A Lion to Guard Us (3 page)

Amanda set down the pail of water.

“You went to that place, didn't you?” asked Cook. “
Didn't
you?”

“Yes,” said Amanda.

“Wait till I tell Mistress Trippett.”

“I'm going to tell her myself.” Amanda started upstairs.

Cook gave a scream. “You can't go up the front stairs!”

Amanda went on. She knocked at the door of Mistress Trippett's sitting room.

“Who is it?” came Mistress Trippett's voice.

“If it please you, ma'am—”

Mistress Trippett opened the door. Her wig was off. She looked angry. “What are
you
doing up here?”

“I wanted to tell you—I went to the house where the Virginia Company is.”

“Well?”

“There are ships going to the New World next month.”

“Well?”

“Jemmy and Meg and I—we're going.”

Mistress Trippett's mouth was thin. “I thought you'd put that nonsense out of your head.”

“Oh, no, ma'am. We have to go where Father is.

“Your father doesn't want you. He forgot about you long ago.”

“No—” began Amanda.

“Even if he did want you, you'd be a fool to go. Virginia is a terrible place, full of wild Indians and wild beasts. All those tales about the New World and how wonderful it is—they're lies, all lies!”

“But we have to go—”

“You have to do nothing of the kind. I've fed you and put clothes on your back. I've given you the best home you've ever had. Would you give up all this? Would you go starve in a strange land where you'd never come out alive?”

“Father—”

“What has your father done for you? Ask yourself that. Then ask yourself what
I've
done for you!” And Mistress Trippett slammed the door.

That evening Amanda and Ellie met in the pantry. “I heard Mistress Trippett,” said Ellie. “She doesn't want you to go.”

“But she knew we were going to the New World,” said Amanda. “Mother told her that when we came here.”

“She thought you'd forget about it,” said Ellie. “She wants to keep you here. You work hard, and you don't eat much. And Jemmy and Meg are coming on. She'll put them to work, too, and you'll all be working free.”

“Oh!” said Amanda. “I forgot to ask about the money.”

“Money?”

“When Father went away, he sold our house. He gave the money to Mother, and she kept it in a purse. Mistress Trippett has it.”

“How do you know?”

“Mother had it on a string around her neck. That day she fell downstairs, Cook and I put her to bed. Mistress Trippett came in, and she took the purse. She said she was keeping it for us.”

“You'd best forget about it.”

“It's ours, and we need it,” said Amanda. “Jemmy and Meg and I—we need it to go on the ship.”

“Well, you'd best take care how you ask her,” said Ellie. “She's already upset. You'd best wait a long time.”

“We can't wait long. The ship sails next month.”

But Amanda waited a week. Then she went back upstairs.

This time Mistress Trippett let her into the sitting room. Her oldest son, Randolph, was there. He was a roly-poly man with pale, fishy eyes.

He didn't look at Amanda. “I'll get my coat, Mother, and meet you downstairs,” he said, and he went out.

Mistress Trippett was dressed for a party, in cherry-colored silk. She smiled at herself in the mirror.

“I know why you're here,” she said to Amanda. “You came to say you're sorry. You came to say you're going to be a good girl. And if you
are
a good girl, I'll forget the foolish things you said.”

“Please, ma'am—”

“Well?” said Mistress Trippett. “I haven't much time.”

“Please, ma'am,” said Amanda, “will you give me the money?”

Mistress Trippett turned from the mirror.
“What?”

“The money you kept for us.”

“What's that you're saying? The
money
—?”

“It was in the little purse—around Mother's neck.”

Mistress Trippett's face had gone white. “And who do you think paid the doctor? Who do you think gave you everything you have? Who do you think kept a roof over your head?”

“But I worked, ma'am,” said Amanda, “and Mother, too, as long as she could.”

“And now you say I stole your money!”

“I
never
said that!” cried Amanda.

But Mistress Trippett was past hearing. She picked up a book and threw it. It barely missed Amanda's head.

Randolph came running.

Mistress Trippett pointed at Amanda. “Get her out of here! Get her out, before I—”

Randolph seized Amanda and pushed her out of the room.

She ran down into the kitchen.

“What have you done?” asked Cook.

“What did you say to her?” asked Ellie.

“I only asked for the money,” said Amanda.

Jemmy and Meg crept out from under the table.

“Amanda—” said Jemmy, and he sounded scared.

Randolph came down the stairs. He said to Cook, “Mother's fainted away. Go help her.” He said to Ellie, “Run for the doctor.” He saw Amanda. “You little pig, you're the cause of it all. Get out of this house, and take those brats with you. Get out, and don't ever show your face here again!”

He reached for her. He tripped over Jemmy and fell to his knees.

Amanda heard Ellie say, “Oh, run!”

She caught hold of Jemmy and Meg, and they ran, out the back door and into the night.

They went toward the lights of London Bridge. Amanda could feel her heart thumping. She had a pain in her side from running so fast.

“Are we going over the bridge?” asked Jemmy.

“No,” said Amanda.

There was trouble on the bridge. Two wagons had run into each other. One had lost a wheel. The drivers had gotten out and begun to fight.

Amanda led Jemmy and Meg away from the bridge. They saw an inn ahead. Lights shone from the windows. Jemmy pulled Amanda toward it. She pulled back. “We can't go there.”

“Why?”

“It's only for those with money.”

They walked along the river. On the riverbank, people were sitting about small fires.

“Who are they?” asked Jemmy.

“People with no homes,” answered Amanda.

“Like us,” said Jemmy.

Some of the people were cooking. The smell of food was in the air.

“I'm hungry,” said Jemmy.

“You had your supper,” said Amanda.

“I'm glad I'm not
very
hungry,” he said.

They came to an old wooden pier. They walked out on it and sat down. The darkness hid them. They could hear the soft splash of the river below.

“Will they come after us?” asked Jemmy.

“No, unless—” A thought had come to Amanda. “Unless Mistress Trippett dies. Then they'll say I'm to blame, and they'll come after me.”

“What will they do if they find you?”

“Put me in jail.”

“Would Meg and I go, too?”

“No.”

“Where would we go?”

“Jemmy, hush.”

“Where would we go, Amanda?”

“You'd go to a place where you work all day and half the night. When you're poor and don't have anywhere else to go, that's what you do.”

“Meg's too little.”

“So are you.”

“No, I'm not. But I don't want to go there. I'd rather go to jail with you.”

“We won't be going to jail,” she said, “because they won't catch us.”

“Where
are
we going?”

“I don't know yet, but we're going to stay together. Do you hear that, Jemmy? Do you hear, Meg?”

“I hear,” he said.

Meg said nothing. She'd said nothing since they had left Mistress Trippett's.

Meg was too quiet, too
good
. All her life she'd been pushed away into corners.
Sit there, Meg. Don't move, Meg
. She'd never played like other children. She didn't know how.

A woman was coming slowly toward them with a lantern in her hand. She stopped at the pier, and the light shone on her face. She was very old. Her eyes looked hollow and wild.

“Give me—give me,” she said.

“We've nothing to give,” said Amanda.

The old woman held the lantern high. She was looking at Meg.

“It's my little girl,” she said.

“No,” said Amanda.

The old woman came closer. “Don't you know me, dear?”

“Go away,” said Amanda.

The old woman sat down beside them. She touched Meg's hair. “Come, dear, I'll take you home with me.”

“Leave her alone!” Amanda pulled Meg away and took Jemmy's hand.

They left the pier. The old woman called after them, “Wait—wait!” but they didn't stop.

They walked back toward London Bridge. Now Amanda could see that the night people were everywhere. They were in alleys and doorways. They were part of the shadows.

The spring night was not cold, but Amanda was shivering. Where could they go to be away from these people? Where could they go to be alone, to rest and sleep a little?

They came to Fish Street.

She said, “If we go back to Mistress Trippett's—”

“We can't go back,” said Jemmy. “You know what Fat Randolph said.”

“We wouldn't go in. If we went into the garden . . . No one goes there after dark. We could hide behind the chicken coops. In the morning, before it gets light, we could be gone.”

They walked up the street. Mistress Trippett's house was in sight, with lights in the windows.

There was a man in the alley beside the house. He carried a lantern. He came toward them.

He would go by, Amanda thought. But no. He was stopping.

She could only stand there, with Jemmy holding one of her hands and Meg the other.

“Amanda—?” asked the man.

She knew him then. It was Dr. Crider.

“I've been up and down the street looking for you,” said the doctor. “It was a piece of luck I found you. Were you coming back to Mistress Trippett's?”

“No, sir—not to the house,” answered Amanda. “Master Randolph put us out.”

“So I heard,” said Dr. Crider. “And where did Master Randolph think you might go, after dark in the middle of London?”

“We didn't know where to go,” said Amanda. “I thought we might find a place behind the house.”

“You'd better come with me,” he said.

They walked together. The lantern bobbed along, lighting their way.

“If it please you—” began Amanda.

“Yes?”

“Did you see Mistress Trippett tonight?”

“I did. A girl came to fetch me. She said Mistress Trippett was in a faint.”

“And she didn't die?”

“Die? Of course not. It was only a fit of temper.”

They turned off Fish Street. They walked along a row of wooden houses. Dr. Crider stopped at one of them.

“Where are we?” asked Jemmy.

“I've brought you home with me,” said Dr. Crider.

They went inside. A night lamp burned in the hallway.

The house was not poor, but neither was it fine. The rooms were small. The walls were bare.

“Have you had supper?” asked Dr. Crider.

“Yes, sir,” answered Amanda.

“Then perhaps you'll sit with me while I have mine.” He led them into the kitchen.

They all sat at the table while he drank a mug of milk and ate a cold meat pie. Amanda looked about the kitchen. With Dr. Crider's leave, she thought, she would sweep up the crumbs. She would polish the copper pots and pans until they shone.

“They said you made Mistress Trippett fall in a faint,” said the doctor. “Poor Mistress Trippett, what did you do to her?”