The Murdering Ghost by Issy Brooke

Author:Issy Brooke [Brooke, Issy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical
Publisher: Issy Brooke
Published: 2019-01-20T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Marianne felt like she had made progress. She had a likely explanation for Mary Sewell’s independence and wealth, although she hated the idea of her friend’s long duplicity. At least she wasn’t a lady of the night – it was ridiculous that stealing was somehow better, in Marianne’s eyes – but there it was. Mary had fallen, but she had not been utterly lost.

Marianne had seen Caroline Vane in the vicinity of the criminal women, Cecilia and her friends, and she had probably seen the house where Mistress Decker lived. Even so, some things were not quite adding up. If Caroline was linked to them, then how? And why was Marianne really being targeted by them?

But that night, as she hunkered down on her blanket, she was grateful for another thing. Cecilia’s cloak, though it had been a gift barbed with expectations, was thick, warm and luxurious, and enabled her to sleep almost in comfort.

She rose early the next morning. She wanted to find out more about Eliza Payne and Grace Clatterbridge, but also Mistress Decker. She started close to home – at the range, in fact. Belinda Hughes was combing her hair while Juliet brewed up some tea in a huge, stained pot.

“Mrs Hughes, I...”

“Belinda, if you feel formal, and Bel if you don’t,” the older woman said. “I pay no mind to hat honour and the like.”

Definitely some kind of Quaker, she thought. “Belinda, I wonder if I might ask you some questions?”

“Ask me anything you like, dear one.”

“Have you heard of two young ladies, who might not be connected, called Grace Clatterbridge or Eliza Payne?”

Belinda half-closed her eyes in a meditative recollection. “No, I am afraid not.”

“Juliet?”

The young woman shook her head. “No. I knew a Gracie but she was dead by fourteen. Here’s your tea. There’s no sugar today.”

“Thank you. What about a lady called Mistress Angelina Decker?”

“Mistress?”

“Exactly that; I have not heard any other title.”

Juliet passed a cup to Belinda with a quick and meaningful look, their eyes meeting for a fraction of a second too long. Marianne noticed it but did not remark on it. She waited.

Belinda sighed. “Yes, I have heard of Mistress Decker. I would advise you to avoid her, if you can. She is not entirely respectable, but that is not a problem. I worry for the girls who fall into her circle, as Mistress Decker lacks morals. She is, alas, fallen far from the grace of Our Lord, and though she can be saved she chooses not to be.”

“Is she a brothel-keeper?” Marianne asked, outright. It was never a question that would have passed her lips in ordinary society or at Woodfurlong, but she’d heard much worse in her weeks in Whitechapel. And no one blinked at her question here.

Belinda shook her head. “No, she is not a madam. Nor does she keep a club or indulge in any immoral acts of a sexual nature.”

That tallied with what the urchins had told her. “Then what is her business? How does she live?”

“There are rumours but I do not wish to be part of such a thing.

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