“I read up on it after Mrs. Pride told me my mother was from there.”
“Hang on. Mrs. Pride told you? And not your mum?”
“That’s right. The Tinsdales. That was their name. They were apparently quite well off.”
“You reckon you still got family there, Miss?”
“I might.”
“You could go and see ’em then.”
“Why would I do that?” she said, glancing sharply at him.
“If they got money they might be able to help you and your mum, that’s why. And they even might be able to help find your dad.”
Molly pondered this for a few moments as Charlie watched the fire.
“And yet if I traveled to Yorkshire and Father came home, or perhaps a letter would arrive about Mother, then that would not be good.”
“You could write to the place where your mum is,” Charlie suggested.
“That’s right. Perhaps I can have Mr. Oliver help me word the letter properly. He seems very smart and informed. And very kind.”
“Y-yeah, I guess,” mumbled Charlie.
She looked at him. “Is something the matter?”
He shrugged.
“Charlie, tell me.”
“It’s just that I seen Mr. Oliver doin’... well, doin’ quite odd stuff.”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
He told her about the man and the packet of pages. “He said it was a man-u-scrip or some such.”
“A manuscript. Like a book before it’s a book. Well, that seems perfectly normal for someone who owns a bookshop to be receiving manuscripts.”
“But then I seen Mr. Oliver go to some place in an alleyway and he come out with papers. And the same man was there.”
“Was it a publishing house?”
He shrugged again. “Dunno. It were just a door in an old buildin’. And he looked sort of, well, nervous while he was doin’ it. And so did the bloke that give him those papers. He looked, I dunno, shifty, like he knew he were up to somethin’ no good. And it was long after midnight when I seen ’em the first time.”
Molly looked disturbed by this information. “That is not when one would expect to drop off a manuscript. Do you remember where this other place is?”
Charlie nodded and picked up his cup. “Yeah, I think so.”
Molly thought for a moment and then came to a conclusion that astonished her. Well, not exactly. She was feeling she had no control over her life right now. She was sick with worry over a mother she couldn’t visit. She felt abandoned by a father she had adored. But with this she could take charge, even if it meant finding out that Oliver was simply visiting a friend.
She stood. “Well, let’s go there and see what we can see. Mrs. Pride has already gone to her room. We can nip out now and she’ll be none the wiser.”
Molly found wellies and raincoats for them both, and a large umbrella.
Charlie was about to open the front door when Molly suddenly stiffened and gripped his hand to stop him.
“What?” asked Charlie.
“If those same men are watching the house, I don’t want them to follow us.”
Charlie nodded in understanding. “Right.” He ventured to the back door, opened it, peered out, and saw the fence that surrounded the rear yard.
“Can you climb a fence?” he asked Molly.
“I’m sure I can.”
“Okay, follow me then. Keep low, eyes away from the street, in case somebody flashes a torch. Your eyes reflect, see?”
They slipped outside and, keeping low, slunk over to the fence. Then Charlie gave Molly a boost up and over. He tossed her the umbrella, clambered over the fence, and dropped gracefully to the ground on the other side. Grasping her hand, he led her through the rear yard of the neighboring house, where he once more helped her over a fence before nimbly scaling it and landing easily on his feet. Charlie then led them at a brisk pace, zigzagging through streets, and with him abruptly turning around every so often to check for followers. They reached another street and he slowed his pace.
“I think we’re okay now.”
Molly said breathlessly, “You’re quite practiced at this, um, skullduggery business.”
“Don’t know what that word is, Miss. But if you mean I don’t like blokes following me, well, where I’m from, you sort of have to be that way.”
A Delivery in Darkness
They hurried over to the next corner and caught a bus that Charlie said would take them very near to where they were headed.
“How do you know the city so well?” Molly asked as they took their seats on the bus.
“Just gets about. Now, I don’t take many buses, ’cept when I rides on the back of ’em.”
Molly looked startled. “Wait, do you mean on the outside?”
“Yeah, I can teach you if you like. Just got to have strong fingers and get your weight and balance just so and keep your head down and be ready to jump if need be. Saves you a lot of coin.”
“I would never do such a thing. It’s not legal.”
“Well, I don’t know ’bout that,” he retorted.
“It’s illegal, Charlie. It’s why they sell tickets.”
He stared out the window at the storm and didn’t respond.
After twenty minutes of rumbling through London, Charlie pulled the cord, and led Molly off the bus when it stopped at an intersection.
Under cover of the umbrella they walked for a few minutes in the rain, though it was easing a bit.
“Down this way,” he said.
They turned into an alley and took up position behind an old crate across from a battered door squatting in the middle of sad and grimy brick.
“That’s the place,” he said in a low voice, cupping his hand against Molly’s right ear, though with the wind he could have shouted and still been in no danger of being overheard.
They waited a full hour and were about to leave when Charlie said, “Someone’s comin’.” He had noticed the tiny bit of light at the opposite end of the alley.
They ducked down lower behind the crate.
The air warden appeared wearing a glow cape and a slickened waterproof under it and gas-resistant clothes below that. A small torch with a shield was in one hand.
As the man walked by he stopped at the door in question, and gazed around. Then he reached into his pocket, pulled out an envelope, and slipped it through the door’s letterbox.
As he passed them by, they both saw that it was Ignatius Oliver.
Molly started to call out to him, but Charlie put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head. When Oliver was out of sight Molly said, “Why did you stop me?”
“Somethin’ ain’t right ’bout this, Molly.”
“He might simply be delivering a letter, Charlie, that’s all.”
“This late at night?”
“He’s making his rounds as an air warden. You saw his uniform. And the man you saw here was the same one you saw at the bookshop. They’re obviously friends. He might just be saving the price of a stamp.”
Molly led them out of the alley, while a worried Charlie looked back at the door through which the envelope had gone.
A Risk Taken
It had been several days since Molly and Charlie had seen Oliver slipping the envelope through the letterbox. They once more sat in Molly’s father’s study staring at a poor fire that flickered and provided scant warmth. Both of them had rugs over their laps and legs. While it was still cold, at least the rain had passed; the skies were clear, and the wind was calmer.
“We need to see about your school, Charlie. Is it back in Bethnal Green?”
He said, “I’m fourteen, Miss. I’m done with school.”
“But when Mr. Oliver gave you that pen you said you were still in school.”