lost dog.
Had they glanced towards the fence they would have just seen Billy Pope leaning on it, quietly whittling a stick with the penknife he’d got back from Lily, and Lily herself, looking slightly disconcerted, walking home clutching the ‘shilling’.
x
‘This is not a shilling!’ Grace said. ‘Whoever told you that?’
‘It’s one of the new ones,’ said Lily. ‘He said it was one of the new ones.’
‘Who did? You said you found it in the street.’
Lily coloured. ‘Billy Pope said.’
Grace looked at her sister sadly. She felt infinitely weary, having been out since five that morning with the cresses and only taking a few pence. The money she’d earned was going to be put towards the rent, and then she had to decide whether to buy stock the following day or something to eat that evening. ‘Why was Billy Pope giving you money?’
Lily did what she normally did when things got too much: she burst into tears.
‘Lily! I hope it was nothing wicked.’
‘No, it wasn’t – it wasn’t at all. There was a dog, you see, and a man had taken it who shouldn’t have, and the Pope boys were going to return it to the proper owner and get a reward.’
‘But what did you do?’
‘I just took the dog off the man who’d stolen it!’ Lily sniffed. ‘I cut its lead and –’
‘You stole it!’
‘Yes, but –’
‘Lily, I’ve told you this before. There are many wicked thieves about – they steal a dog in the street and wait until the owner advertises a reward for finding it.’
‘Then what?’ said Lily sullenly.
‘Then they take it back and pretend they’ve found it running loose. The owner is usually so pleased to have it that he doesn’t ask too many questions.’ She went to the window, all the better to look at the coin. ‘Anyway, this is a ha’penny painted silver – and not painted all that well, either. Is this what they gave you?’
Lily nodded.
‘I shall go and speak to the Popes. If anyone had seen you and caught you, you could have been arrested by the police and taken away from me, don’t you realise that?’
Lily hung her head, looking suitably ashamed, but nevertheless feeling better. It wasn’t her fault; it was all to do with those Pope boys. Grace wasn’t really cross with her.
Grace wrapped her shawl about her, brushed down her skirts and left the room, feeling agitated. Before she’d gone more than five steps down the passageway, however, she’d started to change her mind: there was