Page 56 of My Gentleman Spy
“Well it’s like this. Without the food you had been bringing us every day, we were going to starve. There wasn’t a lot of choice in the matter. It’s not as if there is a long line of fine ladies all wanting to hand over food to the likes of us. People like you are as rare asgold.”
She clasped her hands together. The food problem was now solved. She was back in London and would be able to supply them once more with the food they needed. The boys could withdraw from the gang. Baylee could go back to sitting with his mother, and Joshua could care forAnnie.
He read hermind.
“Don’t bother telling me things can go back to the way they were. You know as well as I do that you don’t just up and leave the Belton Streetboys.”
Hattie felt nauseous. Membership in the Belton Street gang was for life, death the only way out. She had prayed for the best, too frightened to think of the worst that could possibly greet her upon her return to the London slums. Losing two of her friends to the murderous crime gang washeartbreaking.
Joshua sighed. He put a comforting arm around Hattie’sshoulder.
“It’s good to see you again Hattie. Don’t blame yourself. This would probably have happened even if you hadn’t left. The gang has been trying to recruit us for some time now. I had to make some hard choices in order to feed my family. Joining the gang was the hardest of themall.”
“Why are you and Baylee fighting? I have never heard you speak to him like thatbefore?”
Joshua looked away, refusing to meet hereyes.
“He has to toughen up. If he doesn’t he’s going to die,” hesaid.
Annie began tocry.
“They make Baylee fight. The crowd pays money to hear him grunt. The gang call him Bear, and everyone wants to fight the Bear,” saidAnnie.
Hattie felt like she had been punched in the stomach. Hitting the water after the fall from the ship in Gibraltar had not hurt as much as Annie’s shocking revelation. The Belton Street gang were using Baylee, a simpleton as a means of makingmoney.
Joshua reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of coins. He held them out in front of Hattie. The coins were few, but enough to cover the rent on their two squalid rooms for several weeks. No words passed between them, but he would know that she did not judge him for what he was doing. He was doing the best he could to help his familysurvive.
Hattie was also not foolish enough to think that her and Joshua’s situations were the same. While she had been forced to sell some of her mother’s precious small items since her return, she had options in her life. She could seek out her brother, or even Will Saunders to ask for their help if she so chose. Joshua Mayford had no such saviors on which tocall.
“I think you should go,” hesaid.
He put the coins back in his pocket. Hattie opened her satchel, took out the loaf of bread and the apples she had brought with her and handed them toAnnie.
Without a word sheleft.
