Read Online Kitty Peck and the Music Hall Murders by Kate Griffin - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Kate Griffin
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up tighter than a whelk. Now, I know better than most when not to press a point. I had enough of that with Joey, so I bite my lip, but all the same . . .
Working in the halls you get a very clear idea of just how dangerous limelight can be. We’re all wary of it. Some of the hands have burns running up past their elbows. It’s a vicious light, but we rely on it, every night, to make the magic work. Lucca must have had a bad time of it and I wasn’t surprised he didn’t want to be reminded – ’specially as it took away half his face just when it mattered. For what it’s worth, I reckon he ran away to hide at The Gaudy, and I reckon there was someone he was running away from too – someone who couldn’t love a ruin.
Lucca sat back and propped the coal shovel against the side of the grate. For some reason at that moment I became very aware of his wiry body on the rug next to me. I shifted and the satin whispered as it settled into a new shape.
‘So, what have you discovered, Fannella? What have you seen from your gilded cage?’
I was grateful for the question.
‘Nothing. Well, nothing that can help those poor girls, anyway. Did you hear that Maggie Halpern has gone now?’
Lucca nodded. ‘She was so little – just fifteen?’
‘Fourteen.’ I shuddered. ‘She went missing on my fifth night at The Gaudy. I saw her too – she was serving the tables in the hall. I watched her trying to get round with a tray. You know what a scrap of a thing she was. I was worried she might drop it.’ Truth is I noticed her particularly because she reminded me of Alice – just for a second I looked down and mistook her.
Lucca bit at a shred of skin around his thumbnail. His fingers were stained with paint as usual. ‘It makes no sense. Maggie was so quiet. She was a decent girl. Some of the others were grown women and perhaps they—’
‘They what?’ I asked sharply. ‘You knew them. They were all decent types – Clary and Sally could be a bit wild, but they weren’t dabbing it up for punters. Jenny, well, I give you she had a sideline going as a penny upright . . .’, Lucca winced as I continued, ‘but the others – no, I can’t see it. And there’s Alice.’
I stared into the fire and thought of that half-sewn skirt on her bed and the needle and cotton on the wash stand in her tiny room below mine. What had happened to her?
‘She was just a child, Lucca, and a good one. There was never any trouble with Alice. Fact is, I often wished she’d shown a bit more spirit, but she was soft as a lamb, you know she was.’
‘What does Peggy say?’
I shook my head. ‘She won’t talk about Alice and not because she’s a superstitious type like the others. Peggy won’t talk about her because it hurts. Peggy and me were all she had – and you on Sundays.’
Lucca crossed himself – he was a regular at St Peter’s over Hatton Garden way where the services was all in Italian. ‘When she came to mass with me, she couldn’t understand the Latin, but she said she loved the sound of it.’
‘She’s the worst, and I feel responsible somehow.’
He was quiet for a moment. ‘So what is happening to them? Where are they? If they are dead, where are their bodies? If they are living . . .’
I shivered despite the heat that was coming off the little fire now.
Alice Caxton, Clary Simmons, Esther Dixon, Sally Ford, Jenny Pierce, Martha Lidgate, Maggie Halpern.
Those seven girls had disappeared off the face of the earth just like Joey. I’d been up in that cage for nearly two weeks now and I hadn’t seen a thing that could help him or them. Lady Ginger’s voice crackled in my head. Unless you satisfy me, you will never see him again. How could I ‘satisfy’ her if I didn’t know what I was looking for? I reached into the neck of my dress and rolled Joey’s Christopher between my fingers.
After a moment I said, ‘All I know for a fact is that if I want to see my brother again, I’ve got to find out
Working in the halls you get a very clear idea of just how dangerous limelight can be. We’re all wary of it. Some of the hands have burns running up past their elbows. It’s a vicious light, but we rely on it, every night, to make the magic work. Lucca must have had a bad time of it and I wasn’t surprised he didn’t want to be reminded – ’specially as it took away half his face just when it mattered. For what it’s worth, I reckon he ran away to hide at The Gaudy, and I reckon there was someone he was running away from too – someone who couldn’t love a ruin.
Lucca sat back and propped the coal shovel against the side of the grate. For some reason at that moment I became very aware of his wiry body on the rug next to me. I shifted and the satin whispered as it settled into a new shape.
‘So, what have you discovered, Fannella? What have you seen from your gilded cage?’
I was grateful for the question.
‘Nothing. Well, nothing that can help those poor girls, anyway. Did you hear that Maggie Halpern has gone now?’
Lucca nodded. ‘She was so little – just fifteen?’
‘Fourteen.’ I shuddered. ‘She went missing on my fifth night at The Gaudy. I saw her too – she was serving the tables in the hall. I watched her trying to get round with a tray. You know what a scrap of a thing she was. I was worried she might drop it.’ Truth is I noticed her particularly because she reminded me of Alice – just for a second I looked down and mistook her.
Lucca bit at a shred of skin around his thumbnail. His fingers were stained with paint as usual. ‘It makes no sense. Maggie was so quiet. She was a decent girl. Some of the others were grown women and perhaps they—’
‘They what?’ I asked sharply. ‘You knew them. They were all decent types – Clary and Sally could be a bit wild, but they weren’t dabbing it up for punters. Jenny, well, I give you she had a sideline going as a penny upright . . .’, Lucca winced as I continued, ‘but the others – no, I can’t see it. And there’s Alice.’
I stared into the fire and thought of that half-sewn skirt on her bed and the needle and cotton on the wash stand in her tiny room below mine. What had happened to her?
‘She was just a child, Lucca, and a good one. There was never any trouble with Alice. Fact is, I often wished she’d shown a bit more spirit, but she was soft as a lamb, you know she was.’
‘What does Peggy say?’
I shook my head. ‘She won’t talk about Alice and not because she’s a superstitious type like the others. Peggy won’t talk about her because it hurts. Peggy and me were all she had – and you on Sundays.’
Lucca crossed himself – he was a regular at St Peter’s over Hatton Garden way where the services was all in Italian. ‘When she came to mass with me, she couldn’t understand the Latin, but she said she loved the sound of it.’
‘She’s the worst, and I feel responsible somehow.’
He was quiet for a moment. ‘So what is happening to them? Where are they? If they are dead, where are their bodies? If they are living . . .’
I shivered despite the heat that was coming off the little fire now.
Alice Caxton, Clary Simmons, Esther Dixon, Sally Ford, Jenny Pierce, Martha Lidgate, Maggie Halpern.
Those seven girls had disappeared off the face of the earth just like Joey. I’d been up in that cage for nearly two weeks now and I hadn’t seen a thing that could help him or them. Lady Ginger’s voice crackled in my head. Unless you satisfy me, you will never see him again. How could I ‘satisfy’ her if I didn’t know what I was looking for? I reached into the neck of my dress and rolled Joey’s Christopher between my fingers.
After a moment I said, ‘All I know for a fact is that if I want to see my brother again, I’ve got to find out
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