A Crooked Rib Read Online Free Page B

pool. ’Tis where they Baptists dunks they fallen women.’
    ‘Fallen women?’
    ‘Aye, they women of no fortune and wild ways down by they harbour. They Baptists brings them to they lodging-house at Jericho. For shelter and food, they women agree them be baptised.’
    ‘But aren’t they baptised already?’
    ‘Them has turned to sin. So they Baptists says them must be reborn.’
    ‘To be reborn is not so bad,’ I said, thinking of William.
    ‘Nay, be very bad. They Baptists does push them, one then other, deep into they mill-pool there.’
    ‘But if they can’t swim …?’
    ‘Aye, well, two of they Baptists stands by they bank a-holding of boathooks to fish they women out.’
     
    We had reached the Old Mill, and I looked down warily into the deep, dark pool beside it.
    ‘Now,’ said Ellen, ‘sit ye down on they bank. I sees a friend sudden over there.’
    From a doorway of one of the tall crammed houses nearby a young man had emerged. He came sauntering towards us.
    ‘Is he one of the Baptists?’
    ‘Oh, aye. A real preacher, he.’
    I studied the young man for evidence of a boathook and was relieved to see he carried nothing at all in either hand.
    ‘Ye stay here while I do speak wi’ he.’
    I peered at the pool, surreptitiously watching Ellen and the Baptist from the sides of my eyes. He placed an arm about her waist and she did not recoil but seemed to like it, for she leaned her head briefly against his shoulder. Then I saw him raise a hand and stroke her hair. She tossed her head, and I heard her laugh and begin to talk to him in tones so low I could not catch what she said. To relieve my boredom, I took up some small stones and began casting them into the pool. Then it occurred to me to lie on my front and launch a leaf onto the water. I had just sent my craft on its way and was intently charting its progress when I was seized by Ellen and hauled to my feet.
    ‘What be ye at, Miss Fanny? Look at ye pinafore, all earth and filth. What be I to say to Martha?’ She made an attempt to brush me down. ‘Now, Missy, if ye be they good girl and says ye fell in they churchyard …’
    ‘But I …’
    Ellen winked at me. ‘Ye be there to see ye brother’s marker. Ye trips and falls. Ye pinafore be dirtied. If ye be minded and says so, on usway home I be minded to show ye they Cat Woman. But ye must say niver a word of it to a living soul.’
    I nodded. Now that I was standing again, I saw that we were being observed by people gathered at the tenement doorways and in small knots and clusters in the alleys.
    ‘There are some people looking at us.’
    ‘Oh, aye.’ And she waved and nodded to them. ‘Be nowt to fear.’
    I was surprised Ellen should know such rough and ragged folk, but said nothing as she picked up her basket and we set off.
    ‘The Baptist is watching us.’
    ‘Aye, well …’ said Ellen, and flashed a smile in his direction.
     
    Hurrying back past the mill, we again entered the upper reach of Coombe Street and its close-packed houses. The lower end, with its lacemakers’ shops, was familiar to me, but this seemed entirely different, almost sinister, and I looked about nervously. I gripped Ellen’s hand as we turned in at a narrow passageway leading to a small poor square which, unlike the main streets nearby, was deserted.
    ‘So,’ she said, stopping and laying down the basket, ‘ye wants to see they Cat Woman?’
    I thought of my friend Harriet’s kitten, its soft paws kneading at our hands as we played with it. ‘Does she have many cats? And kittens?’
    Ellen did not reply. Instead she said, ‘Ye be sure to tell Martha ye fell?’
    I nodded.
    ‘Ye be they good girl. Stand ye there by they doorway. And nay a word from ye.’ She lowered her voice. ‘Look. See ye there?’
    She pointed to a low arch opposite where I made out the crouching figure of an old woman. As I stared at her, she lifted her head, sniffed the air like a dog, then uttered a loud yowl, followed by a