Dodger (47 page)

Warrigal stalked to this end of the yard now and I readied myself to jump out and swing the oar in his face. But as he drew near to where I was hidden and was about to spring from, he stopped dead and spoke. He did not shout the words, as he would if he had thought I could be lurking anywhere in the yard. He talked low and steady as if knowing I was close by.

‘You drowned, Jack Dawkins,' he said in his croaking accent. ‘I drowned you.'

I remained still. I was unsure what he meant by this as his English was never good and there was a chance he was telling me he would still drown me yet.

‘Stay dead,' he said, and I heard him moving backwards towards where he had come from. ‘Stay dead and go away.'

And with that I heard his footsteps return towards the gate. I peered around the corner of the shed and saw him leave the yard. Then I dropped to my knees, let go of the oar and breathed out hard as I realised, to my great relief, that he had spared me.

Although it took me a good minute to recover from my near-fight with Warrigal, a fight I was sure I would have lost, I could not bring myself to stay in that place for too long. I was gripped by uncontrollable shivers from the swim and – what was more important – Ruby was in peril and it was I what had put her there.

Lord Evershed was no longer on speaking terms with sanity, this much was clear. I had thought him mad back in Australia when he told me he thought that the Jakkapoor stone held supernatural properties, but this false lunacy had been eclipsed by the true one. Someone who would want to kill a person because of an eighteen-year-old grudge against their parents was not a cove what could be reasoned with and I knew that for Ruby the situation was grave. I did not doubt that as soon as Warrigal reported that he had silenced me for good then Evershed and Pin would head straight to Smithfield Market in their carriage and try to sniff her out. Her only hope was for me to get to her first and steal her away to safety.

Once I was sure all was secure I crept out from behind the shed and made for the gate, thinking about how I would never forgive myself should she be harmed on account of my recklessness. I was already ashamed of my behaviour earlier that day, for breaking
into her home and stealing her treasured gift from Fagin, and now I had as good as peached upon her to some murderous villains. I had betrayed the only person left alive what I still cared for and I had never before felt such guilt. It no longer mattered to me that she had swept me aside and given her heart to another. It only mattered that I loved her.

I trod through the gate of the shipyard all cautious, still suspecting that Warrigal might be lurking behind it as a trap. But as I poked my head around the corner so I could see into the street I heard the thundering noise of hoofs coming towards me and I darted back behind the fence as the carriage passed by. I had enough time to see it was Pin's black coach with Calista at the reins and two figures sat inside. So they was still going to Smithfield to do away with her, I thought as my hopes faded. There was no sign of Warrigal however and so I knew I had to still be watchful.

As soon as they had rocketed off I dashed out into the lane and tried to work out what to do. I was not far from St Katherine's Wharf where Evershed had docked, and I began running towards it knowing that there would be far more people there what might be able to aid me. I would have told anyone my troubles at that moment if it would have helped Ruby, even, God forgive me, a policeman. But I also knew it would be impossible to explain the madness of the situation to anyone and expect them to act with the speed required.

I ran into a lane what was as deserted as the one I had just come from, save for some dogs on chains barking at me to stay away from their property. It was hard to run as my wet clothes was heavy and my legs burned with chafing. I was just considering removing my trousers and other clothes so I could move with more ease when I saw someone on a horse what came galloping in the other direction. I cried out for him to stop, in the hope
that he would hear my story and give me a ride to Smithfield in time to rescue Ruby. I was waving my arms in a manner most frantic as he approached, and I tried to position myself in his way, but he spurred his horse to run faster and I had to jump to the side before I got trampled. I shouted some choice curse words after him as he disappeared up the street but my spirit was knocked and I dropped to my knees on the dusty ground in despair. The situation was hopeless, I told myself, I would never make it to Smithfield in time to save Ruby.

Just then I heard the sound of a horse's whinny and noticed that along this quiet dockside street was a small stable what appeared unguarded. I ran up to it to see if there was anybody about what I could appeal to but none was seen and inside was this large brown horse with a saddle already on it. I could see through the narrow windows in the stable door that it was just the sort of animal I had been taught how to ride back in Australia when the Empire still thought it could make a proper farmer of me. If only I could get to it, I knew, then I could ride it well enough to get me to Smithfield. There was even a chance I would get there before Evershed, knowing the lanes as well as I did. But the walls of the stable was brick and it was attached to a building what seemed to be empty of human souls. The stable door was thick wood and the windows was too narrow to squeeze through. The doors was secured with a large Chubb lock and, as I took it in my hands, I felt there was no way I could expect to smash it off.

And then I remembered that I might not need to. My hands went for my left trouser pocket, hoping hard that they had not fallen out of my pocket during my swim in the Thames, and there, to my great joy, was what I needed above all else. I pulled the chain of skeleton keys out of my pocket, the set what Timothy Pin had given to me to break into Ruby's house with, and what
I had never returned to him, and I tried the lock. It turned on the first try and the horse was mine.

It was true that I had been taught how to ride in Australia but, I soon realised as I struggled to get the nag to head the right way up the quiet lane, I had not learnt my lessons well. The mare was a belligerent beast at first and getting her to take me away from the vicinity of her home was a trial I did not have time for. I swore and cursed at her for not doing as I asked, which may have made matters worse. However, once we was out into the rush of Upper Thames Street I calmed myself and she became more responsive and we was soon racing at great speed and weaving through the other traffic. I imagined that Calista would have taken the busier route along Cheapside and that their carriage was too big to dodge through other vehicles and could not move as nimbly as I was doing. I dared to hope that I could reach Smithfield before them and I made the horse take some narrower lanes what I knew. These cut through the poorer districts and caused many unfortunate coves to have to leap out of our way as we galloped past and an apple merchant what was crossing the lane in front of us overturned his cart as she leapt over it. By the time the horse had made it to over to Newgate Street she and myself was thinking as one and her final dash to Smithfield Market was a magnificent display of equestrian majesty. I pulled her up as we reached the edge of the market and she grew unsettled again as the awful sounds of animal suffering came out from the drover's rings.

‘This is a bloody good horse,' I told a young butcher's boy what had watched us rear up as I went to dismount. ‘She's for riding, not eating.' I handed him the reins and made off into the market crowds.

Smithfield was even noisier and more populated than on the last time I had come here and it was hard to push through as my
eyes searched each stall of the open space for where Ruby might be working. There was many girls of her age selling meat and I saw several what I thought was her through the crowds, only to be see realise how mistaken I was when I got closer. As my eyes searched around I slammed into a man twice my size, looked up to face him and was startled to see he had covered me in blood.

‘Watch where you're going, son,' warned the butcher with the bloody apron and I understood what Pin had meant about this being the perfect place for a kill. Anyone could stride through this place of screams with murder stains all over them and nobody would question it.

Not only was I searching for Ruby but I also kept watch for Pin and Evershed. Although myself and the horse had moved fast through the city I could not be sure if we had beaten them to this place or if Warrigal had gone ahead of them. They may have already found her, I feared, which was why I saw her behind none of the stalls. The more I searched the more frantic I became until I began to feel most sick. I passed by a man with a live pig in his arms what was fighting for its freedom and the sound the animal was making was diabolical.

There was a crate of dead poultry resting on the ground beside one stall and I stepped on this to see over the many heads while ignoring the owners' complaints. I surveyed the sweep of the market, the many pens and stalls what was spread out around me, but could not see Ruby anywhere. And then, just as I was about to step down from off the crate, I saw at the sausage and bacon corner Lord Evershed entering the market ring. He was grimacing in pain and walking with his hand holding some dark towels pressed against his shoulder. He was a tough old bastard and it seemed my gunshot had not disabled him. Beside him was Timothy Pin, and Evershed looked to be issuing him with orders to search the
market in a different direction to himself. I saw, from watching his hand movements as he rested himself against a brick wall, that Evershed was tired and wanted to rest. I lowered my head so there was no chance of either of them seeing me and then heard a voice calling my name.

‘Jack Dawkins,' it said. ‘My goodness!'

I turned and saw her then and she looked just the same as she had that day in this very market three weeks ago. She was wearing the same outfit, although her expression was much more annoyed than it had been then. However, I was so glad to see her alive that I just jumped down from the box and ran over to her without caring.

‘Ruby, I've got something to tell you that's important. But we need to get out of here first.'

‘Oh no, Jack,' she said with dismay. ‘Not this again. I do still like you, but I can't—'

‘It ain't that,' I said, speaking fast and grabbing her wrist. ‘Some people are coming to hurt you and we need to
move
!'

Ruby resisted and her face became more aggressive. There was people pushing past all around us and it would not have been easy to get her to shift even had she wanted to.

‘Did you break into my room this morning?' she challenged me and pulled away.

‘Huffam tell you that?' I asked.

‘No, he did not! I saw it myself when I went back to change into this dress. My doll ain't there, the one you was on about last night, and there's sawdust everywhere.'

‘Yeah, that was me,' I admitted. ‘And you have no clue as to how sorry I am for it. Come with me and I'll tell you the whole story.'

‘I'm not going nowhere with you, Dodger,' she said. ‘You're trouble.'

‘How very right you are, young lady,' said a voice coming out of the crowd behind her. ‘He's a damnable nuisance.'

I saw the glint of the blade moving towards her before I saw Timothy Pin; it was low and ready to strike. But my fist was on his wrist before it could reach her red dress and I punched him good and hard right in his posh face.

Ruby screamed as she saw me assault a finely dressed gentleman in a public place for what must have seemed like no reason. The gathered throng of marketeers all turned and cried out in disapproval but there was no time to explain as Pin was quick recover himself and still had the knife in his hand. He swung at my face with it but I darted out of the way and returned with another punch right under his chin. The strike caused him to drop the blade and stagger backwards, crashing against the fence of a pigpen.

‘I boxed at Cambridge, Dawkins,' he sneered as he jumped up again, wiping some blood off his face. ‘Did you?' And then he adopted the pose of a well-trained pugilist and raised his fists up to me.

But if he thought that Broughton's rules would defend him against a boy what had learnt how to fight in the slums then he was much mistaken. I charged right into him and showed him how it was done in the rookeries. He seemed most taken aback by the ferocity of my attack as my left fist struck into his face and the right landed straight in his gut. He tried his counter-attack and landed some strikes of his own but my blood was so hot that I did not even notice them. I felt as though I was taking on the whole ruling class with every hit and at last, once his smooth hairless face had been battered enough, I threw my final punch and knocked him backwards through the wooden fence and into the pen with the rest of the swine.

A cheer went up from some of the rougher onlookers and,
although the owner of the pigs swore at me as he struggled to stop his livestock from escaping, I was given many compliments from coves what had been impressed to see such quality street fighting. I turned my back on the defeated Pin, who would not be getting up in a hurry, seeing how he was busy being trampled by trotters, and looked for Ruby. The crowd was even thicker now with butchers patting me on the back, but I just glimpsed her red hat some distance away and vanishing off in the other direction. I cursed aloud to see that she was headed out of the market and towards where I had last seen Lord Evershed.

I barged my way through the throng and took after her. It was not easy as my way was obstructed by all sorts of dithering coves what slowed me down, but I shoved them aside and kept following. Ruby was far ahead now and I saw her pass the spot where Evershed had been and continue in the direction of her home. There was no sign of either him or Warrigal and I kept running as she went left into Cow Cross Lane. But, just as Ruby turned the corner and vanished from view I saw the terrible vision of that large black coach cut across from the opposite street. Through the open window I could see Evershed leaning out and giving Calista instructions to pursue. I shouted out Ruby's name in panic and ran towards where they had gone but before I could get to the corner I was pounced upon by three tall men in uniforms.