Read Online The Remarkable Life and Times of Eliza Rose by Mary Hooper - Free Book Online

fact that Eliza, by contrast with her brothers and sisters, was so dark. Once, years ago when her mother had been alive, a jolly peddler had come to the house and, after selling a dozen clothes pegs, had paused in the cottage garden where Eliza and her brothers had been playing. He’d studied Eliza for a moment, and then lifted her aloft.
    ‘I think you’re a changeling child,’ he’d said, sitting her on the gate.
    ‘What does that mean?’ Eliza had asked.
    ‘It means, my pretty babe, that when your ma and pa weren’t looking, faeries came to the house and changed their own mortal child for a faerie one.’
    ‘ Did they?’ Eliza had said, her eyes glowing. ‘And is that me?’
    The peddler had nodded.
    ‘But how do you know?’
    ‘Well, you’re of the quality,’ the old man had said. ‘It’s writ all over you. And besides, only changelings have green eyes. But you must be ready with your bundle packed in case they ever want you back!’
    Eliza, thrilled at the thought of being a faerie child, had run to tell her mother what he’d said. Her mother had been annoyed, though, saying that she shouldn’t have listened to such nonsense. Besides, she’d added crossly, seeing Eliza’s obvious delight in the idea, wasn’t her own family good enough for her? She wouldn’t have that peddler at the door again, indeedshe wouldn’t, if he went round telling such silly tales.
    Remembering it now, Eliza smiled. A changeling child indeed …
    At last, sheer tiredness overcoming both her uncomfortable surroundings and the constant merrymaking both downstairs and up, Eliza fell asleep. Before she did so, however, a dreadful thought struck her. All these girls coming and going from the rooms – was this what Ma Gwyn had planned for her? Did she intend Eliza to work in the bawdy house, too?

Chapter Seven
    When, a few mornings later, Eliza rose and went downstairs, Old Ma Gwyn gave her a beaming, toothless smile and asked not only if she’d slept well, but if there was anything she needed.
    Eliza shook her head, mystified at this sudden concern, then went to the conduit on the corner to draw water for washing. When she returned there was a fellow in the kitchen conversing with Ma Gwyn, and both were puffing at clay pipes so that the dim room was already half-filled with smoke.
    ‘’Ere she is,’ said Ma as Eliza came in. ‘What do you think to ’er?’ And she bade Eliza put down the tin bowl of water on the table and walk up and down.
    Eliza did so, immediately suspicious as to what was going on. Since the night of the party she’d been waiting for something like this.
    ‘Smile at the gentleman, sweeting!’ said Ma.
    Eliza, embarrassed and uneasy at being shown off like a prize-winning cow at market, did as she was bid.
    ‘And let yer ’air down, girl!’ Ma Gwyn added.
    Again Eliza obeyed, taking out the pins and letting her dark tresses tumble down her back. She eyed the man nervously. He was fat and ill-dressed, with a facethat ran with sweat even though the sun was hardly up. If Ma Gwyn was making some sort of bargain with him, if she was planning that Eliza should …
    No! She gagged at the very thought of it. She’d run away. She would! Even if she was friendless and penniless in London, she’d run away and live in the fields … in a pig sty if she had to.
    ‘Excellent … excellent,’ the man said approvingly. Even his voice was fat, Eliza thought, as if he was speaking through a mouthful of blubber.
    ‘See the ’air,’ Ma Gwyn said. ‘Black and slippery as seaweed!’ She beckoned Eliza to come closer. ‘And the eyes on ’er! Green as em’ralds.’
    ‘Green as the sea, you mean,’ the man said, tapping his nose, and they both laughed as if he’d made a fine joke.
    Eliza was dismissed then and went away. Going upstairs to turn her mattress, however, she could still hear him and Ma discussing something in low voices, and once – though maybe it was just her fearful imagination – seemed