The Betrayal (30 page)

‘You be going to live in the City, Hannah?’ he’d asked, pushing his battered hat up over his forehead. ‘Wouldn’t think you’d want to go there.’

‘Oh, but I do!’ I’d said, for I’d been set on living in London for as long as I could remember. ‘I’m fair desperate to reach the place.’

‘Times like this … thought your sister would try and keep you away.’

‘No, she sent for me specially,’ I’d said, puzzled. ‘Her shop is doing well and she wants my help in it. I’m to be trained in the art of making sweetmeats,’
I’d added.

‘Sweetmeats is it?’ He’d given one of his bellows. ‘That’s comfits for corpses, then!’

He left me in Southwarke on the south bank of the Thames, and I thanked him, slipped down from his cart and – remembering to take my bundle and basket from the back – began to walk down the crowded road towards London Bridge.

As the bridge came into view I stopped to draw breath, putting down my baggage but being careful to keep my things close by, for I’d been warned often enough about the thieving cutpurses and murderous villains who thronged the streets of London. I straightened my skirts and flounced out my petticoat to show off the creamy ruff of lace I’d sewn onto it – Sarah had told me that petticoats were now worn to be seen – then pushed down my hair to try and flatten it. This was difficult for, to my great vexation, it stuck out as curly as the tails of piglets and was flame red. Nothing I wore, be it hat, hood or cap, could contain it. I pulled my new white cap down tightly, however, and tied the ribbons into a tidy bow under my chin. I hoped I looked a pleasant and comely sight walking across into the city, and that no one would look at me and realise that I was a newly arrived country girl.

It was a hot day even though it was only the first of June, and all the hotter for me because I was wearing several layers of clothes. This wasn’t because I’d -misjudged the weather, more because I knew that whatever I didn’t wear, I’d have to carry. I had on then: a cambric shift, two petticoats, a dark linsey-woolsey skirt and a linen blouse. Over these was a short jacket which had been embroidered by my mother, and a
dark woollen shawl lay across my shoulders.

I’d been studying the people carefully as we’d neared the bridge, hoping that I might see my friend Abigail, who’d come from our village last year to be a maid in one of the big houses, and also hoping to see some great lady, a person of quality, so I could judge how well I stood against her regarding fashion. There was no sign of Abby, however, and most of the quality were in sedan chairs or carriages, with only the middling and poorer sort on foot. These folk were wearing a great variety of things: men were in tweedy country clothes, rough working worsteds or the severely cut suits and white collars of the Puritans, the women wearing everything from costly velvet down to poor rags that my mother would have scorned to use as polishing cloths for the pewter.

‘That’s a fine red wig you’ve got there, lass!’ a young male voice said, and I realised that I’d paused beside a brewhouse.

I turned indignantly on the speaker. ‘It’s not a wig. It’s my own hair!’ I said to the two men – one young and one old – who were leaning against the wall, mugs of ale in their hands.

‘And fine patches across your nose, too,’ said the elder.

I opened my mouth to say more and then realised that the youth and man outside the Gown and Claret were making fun of me.

‘They’re not patches, William, they’re called sun kisses!’ the first said, and they both roared with laughter.

I picked up my basket, feeling my cheeks go pink.

At The Sign Of The Sugared Plum

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Books by Mary Hooper

At the Sign of the Sugared Plum

Petals in the Ashes

The Remarkable Life and Times of Eliza Rose

At the House of the Magician

By Royal Command

The Betrayal

Text copyright © 2009 by Mary Hooper
Illustrations copyright © 2009 by Peter Bailey
All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages

First published in Great Britain in 2009 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Published in the United States of America in October 2010
by Bloomsbury Books for Young Readers
Electronic edition published in October 2011
www.bloomsburyteens.com

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to
Permissions, Bloomsbury BFYR, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
available upon request
eISBN 978 1 59990 876 2 (ebook)