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napkin.
    “More bread?”
Mrs Trotter took another piece.
    “Your rooms
are nice,” said Isabella, looking around the luxuriously appointed
room.
    “Aren’t they
just? I feel very lucky to have met Lady Molesey. Really, she has
been too kind.”
    “Yes she has.”
There was a pause. “Mrs Trotter, I know this is our last night, but
would you mind if I went to bed early. After all, I do have a big
day tomorrow.” Isabella hoped her voice, high and false to her own
ears, wouldn’t give her away.
    Mrs Trotter
pushed back her tray.
    “Of course,
Isabella. What an excellent idea.” Then she looked anxious. “You’re
not sickening for something are you?”
    Isabella bit
back a nasty reply.
    “No, I am just
tired, but might I take some of your bromides to settle my stomach.
Lady Molesey’s food is so much richer than what we’ve been used
to.”
    “Of course. I
will fetch them.” Mrs Trotter bustled off to her bedroom and
Isabella waited until the door between the two rooms was firmly
shut. Then she shot to her feet and over to the tall window. On a
small table was a heavy jade box, which she pocketed, followed by
two silver snuffboxes from the mantelpiece. Mrs Trotter had left
her reticule next to the sofa where they had taken their supper.
From it, Isabella took a pair of tiny emerald earrings, the ones
Mrs Trotter had planned on giving her daughter.
    Then Isabella
sat back in her seat and replaced her napkin, just as Mrs Trotter
came back into the room.
    “Here we are,
dear, now don’t take too much, just a little with water.”
    Isabella fixed
a smile on her face.
    “Goodnight Mrs
Trotter.”
    “Goodnight,
dear. Sleep well.”
    In her room,
Isabella packed all her belongings in her bag, with the boxes
wrapped up in the sari at the bottom of the bag. She dressed in her
warmest clothes and taking the blanket from the bed, packed that at
the top of the bag. She knew she’d need it soon. She sat on the
crimson step where she had sat such a few hours earlier, and waited
for the house to settle. When the grandfather clock three floors
down struck one, she made her move, silently as she’d been taught,
down to the front door. Undoing the chain, she stepped into the
darkness, the cold making her gasp, and then pulled the door closed
behind her with a clunk.
    She
paused.
    There was a
faint glow above the city to the east. Could it be the bakeries
already at work? She would head in that direction. At least she had
a full belly, and something she could sell. She might not be much
of a soldier, but she was still a soldier’s daughter, and she was
learning fast.
     

Chapter 3 : Rooky

    “Move along
now, Missy,” came the voice of a Peeler who poked at her with his
truncheon. “You can’t sleep here.”
    Isabella
pulled the blanket around her, but it did little to drive out the
biting cold.
    “Where can I
sleep? Everywhere I go you’re poking at me.”
    “I suggest you
go back to where you came from. You won’t last a minute on these
streets.” Isabella slowly got to her feet. Her head was spinning
with fever. She hadn’t slept at all, maybe for two minutes at a
time, too terrified someone would come to steal her belongings or,
even worse, take her back to India House.
    Her footsteps
echoed off high brick walls, black with soot. The arches underneath
which she’d sought shelter yawned at her from either side. Looking
up she saw the sky, previously bright with icy stars, was now full
of cloud and the air was still. Instinctively, she knew she must
find shelter soon. She’d spent most of the previous day in hiding
worried she might come across someone looking for her. Surely now,
any searches would have been called off?
    At the end of
the line of arches, she found a well-made road, with light traffic
moving along it: Small carts, making their way to market and larger
carts carrying stones and timber pulled by heavy draught horses. A
cracking whip made her jump.
    “Get out the
way there!”
    Speeding up
her