How could he? she thought.
“– And your plan sounds a commendable one, even achievable given time, but you can’t wrest the tigers from the grip of men like Jamrach just by telling him they’re yours. You need an order from a judge – and proof, something showing that they are indeed your possessions. Look, I’ll talk to a friend of mine who practises law and ask his advice how best to proceed.”
“But how long will that take?”
“A few days – I can be quite persuasive when I put my mind to it. That will give you time to see if you can arrange the matter of money with your connections.” The way Mr Evesham said it made it clear he didn’t believe in the promised money, which was fair as she was living in an orphanage – the very definition of a child without connections.
“But my tigers might only have days – or hours – and I don’t even know where they’ve been taken!”
“It’s the best I can do – and I’ll leave right now if that will set your mind at rest. Bobby, see to your guests and then finish your geometry. I’ll be back by the end of the afternoon with news.”
Mr Evesham headed to the gate and they heard him whistle for a cab on the street outside.
The three friends looked at each other.
“Hours, you say?” asked Bobby.
Sahira nodded.
“You don’t know where they’ve been taken?”
She shook her head. It wasn’t enough. She prayed desperately to God under her breath. “You didn’t answer my prayers before, but please, please, answer this one! Help me help my tigers!”
It wasn’t God who answered, or not directly. Bobby gave a decisive nod. “Right. We’ll leave Mr Evesham doing his bit but that’s bound to be too slow. We need your cousin John. Wait here.” He followed the tutor out onto the street.
“Why fetch John?” asked Sahira, reluctant to get him involved.
Bobby glanced around him, checking no one was listening. “Jenks has been giving us lessons around the square. If we’re going to take the coach without permission, we’ll need someone to help me drive.”
Very uncertain as to whether this was a good idea, Sahira sat with her knees to her chest on the mounting block. She was alone as Ned had also gone off to the orphanage to fetch her a change of clothes and leave word with Ann and Emily that Sahira might be out of town for a day or two. The pause gave her long enough to consider the rashness of what they were about to attempt. Could she be arrested for carriage theft if the son of the owner was the one behind it? It seemed very likely that Ned and she, as the ones without impressive families to back them, would probably catch the worst of the blame when it was splashed about like a cartwheel through a puddle. Should she tell Ned to stay behind? In fact, shouldn’t she tell him to do so anyway, as absconding with her would lose him his job at the menagerie?
Ned returned within the hour, thanks to lavishing more of his zebra money on cabs. However, he didn’t return alone. Ann and Emily had squeezed in with him in the hackney carriage.
“What are you all doing here?” asked Sahira, jumping up. Her legs had gone to sleep sitting hunched up on a cold stone and she stumbled as she rushed toward them.
Ann caught her elbow to steady her. “We know what the tigers mean to you, Sahira. You’re our friend.”
“I know that but what about Mr Pence?” Was she dragging all her friends into disaster?
“Not to worry. I told ’im the Constable of the Tower needed ’em for a special cleaning job at the menagerie and not to expect them back till tomorrow night,” said Ned proudly.
“Mr Pence didn’t believe him until Ned showed him the down payment,” said Emily with a cynical roll of her eyes.
“Oh Ned, your zebra money!” said Sahira. He had to have spent it all on their comings and goings today.
“Always more where that came from,” said Ned. “I’ll just take Nebbie on a little stroll along the river one sunny day.”
If Mr Cops lets him have his job back, thought Sahira glumly.
Bobby and Cousin John entered the mews at a fast pace, both with flushed faces from running.
“Sorry, sorry, had to track John down. He was at a drawing class,” said Bobby, waving. “Good heavens, who is everyone?”
Sahira quickly made the introductions. John nodded gravely to the girls as if they were duchesses while Bobby shook hands as if they were his school fellows. Sahira couldn’t have been prouder of her well-to-do friends.
“Are we ready now?” she asked. “I am.”
“Good-o,” Bobby said chirpily. “Let’s go rescue some tigers.”
From her previous encounters, Sahira had expected her cousin to be among those urging caution, like Mr Evesham, and was surprised to see John was as quick to arrange for the stealing of the family carriage as Bobby.
“I believe the ladies and Ned should wait around the corner,” he advised Bobby. “Just in case.”
Just in case they got stopped. John was trying to save them from getting into worse trouble.
“Will they let you take it out?” Sahira asked in a low voice.
John checked his pocket watch. “It’s the servants’ dinner. Unless we are very unlucky and Bobby’s parents call for the carriage unexpectedly, we should have time to harness the horses and get free of the mews before anyone notices.”
“Father’s in Westminster,” said Bobby blithely. “Mother’s with her friends in the front parlour.”
With that, Sahira decided her role was not to put any more doubts in their minds. They would have to face the consequences, but not now. Now her tigers were their primary concern.
Five minutes later, as the three girls and Ned waited on the corner of the street, they saw a familiar carriage clop out of the mews. John was on the driver’s box, dressed in Jenks’s coat so that he looked like a grown man if you didn’t examine him too closely. He was handling the pair of horses with care, despite Bobby bouncing beside him.
“Get in, get in!” Bobby urged. “I think Henry saw us.”
“Henry?” asked Sahira as Ned opened the door to the compartment and helped Ann inside.
“The footman on duty.”
Sahira muttered a little prayer that Henry would not hurry with that message either, giving them enough time to get lost in the London traffic.
The four orphans made themselves comfortable inside the carriage while the young gentlemen drove them. Buoyed by the success, so far, of their escape with the carriage, the reversal of ordinary roles struck Sahira as so absurd that she laughed softly.
“What’s so funny?” asked Emily. She had arranged the carriage rug delicately over her ankles like the very finest and most pernickety of ladies.
“Us,” said Sahira, pointing to the occupants of the carriage. “Them.” She pointed to the roof.
Ann gave one of her warm smiles. “They’re fine friends you’ve got there, Sahira. They’ll both be in hot water when we get caught.” She shook her head as second thoughts edged in. “As will we.”
Ned shrugged. “That won’t matter. By then we’ll have tigers. No one will worry about a little matter of borrowing a carriage when we have two tigers on our side.”
It wasn’t hard to follow in Jamrach’s tracks. Stop at any inn on the way and ask if someone had seen two tigers in cages and they were inundated with people wanting to give a full account of what they’d witnessed that very day.
“Striped like a sunset,” said one farmer on the outskirts of the city.
“Roaring like devils,” according to a washerwoman, as they crossed the Thames.
“Big old tabby cats,” said another, perhaps short-sighted, old man at a village crossroads.
All agreed that they were headed toward Maidenhead.
“Why were the Newtons driving the carts?” mused Ann after a long stretch on a good road across Heath Row. “I didn’t think they’d stoop to such things.”
“Pr’haps the money was good,” suggested Ned.
“Perhaps they wanted to see more of th
e county?” asked Emily.
The others groaned at this sunny interpretation and shook their head.
“I wager it’s because of the boots – and my trunk. They didn’t get the boots in the end, and I told them I hid the trunk with the tigers. Being the ones to take away my tigers gives them revenge and a chance at getting my things from me.”
“Yeah, that sounds like them. They like nothing better than bearing a very long grudge against someone. I think it’s their way of entertaining themselves,” said Ned glumly.
Sahira played with the cord on the window blind, drawing it down and up against the long shafts of late afternoon sunshine. “I suppose I’ll have to take the trunk back to the orphanage now. I never did find out who broke into it.”
“Wasn’t it Joanna?” asked Ned.
“No, that was before she came,” said Sahira.
“Matron?”
“That’s who I thought did it, but I don’t know for sure.”
“It was me!” The confession was blurted out so rapidly Sahira wondered if she’d imagined it.
“Emily?” She let go of the cord and the blind descended with a snap.
“It was me. I did it. And I’m pleased I couldn’t open it!”
Sahira’s confidence in her friend took a new blow. “Why?”
A curl of blonde hair slid from under her hat. Emily tugged off the cap altogether in a despairing gesture like she was revealing her true unvarnished self to them after so long hiding the truth. “They threatened my brother, told me I’d be on their enemies’ list if I didn’t, but the truth was… the truth was, I wanted to see all your lovely dresses. I envied you having them. That trunk is like the best costume store in the world. It was mad, I know, but I thought for a wild moment that I could wear one and go to Covent Garden and offer myself as an actress. They’d have to pay attention if I looked like a princess.” She bit her lip. “I’m sorry.”
Sahira blinked uncomprehendingly. “But Emily, you only had to ask me and I would’ve given you one to wear.”
Emily nodded miserably. “I think I knew that. It’s just that I was so tempted – and they were so pretty. I let my fear of the Newtons push me into doing something I really wanted to do.”
Sahira had to allow that Emily was honest to a fault. She could have hidden behind the threat and not explained her other motives. And here she was, risking everything to help Sahira now, even with her brother in the orphanage nursery and her place there in danger if this came out.
“Then I forgive you,” said Sahira.
“You do?” Emily’s eyes shone with tears. “Thank you! I’ve been feeling like a worm for months now.”
“Worms are very useful creatures,” said Sahira seriously. “They help break down the fallen leaves, making the soil more fertile.”
Emily gave a huffing laugh and swiped at some escaped droplets. “Only you, Sahira. It’s a saying.”
“I know.”
After all, part of Sahira felt like a worm for having treated Mr Cops the way she had that very morning. You can want to be someone’s friend and yet still go on to hurt them gravely, Sahira had learned. Mr Cops had wanted to be her friend, and she had meant to be his, and yet they had still fallen out over the tigers.
“Hold up!” The gruff shout came from behind them. Sahira stuck her head out of the window, then flopped back on the seat.
“It’s Jenks. He’s catching us up on horseback.”
“Can we outrun him?” asked Ned.
Sahira shook her head. They’d changed horses at the post-house at Longford, sending a boy back with the Peels’ pair, but even two fresh hired ones couldn’t outpace a single rider.
“What are we going to do?” asked Ann.
“Anyone got a marmoset?” asked Sahira. At their confused expressions, she just shook her head. “Brazen it out, of course.”
The boys on the driving seat must have reached a similar conclusion to Sahira because the carriage pulled to the side of the road to allow Jenks to catch up.
“What do you think, Jenks?” called Bobby. “Isn’t John a capital hand on the ribbons? That’s all thanks to your teaching.”
“Master Bobby, you’d better have a good reason for taking my carriage without my say-so!” Jenks swung down from the back of his horse and strode toward them. He caught sight of the occupants inside. “What’s this? Some lark to impress your friends? You’re all in big trouble, young masters!”
“You said I should practise,” said John.
“I didn’t mean by taking the carriage on a thirty-mile journey on your own!” thundered Jenks.
“He’s not on his own,” chirped Bobby.
Sahira could tell the “only-took-it-for-driving-practice” argument was about to be struck down by a flash of Jenks’s lightning temper. She pushed open the door and hopped to the ground.
“Mr Jenks?”
The coachman was holding the horses’ heads, ordering John and Bobby to climb down so he could take over and return them all to town for their long overdue thrashing.
“What?” he said curtly.
“They’re doing this for me.” She stood in front of him, offering herself as a target for his anger. He, no doubt, was driven by concern for his horses, left back at the last post-house. She too in his position would feel indignant that her animal friends had suffered.
“We sent Carrie and Ridley home with a reliable boy,” she said reassuringly.
“I know,” he said gruffly. “Saw them myself when I stopped to ask after you.”
“We didn’t drive them too hard. John’s been very careful. He really is a very good coachman.”
Jenks blinked at her. “You think this is about my horses? My horses?” he repeated in astonishment.
Sahira recalculated. “We’ve not put a scratch on the carriage either.”
He looked up to the heavens, appealing for assistance. “I don’t care about the carriage. I don’t even care about the horses. I care that the Home Secretary’s son has disappeared with a bunch of ne’er-dowells on some wild jaunt across England!”
Sahira let it pass that he had just called them “ne’er-do-wells” when they were trying to do their very best. “It’s not a wild jaunt. We’re saving my tigers from certain death!” she countered.
“Tigers!” Now Jenks exploded. “Tigers? Is the girl mad? Shall we take her direct to Bedlam hospital?”
“I certainly am not mad. I own two tigers. Jamrach has stolen them from me – not that he knows he’s stealing,” she admitted.
John had reached her side and touched her arm. “May I have a turn at explaining, Cousin?”
His version of the story was not the same as the one Sahira would have told. He started with her, rather than the tigers, how she had been abandoned by everyone who should have taken care of her: her parents by death, the East India Company through carelessness, the orphanage through cruelty, Mr Cops through penury, and her family because…
“Because my father is a man of rigid, unforgiving views. My mother is unable to act independently, my grandfather is sick, and my remaining relatives are unwilling to acknowledge Sahira.”
Sahira could feel her blush creep from her cheeks right down her neck. She must look like a cherry.
“I couldn’t stand for it any longer, so when I heard that the last thing that she owns, the last thing that means anything to her, had been taken from her, I knew we had to act,” continued John. “That’s why we’re all here. It would be a crime much worse than taking the carriage to let those magnificent creatures be shot for sport. I appeal to you, sir, to your sense of justice, to help us.”
Sahira wanted to applaud his final sentence. Bobby actually did, adding “Hear, hear!”
Jenks swept them all with an uncompromising stare. “Humph!”
That didn’t sound hopeful.
He held out his hand. “My coat.”
Sending Sahira an apologetic look, John slipped out of the coat and passed it over. Jenks shrugged it on.
&
nbsp; “Right. Which way did you say they were going?”
Emily gave a squeal of excitement and hugged Ann. The boys grinned. Sahira, however, too moved to say anything, just pointed.
“That way, is it?” Jenks headed for the driver’s seat. “You’d better not hang around on the side of the road: we’ve got some tigers to catch.”
CHAPTER 19
After having driven the horses for several hours over unfamiliar roads, John took a rest inside, leaving Bobby and Ned to entertain Jenks on top of the carriage.
“Thank you for speaking up for me,” said Sahira while Ann and Emily made quiet conversation between themselves. They did it, she knew, to give her a moment apart with her cousin.
“You don’t have to thank me,” admitted John. “I’ve been feeling wretched about my family’s treatment of you. We’ve been having some terrible arguments, my mother and I on one side, my father on the other. He won’t budge – for my sisters’ sake, he claims.”
Sahira glanced out at the woodland through which they were passing. “I understand.”
John shrugged. “I don’t. I know he never met your father – and you aren’t his blood relation – but you’re family.” He spoke as if this should be enough for anyone.
“So you came for me – not the tigers?”
He nodded. “I came for you. You realize this plan to save your tigers isn’t likely to work, don’t you?”
“I’ll make it work.”
“I know you’ll try – and we’ll help you. It’s good we’ve got Jenks with us now, but Jamrach is likely to drive us off, not to mention what the Newtons will do.”
“I don’t care about those jackals.”
“Well, you should. Even I have heard of Harry Newton – and I live in Mayfair. We’ll be taking on some powerful enemies.”
“But we’re in the right.”
He sighed. “Being right is rarely enough.”
Sahira knew he was only telling the truth but it still made her angry. “Do you want to go home then?”
John gave her a rueful smile. “Not if you need me.”
That made her feel better. “John, you’re quite my favourite cousin.”
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