In Lonnie's Shadow (11 page)

HAIRPIN

Item No. 6551

Carved out of bone.

The prospect of one day becoming a jockey at the Glen stables left Lonnie flooded with the idea of celebrating, and put him in the mind to drop by the oyster bar and pick up a bag as a treat. What’s more, he’d check and see if Pearl was around. He’d heard she was back in her usual place by the Governor and was mighty relieved to think she had come back to Little Lon from wherever she’d scarpered off to. Some oysters would work wonders as her welcome back tidbit.

Treasured oysters in hand, he crept up on Pearl from behind, playfully pulling out one of the hairpins from under her bonnet. She turned around startled and Lonnie was shocked to find her face peaky, like a white dollop of sago pud, her cheeks hollow and gaunt.

‘Lonnie, you gave me the fright of my life.’

‘You’re a bit jumpy. Been sickly or something? We thought you’d scarpered off from Annie for a while and found a hidey-hole somewhere.’

‘Something like that,’ she answered vaguely.

‘Running a bit hot and cold. I’ll be on the mend soon.’

‘Fancy a bit of a celebration?’

‘I’m working.’ She cast her eyes around nervously, ever on the lookout these days. ‘Anyhows, what are we supposed to be celebrating?’

‘A bit of good news for one thing.’

‘I told you I’m working.’

‘You don’t have to stay for long.’

‘What if someone comes checking?’

‘We’ll lay low. How much is half an hour of your time worth, then?’

‘Oh, so that’s what you have in mind?’

Lonnie was relieved to see a glint of the Furies back in Pearl’s eyes. ‘Get away with you, Pearl. I’m not spinning you a line.’ He held up the bag of steaming oysters. ‘Even a working girl’s got to eat.’

‘Don’t think I haven’t whiffed them already, yer chump!’ A final scan of the area reassured her no one was watching. ‘I guess I can sneak a bit of time. What’s the worst that can happen, eh?’ She slipped her arm through his. ‘I bags the bulk of them.’

HARD RUBBER PIPE

Item No. 455

Various uses, including female contraceptive device used for washing out.

Back at number four Pearl rummaged behind a pile of knickers, tight corsets, hard rubber pipes and glycerine bottles to uncover her stash of blended wines. She passed a bottle over to Lonnie and swigged long and hard from another. ‘This’ll warm our toes.’

‘I stood at the oyster bar for over an hour waiting for you last time,’ Lonnie reprimanded her. ‘Where’d you disappear to?’

‘You know how it is,’ Pearl said in a roundabout way. Her face clouded over. No sense in telling anyone the worst of her time spent beneath the floorboards. She pushed an oyster into her mouth and swilled it down with a few more mouthfuls of drink. ‘Never you mind what I’ve been up to.’

‘Go easy, girl, you’ll be giddy.’

‘I can handle it.’

‘Well, it makes my head thick. Watch out Mrs B doesn’t catch you pinching her good wine.’

‘See if I care,’ replied Pearl defiantly. ‘She can rot in hell.’

‘Come on, mate, lift your spirits.’ He could sense Pearl was really out of sorts. ‘Hey, wanna know more about the horse race?’

‘Found something out, have you?’

‘Turns out I’m riding in it.’

‘How’d you manage that?’ She took another swig.

‘You’d better win.’

‘I did some checking. The two horses weren’t in their stable. No one’s been exercising them, at least not while I’ve been around. I’m gonna check some more, but I reckon I already know what they’re up to.’

Pearl emptied her bottle and took another.

‘Slow down. You’ll get in all sorts of strife.’

‘I already worked out why we’re celebrating,’ she said with a smile, raising the bottle and clinking it against his.

Pearl couldn’t have heard about his job offer. He’d only just found out himself.

‘It’s the ninth,’ she said.

Lonnie gasped; he’d completely forgotten. Fancy, the ninth, and he’d not even remembered. He recalled telling Mr Alcock he was only sixteen, but couldn’t be blamed for an honest mistake.

Pearl giggled. ‘Get drinking, seeing it’s such a special occasion.’

They carried on sharing the bottles and drinking to each other’s health. Fast becoming sloshed, Pearl toasted everyone’s birthday and anniversary, even Annie Walker falling and breaking a leg. Lonnie was feeling a little under the weather himself. Out of the blue she clutched his arm. ‘Let’s do some more snooping about the horses. I’ll be lookout.’

‘I dunno,’ he said. There’d be some nifty climbing and fast running to be done. He wasn’t sure of their chances. ‘Thought you had to go back to work.’

‘Men are bad for my health. They make me sick.’ As a way of proving her point she burped loud and long. She looked at him accusingly. ‘Lonnie’s a scaredy-dare.’

‘Save your bull,’ he answered. ‘It won’t work on me.’

‘You weren’t a scaredy-dare the time we stole the empty bottles.’ She nestled into Lonnie’s shoulder and swilled some more wine. ‘Remember?’

How could Lonnie forget that lark, where she’d helped him pinch empty bottles from the back of the Traveller’s Inn and then carry them around the front, all the while pretending Lonnie had been out collecting them. They’d almost taken a good payment for returns from the publican.

‘I was a good cockatoo,’ Pearl said. ‘I warned you in time, didn’t I?’

‘Got chased all the way down Spring Street,’ Lonnie replied good-humouredly. Carlo’s warning – ‘She’s trouble with a capital P’ – drifted like a mist, in through one ear and out the other. But even when Pearl was carted off and threatened with prosecution, she never dobbed him in. ’Course Pearl was a good cockatoo. Why not the two of them go out on a midnight venture like old times? Especially tonight, being the ninth, even if the drink had made them a bit bleary-eyed. He could do with a little excitement on his birthday. As long as Pearl stayed cool-headed.

‘I’m up for it if you are.’

Before the words even tripped off his tongue, Lonnie was beginning to regret them.

IRON FILIGREE

Item No. 3080

Moulded ironwork. Fashioned from bars of pig iron brought into the country
as ship’s ballast. Used in building facades.

Across on the beautiful side of town where the houses were statelier (although souls could be less giving), Rose Payne was having an intense argument with her father.

‘But, Daddy –’

Henry Payne glared angrily at his daughter. ‘You know as well as I do, Lonnie McGuinness is one of those half-witted sons of Little Lon. Tell me if you dare that he doesn’t loaf with other undesirables on the street corners of an evening.’

‘But he’s not a larrikin.’ Who had told her father about him? Thomas, she supposed. Even as she made her defence, Rose thought dismally back to their encounter with the Glass and Bottle Gang and of her unlikely rescue by the Push. She couldn’t deny that Billy Bottle and George Swiggins both seemed to know Lonnie. However, she pushed the thought aside. It was too horrible to consider he was one of them.

Henry Payne was far from finished. ‘Moreover, my girl, he may well be the thief who robbed our Carlton house. Boys like him are a scourge; can’t step over a lump of bluestone without seeing it as a missile and smashing it through the nearest window. The die’s cast, his sort will never change. If I prove he’s to blame, I’ll haul him up to the magistrate’s court in a flash. No daughter of mine will be seen with the likes of that ruffian, do you understand? I’ll hear no more of it.’

Rose went cold at the sternness of his words. How dare he speak to her like that? However, she was well schooled in her father’s threatening tone. ‘Yes, Father,’ she said, biting her tongue. It was pointless to argue.

Upstairs and out of his sight, Rose stomped up and down in her room. ‘I hate you. I hate you. I’ll see who I want to see.’ Wasn’t she old enough to make up her own mind who she saw, whether he was Lonnie McGuinness or even … even … Ned Kelly, if she had a mind to?

But was it possible Lonnie was a member of the Push? Those larrikins all seemed too familiar with him. And what did Daddy mean by calling him a thief ? She knew he was capable. She’d been with him when he’d worked that lock.

The evil of that night resurfaced: the monster Billy Bottle mauling her; the dark squalid alleyways of Little Lon; the maid in the grubby room that looked like a whorehouse; that common dress she had been forced to wear. The same dress she had hatefully ripped off on her return and bundled into the cupboard where it had remained untouched for the past week.

And even though Rose Payne resolved never to set foot again in a place fit only for thugs and dirty girls, she was still vexed at her father. She would see who she wanted. But if ever she did see Lonnie McGuinness again, whatever would she do? She had never felt so out of sorts in all her life.

She pulled out the dress and in her temper tore the neckline and side seams. Then believing she would be better rid of it in case her father made the discovery, she made up her mind there and then to send it back with the coachman immediately to that hateful hotel. What was it called? The Leitrim?

DARK LANTERN

Item No. 903

Badly damaged remains of a lantern. Squashed and flattened.Found in area that had once been a cellar.

‘For goodness sake, Pearl, shut it.’

She sounded like a drunken navvy. The dark lantern in her hand bobbed along, marking time to one, two, three, loud belches. Pearl threw Lonnie an apologetic look. He grabbed the lantern from her and held the light towards a shutter at the stable, half-hanging from its hinges. It was the obvious point of entry. He went in search of the ladder he knew lay in the grass, located it and propped it against the stable wall. ‘Dog out for me here,’ Lonnie ordered. Pearl would probably break her neck if she tried to climb. Better leave her outside.

He climbed the ladder with the ease of a possum, leaving Pearl at the bottom to keep watch while he scrambled through the opening to disappear amongst the hay bales. When he heard Pearl giggling, he reappeared, whispering, ‘Find somewhere to hide and keep quiet.’ A speedy change of mind decided him she would be better under his watchful eye.

‘Nah, climb up here.’

‘Make your mind up, yer chump.’ She hiccupped. Muttering a swift prayer that the moving moon

of light he saw in the distance was nothing to do with the Cricks, he hung his own lantern on a nail and hoisted her up, preventing her from falling backwards. ‘Lordy, hurry up, girl.’ He half-dragged Pearl through the opening. ‘Someone’s coming.’

They were bound to spot the ladder. He knew he had to take one more chance at revealing himself. Leaning forward, he pulled for all he was worth. The ladder scraped against the sill as he dragged it inside.

‘Douse the lantern before we’re seen,’ he whispered.

Still larking around, Pearl swung the lantern and made futile attempts to snuff out the flame. ‘Make a birthday wish.’

Lonnie grabbed the lantern before she could burn herself or set fire to the stable. He smothered the flame and hauled Pearl across the straw, settling on an old horse blanket near some disused tackle. Below was the sound of restless horses shuffling and nosing the stalls, impatient to run.

Pearl was still prattling on. ‘Lots of straw here. For bedding. For a wedding. How about it, you and me? I’ll let you marry me.’ She snuggled up close. ‘I know you want it, Lonnie.’

‘Will you shut up?’ He pressed his finger hard on her lips.

Pearl swiped it away and nestled into his neck.

‘Give us a kiss, yer chump.’

He broke free from her embrace. ‘If you make any more noise we’ll be in real strife.’ Capital P – Carlo wasn’t far wrong. Lonnie forced her to crouch low amongst the bales, praying she would keep quiet. Then he held his breath and waited.

There was a sound of approaching voices, the clunk of the iron lock being removed. The doors creaked open. The disturbed horses were jumpy. The swish of a tail, a mane. A settling pat on the flank. Lonnie wormed his way deeper into the straw.

‘Keep down,’ he whispered, throwing his arm out and muffling Pearl’s mouth with his hand.

He felt what he thought was Pearl’s leg brushing against his own, still playing games. One swift look down told him it wasn’t her leg, but a filthy rat. If Pearl saw it and started screaming the place down they’d be done for. He nudged it out of the way, dislodging a small amount of hay, which floated down and settled onto the shoulder of a startled Mr Crick.

‘Something’s moving in the loft.’

The rat was back again, this time trying to claw its way up Lonnie’s trouser leg. Instinctively he lashed out. His boot connected with the rodent and sent it flying.

As it hit the floor the stable foreman grumbled,

‘Damned rats’re everywhere round here!’ He struck out with his foot. Missed. The rat scuttled between the men and out the door.

Satisfied they had discovered the source of the noise the men went about their business. Lonnie’s nervous heart thumped so loud he was sure it could be heard below by the three men in the world who, tonight of all nights, he least wanted to meet – the boss, his son and the Neanderthal.

‘No one’s been snooping around here, have they?’ questioned Crick senior. The tone of his voice was threatening enough to make even the Neanderthal edgy.

‘I done exactly what you said, Mr Crick, guarded this place day and night since we set up the horses here.’

‘And?’ Crick raised his eyebrows questioningly.

‘Once I caught McGuinness hangin’ around, but

I sent him packing.’

Thomas Crick joined in. ‘McGuinness? What’s he doing sticking his nose around here?’

‘I don’t know why you got him involved in the first place,’ his father snapped back. ‘I should never’ve let you talk me into it.’

Lonnie’s ears were burning as the men moved around below. To his relief Pearl lay motionless, the drink having finally knocked her out.

‘Can you tell ’em apart, sir? Can you tell which is which?’

‘No, you’ve done a fine paint job on them. I can’t tell one from the other. There’s no way anyone else will either, especially in the dark.’ He turned to Thomas.

‘See to a bonus for him. On the understanding he remains quiet, that is.’ There was a veiled threat behind the words.

Everything now made sense to Lonnie.

It seemed like an eternity before he heard the men leave and the padlock secured once more. He peeped down. Safe now to go below for a closer look and confirm for himself what they had been up to. He checked out where it was safest to jump and shook Pearl awake.

Lonnie jumped first, stumbling off the hay bale that was meant to break his fall. He regained his footing and stacked a second bale for Pearl to land on. She managed to get down without breaking her neck and they approached the two horses.