Page 71 of Dark Tidings on the Thames
They pulled up before the place. Several of the policemen went down the narrow alley leading to the stairs. Everyone else followed Wooten inside. They were met by the landlord, who tried to quicklyusher them through the taproom covered in handsome, carved paneling, toward the far end of the house. “We don’t want everyone to see the place overrun with the police,” the man said nervously.
“Nonsense,” Rob scoffed. “Tell your cook to start cracking eggs. Everyone will be stopping in for breakfast, hoping to find out what’s happened.”
The thought seemed to cheer the tavern keeper, but he sobered as he stopped outside the door of a private parlor. “We have her laid out in here.”
“I’ll send one of my men for the coroner after we’ve seen her,” Wooten said. “We have a girl gone missing, and we just need to know if it is her.”
With a nod, the man opened the door and stood back to let them pass. He closed it quietly behind Kara as she was the last to shuffle in.
The body lay on a table in the middle of the room. She’d been covered with a sheet. The inspector looked to make sure everyone was ready before he pulled it back to the figure’s shoulders.
It was Lily.
The truth of it registered with Kara even before Beth’s sob rang out into the quiet. The girl covered her mouth with a hand, whirled, and fled the room.
Gyda stopped Rob from following as the door slammed. “Give her a few moments.”
Kara’s gaze was fixed on Lily.
“She wasn’t in the water long,” said Wooten quietly.
He must be right. Lily looked like she was sleeping—until one noticed the ring of purple finger marks against the fair skin of her neck. But this was not Kara’s first glimpse of a body pulled from the river, and at least Lily’s expression looked calm, her face unmarked by pain or fear.
“It is her, yes?” asked Wooten.
Kara nodded along with the others. Tears welled, but she foughtthem. Gyda looked fierce. Niall looked like stone. Rob looked sorrowful, but kept glancing toward the door.
Kara drew a long breath. “I’ll go talk to her.”
“I’ll come with you,” Gyda said.
Side by side, they left the men to the business of the dead, and went to find their friend.
It took several minutes, but at last they found their way down the narrow alley to stand at the top of the Old Wapping Stairs. The river stretched before them, shining in the early morning sun. This far down in Wapping, it would be Rotherhithe on the far shore. The tide was out, leaving all the stairs and a short flagstone walkway visible, most of it coated in slick mud.
Beth stood at the end, on a stretch of the rocky shore, the water lapping at her feet.
They went carefully to stand beside her, flanking her without saying a word. The view was lovely, with the city waking up, and the river kissed by the sun, and the kingfishers diving for their breakfast in the shallows.
Beth stood stiff and unbending. Her tears had dried. She stared out at the water in implacable silence for several long minutes. “Lily was smart,” she said finally. “Everyone knew it. She was quick, wily. She could size a customer up in seconds, and know how best to convince them to buy. Even the constables commented on how savvy she is—was.”
She paused, watching the water on the move. “She’s gone now. She’s part of the river, of the sky. She’s free to roam the streets or sit in the theatre or to pass on to better things. It’s easy to think that it was just her circumstances that led to this. That fate had her body ending up on a table in a pub while her spirit has to learn to say goodbye to her sister, her city, her friends. But Lily wassmart,” she repeated. “She had to know what Royston was. She had to know where he got that smock.”
Kara felt, more than saw, Gyda shift uncomfortably on Beth’s other side.
“No doubt Royston offered up some story to explain it away,” Beth continued, “but I think Lily knew. And I think she told me the truth. She told me she was making her own choices, remember? I think she did. I think she chose her own fate.” She gestured back to the pub. “I think she chosethisfate because she didn’t want to live the one she was being pushed into.”
Kara stood silent, appalled. Could Beth be right?
“How many others are out there?” Beth’s tone was full of passion and outrage now. “How many others feel so desperate, right at this moment? Someone is out there now, feeling as if there is no way out for them.” Her chin lifted. “I’m going to do something about it.” She glanced at Gyda, then at Kara. “I’m going to fight.” She turned abruptly to face the stairs. “But first, I need to sleep. We are done here, are we not? We all need to sleep.”
Beth stepped back onto the flagstones then, heading for the stairs and the pub.
“Is she right, do you think? About Lily?” Kara could not keep the anguish from her tone.
“She knew Lily better than most,” Gyda said. Her eyes narrowed as she watched Beth climb the stairs, her back straight. “I think I had better go and have a word with Rob.”
Chapter Sixteen
