experienced a foreboding of doom as she saw where they had halted. Beyond the wharf was an area
she had traversed in the guise of a homeless waif when she had gone in search ofâher father. It seemed logical that she should be brought here, for Alsatia was a refuge for every sort of renegade, murderer, vagabond, or strumpet. By the Queenâs own edict, it had become an area exempt from any law or official who might be wont to carry out justice here and, as a result, it offered a safe haven for her abductors. In Alsatia the pair would be among their own kind.
Spence stepped across to the landing and, beneath the light of a dim-lit lantern, secured the painter around a heavy piling. Fitch followed more clumsily and then turned to help their hostage from the craft, but Elise snatched away from his reaching hands and shook her head angrily. For the moment she had no choice but to resign herself to being their captive, but she would not be an accommodating one.
âI shall see to myself,â she hissed, keeping her voice low. She did not like being in this hellish place and knew the folly of arousing the curiosity of others perhaps more evil than the two she was with. When Fitch displayed his obstinance, she flaredback in a rasping whisper, âIâve no intention of being rudely mauled while you carry me where I have no wish to go. For the moment Iâm your captive, with little choice but to follow where you lead, but Iâll take naught but your hand. That is all!â
Fitch set his arms akimbo, as if he would give her further argument, but her unrelenting look of defiance encouraged him to acquiesce and give only the assistance she asked for. Accepting his brawny hand, Elise caught up her skirts and leapt to the landing, taking care with her sore ankle. Spence kept a wary eye on her as he helped Fitch collect the supplies from the boat, but there was no need for caution. Elise had no intention of fleeing their custody while they were here in this foul place. Such an act would be tantamount to jumping from a boiling pot into the fire. Worse villains than Spence and Fitch roamed the shadows of this sin-bound district.
A bone-chilling dampness, imbued with musty odors, closed in about them in the form of an insidious fog. Elise shivered, feeling detached from reality by the dank, cloying vapors. She was totally at odds with her surroundings, and she found no security in the knowledge that not very far away, residenced in the old Whitefriars monastery, was the great vagrant army of the Beggarâs Brotherhood. She had once dared enter its halls in her guise as a boy to make inquiries about her father, and there had found an odious order of diverse and devious artisans who were not above robbing graves or the gallows at Tyburn for their elaborate disguises. Among their members were the violent and thieving ex-soldier rufflers, the horse-thieving priggers, thesoap-frothing grantners, and the dummerers who mutely mouthed and feebly gestured for their coins but in the security of Whitefriars told riotously ribald tales and slapped their sturdy thighs in high glee. The most ingenious were the caperdudgeons who were known for their
outlandish trappings. The most frightening and grotesque sights she had ever witnessed was when one of these wretches strapped on a corpseâs severed and shriveled limb so he could pose as a cripple. The sight had been enough to send her flying to a secluded spot where she had promptly relieved her nausea. Outside the city, the beggars traveled in groups of a hundred or more and were usually preceded by foreboding cries of âThe beggars are coming! The beggars are coming!â Inside Alsatia one never heard the warnings nor really ever knew when it was safe to move about or what eyes might be watching from the shadows. Here roamed the dregs of society, and their hours were as varied as their crimes.
Seeming as nervous as she, the two men cast furtive glances along the
she had traversed in the guise of a homeless waif when she had gone in search ofâher father. It seemed logical that she should be brought here, for Alsatia was a refuge for every sort of renegade, murderer, vagabond, or strumpet. By the Queenâs own edict, it had become an area exempt from any law or official who might be wont to carry out justice here and, as a result, it offered a safe haven for her abductors. In Alsatia the pair would be among their own kind.
Spence stepped across to the landing and, beneath the light of a dim-lit lantern, secured the painter around a heavy piling. Fitch followed more clumsily and then turned to help their hostage from the craft, but Elise snatched away from his reaching hands and shook her head angrily. For the moment she had no choice but to resign herself to being their captive, but she would not be an accommodating one.
âI shall see to myself,â she hissed, keeping her voice low. She did not like being in this hellish place and knew the folly of arousing the curiosity of others perhaps more evil than the two she was with. When Fitch displayed his obstinance, she flaredback in a rasping whisper, âIâve no intention of being rudely mauled while you carry me where I have no wish to go. For the moment Iâm your captive, with little choice but to follow where you lead, but Iâll take naught but your hand. That is all!â
Fitch set his arms akimbo, as if he would give her further argument, but her unrelenting look of defiance encouraged him to acquiesce and give only the assistance she asked for. Accepting his brawny hand, Elise caught up her skirts and leapt to the landing, taking care with her sore ankle. Spence kept a wary eye on her as he helped Fitch collect the supplies from the boat, but there was no need for caution. Elise had no intention of fleeing their custody while they were here in this foul place. Such an act would be tantamount to jumping from a boiling pot into the fire. Worse villains than Spence and Fitch roamed the shadows of this sin-bound district.
A bone-chilling dampness, imbued with musty odors, closed in about them in the form of an insidious fog. Elise shivered, feeling detached from reality by the dank, cloying vapors. She was totally at odds with her surroundings, and she found no security in the knowledge that not very far away, residenced in the old Whitefriars monastery, was the great vagrant army of the Beggarâs Brotherhood. She had once dared enter its halls in her guise as a boy to make inquiries about her father, and there had found an odious order of diverse and devious artisans who were not above robbing graves or the gallows at Tyburn for their elaborate disguises. Among their members were the violent and thieving ex-soldier rufflers, the horse-thieving priggers, thesoap-frothing grantners, and the dummerers who mutely mouthed and feebly gestured for their coins but in the security of Whitefriars told riotously ribald tales and slapped their sturdy thighs in high glee. The most ingenious were the caperdudgeons who were known for their
outlandish trappings. The most frightening and grotesque sights she had ever witnessed was when one of these wretches strapped on a corpseâs severed and shriveled limb so he could pose as a cripple. The sight had been enough to send her flying to a secluded spot where she had promptly relieved her nausea. Outside the city, the beggars traveled in groups of a hundred or more and were usually preceded by foreboding cries of âThe beggars are coming! The beggars are coming!â Inside Alsatia one never heard the warnings nor really ever knew when it was safe to move about or what eyes might be watching from the shadows. Here roamed the dregs of society, and their hours were as varied as their crimes.
Seeming as nervous as she, the two men cast furtive glances along the
Similar Books
