The Mud Rose

by Renee Duke

  “Well now, that wasn’t right. Not right at all,” the policeman conceded. “But he’d just had a nasty experience. Seeing a lot of people coming toward him, he might well have panicked. Especially since some of ’em was of the rougher sort, and more likely to take the organ grinder’s word than his.”

  “Which makes him a coward, as well as a cad.”

  “Happen it does, madam. Still, he’s gone now, and no one seems to have sustained any real harm, so I’d like you all to be moving along now, please.”

  “No real harm!” Paige exclaimed. “What about Eustachio?”

  The policeman nodded toward the shop girl, who had just finished tying Eustachio’s own neckerchief around his head. “This young lady seems to have bandaged him up nicely, miss. I would suggest he get hisself home to bed. Now move along, everyone. Move along.”

  Grumbling, the onlookers did so.

  “You probably should be getting home,” the shop girl said as the policeman strolled off. “Where do you live?”

  “Long ways. But my Leola, she is in the park. Not far off, selling the hot chestnuts. She will take care of me. You will fetch her, per favore?”

  The shop girl nodded and hurried off.

  “Was that the guy you saw before?” Paige asked a trembling Hetty.

  “Didn’t get too good a look. But it were him. I know it were him. He’s found us!”

  “Not yet he hasn’t,” said Dane. “If he knew where we were staying, he wouldn’t have had to ask.”

  “And I doubt he’ll risk asking again,” said Paige.

  “You know this man?” Eustachio asked.

  Hetty told him how she and Pip had seen a man they thought might be Jack the Ripper.

  “Peelers didn’t believe us no more’n that ’un believed you. What we gonna do now?” she asked her friends.

  “Lie low until the ship sails,” said Paige. “We’re taking Hetty and Pip to Canada to start a new life,” she added for Eustachio’s benefit.

  “Good idea,” said Eustachio, nodding. “I will help. When my Leola come, we go home and talk to her brothers. Six she has. All big, strong fellows. Tonight, two will stay near Signor Hollingsworth’s house to be sure you are safe.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Shortly afterward, Leola arrived to take care of Eustachio and the children went back to the house for tea.

  “Just in time,” said Mrs. Granger. “Hang up your coats and sit down.”

  Paige thought it best not to worry either her, or Pip, with an account of recent happenings. When asked if Darwin had liked his walk, she just said the goat had got a lot of exercise.

  Mrs. Granger read from the fairy tale book again that night. She also put on a hand shadow show featuring many of the animals they had seen at the zoo.

  The intricacy of the images impressed Paige.

  “Wow, the most our mum and dad could ever manage was a duck or a rabbit. Can you show me how to do some of those?”

  Mrs. Granger beamed with pleasure. “Certainly. But then you must be off to bed. The Lord Mayor’s Show is on tomorrow. After that we’ll visit the British Museum. With luck, the weather will be better than it was today. There’s even a wind getting up now.”

  Before going to bed, Paige looked out the window of the room she shared with Hetty. Standing under the gas light, with their collars turned up against the cold night air, were two tall, powerfully built men. As the girls watched, one moved into the shadows; the other crossed over to the house.

  “Think them’s Eustachio’s brothers?’ Hetty asked.

  “Must be. Look pretty capable, don’t they? Our friend from the park won’t be bothering us tonight.”

  The weather was not better the next day. Londoners awoke to pouring rain that did not clear until mid-morning.

  The skies were still ominously dark at noon when people began assembling for the Lord Mayor’s Procession. It was not, Mrs. Granger informed the children, as lavish a spectacle as it had once been. The new Lord Mayor did not approve of spending large sums on what he felt were circus elements. Disgruntled mutterings from the crowd indicated many Londoners were as opposed to this change as their descendants would be to another mayor’s stand on pigeons over a century later.

  Hetty was among the critics. “It were better last year,” she said after it was over.

  Much of the crowd seemed to be in agreement, but the procession’s shortcomings were soon overshadowed. By the time Mrs. Granger and the children came out of the British Museum, people had found a new topic of conversation.

  “Did you hear? There’s been a murder in Miller’s Court.”

  “Were it the Ripper?”

  “Yeah. They say this un’s even more brutal than the others.”

  “That’s right. But indoors this time. Police had to break the door down.”

  Mrs. Granger hurried her charges on before they could hear any more details.

  “Come along,” she said. “Don’t you listen to a lot of silly talk. Whatever’s happened, it’s for grown-ups to worry about.”

  “Or kids what’s seen him,” a pale Hetty said in a low voice.

  Back at the house, Phoebe was just coming in with Darwin.

  “I have a message for the children. Eustachio said to tell them he’s feeling better, and his wife’s brothers will be on the job again tonight, whatever that means.”

  “What does it mean?” Mrs. Granger asked Paige.

  “Oh, er, well, a man roughed Eustachio up yesterday. We were afraid it might have been the Ripper.”

  “We’ve been concerned about the Ripper for a while now,” Jack confided. “Eustachio said if it made us feel better, he’d have his brothers-in-law watch the house.”

  Mrs. Granger shook her head. “It’s a sad thing when children are so frightened they don’t feel safe anywhere. No one will be happier than me when they catch that horrible man. Until they do, we just won’t talk about it.”

  But London was abuzz with the news, and even Mrs. Granger and Phoebe fell into discussion when they thought the children were not around.

  The very next day, Paige put out a hand to stop the others going into the kitchen, from which the two women’s comments on the latest revelations were loud enough to be heard.

  “The butcher’s boy was saying that a pardon’s being offered to ‘anyone other than the murderer’ who can help the police with their inquiries. Does that mean he might have had an accomplice, Mrs. Granger?”

  “Some people think so. What’s that you have there?”

  “Letters. Two of them. One’s for you, from Mr. Hollingsworth.”

  “Oh? Let’s see what he has to say.”

  “I don’t believe it,” she said, a minute or so later. “According to this, Mr. Hollingsworth could be gone until Christmas. He’s apparently met ‘an extraordinary fellow with some very interesting ideas’. He’s going off to some manor way out on the moors to discuss the impact alum mining has had on the land. Not a word about the children. No, ‘Have they arrived?’, or ‘How are they getting on?’ He’s probably forgotten they’re here. Of course, if he’s found some new craze, he’s probably forgotten about them altogether.”

  “Well, he is like that, Mrs. Granger.”

  “I know he is, but it’s still vexing. Oh, here are the children,” she said, as Paige beckoned to the others and stepped into the kitchen to let their presence be known. “I’ve just had a letter from your godfather. There’s another here for a Miss Patience Wolverton.”

  “It must be from Barnardo’s.” Paige opened the letter and scanned it. “The governor’s got us on a ship. We sail from Liverpool in three days’ time. We’re supposed to meet a Mrs. Bathurst and a Miss Elwood by Euston Arch. It says a couple of trunks will be coming for Hetty and Pip.”

  She looked inquiringly at Phoebe, who nodded.

  “They’re by the stairs, miss. I was just going to take them up.”

  The wooden trunks contained everything Barnardo’s considered essential for life in a ne
w land. In addition to toiletry items, handkerchiefs, stationery, a Bible, and a hymn book there were socks, shoes, boots, gloves, undergarments, dresses, shirts, suits, hats, and coats.

  Hetty and Pip had never owned so many articles of clothing in their lives.

  “How come these trunks is lined with tin?” asked Hetty, carefully repacking her new belongings.

  “It’s to keep out the damp,” Mrs. Granger told her. “You could be at sea for ten days or more. I’ll get the atlas out later and show you how far it is.”

  There was a little space in each trunk for personal treasures, such as Pip’s paper clip and rocking horse, and Hetty’s hat, for which Mrs. Granger managed to find a hat box.

  “But what about you three?” Mrs. Granger asked the others. “You can’t set sail with just the few clothes I got for you after you lost your luggage.”

  “We didn’t lose all of it,” said Jack. “Just a couple of valises. Our trunks went straight from Windsor to Liverpool.”

  “Oh? I’ll just look you out some other valises, then. We’ve several in the attic.”

  The latest murder made it difficult for anyone to forget about the Ripper, but Mrs. Granger did her best to ensure her charges had little time for brooding. While looking for the valises, she came across several toys that had once belonged to young Hollingsworths, and these proved quite diverting. Pip was especially delighted with a large wooden rocking horse that looked much like his brass one. She also taught them some songs and dances and let everyone help her bake treats to take on the journey.

  The more she did, the worse Paige felt about deceiving such a kindly soul.

  “Me too,” Dane said, when she spoke to him about it. “I think even Jack’s having a few twinges of conscience, but we don’t really have much choice. We have to help Hetty and Pip. And she is very fond of them. Especially Pip. I’m sure she’d want him and his sister to have a better life, regardless of how it came about.”

  The next day, a carriage Mrs. Granger had hired came to fetch her and the little band of travellers. Phoebe waved until it was out of sight, and at Euston Square, some familiar figures were waiting.

  “Rosie,” Hetty and Pip cried, running to her.

  “How’d you get here?” Hetty asked.

  ‘With Harry. Rode on the back of his cart, like you did to Windsor. That young Barnardo bloke, Cedric, told me when you was going, and where from, so Ruby went round to ask Harry if he’d bring me.”

  “Ta, Harry.”

  “Happy to do it, Het. Wanted to see you off m’self.”

  “Where’s Malachi?” Pip asked Alf, who had also hitched a ride with Harry.

  “Well, now, he’s a canal horse, Pip. He don’t like busy streets. But if you shakes my hand, he’ll smell you on me when I gets back to him, and that’ll be just as good as a good-bye, won’t it?”

  “S’pose.” He contented himself with petting Harry’s horse, Barney.

  After a few minutes, Mrs. Granger nodded toward the huge Greek-styled arch in front of Euston station. Two women stood beside it, one about sixty, the other close to forty. Clustered around them were five little girls aged six to twelve.

  “I think those must be the ladies we’re supposed to be meeting. Perhaps we should make ourselves known to them.”

  The ladies were Winifred Bathurst, a childless widow, and her spinster niece, Prudence Elwood. The girls were Elizabeth, Jane, Elsie, Daisy, and Abigail.

  Mrs. Granger made the introductions for their group.

  “Ah, yes,” said Mrs. Bathurst. “The older ones are Mr. Hollingsworth’s relatives. The ones who have been progressively educated.”

  “‘Progressively educated’.” Miss Elwood sniffed disapprovingly. “In America, I suppose. All that sort of nonsense comes from there.”

  “We’re Canadians,” said Paige.

  “Is there a difference?”

  Paige would have replied, but Dane nudged her and whispered, “Let it go, Paige.”

  “They’re delightful children,” Mrs. Granger told the two women. “Highly intelligent, and very…resourceful. As for Hetty and Pip, they’re absolute poppets. Their great aunt and some friends have come to see them off.”

  Mrs. Bathurst’s jaw tightened. “That’s usually a mistake. It just unsettles both parties and makes the children difficult to handle on the journey.”

  Old Rosie drew them to her defensively. “They’ll be good. They’s always good.”

  “And they have a right to say good-bye,” said Mrs. Granger.

  “Then I suggest they say it, and let us get on.”

  “I can tell these two are going to be a real joy for the next ten days,” Paige remarked.

  She thought she had spoken softly, but Miss Elwood had sharp ears. She shot Paige a reproachful look.

  Everyone stood watching as Hetty and Pip tearfully severed their last ties with their old life. Finally they were ready to go, but as they passed under the arch, Pip looked back to wave at Old Rosie and was again overcome by the finality of it all. Wrenching away, he raced back and flung his arms around her.

  “No,” he cried, when Hetty came to fetch him. “I doesn’t want to go away, Het. What’s Rosie gonna do without us? We helps her when the rheumatics is bad. And cheers her up when she’s sad, and—”

  “There, there, luv. Don’t you go fretting about me,” said Old Rosie, patting him. “I’ll be all right.”

  “Course she will,” said Harry. “Now that me and Nellie’s moved out of Whitechapel, we’re but a stone’s throw from your Old Rosie. We can pop by and help her out. Alf here’ll look in on her from time to time too.”

  “And so will I,” promised Mrs. Granger.

  “So off you go to Canada,” said Alf. “They’ll be horses there, Pip. Lots of ’em. Happen you’ll even have one of your own.”

  Mrs. Bathurst came up behind them. “First we’ll have to get someone to take on a naughty little boy who runs away. I knew this was a mistake,” she added, prying Pip from Old Rosie’s grasp.

  “Let him alone!” said Hetty.

  “Don’t you take that tone with me, girl. I—”

  “Obviously know nothing about children,” interrupted Mrs. Granger. “I raised four. You do have to make some allowances when they’re upset.”

  “The train does not care if he is upset. It will leave on schedule.”

  “It’s not going for fifteen minutes yet,” Paige protested. “By then—”

  “Kindly do not interfere,” said Mrs. Bathurst, whose reproachful look was even more reproachful than that of her niece. “This is not your business.”

  “It is her business,” said Mrs. Granger. “My employer, Mr. Clive Hollingsworth, is Hetty and Pip’s sponsor. Were you not informed that he wanted Paige and the two boys to be involved with almost every aspect of their journey? And their ultimate placement?”

  “I was, and I think it’s simply outrageous.”

  “Yes, well, I agree that it’s a rather heavy a burden to put on young shoulders, but there it is. The stipulation has been made. Mr. Hollingsworth has great faith in their abilities. And I’m beginning to see how it might be good for Hetty and Pip to have friends looking out for them in a strange new land.”

  She bent down to Pip’s level. “I think Pip’s ready to go now, aren’t you, dear? And don’t worry. I’ll keep in touch with your Auntie Rosie, and through her, with you.”

  Thus reassured, Pip took Hetty’s hand and allowed himself to be led off.

  Inside the station, Mrs. Bathurst waylaid a porter and got him to take everyone’s luggage. Before boarding the train, she lectured the children on proper behaviour.

  “You will remain quietly in your seats. There will be no loud talking. There will be no complaints of boredom or stiff limbs. Girls will not giggle, and boys will not engage in horseplay. You will do what you are told when you are told, and strive to keep your chaperones and travelling companions in sight at all times. We will be occupying two compartments. The first five girls will
be with me, Mr. Hollingsworth’s little group with Miss Elwood.”

  “Guess she lost the toss,” muttered Paige.

  “Do you have something to say, Patience?” Mrs. Bathurst inquired.

  “Er, no.”

  “‘No, Mrs. Bathurst,’ would be more appropriate. Your progressive education does not appear to have included manners.”

  “I doubt it’s included anything of value,” said Miss Elwood. “But then, any kind of higher learning is wasted on a girl. What possible use can girls have for history, and philosophy, and higher mathematics?”

  “Lots,” Paige declared. “Didn’t you study any of those things?”

  “Of course not. My governess taught me to read and write, and saw to it I reached the same level of competency in music, sewing, and drawing as other young ladies. I certainly did not receive as comprehensive an education as my brothers. Nor did I expect to. Subjects entailing logic or complexity of thought are best left to men.”

  Responding to a nod from Mrs. Bathurst, she waved her hand to signal the end of the discussion.

  “But—” Paige began.

  “Not now, Paige,” Dane said as the two women began herding their charges onto the train. He grinned. “Change takes time, and you know it did change, so just act like a good little Victorian girl and accept that, right now, this is the way it is.”

  “Shut-up,” said Paige, earning herself reproachful looks from both their chaperones.

  Chapter Seventeen

  At Liverpool, everything was hustle and bustle. The heavy luggage went on to the docks, leaving the travellers with only their small bags to carry. Before proceeding to the landing stage from which tenders would take passengers out to the ship, Mrs. Bathurst went into a shabby shop off a little lane. Inside, tin ware dangled from the ceiling, canned goods and other small commodities lined the shelves, and rolled up mattresses and piles of blankets were heaped on the floor. Upon request, the proprietor gathered up four straw-filled mattresses with attached pillows, selected six coarse blankets, and strung together six sets of utensils consisting of a mug, a plate, a knife, a fork, a spoon, a washbasin, a water can, and an item that was to be employed if its owner became seasick.