The two women exchanged cool murmurous greetings and all three of them lapsed into silence. It was only a few minutes, however, until the coach stopped, and as she got out Amber saw that they were at the edge of the river. They climbed swiftly into the barge that waited there and the waterman started upstream; it was perfectly black and moonless and though none of them could see the others Amber felt Bess staring insistently at her and could sense her jealous hostility.
Much I care, she thought, if she likes my company or not!
But she did not expect to stay long with Black Jack. For somehow, she was sure, she could get him to give her four hundred pounds. He seemed to have so much money, and so little use for it, she was convinced she would have it from him in less than a fortnight. And then she would leave him—though what she would do or where she would go she had no idea. She had even lost the names of the women Lord Carlton had said would take care of her during her lying-in.
At the foot of Water Lane they disembarked and Bess started out ahead up the steep stone steps to the street level. Amber, holding the bird-cage in one hand and her skirts in the other, cautiously felt her way along until all at once Black Jack—who had been delayed while he paid the bargeman—come up behind her, swung her into his arms and went up as swiftly as though it had been broad daylight. They passed through the gardens which had belonged to the old Carmelite monastery that had once stood there, and finally came into a narrow street.
Here, there was light and noise, and great street signs indicated that almost every other building was a tavern. Through the square-paned windows they could see men playing cards, a naked woman dancing, two other women stripped to the waist and fighting before a crowd of onlookers that cheered and threw coins. The sound of fiddles blended with screams and laughter and the wailing of babies. They were in Ram Alley, Whitefriars, a part of the district which gave the privilege of sanctuary to criminals and debtors. Those who lived there preferred to call it, ironically, Alsatia.
They stopped before one of the houses, Bess opened the door with a key and Black Jack set Amber down. She stepped inside and instantly the two women turned to look at each other.
Bess, Amber saw, was no more than her own age, and of about the same height. Her hair, which was abundant, was dark brown and curly and fell below her shoulders; her eyes were blue and she had a small piquant face, somewhat too broad at the cheekbones, with a nose that turned up saucily. Her figure was round almost to plumpness and her breasts were full-blown. Amber thought that she looked vulgar—an ill-bred slut.
But she was uneasy and angry herself to be put under the girl's scrutiny. For though she had used Black Jack's comb and scrubbed her face she was still miserably dirty, and now she could feel a louse begin to bite. But she would have died rather than reach down to scratch. As it was, Bess lifted her brows and smiled faintly to indicate that she considered her no very formidable rival.
Pox on her! thought Amber furiously. Just wait till I've had a bath, Mrs.! We'll see whose nose is out of joint then, I'll warrant you! Her speech was taking on the colour of her surroundings, reflecting Lord Carlton and Almsbury, Luke Channell and his aunt, Moll Turner and Newgate, and now, Black Jack and Alsatia.
But if Black Jack was conscious of the resentment crackling between the two women he gave no indication of it. "I'm thirsty," he said. "Where's Pall?"
Bess shouted the name and within a few moments a girl pushed open the door which led into another room and stood sleepily on the threshold. Evidently the kitchen-slavey, she was barefooted and ill-kempt, and her hair hung in greasy yellow streaks about her neck. But at the sight of Black Jack she blushed and smiled self-consciously and dropped him a curtsy.
"Glad t'see ye back, sir."
"Thanks, Pall. I'm glad to be back. Can we have something to drink? I'll have cherry-brandy. What do you want, sweetheart?" He turned to Amber.
Bess scowled swiftly at that and the next instant she was berating Pall, pouring her jealous spleen over her. "What've you been doing, you lazy slut! Why aren't those dishes cleaned?" She pointed to a table littered with dishes and bones and nutshells, glasses and wine-bottles. "By Jesus, you'll mend your ways or I'll give you a flogging— D'ye hear me?"
Pall winced, evidently believing her, but Black Jack interrupted the tirade. "Leave the girl alone, Bess. Maybe she's been busy in the kitchen."
"Busy sleeping, I'll warrant you!"
"Bring a bottle of Rhenish for Mrs. Channell, and Bess will have—"
"Brandy!" snapped Bess, and gave Amber a quick furious glare.
Amber turned her back and went to sit down. She felt tired and listless and suffered acutely from knowing that she had never been less attractive. She wished only that she might get away from them all and go somewhere to sleep, and then in the morning have a fine warm bath with soap-suds enough to float on. Oh, to be really clean again!
Black Jack and Bess began to talk then, but it was in the underworld cant of which Amber had learnt only a few words. She heard their voices but did not try to understand what they were saying. Instead, she looked idly about her at the furnishings of the room. It was crowded with a vast number of chairs and tables and stools. Half-a-dozen cupboards and hutches ranged the walls. There were innumerable portraits in heavy gold frames and several more stood stacked in a pile against the fireplace. Some of the pieces were obviously expensive, but others were so old or so badly scarred and broken as to be of no possible value and very little use.
Pall brought the glasses and bottles and they drank a toast to the night's success. Amber then told Black Jack that she was tired and he asked Pall to light her upstairs to the west-center bedroom, kissing her casually when she left. Even that made Bess fume and draw down her brows. But Amber hoped the girl might have her way that night, for she did not care to be troubled with him.
Amber sat in a great wooden tub full of warm water and soap, sought out the lice and cracked them while they were wet and immobilized. Her hair, just washed had been wrung out and skewered onto the top of her head. On a gold and white brocade chair beside her Black Jack sat, idly flipping a knife into the floor between his feet. Amber gave a wave of one arm that surveyed the room.
"Why d'you have so much of everything?"
For the bedroom was as overfurnished as the parlour downstairs, and in much the same helter-skelter fashion. The bed was hung luxuriously with violet velvet and the counterpane was yellow satin; several of the chairs were covered with violet velvet and another with crimson, fringed with gold tassels. There were at least two dozen portraits on the walls, a great many mirrors, three wardrobes, and two screens.
"Mother Red-Cap's a pawn-broker. The house is furnished with what she takes in—the portrait of grand-dad always seems to go first." He grinned and gave a lift of one eyebrow to indicate the numerous old gentlemen in stiff black doublets and white ruffs who looked down from the walls.
Amber laughed. Her spirits had revived and she was once more full of energy and optimism and self-confidence. She knew that she should not be in a tubful of hot water, for Sarah had always said that sitting in a warm bath was sure to bring on a baby before its time, but she was enjoying herself so that she had no intention of moving for at least another half hour.
"Who lives here? Anyone besides Mother Red-Cap and Bess and Pall?" The corridor down which Pall had led her had been a long one and the house seemed to be quite large.
"Mother Red-Cap lets out the four extra bedrooms. A man who coins false money has the third floor and there's a fencing-school on the fourth."
This was not the first Amber had heard of Mother Red-Cap. Mother Red-Cap had sent the money to bribe the Jailor. Mother Red-Cap had just been elected Mayor of Sanctuary and the night before had been hearing a case at the George and Dragon. Mother Red-Cap wanted to see her as soon as she was dressed.
At last Amber stood up, dried herself, and slipped into one of Black Jack's East Indian dressing-robes; both of them laughed to see how it trailed on the floor and the s
leeves hung below her knees. Then, giving her a wink, Jack went to a chest and lifted out a large box which he put into her hands. She took it and glanced at him questioningly. He was standing there with his hands thrust into his pockets, rocking back on his heels and grinning broadly, waiting for her to open it.
Excited at the prospect of a present, Amber laid the box on a chest, untied the strings and tossed the crackling papers aside. With a cry of delight she took out a green taffeta gown sewn with appliqued scrolls of black velvet. Underneath lay a black velvet cloak, a smock and two petticoats, green silk stockings and green shoes.
"Oh, Black Jack! It's beautiful!" She reached up to kiss him and he bent rather awkwardly, like a bashful boy, for he was always afraid of hurting her. "But how'd you ever get it so quick?" Madame Darnier had never completed a gown in less than a week.
"I was abroad early this morning. There's a second-hand dealer in Houndstitch where the quality sell their clothes."
"Oh, Black Jack—and just the colour I love!" She slipped off the robe and began to dress hastily, chattering all the while. "It looks like the leaves on the apple-tree that used to grow outside my bedroom window. How'd you know green's my favourite colour?"
But a moment later her face fell in disappointment. The gown would not fasten over her stomach and the sight of herself in a mirror—something she had not seen for over a month—made her want to cry. It seemed to her that she had been pregnant forever.
"Oh!" she cried in exasperation, and stamped her foot. "How ugly I look! I hate having a baby!"
But Black Jack assured her soothingly that she was the prettiest thing he had ever seen, and they went downstairs to meet Mother Red-Cap. They found her seated at one of the tables with her back to them and a candle at her elbow, writing in an enormous ledger which lay spread open before her. As Black Jack spoke to her she turned and then immediately got to her feet and came forward. She gave Amber a friendly kiss on the cheek and smiled her approval at Black Jack, who stood there proudly beaming over both of them.
"A gentry-more she is, Jack." She glanced over her figure. "When do you reckon?"
"About two months, I think."
Amber was looking at her wide-eyed, amazed to find that she bore no resemblance at all to the dissolute old harridan she had been expecting. She did not, in fact, look any more vicious than Aunt Sarah. Mother Red-Cap was fifty-five years old but her skin was clear and smooth and her eyes snapped brightly. Smaller than Amber, her body was trim and compact, and all her movements suggested a fund of unexpressed energy. The clothes she wore were plain neat ones made of cotton and wool with starched collar and cuffs and apron, and there was not a jewel in sight. A bright red cap covered every wisp of hair and Black Jack had told Amber that in almost ten years he had never seen her without it.
"I'll have a midwife for you in good time, then," she said, "and we'll find a woman to take the baby."
"Take the baby where!" cried Amber, suddenly on the defensive.
"Don't be alarmed, my dear," said Mother Red-Cap reasonably, and the accent with which she spoke reminded Amber of Lord Carlton and his friends. "Who'd want a baby to live in the Friars? Most of those who do die before their first year is out. We can get a cleanly responsible cottager's wife who will care for the child and let you visit him whenever you like. Oh, it's a very satisfactory arrangement—many women do it," she assured her, as Amber still did not look convinced. "Now," she turned briskly and went back to her ledger. "Tell me your full name."
Black Jack spoke up quickly. "Mrs. Channell is all she wants to give. I'll pay the garnish-fee for her."
Amber had not told even Black Jack her real name and he did not seem to care for he said that his own was assumed and that any person of sense kept his name secret in Alsatia.
"Very well. No one here is interested in prying into the past. Black Jack tells me you're in debt for four hundred pound and want to pay it so that you can leave the Friars. I don't blame you—I think you're too pretty to stay here long, and I assure you I'll put the means of earning that sum in your way, just as soon as you're able to go abroad." Amber started to ask her how, but Mother Red-Cap went crisply on. "Meanwhile, we'll have to do something to get rid of that accent. A girl from the country is generally assumed to be a fool here in London, and that's a handicap to the best laid plans. I think that Michael Godfrey might make a good tutor for her, don't you, Black Jack? And now, my dear, make yourself comfortable with us and ask for whatever you want or need. I'll leave you now; this is the first of the month and I must call upon my tenants."
She closed the ledger, put it into a drawer of the table, and locked it with a key taken from her apron-pocket. Then tossing a cloak over her arm, she smiled at them both and went to the door. Once again she turned to give Amber a sweeping glance, shook her head, slightly, and remarked, "A pity you're so far gone with child. Three months ago you'd have brought a hundred pound as a maidenhead."
She went out and though Black Jack burst into hearty laughter Amber turned to him with an angry light in her eyes. "What the devil does that old woman intend? If she thinks I'm going to earn my way out of here by—"
"Don't get excited. She doesn't—I'll see to that. But once a bawd, always a bawd. And Mother Red-Cap's such a matchmaker I'll swear she could have married the Pope to Queen Elizabeth."
What Mother Red-Cap's real name was, Amber never learned, but very obviously Black Jack not only liked her but had a strong masculine admiration for her success, her uncompromising determination, her ability to survive and prosper no matter what happened to others. But Amber could not understand why the woman lived so frugally when she did not need to, or why she had chosen a life of chastity after what must have been an exciting youth. For those reasons she felt a frank but unexpressed contempt for her and decided that she could not be so very clever after all.
But nevertheless she exerted herself to make Mother Red-Cap like her and believed that she was succeeding very well. For Black Jack had flatly refused, the first time she broached the subject, to give her money enough to pay her debt—and it had led to a quarrel between them.
"I think you want me to stay in this damned place!"
"I certainly do. What d'ye think I got you out of jail for? You're an ungrateful little bitch!"
"What if I am! Who wants to stay in this filthy hole all their life! I hate it! And I will get out! Just you wait and see! If you won't give it to me I'll ask Mother Red-Cap for the money! She doesn't use it and she'll lend me four hundred pound, I warrant you!"
He was a formidable giant who might have snapped her bones like toothpicks, but he threw back his head and laughed. "Go ahead and ask her if you like! But believe me, she'd as soon lend you four hundred of her teeth."
Chapter Twelve
One afternoon while Black Jack was away Amber sought out Mother Red-Cap. When she was home, which was not often, she was almost always employed in working on her ledger, entering long columns, filling out bills and receipts by the dozen, and she did not like to be interrupted. Now, as Amber approached, she made her a signal to be silent and continued running her pen up a line of neatly written figures, her lips moving as she did so, and then finally she set down the total and turned to Amber.
"What is it, my dear? Can I do something for you?"
Amber had prepared and rehearsed her speech, but now she cried impulsively: "Yes! Lend me four hundred pound so I can get away from here! Oh, please Mother Red-Cap! I'll pay it back, I promise you!"
Mother Red-Cap observed her coolly for a moment, and then she smiled. "Four hundred pound, Mrs. Channell, is a large sum of money. What do you offer for security?"
"Why—I'll give you a promise, on paper, or anything you like. And I'll pay it back with interest," she added, for she had learned by now that Interest was both God and Sovereign to Mother Red-Cap. "I'll do anything. But I've got to have it!"
"I don't believe you understand the business of pawn-brokerage my dear. It may seem to you that four hundred pound is
an insignificant sum to borrow. It is however, a very large sum to lend upon no better security than the promise of a young girl to repay. I don't doubt your intentions, but I think you would find it more difficult to come by four hundred pound than you imagine now."
Surprised, disappointed, Amber was angry. "Why!" she cried. "You said yourself you could have got a hundred pound for me!"
"And so I probably could. More than half that hundred however, would have been mine for arranging the match, not yours. But to be frank with you, it was merely an idle thought. Black Jack's told me very flatly he intends keeping you for himself and I believe, my dear, you should feel some gratitude toward him. It cost him three hundred pound to get you out of Newgate."
"Three hundred— Why, he never told me that!"
"And so I think that while Black Jack's here we won't be using you that way."
"While he's here? Is he going somewhere?"
"Not very soon, I hope. But someday he'll ride up Tyburn Hill in a cart—and he won't come down again."
Amber stared at her horror-struck. She knew that he had been burnt on the left thumb, which meant he was to hang for the next offense. But he had escaped again in spite of that and he had a reckless audacity which made her think of him as almost indestructible. Now, however, she was thinking not of him but of herself.
"That's what's going to happen to all of us! I know it is! We're all going to hang!"
Mother Red-Cap lifted her brows. "We might, I suppose. But we're far more likely to die of consumption here in Alsatia." She turned away and picked up her pen and though Amber lingered a few moments she knew that she had been dismissed, and went to climb the stairs back up to her bedroom.
She was discouraged but not beaten. She still intended to escape somehow, and comforted herself with the reminder that she had made the far more difficult escape from Newgate.
Alsatia lay just east of the Temple Gardens and could be reached from them by going down a narrow broken flight of steps. Low as it was and close to the river it was perpetually invaded by a thick dingy-yellow fog that hung to the very pavements, seeped into the bones, stuck in the nostrils and made it difficult even to breathe. Ram Alley, where Mother Red-Cap's house was, smelt of stinking cook-shops and the lye-soap used by the laundresses who made that street a headquarters.