Stolen Moments: A Victorian Time Travel Romance by Maren Smith

Author:Maren Smith [Smith, Maren]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-02-25T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Seeing the crowd of people clustered along the street from the safety of her upper-floor window and hearing the volume of movement and talking through the floorboards was one thing; turning the corner of that stairwell landing and suddenly finding herself the focus of some fifty-odd people was, Florrie discovered, something totally different.

“Is that her?” someone whispered. All movement and talking instantly ceased as that whisper carried through the entire shop. It was a claustrophobically small space, long and narrow, and packed with shelves and barrels. Every breath reeked of raw meat, pickling brine, and bodies that believe in perfume over bathing.

Four great slabs of beef, butchered cows simply cut in half, hung from the porch rafters. Hog halves done the same way hung on racks balanced between the outer support posts, along with smaller cuts—haunches, heads, feet and roasts on the bone were displayed on hooks high in front of the main window. Mutton and fowl dangled everywhere a hook could be hung all the way to the open door. Beyond that, barely glimpsed through the window, was the massive block from which Draven made his cuts specific to his customer’s requests. A red-headed teenager no more than sixteen stood at the block, arguing prices before handing a dead goose over.

Had she ever seen anything like this before? Florrie found herself staring, not at the people staring back at her, but at the neat triangular stacks of food tins, the looped intestines filled with sausage meat, and the pig’s head looking in at her through the window shutters. Surely, this had to be a common sight to her. Surely, she must have been in shops like this many times, making purchases for her family. She’d have held her mother’s hand while she’d done this as a little girl. She’d have done it all herself from the moment she moved out on her own. Because unlike the visions in her head, this… this was real.

So why did it seem so alien at the same time?

It was the smell, she decided. It had to be. Her fingers clenched in the folds of her skirt, only just stopping her from covering her nose. It was making her anxious.

“You all right?” Draven asked on the stairs behind her.

“Yeah.” Florrie made herself nod. She looked everywhere but at him, swallowing hard and trying not to breathe any more than she had to.

“I’ve already told them they can’t ask any questions. They’re just going to take some sketches for the paper. With luck, someone will recognize you and come forward.” Laying his hand on her shoulder, he gave her a reassuring squeeze. “I’ll bear no grudges if you want to go back upstairs.”

Pretending a smile she didn’t feel, she made herself nod. “I can do this.”

She wasn’t a coward and she refused to act like one. Not with all these people staring up at her, right here on this bare wooden step.

“Keep a watchful eye,” Draven said. “No one goes upstairs but you. If you have to, like I said, I’ll hold no grudges.

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.