The Alchemist of London by M C Dulac

Author:M C Dulac [Dulac, M C]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2020-04-16T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Do not tempt the fates Sister Agatha had always warned Elise when she was a child in France.

Elise did not know why the old warning came back to her that evening. Growing up in the convent of Reveille, she had always taken pride when she confronted danger, whether finding a rare wild rose when all others had given up, or safely crossing the river in flood with bread from the village. If the task involved some higher purpose, Elise believed she deserved luck. Helping Georgia and Rosie was certainly an end that justified the danger, even if she had defied fate once that day.

Clerks and labourers filled the streets and paperboys and street hawkers meandered in front of her. Elise sighed impatiently. Carriages and coaches shone lights in her eyes and the gas lamps did little but to distort the passing faces.

There was a jam of carriages ahead. The crowd surged sideways, carrying her with them.

She walked on and on, aware time was passing. The street that she thought led to the Strand ended in a narrow lane. She followed its path but emerged onto a different thoroughfare.

The tower of Westminster Cathedral rose in the distance. Her heart began beating fast. Somehow she had gone in the wrong direction. She was lost.

She took a deep breath and turned around, hoping she was going the right way. Maybe she had tempted fate too many times that day.

She breathed a sigh of relief as she recognised a clock tower ahead. She was not far from the markets. Then silhouetted in the dark, a familiar figure walked towards her, hands in his pockets.

Fitzgerald.

How did their paths keep crossing? She stepped backwards, hoping he had not seen her. But then she heard his voice.

“Miss Elise!”

Elise darted into a passage. Fitzgerald followed her. He covered the ground with long strides and towered over the crowds.

A warren of dark streets lay at the foot of the Cathedral. The weak moonlight illuminated sagging roofs and broken chimneys. Elise hesitated, searching for the way to the main street.

Fitzgerald rounded the corner.

“Stop!” he stepped forward.

Elise plunged into an alley between rundown tenements.

Light spilled from dirty windows. She ran past houses with sunken doorframes and missing shingles, and onto a lane where an open gutter glittered with slime. Men, women and children lounged in the shadows.

The lane opened onto a courtyard full of idlers. A ripple of interest rose from the crowd. She had run into Devil’s Acre, the slum she had been warned about.

Fitzgerald entered the courtyard and paused. His arrival in Devil’s Acre created much amusement, but he was taller and stronger than many here, and stared them off with a pugnacious glare. He stared ahead and walked fast toward her.

Elise spotted a passage at the end of the courtyard and began to run. Fitzgerald’s footsteps were close behind.

The passage narrowed and then opened onto a bigger courtyard. Men and women spilled out of a pub, bawling in the darkness.

Ahead a lantern hung over an archway. Elise threaded her way through the narrow alleys and ran blindly onwards.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.