Page 55 of Dark Tidings on the Thames
“Thank you, Jones. Your efforts are hugely appreciated.” Thanks to his foresight of leaving a purse with his extra clothes, Niall was able to tip the porter handsomely. And now, restored to his ducal splendor,he exited out the front and had no problem finding a hack to take him to Scotland Yard.
He was striding toward the arched entrance when he pulled up short, for the second time that day. Had he heard someone call his name?
“Niall! Niall!”
He turned about, searching—and finally saw the small figure pushing her way toward him.
“Beth! What is it?” Tears streaked the girl’s reddened face. She looked like she’d run all the way from Covent Garden.
“Oh, Niall! I’m so glad you are still here!”
He didn’t bother to correct her.
“I’m so glad I caught you! I need help!”
“Yes, of course. What is it, Beth?”
“It’s Lily! She… She…” Choking on a sob, Beth couldn’t seem to get the words out.
Niall took both of her hands in his own. “Breathe, Beth. Yes. That’s it. Now, tell me.”
“Lily! She’s… clean!” The girl broke down into a spate of sobbing again.
“It’s fine. You are fine.” Niall pulled the girl in and wrapped her in a hug. He glanced ahead. The Carlisle lay just beyond them. It was a respectable café frequented by the men of the police force. “Let’s take you inside and get you some tea.”
Beth grew calmer as he arranged for a table. She was quiet as the waiter brought them mugs of tea. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” she said quietly. “It’s just… I don’t know if I can explain.”
But Niall had been thinking of what she had said. “When Kara and I talked with Lily the other morning, I noticed the way she looked,” he told Beth. “She needed a bath. She wore childish clothes and her hair in pigtails. I had the thought that she was making an effort to appear younger, perhaps, than she is.”
“Yes. Yes, that is it, exactly. Most gentlemen don’t see beyond the smock and the dirt. She hasn’t said as much to me, but I think she felt safer, appearing younger. Her sister, you know…” Beth paused, and her face went scarlet. “As Lily’s sister grew older, she began to sell her flowers at night, in an attempt to earn more. But then, as some of the night flower sellers do, she turned to…” Her voice trailed away.
“Prostitution. I gathered as much from something Lily said.”
“Lily told me once that she wasn’t ready to make such a change, but her sister expected it of her.”
“It probably earns more, but…” Now Niall was the one to let his sentence fall away. Rage filled his heart at the thought of that young girl being forced into such a life.
“Yes, quite,” said Beth. “Lily used her disguise as a delaying tactic as much as protection. When I arrived in Town from Bluefield this morning, I went looking for her. I wanted to tell her that her help had been particularly useful. I thought it might make her feel a little better, after losing Glynn. She wasn’t at her usual spots. When I finally found her…”
“She had bathed,” Niall said, understanding. “You took it at a sign that she is considering making that transition into… something darker than flower selling.”
Her eyes filled again. “Yes. And do you know, I think she had been right all along? She knew which were the good spots for sales and had a good rapport with the men who always seem to be buying a nosegay for their sweethearts, mothers, or mistresses. Lily always did a decent trade, but today… she was scrubbed clean and smiling, with her hair washed and flowing down her back, and she had the usual crowd of gentlemen around her, but they were lingering. Eyeing her differently.” She shuddered. “But that’s not the worst—”
“Take a sip of tea,” Niall urged. “Good. Now you can tell me.”
Beth leaned forward and lowered her voice. “Lily was wearing a new smock. She wasn’t shy about it. She gave a twirl and told thegentleman she’d just been made a gift of it last evening. Niall—the new smock, I recognized it at once! It was the garment that Glynn had been making for her.”
A chill went down Niall’s spine. “Are you sure?”
“Yes! But I made a mistake. I reacted badly. I was just so shocked! I grabbed her. I demanded to see the embroidery, the special embroidery that Glynn put in all her garments. That one was meant to be a lily, especially for her. But she pulled away. She refused to show me! And then she said…” Beth breathed deeply. “Lily said it was time. Time for her to grow up. Since it was coming in any case, she was making her own choice, choosing her own time and her own gentleman.”
Niall scowled. He was thinking back to what Kara had told him after her first day at the charity. “The bag with the smock inside went missing after the murder, correct?”
“Yes!”
“It wasn’t found?”
“No. The coroner’s man looked for it, all through the charity house.”
