Page 60 of Dark Tidings on the Thames
“Oh, aye. They said they’d look, but by then, the rumors were flyin’. Folks were sayin’ she’d got herself with child and gone lookin’ for a way to get rid of it. They said she ran off with a tramp. They said all manner of things.”
“What did Royston say?” asked Gyda.
“Nary a thing. He told the police he hadn’t seen her since her last shift.”
“Of course, they believed him,” Louisa muttered.
“Amy was pulled out of the river several days later.”
“Was she with child?” Kara asked.
“We could not know,” Mary said with a shrug. “She was laid in a pauper’s grave with no real service. Just us what cared for her, stoppin’ by with a token bloom to lay on her grave.”
Everyone kept quiet for a moment, until Mary’s expression darkened and her brows lowered into a ferocious expression. “And then Royston started whisperin’ in my sister Maggie’s ear.”
Someone moaned.
“There’s just the two of us. No brother or father for protection. But I wasn’t goin’ to let that foul blighter touch my sister—not without a fight.”
“Good for you,” Louisa said.
Mary’s shoulders slumped. “People joked about it at first. Said ’cause she had blonde hair, old Royston had to give it a go at her. But they all expected Maggie to send him packin’, with his ears ringin’ for his trouble.” Her voice lowered. “But she didn’t.”
There came a chorus of objection and calls of “Why not?”
“I don’t know!” Mary cried. “I told him off, let me tell you! I called him every name I’d ever heard and threatened to cut his bollocks off. He just laughed and called me a vixen, at the first. Then he got tired of me harassin’ him, and he started to make threats.Horriblethreats about what could happen to Maggie if I didn’t back away. I went to her, then. I pleaded with her, but she just shook her head, her face set like a stone. She didn’t seem like a girl with a beau. She didn’t act like she was in love. She seemed… determined.”
“Maybe she thought she could bring him up to scratch?” Louisa ventured.
“Maybe he was making threats to Maggie, too? Threats against you,” Gyda said.
“That’s what I was afraid of. Maggie came home with a necklaceone night. A simple thing, twisted leather and a green stone pendant, but it gave me the shivers. Amy had disappeared soon after she started wearin’ that bracelet.” Mary shook her head. “That was the last straw. I was too frightenednotto do anything, so I decided I was goin’ to end it. End Royston. No matter what happened to me, I would finish him. I went to bed and lay there all night, makin’ plans.” She let out a sob. “But when I woke, Maggie was gone.”
A communal groan went around.
“I lost my wits,” Mary confessed. “I ran into that mill, grabbed the strap off Royston’s belt, and started to beat him with it. I raised a few welts on him, too, before they dragged me off him.”
“What happened?” Louisa asked.
“They threw me into a cell. But everyone in the mill made a big fuss over it and it couldn’t be ignored—not a second time. The police truly looked for Maggie. The mill owners got wind of it all, and they were not best pleased. They released me, but I lost my position at the mill. I didn’t care. I just wanted to find my sister. I looked everywhere I could think of, for weeks. Friends helped, for a while.”
“She wasn’t found?” Kara asked quietly.
“No. Royston was let go from the mill, too. He quickly disappeared. I bribed my way into the offices and found some correspondence that told me he’d been sent here, as Mr. Brown is a relation to one of the owners.”
“They just dropped him into our midst, without even a warning?” Louisa sounded outraged. “That explains why Lowell has not got on with him, not from the start. Perhaps he tried to make the same sort of changes here as he did in Manchester?”
“I did hear the two of them having a grand row, just after Royston arrived,” a woman volunteered. “It sounded like he wanted to lengthen the hours in our shifts, and Lowell was insisting it could not be done without adding to our pay.”
“Yes, but have you seen any sign that Royston did not come here alone?” Mary asked a little desperately. “Could he have broughtMaggie with him, perhaps posing as his wife?”
“He wouldn’t bring his wife to the mill,” someone said.
“He scarcely shows his own face around here,” Louisa said.
“Do you know where he is living?” asked Mary.
The women glanced around at each other, shaking their heads.
