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Sarah said slowly. ‘If things work out with Anne in London I will bide my time here and staywith you a while longer, Mother. Until the babe is weaned, perhaps.’
    â€˜And then Anne could come back to Chertsey or we would find her another job in London,’ I said, and I spoke joyfully, for in my mind’s eye I could already see the reunion of me and Tom – of us meeting and kissing and walking through flowers together, like in the ballad sheets.
    â€˜But are you perfectly sure that it’s safe?’ Mother asked.
    â€˜Of course, Mother!’ I flew to kiss her. ‘London is as safe as houses!’

Chapter Five
London
    â€˜May Day and thence to Westminster, on the way meeting many milkmaids with their garlands upon their pails, dancing with a fiddler before them.’
    â€˜What is that great hulking place?’
    â€˜Oh! Who does that forward baggage think she is!’
    â€˜Hannah! Look at their gowns!’
    â€˜What a beautiful barge!’
    â€˜Do look at that!’
    As we made our steady progress up the River Thames, Anne was testing my patience sorely, leaning first to the left of the open wherry, then to the right, pointing, exclaiming, gasping and calling for me to look at first one thing then another. It was May Day and it seemed that most of London was on the river.
    Mother had asked that we stay in Chertsey until May Day, and on the previous evening she, Sarah, Anne and I had gone into the orchard as we always had on this day, and spread linen cloths under the trees. At dawn we had risen, run into the orchard (although Mother had not run) and pressed the dampcloths over our faces and arms, for everyone knew that washing your face in the dawn dew gathered on the first of May was a great beautifier.
    Thus refreshed, we had gone home for bread and milk, and then the whole family had walked to the village green where a maypole had been erected and where there was a small May Fair with stalls selling pewter and china and fruit and toys, and sideshows with jugglers, tooth-pullers and dancing milkmaids. Anne and the boys were highly entertained at these, but it was not much to me after the amusements of London – although I did not say as much.
    It was a happy farewell to Chertsey, though, for after spending all morning at the fair, Anne and I had walked down to the wharf with our family and caught the boat to London, which was to bring us all the way in four hours. Mother and Sarah had wept as we boarded the craft, but Anne and I had not, for neither of us could contain our excitement at the adventure before us.
    We had passed Hampton Court (where the king, it was said, kept two spare mistresses in case he should stay overnight) and also the great palace at Richmond where Good Queen Bess had died. With each mile we covered, the number of craft on the Thames increased until, near the City, a myriad of little boats covered the water from side to side: sculls, skiffs, wherries, decorated rowing boats and the magnificently ornate barges that belonged to the various Guilds of the City.
    About two hours into our journey, Anne (who carried two lidded baskets made by our father) said she had a confession to make. I, being in the best of moods, said that I would forgive her, for the day wasfair and nothing could be
that
wrong.
    She then pulled out the smaller of the baskets, which I had noticed her fiddling with for some time, opening and closing its lid. ‘I have brought a friend,’ she said, looking at me imploringly, ‘for I could not bear to part with her.’ Saying this, she lifted the lid and presented me with a white kitten, which she put upon my lap, saying, ‘Isn’t she pretty? Just look at her pink ears! I could not bear to leave her behind.’
    The kitten immediately crawled up to my shoulder and, as she seemed about to make a leap into the river, I took her up and placed her back in the basket, sighing a little. I felt it was fitting that I