Kitty Peck and the Child of Ill-Fortune (15 page)

‘Oh, I understand all right. Telferman’s been going through it. You’ve made me a woman of property, a woman of means. You’ve made your own granddaughter a woman who’s so deep in every filthy, stinking trade run between The Isle of Dogs in the east and The Tower in the west and from Bethnal in the north down to Deptford in the south that it’s a wonder she’s not coated in flies.’

Her lips twitched. ‘Telferman tells me—’

‘—That I’m good at it. I show promise. That’s what your letter said. I’ve got all the details lodged right here.’ I tapped my head. ‘Every name, every penny. You don’t need to fret about Paradise. My understanding of it is perfect and now I’m going to run it my own way. Like I said, I didn’t come here for a sermon. I need—’

‘You need my assistance.’ Lady Ginger cut me off sharp. Her eyes narrowed. ‘Tell me, it didn’t take long before your charming brother brought trouble to you, did it?’

I didn’t answer, but she must have read the look on my face because her eyes glinted with a sort of triumph.

‘Oh yes, Katharine. Never underestimate me. I know what came back from Paris with you, even if you do not.’

All the questions I thought I was going to ask my grandmother when we finally met again went out of my head.

‘You . . . you know about the boy – about Robbie?’ I spoke too quick.

She smiled thinly. ‘I know about his father too. I fear he is playing a very dangerous game.’

The thought of David Lennox made my cheeks burn. I saw him sitting in front of me again in Joey’s room, his clear green eyes glassy with tears as he begged for my help. The thought of any harm coming to him made me catch my breath. Something lodged in my throat.

I swallowed hard. ‘I’ve sent word to him, to Da . . . Mr Lennox, telling him to come and take back his boy, and I’ve told Joey too, told him to set things straight. Told him it wasn’t right to put folk in danger.’

Lady Ginger reached up to pull her plait over her shoulder. She rolled the fraying end between her fingers. ‘But it is too late.’ She glanced up, the candlelight gleaming in her eyes. ‘You do know, I trust, who you brought back from Paris with you?’

I shook my head.

‘Death.’

The tip of her tongue appeared as she said it. I swear she savoured the taste of that word in her sticky, black mouth. She was enjoying herself. I could see that now and it made my belly boil.

‘If you know so much already, why am I here? Why don’t you
deal with it
yourself, like you used to?’ I mimicked her voice and heard the shrill note rise in my own voice as I went on. ‘Why don’t you get one of your spies onto it? I know you’ve got plenty of them working for you still. Telferman, maybe Tan Seng and his brother Lok at The Palace. Then there’s that dainty little man with the powder-white hair in Paris . . .’

‘The Monseigneur?’ Lady nodded. ‘Indeed, he has been most helpful. You have his note with you as instructed?’

‘
His
note?’

She sighed. ‘I am losing patience, Katharine. Telferman gave you two items of correspondence yesterday. My summons and the note from Monsieur Chartrand, the Monseigneur. Where is it?’

So he
was
her spy. I rolled this nugget of information around in my mind and tried to make it fit into the right space. I picked at a thread on the coverlet in front of me, but jerked my head up with a yell as Lady Ginger clamped her hand down over the top of mine. She struck out quicker than an adder, twisting her nails into my skin. I was amazed to feel the strength in that wizened-up hand. Her fingers gouged like pincers.

‘Where is it?’

I yanked my hand away, slipped from the bed and went to retrieve my bag. My eyes had adjusted to the dimness now. Apart from the bed and the tables, there was little else in the room. I snapped open the bag and reached for the letters.

‘Here – is this what you mean?’ I handed her the folded paper with the pattern embossed at the head and the peculiar script. Lady Ginger took it from me and flapped it open.

‘And what do you make of it?’

I shrugged. ‘There’s not a lot to make anything out of, is there? Just a string of letters.’

She nodded and held the sheet near to the little candle flame. ‘What do you see, Katharine?’

I leaned closer. The paper was quality, I’d known that from the feel of it. It was thick and silky to the touch. The creases where it was folded into three held their sharpness. Now, in the light, I could also see the finest trace of gold along the edges where it had been hand cut.

‘Begin with the mark.’

Lady Ginger handed it back to me and gestured to the candle. I moved closer so that I could see more clearly. I hadn’t really examined the mark pressed into the paper. Now I looked properly I saw it was a splayed-out bird, something like an eagle, pinned down at the breast by a sort of shield. I frowned as I ran my fingertips over the pattern. I’d seen this before or something very like it. I glanced up to find Lady Ginger staring at me.

‘Unusual – is it not?’

I nodded. ‘It’s not like any bird I’ve seen. It’s got two heads for a start, which isn’t right. But the paper’s the best money can buy. I doubt it’s the sort of stuff the Monseigneur can afford on what you’re paying him.’

Lady Ginger barked out a laugh, which turned into a cough. She reached under the pillow again and hawked out a ball of sticky black phlegm into the ’kerchief.

‘And the word?’ She pointed at the letters.

‘Is it a word?’ I asked, turning the paper around to try to make sense of the writing. ‘I took it for a string of letters. I thought it might be a code.’

It was true enough. Joey and I used to play a game with letters. We’d each choose a familiar saying, or one of Nanny Peck’s best-turned phrases, and try to get the other one to guess it by writing the first letter of each word, one by one, on a piece of paper. The winner was the one who guessed the most sayings in the least amount of letters.

This wasn’t a saying I recognised.

‘A code, you say? I suppose you could call it that. Look again.’ Lady Ginger shuffled to the side of the bed and tapped the paper with a long curved nail. I turned it around to see if it meant anything upside down and then I held it on its side.

‘It begins with a “K”. Is it a message for me?’

‘In a way.’ She smiled and leaned back into the pillows. ‘It is a message for both of us.’

I’d had enough of this. I tossed the letter onto the bed. Lady Ginger was running the circus just as she always had. It was very clear to me of a sudden that the only reason she’d brought me here was to entertain herself.

I pushed my hair back from my eyes. ‘You might as well tell me straight what you’re driving at instead of talking in riddles. Start with Robbie. What do you know about him and Da . . . his father, and why is it dangerous?’

She plucked the paper from the coverlet and handed it to me again. ‘The answer is here. If you cannot handle this simple matter then perhaps I have made a mistake. Protecting Paradise – and everyone and everything in it – is no easy matter. You will find enemies in the most surprising places, always remember that.’

She faltered, leaned to the right and took up the pipe again. I saw her hand shake as she fumbled for the silver strike box.

‘You will light this.’ I took the box from her hand and scraped a Lucifer along its side, setting the flame to the bowl. Lady Ginger sucked on the pipe and moments later another great tremor went through her as the opium did its work. Just as before, she sank back into the cushions and her eyes rolled up into her head, leaving flickering slits of white.

I looked at the paper again. If it was an answer, then the question was clear as Thames mud at low tide. I ran my fingers over the embossed mark. I
had
seen something like it before when I rolled the I Ching dice – the ones Peggy didn’t approve of. But what did that mean?

‘Where is the girl I saw in you?’

The question made me start. Lady Ginger was staring at me again now. At the corner of her mouth there was a glistening trail of drool.

‘I am prepared to guide you, Katharine, but you must make your own deductions. You must learn, as I did. It is the only way. This . . .’ she nodded at the note in my hand, ‘. . . is just the beginning. Other threats will come to your door and you must be ready. I do not doubt your courage, girl, but I chose you for your intellect and your good sense. Use them.’

I scrunched the paper into a ball in my hands. ‘I’m not Swami Jonah, am I? This doesn’t tell me anything.’

‘It is not Mr McCarthy you should be consulting, on this occasion. That is all I am prepared to say.’

I noted that Lady Ginger used Swami Jonah’s real name. She hauled herself up from the pillows and sat up straight in the bed – a scrawny heap of flapping black silk and loose sallow skin. She started to cough again, a horrible rasping rattle of a noise, and reached for the glass.

Her hands were shaking quite noticeably now as she gulped down mouthfuls of water. I heard the gurgle of it in her stringy throat as she swallowed. When she’d drained the glass, she set it down again on the table beside her bed and scratched lower for the drawer handle.

‘The thirst is an unavoidable effect of my . . . medicine. But it is a small price to pay for respite. I have something for you. Here.’ She offered me a roll of patterned Oriental material.

I backed away shaking my head. ‘You’re not taking me with that one again. The last gift I accepted from you was hacked from some poor bleeder’s hand.’

She smiled and I heard the sticky smack of wetness as her lips parted. ‘This is quite different. Take it – you may need it. One day.’

I reached for the roll from her hands and she nodded. ‘Good. You will be leaving me shortly. Remember what I said, Katharine, trust no one. And remind your brother that he cannot come back to London, ever. Repeat to me the words of the message I sent to him.’

‘But why can’t he come back? I could tell them – the Barons – about the fire and what really happened.’

She snorted. ‘They know already.’

I weighed the roll in my hands. There was something folded inside, I could feel it through the silk. I needed to know why Joey couldn’t come home.

‘In that case . . .?’

‘Repeat the message, Katharine.’

‘
Bartholomew waits
. I told him in Paris. What does it mean?’

Lady Ginger’s face was a mask. ‘You will understand soon enough. In the meantime you would do well to remind your brother of it. After all – he is your blood, he is your family.’ She paused. ‘Think on those words.’

I was about to answer, but someone caught me tight from behind, pinning my arms to my sides. Before I could cry out a hand clapped a cloth across my face. I struggled furiously, trying to stop my nose and mouth against the familiar burning sweetness, but it was no good.

The last thing I saw before I fell to the floor was Lady Ginger watching me as she rolled her rat-tail plait between the tips of her fingers.

She smiled and raised her hand in a sort of crooked farewell. ‘Protect him, Katharine.’

Blood.

I could taste it in my mouth, and smell it too. I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling above my bed in Salmon Lane. That wasn’t right, was it? The last thing I saw was . . .

Of a moment I couldn’t recall. I brought a hand to my face. My nose was crusted up with something, my lips were cracked and my dry mouth was full of metal.

‘She’s awake!’ Peggy’s voice came from somewhere over to the left. I tried to sit up but my stomach rolled and a hammer went off in my head.

‘Lucca – a bowl, quick!’ A hand thrust a china dish under my nose, and my throat stung as I retched over the blue and white pattern. I hunched forward and felt someone hold my hair away from my face.

‘There – that’s better.’ Peggy rubbed my shoulders. ‘Drink this, Kit – it’s water.’

I took the glass she offered and leaned back to allow her to move the bowl away. It all came back to me now: the coach, the drugged cloth, the shuttered house and Lady Ginger in that bed. The only thing I couldn’t work out was how I came to be here.

‘What time is it?’ My voice was hoarse. My throat burned like I’d swallowed a hot coal.

‘Past ten. You’ve been gone for a night and a day.’ Lucca was sitting in a chair drawn up next to the bed. He reached for my hand and squeezed it. ‘When the carriage moved off I ran down the steps, but the driver was like a . . .
un pazzo
, a madman. I chased you, but he used his whip and the horses ran like the Devil himself was on their backs.’ He glanced at Peggy. ‘I came here, but we didn’t know what to do.’

She nodded and sat on the bed. ‘Actually, Kit, Lucca
did
know what to do. He sent word to Telferman and the message came back that we was to wait. You came home just two hours ago. There was a great banging on the door, but Tan Seng wouldn’t open up. Then Lucca looked out and recognised the carriage. By the time we went down it was gone, and you were curled up on the step. The brothers helped carry you up here and we’ve been sitting with you ever since. What happened, Kitty? Are you . . .?’

I took another gulp of water. ‘I’m fine. This’ll pass. It’s just another of my grandmother’s speciality acts. The old cow still puts on a fine show.’

In the lamplight I saw Peggy and Lucca exchange looks.

‘One of her crew drugged me when I went up into the coach . . . last night, was it?’

Lucca nodded.

‘And the same thing happened before she sent me packing. Lady Ginger likes her privacy – she didn’t want me to know where she lives. Oh, she made that very clear. Even if everything else she said was a riddle.’

‘Did she hurt you? Your nose, Fannella – it’s been bleeding and your lips are cracked. Here.’ Lucca filled my glass again with water from a jug on the floor beside him. I drank it down in one and wiped my sore nose and mouth with my hand.

‘She didn’t touch me . . .’ I was beginning to remember our talk more clearly now, ‘except when she dug her black claws into my hand. No, I think it’s the effect of the drugs she used. When I woke up at her place it was the same – my head felt like there was a bare knuckle round going off inside and my stomach wasn’t right. Ten o’clock, you say?’

‘
Sí
,
nearer to eleven maybe now.’

‘Then I’ve been under the influence of God knows what for hours. It was barely light when we spoke. She must have used enough stuff that last time to down an elephant. It’s no wonder I feel like a coopered Judy.’

‘You need a bit of heat in your bones.’ Peggy stood and went over to the fire. I watched her kneel, rip some sheets of newspaper from the pile, screw them into balls and feed them into the grate where a small mound of coals was already glowing.

‘There – that’s a bit better, but we’ll need Lok to bring up some more if you’re to warm through proper. The scuttle’s empty.’

‘Where’s Robbie?’ I sat up straight in the bed, pulling my knees to my chin. Just like last time, the clanging in my head was beginning to muffle and every word my grandmother said had come back clear. David was playing a dangerous game, that’s what she told me, and whatever it was it involved the boy I’d brought back to London for him.

‘Danny’s with him now. He came over to find me, Kit. It was after midday and he was worried when I didn’t come home this morning.’

‘And he was let in?’

‘Course he was. I made such a row down in the hall that Lok couldn’t stand it. Dan’s been here all the time since. He helped Lucca and the brothers bring you up here. The noise woke the little one so I asked him to go and sit with him while we cleaned you up. There was blood all over your face and matted in your hair when you came back. We thought you’d cracked your head open at first.’

For some reason I wanted to reassure myself that Robbie was safe. ‘Can you fetch him to me, Peg?’

‘Danny?’

I tried to smile. ‘Now, why would I want to see his ugly mug? I mean the little one.’

Peggy frowned. ‘But that would wake him and it’s so late he’d never go off again now. He’s been very bad tempered all day, which isn’t like him. I think he’s teething. His gums are that sore. There was blood in his mouth this morning.’

‘Please, Peggy. I’d like to see him – Danny too.’

She arched an eyebrow. ‘Seeing your own flesh and blood has made you come over all maternal of a sudden, has it?’

‘Something like that.’ I nodded at the door. ‘Bring them both. I won’t keep Robbie long. I just want to make sure he’s . . . well. For his father’s sake – I promised David that I’d look after his son, remember.’

Peggy grinned and cocked her head to one side. ‘
David
is it now? I wondered if there was more to that story than you was letting on, Kitty Peck. If his lad’s anything to go by I reckon he’s . . .’ She broke off and glanced warily at Lucca. I saw her cheeks redden as she looked quickly down and started to brush some imaginary bits of fluff off her skirt.

‘That’s to say. I wondered if he was . . .’

I rolled my eyes. Peggy Worrow still thought Lucca and I might be a pair. She could be so blind sometimes. Then again, it wasn’t so long ago when I couldn’t see what was sitting in front of my nose, was it?

‘Just go and fetch them, will you?’

Peggy nodded gratefully and bustled out of the room, imagining, no doubt, that she’d said the wrong thing. Lucca waited for a moment until we couldn’t hear her tread on the stairs and then he leaned forward and spoke softly. ‘So what did she want, Fannella? What did you find out?’

I shook my head. ‘I didn’t find out anything I wanted to know, that’s for sure. It was all riddles and games just like before. Lady Ginger dandling tidbits of information under my nose and whipping them away again before I could make anything out of them.’

I rested my head on my knees. ‘I found out one thing, though. That baby, Robbie, he’s trouble. She knew all about what I’d done and she knew about his father too. She said he was playing a dangerous game.’

Lucca grunted. ‘We both know that. Why else would a man send his son to London with a stranger? And since then . . .’ He paused for a moment and rubbed at the scarred skin of his cheek. ‘The man who followed us last night? Was he the man you saw at the theatre, Fannella?’

‘I didn’t see him in the dark. I couldn’t tell you if the man with the cane was the same one who ripped my ear. But it can’t be a coincidence, can it?’

Lucca shook his head. ‘No – no coincidence. You are right about the children. I made enquiries – one of the infants who perished in the fire at Mordant Street was dark skinned, like Robbie. I believe the child
is
in danger – as it seems are you. But how did your grandmother know of this? How could she know about Robbie and his father?’

‘She’s still got spies working for her, Lucca. The Monseigneur is one of them. He wrote to her from Paris, but he’s not much of a wordsmith.’ I scanned the room. The lamplight made the shadows in the corners look like the tarry stains that once covered the walls in Lady Ginger’s receiving room. For a moment I could believe she was still sitting there wreathed in smoke, listening.

‘Where’s my bag?’

‘It’s here.’ Lucca stood and went over to the dresser. ‘We couldn’t loosen your fingers from the handle at first. Even in your drugged state you wouldn’t let go.’ He handed it to me. Both letters were inside, along with the fabric-wrapped package Lady Ginger had given me. I handed Lucca the heavy cream sheet. ‘This is what he sent – the Monseigneur. What do you make of it?’

Lucca took the paper, unfolded it and stared at the word. His good brown eye widened.

‘Do you recognise it?’ I shifted across the bed to kneel close to him. ‘And there’s a mark at the top, impressed into the page. If you hold it up to the lamp you’ll see it.’

Lucca raised the paper so the pattern showed clear. He ran a fingertip over the two-headed bird. ‘This means nothing to me, but this . . .’ he pointed at the writing – as usual I noted there was paint under his nails, ‘is like something I’ve seen before.’

I took the paper and flattened it out on the bed. ‘I thought it might be a code. “K” could be for Kitty – and the rest of the letters might stand for words. Lady Ginger said it was a message to both of us. So if that’s Kitty, what do the rest of the letters stand for? There’s a “P” then an “O” and two “B”s.’

Lucca shook his head. ‘No – I do not think it is a code. It is one word. I cannot read it but I think I know someone—’

‘Here he is.’

The door swung open and Peggy walked into the room with Robbie cradled in her arms. Danny was just behind. I folded the letter and tucked it under the sheet.

Robbie’s big eyes were glassy with sleep. He wriggled in the blanket Peggy had wrapped him in and his lower lip started to tremble. She rocked him from side to side, but it didn’t help. Seconds later he screwed his face into a crimson knot of anger and began to bawl. Peggy scowled at me and dabbed a finger into his mouth.

‘See! I knew we shouldn’t have disturbed him. And he hadn’t been asleep long, had he?’ She glanced back at Danny who was leaning against the wall watching her. He came forward now and dangled the poppet in front of Robbie’s face.

‘He wouldn’t go off after you came back tonight, but this helped.’ He turned to me. ‘You all right, Kit? Only you looked like you’d done a couple of rounds when we carried you up here.’

‘It looked worse than it really was – a nosebleed, that’s all.’ I paused. I didn’t want to tell him where I’d been. ‘Thank you for watching over Robbie.’

‘He’s no trouble.’ Danny tossed the poppet across to the bed and I caught it. ‘Once he had this tight in his hands he was happy enough sucking on an ear until he couldn’t keep his eyes open. You might want to put a couple of stitches in the side there. He loves it so much it’s coming apart.’

I smiled. ‘I’ll get my old workbox from The Gaudy out for him. Won’t do any harm to keep my hand in, eh?’

‘You always had the neatest stitches, Kitty, before . . .’ Peggy shrugged, ‘before you came to live here.’

Just for a moment I caught an odd look pass between her and Danny and I wondered what they said about me when they were alone together. There was an awkward pause while Peggy went back to fussing over Robbie, and Danny stared at the rug.

I cleared my throat. ‘Well. Thank you both for this evening. I appreciate it.’

Danny grinned. ‘Like I said – the little one’s no trouble. And anyway . . .’ He glanced at Peggy who was humming to Robbie and turning in a slow circle in front of the little fire. ‘I reckon it’s good practice for our own, when he or she arrives.’

Peggy turned to face me again now. She nodded and smiled. ‘Due around Christmas, I think.’