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2: A Gown of Yellow Silk

Robbie Trevine lodged above a cobbler's near the market, where they let him sleep under the rafters in return for sweeping floors and running errands. By the time he had finished his jobs for the evening, the sky was darkening. He slipped out of the house and made his way to Hotwells, to the damp and crowded house by the river where Mary and her mother lodged in a tiny room up four pairs of stairs.

Mary opened the door. When she saw him, she stepped back to allow him into the room. He glanced towards the curtained alcove beside the empty fireplace.

鈥淪he's asleep,鈥� Mary whispered. 鈥淭he doctor gave her something.鈥�

鈥淕ive my love when she wakes.鈥�

Robbie reckoned that Mrs Linnet had given him more love than his own mother, though that wasn't hard because, when he was three years old, his mother had gone off for a few days' holiday with a Liverpool publican and never come back.

Mary's face was impossible to read in that shadowy room. 鈥淚 was afraid you'd come.鈥�

鈥淲hy did you do it? Why did you steal the gent's watch at the station?鈥�

鈥淚 had to do something. The doctor don't come cheap, and Ma needs medicines, and proper food. The nurse is coming back later this evening. It all costs money.鈥�

鈥淏ut if they catch you -鈥�

鈥淭hey won't.鈥�

鈥淏ut selling something stolen is almost as risky as taking it in the first place.鈥�

She shrugged and turned her head away from him. 鈥淭here's someone I know.鈥�

鈥淭his isn't the first time, is it?鈥�

Mary said nothing. They listened to the breathing of the sick woman.

Robbie said: 鈥淚'd do anything to help. You know that.鈥�

鈥淕o now,鈥� she said. 鈥淛ust go. I don't want you here.鈥�

Robbie stumbled out of the room. He crossed the street and took shelter in the mouth of the alley on the other side. There was a tavern on the corner, and the constant bustle of the place made him almost invisible.

A distant church clock chimed the quarters and the hours. He calculated that he waited nearly an hour and a half before Mary appeared in the doorway of her house. She was hooded and cloaked as before, but he would have known her anywhere. She set off up the street, her wooden pattens clacking on the cobbles. He followed her, holding well back, keeping to patches of shadow and varying his pace. Soon they began to climb towards the dark mass of Clifton Wood.

Mary followed the rising ground towards the Downs in the north west. They were not far from the tower of Brunel's unfinished suspension bridge, looming over the Gorge and the river Avon. Before she reached the Downs, however, Mary turned into a terrace of great stone-faced houses set back from the road. Only one of the houses had shuttered windows, and this was the one she approached. Robbie, watching from across the street, saw her dark figure descending into the basement area in front of the house.

He crossed the road. A plate had been screwed to one of the gateposts. It was too dark to decipher the words engraved upon it. He ran his fingertips over the brass, tracing the cold metallic channels of each letter.

THE RODNEY PLACE MISSIONARY SOCIETY
*
Mary knocked on the basement door. A candle flame flickered in the black glass of a nearby window. Bolts scraped back. The door opened.

鈥淐hild,鈥� said Mr Fanmole in his soft voice. 鈥淵ou are long past your time.鈥�

鈥淚 beg pardon, sir. The nurse was late and I couldn't leave my mother.鈥�

When she was inside, Mr Fanmole closed and bolted the door. He wore a long grey dressing gown of a silken material that gleamed in the candlelight; his little head was perched on a broad neck that rose from narrow shoulders.

鈥淐ome, child.鈥� He led the way along a whitewashed passage vaulted with brick, his shadow cavorting behind him on the wall. 鈥淵ou saw him?鈥�

鈥淵es, sir. He came out with the other gents, and then he stopped for a while and talked with one of them. Mr Brunel himself.鈥�

She followed Mr Fanmole into a room at the back of the house. A coal fire burned in the grate and there were shutters across the two windows. He sat down at a mahogany table laden with papers and angled his chair to face the fire. He beckoned her to stand before him.

鈥淲ell, child? What did you learn?鈥�

鈥淗e's interested in a new railway but he hasn't made up his mind. He's lodging at the Royal Western Hotel. And... and I took his watch.鈥�

Mr Fanmole slapped the palm of his hand on the table, and his pen fell unnoticed to the carpet.听 鈥淚 told you to be discreet, you little fool. This was not an occasion for thieving.鈥�

鈥淏ut he was playing with it, sir, just asking for it to be prigged. And my ma, she's took bad again, and she needs a nurse as well as a doctor 鈥� and it's a good watch, too, sir. You give me a sovereign for the last one, and I'm sure -鈥�

鈥淗old your prattle.鈥�

鈥淪ir, he didn't see my face, I swear it. And I was away through the crowd before he knew the watch was gone.鈥�

鈥淕ive it me,鈥� he commanded.

Mr Fanmole held out his hand and she dropped the watch on his palm. To her surprise he smiled. 鈥淎h! He will be enraged. He's deeply attached to his Breguet timepiece.鈥�

鈥淪ir,鈥� she asked timidly. 鈥淗ow much will I have when you sell it? My mother -鈥�

鈥淚t's too precious to sell, child. Far too precious.鈥�

鈥淏ut, sir, I don't understand.鈥�

He gazed at her, whistling tunelessly, and put down the watch, very gently, on the table. 鈥淵ou don't have to understand.鈥�

鈥淚 鈥� I thought you'd be pleased, sir.鈥�

Suddenly he was on his feet and looming over her. His hand shot out and seized her by the hair. He dragged her to a tall cupboard built into the wall on the right of the fireplace. He opened the door. Hanging inside was a yellow silk gown.

鈥淭his is how to please me, child.鈥�