Page 14 of Ashes and Understanding
In front of her, the frantic masses were surging forward towards the bridge. The cries of children and shouts of soldiers who were attempting to maintain the peace blended into one loud cacophony. The bridge looked ahead, its entrance choked with bodies, wagons, and discarded belongings.
There is no escape.
Thinking quickly, she jumped down from the bridge and urgently sprinted back to the Gardiner group, where Mr. Gardiner was looking at her anxiously.
“We cannot get through here,” she shouted, trying to be heard above the din. “It is impossible. There are too many people.”
“We must,” Mr. Gardiner replied, his voice strained. “If we can just reach the other side—”
“We will be trampled before we set foot on the bridge,” Elizabeth said sharply. “That, or we will burn to death because the fire will catch up long before it will be our turn.”
“But—”
“Look at them!” she shouted, gesturing towards the bottleneck, where the crowd had devolved into shoving and shouting. “We will have to find another way.”
She spun around to look behind them, thinking frantically as her mind raced with possibilities. “The parks!” she shouted, pointing northwest. “We can go to Hyde Park. There is open space, and it is far enough away from the docks to be safe.”
Mrs. Gardiner glanced nervously toward the glowing sky. “But the fire—if it spreads…”
“It will not,” Elizabeth assured with more confidence than she actually felt. “We can take some of the back roads and get there more quickly than we could through this crowd. Uncle, please.”
Mr. Gardiner took a deep breath and looked around, assessing the situation before nodding. “Very well. Everyone, follow Elizabeth.”
She pulled Alexander tightly against her, and the boy burrowed his face into her neck. They turned away from the river and went back through the same alleyway they had come down.
“That way, miss!” shouted a footman. She glanced behind her and saw him pointing ahead where another alley jutted out to the left. “It is a shortcut I use all the time.”
They turned as one and followed along the narrow path. Smoke curled between the buildings, and Elizabeth fought back the panic rising in her chest.What if the fire catches up to us? What if the buildings collapse? It is so narrow here. Where are we, even?
But all she could do was press forward; there was no turning back.
At long last, they once again arrived on a main street, and she sighed in relief upon recognizing the main road that would lead them to the wealthier part of town: Mayfair, Hyde Park, and Westminster were always easily found if they just continued straight ahead.
The path westward had fewer people, but it was no less fraught with challenges. Even though it was further from the fires, word had quickly spread through the city, turning it into a type of war zone. The streets were littered with debris—overturned carts, barrels of wares, and even a few horses had been abandoned in haste.
At one point, they passed a group of laborers attempting to haul a water cart toward the docks. The men’s faces were streaked with soot, their shouts barely audible over the din. Elizabeth’s heart ached for their futile efforts; she knew the docks would be gone long before they reached them.
The two elder Gardiner children stumbled here and there, their small feet catching on the uneven cobblestones, but Nurse and Mrs. Batson held their hands tightly, and Mrs. Gardiner whispered soft, encouraging words to keep them moving along.
Elizabeth’s arms were burning from the weight of her cousin in her arms, but she refused to pass him on. The young boy had clamped himself around her and would not be separated, not even for his father. Christopher had become too heavy for Mrs. Gardiner, so he rode now on the back of one of the stronger footmen.
Just when she thought she would not be able to take one more step, she raised her eyes and saw the large trees of Hyde Park in the distance. “We are almost there!” she shouted in relief. “Not much longer till Mayfair, and the park is just beyond that.”
“Aye, and the rich toffs will not let their houses burn none, now will they?” said a footman with a wry grin.
“They will do all they can to prevent it,” Elizabeth replied, “except extinguish the flames themselves.”
The group laughed perhaps a bit too heartily at this small jest, but it served its purpose in raising their spirits. They walked along with more vigor, and Elizabeth became so engrossed in the tales the servants were sharing that she nearly walked into a person who suddenly appeared in front of her.
“Oh, my apologies!” she began, but any further words died on her lips when she saw that the individual she had nearly trampled was a young woman of about sixteen years of age, holding an infant in her arms. Her body trembled with indecision as she stared towards the east, the advancing flames reflecting in her large, vacant eyes.
Without hesitation, Elizabeth shifted Alexander into one arm and extended the other to the girl. “Come with us.”
The girl just shook her head. “I… I cannot. He said…”
“Yes, you can,” Elizabeth insisted, placing a steady hand on the girl’s shoulder and guiding her along. “Follow me. I will carry your baby if it makes it easier.”
The girl hesitated, but something in Elizabeth’s tone seemed to cut through her panic. She nodded shakily and handed over the infant into Elizabeth’s empty arm.
