The Baker's Tale

B
OOKS BY
T
HOMAS
H
AUSER

G
ENERAL
N
ON
-F
ICTION

Missing

The Trial of Patrolman Thomas Shea

For Our Children

(with Frank Macchiarola)

The Family Legal Companion

Final Warning: The Legacy of Chernobyl

(with Dr. Robert Gale)

Arnold Palmer: A Personal Journey

Confronting America's Moral Crisis

(with Frank Macchiarola)

Healing: A Journal of Tolerance and Understanding

With This Ring

(with Frank Macchiarola)

Thomas Hauser on Sports

Reflections

B
OXING
N
ON
-F
ICTION

The Black Lights: Inside the World of Professional Boxing

Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times

Muhammad Ali: Memories

Muhammad Ali: In Perspective

Muhammad Ali & Company

A Beautiful Sickness

A Year At The Fights

Brutal Artistry

The View From Ringside

Chaos, Corruption, Courage, and Glory

The Lost Legacy of Muhammad Ali

I Don't Believe It, But It's True

Knockout

(with Vikki LaMotta)

The Greatest Sport of All

The Boxing Scene

An Unforgiving Sport

Boxing Is . . .

Box: The Face of Boxing

The Legend of Muhammad Ali

(with Bart Barry)

Winks and Daggers

And the New . . .

Straight Writes and Jabs

Thomas Hauser on Boxing

A Hurting Sport

F
ICTION

Ashworth & Palmer

Agatha's Friends

The Beethoven Conspiracy

Hanneman's War

The Fantasy

Dear Hannah

The Hawthorne Group

Mark Twain Remembers

Finding The Princess

Waiting For Carver Boyd

The Final Recollections of Charles Dickens

The Baker's Tale

F
OR
C
HILDREN

Martin Bear & Friends

Copyright © 2015 Thomas Hauser

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. Despite the incidental use of actual historical figures and places, the characters and incidents portrayed in this book are wholly fictional.

L
IBRARY OF
C
ONGRESS
C
ATALOGING-IN
-P
UBLICATION
D
ATA

Hauser, Thomas.

The Bakers Tale: Ruby Spriggs and the Legacy of Charles Dickens / Thomas Hauser.

pages; cm

1. Bakers—England—London—Fiction. 2. London (England)—Social conditions—19th century—Fiction. 3. London (England)—Social life and customs—19th century—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3558.A759B35 2015

813'.54—dc23

2015009414

Cover design by Faceout

Interior design by Neuwirth & Associates

Counterpoint Press

2560 Ninth Street, Suite 318

Berkeley, CA 94710

www.counterpointpress.com

Distributed by Publishers Group West

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e-book ISBN 978-1-61902-669-8

F
OR
R
UBY
C
ARELLIE
C
HAPMAN

AND

R
EECE
E
DWIN
C
HAPMAN

Contents

Book 1

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Book 2

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Book 3

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Book 4

Chapter 13

A
UTHOR'S
N
OTE

This is a work of fiction. Throughout the manuscript, I have comingled the words of Charles Dickens with my own. I have also drawn from the May 1842 report of the Royal Commission headed by Lord Anthony Ashley that investigated the conditions in England's mines.

Thomas Hauser

New York, N Y

2015

In the winter of 1836, I held an infant in my arms. The child, a girl eight months of age, was living under the most deplorable conditions that existed in London at that time. Since then, I have often wondered what happened to the child.

C
HARLES
D
ICKENS

Written at sea while returning home to England from America

April 1868

Book 1