“Impressive,” she said, ruffling his hair as he sat on her other side. She glanced at King. “It looks as though you also gathered straw for bedding,” she said, nodding to his head.
He reached up and pulled straw out of his hair, cursing under his breath. “I don’t even want to discuss it,” he said. “Too demeaning.”
Joshua rolled his eyes. Violet didn’t need to ask. She knew he asked shopkeepers for packing straw. If he had no luck there, he went to the mews behind some of the finer houses and begged for handfuls of straw the grooms cleaned out of the horses’ stalls. Most of it was still reasonably clean.
“How did you manage the bread?” Violet asked, taking a piece when Joshua offered it. King shook his head, but Joshua ignored him.
“He sold two buttons for it.”
“What?” Violet’s gaze flew to King’s coat, and she noticed that two gold buttons were missing.
King’s hand moved to cover the area. “Desperate times and all that,” he muttered.
“You could sell the rest of your clothing for blunt,” she told him. “I imagine you’d make enough to pay me back.”
“Madam!” He looked affronted. “I would hope I’d make enough to pay you back twenty times over.”
“Not with the pawnbrokers in Seven Dials,” Joshua said. “There’s still time before we open. Can we go see Archie?”
Violet rose. “Yes, let’s visit him, then it will be time to open for the evening.”
*
King followed MissBaker and her two charges through the narrow alleys and winding streets of Seven Dials. It seemed every doorstep was full of barefoot children dressed in rags. He passed more women with infants strapped to their chest, reaching out for coin he didn’t have.
This was not the Seven Dials he was used to. He had always come after dark and kept to the main thoroughfares. There he was used to seeing prostitutes and flashy pimps, as well as vendors hawking their wares or tavern owners calling for patrons to step inside and have a pint. He’d never seen the starving women, the bony dogs, or the masses of homeless children before. Or maybe he just hadn’t wanted to see.
They finally arrived at a building that looked as though it should be condemned. He started toward the door, but Miss Baker indicated that they should go down the steps to the door on the ground floor. King hesitated, not certain he wanted to go down into that gloom, but the boys had already gone ahead, so he followed Miss Baker down.
King ducked to enter the dark room and stood still for a moment until his eyes adjusted.
“Rose,” Miss Baker was saying, “I’m so sorry I didn’t come sooner.”
“Never ye mind,” said a woman with a strong lower-class accent. “Ye’ve come now, and I’m grateful to ye. Joshua ’as been ’ere, and it’s always a pleasure to see Georgie.”
King looked about the room. It was dark and cramped. On the opposite wall was a bed, low and close to the floor. A man lay there, arms folded on the sheets, and his head wrapped in abandage. A table was in another corner with a chair. A few rags lay scattered about on the floor. One had a face painted on it, so he assumed it was a doll of some sort. He didn’t see any children other than the Baker boys. But there was a blanket nailed across what might have been a doorway to another room.
The woman who looked at him now had red hair and pink cheeks. She was young, probably not even eighteen, but she had the look of someone much older. It was the eyes, King decided. They were brown and hard and weary.
“This is…King,” Miss Baker said, indicating him. “He’ll be working as publican until Archie recovers. King, this is Rose Garrett, Archie’s wife.”
King inclined his head. He hadn’t asked questions about this excursion, hadn’t asked who Archie was, but now he understood the man in the bed had been the publican at the Silver Unicorn.
“Mrs. Garrett, I wish we could meet under better circumstances,” King said. He knew he looked and sounded out of place here, but if he’d needed any further confirmation of that, Rose shot a look at Miss Baker, who gave her a tight smile.
“What happened to him?” he asked, moving closer. The man looked familiar. He was a big man, almost too big for the bed. He had a broad chest and thick arms. His breathing was slow and steady, but his eyes were closed.
“Has he opened his eyes yet?” Joshua asked.
“Open your eyes, Archie!” Georgie said, shaking the publican.
“Georgie, Meg and Jenny are in the back playing. Why don’t you join them?” Miss Baker said.
Georgie made a face. “I don’t want to play with girls.”
“Georgie, go back and say hello at least.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and thrust out his chin at his sister. “I want to stay with Archie.”
