City of Secrets Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR
Letty dodged her way through the evening crowds. Keeping her eyes straight in front, she avoided the catcalls of the busker boys, who jeered at any girl who was bold enough to walk past. Usually she would have stopped and given as good as she got, but tonight she was in too much of a hurry.
At this late hour, gentlemen and ladies were no longer out on the streets, which were filled by night workers, girls flaunting their shabby silks and boys peddling cheap tobacco and rot gut rumbulin. The blind fiddler still played while his dog kept a keen watch on the cap filled with coins, growling fiercely at anyone who approached empty handed. Letty gave him a quick nod and Blind Matty stared back at her with filmy eyes, only the slightest movement of his lips betraying the fact that he could see everything that was going on.
Good business, if you can get it, Letty thought as she hurried up the hill and into the squares and gardens of Clifton Village. After the hustle and bustle of town it was eerily quiet. Her footsteps echoed in the empty streets. The frost already settling on the paving stones glimmered in the light of the occasional streetlamp. Letty’s fingers tingled with cold; she could feel it striking up through the paper thin soles of her boots.
At least it’s too parky for eels, she consoled herself as she turned into a small street lined with tiny cottages. Even in the dim spluttering of the lamps they shone with colour, pale pinks and blues and cowslip yellows, as pretty as a posy of flowers. Their windows sparkled, their doorknockers were polished brightly, their front steps gleamed.
Letty slowed. There was something about those neat little houses, that made her want to turn tail and run back to the wild wickedness and danger of the quayside. Even the alleyways where the Barbaries lurked or being beaten up by Jeb’s rivals seemed better than walking into Ma Parker’s clean kitchen and being blessed and kissed and made a fuss of.
Why don’t they just go to the Runners? That’s what they’re there for, crimes and finding people and such. she thought. “They know and trust you. And you’re family.” Another voice sounded in her head and if she didn’t know for certain that she was alone she would have sworn that it was Gabriel whispering in her ear.
“Stow it,” Letty said out loud and without another moment’s hesitation marched up to the Parkers’ front door and slammed the knocker down hard.
“Oh Letty, thank goodness you’re here!” Rose Parker’s curls hung limply round her face, her blue eyes were reddened with tears. “Ma’s beside herself with worry. You’ve no idea.”
“That’s what you think,” Letty said grimly as Rose hurried her into the kitchen. Primula Parker sat beside the range, her face in her hands weeping silently. Lily, her middle daughter, knelt at her side, murmuring softly,
“It will be all right, Ma. You’ll see. Violet will be home soon as soon.”
“No she won’t,” Mrs. Parker wailed. “She’ll never be back. We’ll never see her again. Like as not she’s been stolen by slavers and is on her way to work on the plantations as we speak.”
“Ma,” Rose shrieked. “Don’t say such things. Don’t even ever think them.” And all three Parkers broke into a storm of weeping.
“Rats!” Letty said stamping her foot. Rose, Lily and Ma, stopped, their mouths dropping open, their tears dripping silently on their collars. “No slaver would ever take our Violet,” Letty put her hands on her hips. “She’s too mardy. No flesh on her and hands like buttermilk.”
“That’s true enough. I make my girls cover them in goose grease and wear their gloves to bed. Oh Letty, my dear it is good to see you.” Wiping her eyes on a handkerchief Primula Parker sailed towards Letty who stepped smartly to one side to avoid her embrace.
“I came as soon as I got your message,” she said awkwardly.
“And in the middle of the night too. A young girl like you really shouldn’t be out at this time. There’s things that watch and things that fly, never mind those Barbary eels.”
“Hush Ma. You said never to mention them,” Rose said.
“I know, I know, but I can’t help thinking of our Violet out there in the middle of all those dangers.”
“She could be on her way home this very minute,” Letty said quickly, hoping to stem another flood of tears.
“No. Our Violet is never late. You know that, don’t you Letty?”
“I suppose,” Letty admitted. She chewed her lip for a moment then said hesitantly, “You haven’t had words or anything have you?” The Parkers looked at her blankly. “You know, said something that might make her run away.”
“Like you did?” Ma Parker smiled sadly. Letty lifted an apologetic shoulder.
“I didn’t go far and I didn’t really run. You knew where I was and what I was doing. But there must be some reason why Violet’s not come home.” Her stepmother nodded. She wiped her eyes and smoothed down her apron. “Put the kettle on Rose,” she said firmly. “We’ll think better with a cup of tea in front of us. And you Lily get the second best table cloth from the dresser.” She smiled bravely at Letty. “We have a visitor girls and we must maintain our standards.”
“Yes Ma,” Rose and Lily chorused dutifully.
Maintain our standards. Some things never change. Letty bit the inside of her lip to stop herself yelling that none of this mattered that all she cared about was that Violet was safe. “So I’m a visitor now am I?” she said rudely.
“Oh no, Letty dear. You must never consider yourself anything less than family,” Ma Parker was shocked. “From the moment your dear late lamented Pa came and confessed that he had a little one you were one of us. “Another blossom to add to my garland of daughters,” were the very words he said. Which was something of a shock, since we’d not seen him for years. But there you were in a basket on his arm and how could I turn away such a tiny baby? Your Ma couldn’t look after you, he explained. Well we won’t say anything about that. She’s an artist and they’re not like the rest of us. But he was so contrite, so sorry for not being with us for so long, that of course we forgave him and for a while, for a such a short, short while, we were all so very happy.” There was a pause while Ma Parker took out her handkerchief and Letty had to rub her arm over her eyes.
She knew the story, had always known, how her father the handsome, dashing Ezekiel Parker had left his wife and bouquet of daughters and courted the beautiful young singer Kitty O Rourke who everyone knew by her stage name of Bella de Vere. They had eloped and married in a secret ceremony, which unfortunately was illegal since Ezekiel was already married to the mother of his daughters. When Bella discovered that she was having a baby and that the father was not legally her husband, she threw him and the baby out into the street. And so Letty came to be tagged on to the end of the Parker family. Unlike her sisters she was wild and stubborn and very independent. When things went wrong she wanted to make them right.
“So what happened then?” she asked eager to bring the subject back to Violet..
“She’s a good girl,” Ma Parker began and Rose and Lily nodded in agreement. “The quietest of the four you. Never gave me a moment’s worry, until…”
“Until tonight,” Letty supplied.
“Until she joined the Ladies League,” Rose said firmly. Letty frowned.
“Them with the tambourines and such?” she asked.
“No,” this time it was Lily who spoke. “They’re all right. Common but all right,” she glanced at her mother who nodded. “The Ladies League is for Ladies or so Violet said. You must have seen them Letty. They go about in their black dresses and bonnets and sing in the street.”
“Promising milk and honey?” Letty said. Lily nodded.
“They preach to the street children and give them food and new clothes. At least that’s what Violet said.”
“Once she joined up with them, she gave up all her old friends. She was always out singing and preaching and nothing Ma could say would change her. She said it was her mission in life to help those less fortunate than herself,” Rose added. Letty frowned.
“I’ve seen them. At least I’ve seen a woman with a fine carriage and horses and a girl who thinks she’s the bees architraves. Sorry Ma to be vulgar, but she had her eyes popping out with the wonder of it all, while me, I couldn’t see nothing special. I expect I wasn’t refined enough,” she pulled a face, then hastily clapped her hand over her mouth as her stepmother gave her one of her looks.
“Never say that about yourself Letty,” she said sadly. “You are as much a lady as your sisters. When you choose to be.”
Lily took a deep breath. “I don’t really want to say this, but Letty not being refined and ladylike is of more help to us than if she was.”
Letty shot her half sister a grateful look. “She’s right Ma. If you want me to find Violet I’ve got to go out in the streets and talk to the sort of people you wouldn’t want sitting in your front parlour. Someone out there must have seen her. Perhaps she just staying with her new friends for a while,” she added hopefully.
“Then why didn’t she let us know she was going? It’s so unlike Violet. Until this Ladies League she was so caring, so considerate,” her step-mamma cried.
Maybe she can’t. Letty thought. Maybe she’s lying somewhere hurt and can’t get word. Or maybe, and in spite of the warm kitchen she could not suppress a shudder, the eels have got her.
“I’m sure there’s a good reason,” she said jumping to her feet to rid herself of the thought. “Whatever it is, I’ll find her. So don’t you worry.”
“Oh bless you Letty,” Ma Parker swooped down on her with a rustle of petticoats. “Bless you,” she repeated kissing her on her cheeks. With a wriggle and a twist Letty freed herself from her stepmother’s arms.
“If I’m going to find our Violet, I need to get going,” she said firmly.
Stepping out into the night, the cold hit her like a blow between the eyes and for a moment she almost regretted leaving the comfortable little house. Then she straightened her shoulders and set off on the long way home, determined that in the morning she would start the search for her missing step-sister.