From the Charred Remains (37 page)

Adam glanced at Lucy. “Indeed.” Grimacing, he touched the side of his head. “Father—I—”

“You must rest,” Lucy said quickly. There would be other times to talk. “Please, sir, take Adam home.”

The magistrate smiled down at her kindly. “Take care, Lucy. We’ll see you soon,” he said, with a firm set to his jaw. “And Lucy?”

“Yes?”

“No more dead bodies for a while.” Master Hargrave clucked at the horses and shook the reins. As they drove away, he called back, “Find some time for the living, Lucy! London is rising from the ashes, and so must we!”

HISTORICAL NOTE

In writing this novel, I had to occasionally reimagine historical details in order to tell the most compelling story I could.

Sometimes this reimagining allowed me to question established historical narrative. For example, beyond the puzzle of the murdered man, there is a larger and far more real mystery that forms the backdrop of my story: the so-called “miracle” of the Great Fire of 1666. Despite the fact that thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed in the three-day blaze, contemporaries such as Samuel Pepys and other chroniclers from this time period only noted a handful of deaths overall. More significantly, the
Bills of Mortality,
which had carefully documented all deaths from the plague and other misfortunes in the 1660s, did not describe any great numbers after the Fire. This lack of evidence has led historians to long believe that the death toll was quite low; hence, the so-called miracle.

How could this be? Just imagine, as I’ve tried to do, the mayhem, the panic, the crush of humanity. Could the elderly, the infirm, the drunk have fled so easily? And what about the inmates of Newgate prison? It’s unlikely the wardens of that dreadful place would have thought through a systematic evacuation plan. The scholar Neil Hanson has made a compelling argument that thousands may have perished in this blaze—in direct opposition to the commonly accepted view. This is why I had Lucy pose the question that has perpetually bothered me: what happened to all the people?

On other occasions, I took creative license on certain historic points to keep the story moving easily. For example, I simplified the language to make the prose more accessible to the modern reader. (L’Estrange’s
Anagram on the Citie London
suggests something of the speech of this era.) Similarly, since there was no established police force at this time, I gave Constable Duncan a bit more scope and authority than he would have truly had at this time. I also consolidated much of the bookselling trade; in reality, authors, booksellers, printers, paper makers, bookbinders, etc., might have all worked separately, but it worked better for the story if Master Aubrey and his apprentices could handle all of these processes themselves. For the sake of the story, too, even though there were strict injunctions against burning effigies in November 1666 for Guy Fawkes Day (because of fear of fire), I figured that some people would surely disobey the authorities.

In contrast, some details were true but might not be believed to be so. For example, there was a tavern called Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese that burned down in the Great Fire, but I changed the name because the original one sounded contrived. The Fariners who owned the bakery where the Great Fire started really were paid members of the jury who convicted poor Robert Hubert. There was an Earl of Cumberland, but his line died out in the 1640s. As far as I know, however, no one has tried to illegally gain the title.

Lastly, I released Lucy from some of the constraints that would likely have bound her, given her class, gender, and station. But I thought about this very carefully as I developed her character. While it’s true that most servants or apprentices might not have had her freedom, and indeed, might have lived with masters who beat them or took advantage of them, there is much evidence to suggest that many employers believed that sparing the rod was better for cultivating loyalty and good service in their employees. So it’s not farfetched to me that both Master Hargrave and Master Aubrey might have treated Lucy well, particularly at a time when Enlightenment ideas were starting to bubble up in England. Moreover, in smaller households, too, it was quite common for servants to seem like members of the family; the distance between “upstairs” and “downstairs” was not nearly so pronounced as it may have become in later centuries.

It’s clear, too, that in the mid-1660s, after the plague and Great Fire, there was unprecedented social mobility, when servants could become masters with no one around to gainsay their claims. Indeed, many women became apprentices, helped their husbands with their trades, or even owned businesses in their own right. So it seemed reasonable to me that, in this brief moment, Lucy might feel that she had more options than women in previous decades might have had. Moreover, only noblewomen married young; for the most part, female servants didn’t marry until about age twenty-five, after they had put together a dowry and felt they could afford to marry. And that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!

ALSO BY SUSANNA CALKINS

A Murder at Rosamund’s Gate

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

SUSANNA CALKINS became fascinated with seventeenth-century England while pursuing her doctorate in British history and uses her fiction to explore this chaotic period. Originally from Philadelphia, Calkins now lives outside of Chicago with her husband and two sons. This is her second novel.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

FROM THE CHARRED REMAINS.
Copyright © 2014 by Susanna Calkins. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.minotaurbooks.com

Cover design by David Baldeosingh Rotstein

Cover photograph by
JeffCottenArchive.com

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Calkins, Susanna.

    From the charred remains / Susanna Calkins.

            p. cm.—(Lucy Campion mysteries; 2)

    ISBN 978-1-250-00788-9 (hardcover)

    ISBN 978-1-250-00789-6 (e-book)

    1.  Great Fire, London, England, 1666—Fiction.   2.  Women—England—History—17th century—Fiction.   3.  Murder—Investigation—Fiction.   4.  Great Britain—History—Restoration, 1660–1688—Fiction.   5.  London (England)—History—17th century—Fiction.   I.  Title.

    PS3603.A4394F76 2014

    813
'
.6—dc23

2013047140

e-ISBN 9781250007896

First Edition: April 2014