Solomon noticed that he didn’t say,Ican’t leave.Indeed, a glimmer of hope had crept into his face.
“Course I can,” Solomon said.“There are other towns.Other jobs.”
Wallace turned this over in his head.“I suppose I could go back to Epping Forest.”
“I think that’d be the first place Vaughan would look for you—not that I’m saying he will,” he added hastily, when Wallace blanched.“But better safe nor sorry, eh?Besides, do you really want to go back to Epping?I mind you said you left for lack of work there.”
“That’s true.”
“Better a large town, anyway.”In the countryside, they’d be hunted from parish to parish as vagabonds.“Birmingham, maybe?Or Manchester?I’m acquainted with both places.But…” He trailed off.“Vaughan knows that.”At the thought of those long winter evenings, spilling his guts out to Vaughan, his stomach sickened.
“You really think he’d come after me?”
Yes,Solomon thought, remembering the intensity in Vaughan’s eyes, the fervour in his voice.And Vaughan had been halfway round the world with the Navy.He’d think nothing of a short trip across England.But… No.Would he really go to those lengths?Surely not.
“His source of income is here in London.I expect he’ll just find some other poor fellow to help him in his tricks.”
Wallace swallowed.In a small voice, he said, “Will you hate me if I say I’m jealous of that other fellow?”
There was a silence.
Eventually, Solomon said, with cheerful determination, “What you need is a fresh start.How about… Barnstaple, for instance?”
“Where’s that?”
“It’s a river port on the Bristol Channel.A long, long way from London, deep down in the West Country.No stage coach route goes there.”
“If it’s so far away, how comes it that you’ve heard of it?”
“My parents were born there, as was I.I’m sure I’ve never mentioned it to Hugo, though.”He turned the idea over in his head.“It’s weaver’s country.Wool and worsted.There must be work there.A coaching inn, a carrier’s yard, a gentleman’s stables… My parents always spoke of it as a prosperous place.”
Wallace was sitting up straighter now, his shoulders less slumped.“All right.All right!Why not?”
They arranged to meet at the pie shop that same evening, when Solomon should have seen to his affairs at the Crown.But then he ran into a problem.
“No, you can’t have your wages now, Master Dyer,” Sykes, the chamberlain, said.“You’ll wait till quarter day like everyone else.You think I want people running off whenever they please, leaving us high and dry?”
The next quarter day was Lady Day, a little under a month away.It was true that, in the general run of things, Solomon could not expect to be paid until then, but he had thought Sykes might make an exception.
“But I must leave as soon as may be.It’s an urgent… family matter.”And it was, for Wallace was surely his family, as much as or more than the people he had cut himself off from.
Sykes looked skeptical.“This is the first I’ve ever heard of you having a family.You’ve never mentioned them in the eight years you’ve been here.”He shook his head.“Now I can’t stop you walking out of here tonight, but you’ll be going without your”—he consulted his ledger—“twelve pounds, three and six in back wages.”
Solomon’s heart sank.Without that money, he and Wallace had scarcely enough between them for one person to make the journey.
That evening at the pie shop, Wallace looked dismayed when he heard the bad news, but he put on a good face.“Oh well, it can’t be helped.”
“I’ll come and join you as soon as I can,” Solomon promised.
“You needn’t—”
“I’ll be there.I swear, I won’t leave you alone.And I’ll bring your back wages too.Sykes owes you one pound ten on Lady Day.”
Wallace looked happier.“Well, all right then.I won’t deny it’ll be good to have you with me.”
“You’d better take the stage—we’ll have enough for an outside ticket if we pawn some of our things.I’ll redeem them on Lady Day.Now listen: the nearest stage coach route to Barnstaple runs through Taunton, but don’t get the stage there directly.If Vaughan makes inquiries… Get the stage to Bristol and then another cross-country.Or even better, walk out of Bristol and then take a carrier’s cart or something.”
“All right.”
