Essie shifted uncomfortably on the padded velvet seat. ‘I shouldn’t be here. Perhaps I ought to go home. I have to find work anyway.’
Alice reached out to grasp Essie’s wrist. ‘Don’t go yet. I have an idea that might save us all from a great deal of trouble and heartache.’
‘You always were the clever one in the family,’ Raven said with a wry smile. ‘What do you suggest?’
Alice ignored him, concentrating her attention on Essie. ‘How do you earn your living, Esther?’
‘It’s Essie, my lady. No one calls me Esther unless I’m in trouble.’
‘All right then, Essie – what work are you looking for?’
‘My pa fell and hurt his back. He’s works the river and I’ve taken over his job while he’s poorly.’
‘Forgive me, but I don’t know what that entails.’
‘We have a boat and we do trips that are too small for the watermen and lightermen to take on. As I told you, I brought Mr Raven ashore the other night, and it was blooming difficult, rowing against wind and tide.’
‘We need a go-between, Essie,’ Alice said earnestly. ‘Raven is risking everything simply by returning to London, but he has important business to transact.’
Essie looked from one to the other. Raven was frowning thoughtfully, but he made no comment. ‘You’re an escaped convict,’ she said slowly. ‘I’d be in trouble too, if you were caught.’
He nodded. ‘Yes, you would. I don’t want you going into this blindly.’
‘But we would pay you well,’ Alice insisted. ‘You’re involved now anyway.’
‘Don’t tell the girl that,’ Raven said angrily. ‘She can still walk away. I won’t be responsible for ruining a young life.’ He fixed Essie with an intense look. ‘You aren’t under any obligation to me or my cousin. If you’re unhappy with this you are free to go now, and nothing more will be said.’
Essie held his gaze and saw a man she could trust. ‘I will help you,’ she said slowly. ‘Just tell me what you want me to do.’
Raven was about to reply, but Alice laid her hand on his arm. ‘Leave this to me.’ She turned a brilliant smile on Essie and the sun seemed to shine inside the luxurious carriage, even though the rain was drumming on the roof. ‘We will take you home and you can tell your papa that you have been offered work in the house of a respectable lady, which will give you an excuse for visiting me in Hill Street.’
‘Take me home?’ Essie shook her head. ‘Are you mad? Begging your pardon, my lady, but if this carriage arrived in White’s Rents it would cause a sensation.’
‘She’s right, Alice.’ Raven’s tense expression melted into a smile. He opened the door. ‘Go home, Essie. I’ll see you later.’
Essie visited Riley on the way, but he had no work for her and she spent the day cleaning the house, attempting to ignore her father’s constant carping. In the end she went to the pub and had a jug filled with ale, which kept him happy. He was soon sound asleep and snoring loudly, and Essie was sitting by a desultory fire in the kitchen, waiting for the kettle to boil, when Raven entered the room.
She jumped to her feet. ‘I thought they’d got you,’ she said crossly. ‘I’ve been waiting all day for you to return.’
He took off his cap and reefer jacket, shaking droplets of rainwater on to the tiled floor. ‘You sound like a nagging wife.’
‘I don’t know who would want to marry a man like you,’ Essie countered. ‘You asked me to help you and I need to know exactly what I’m supposed to do.’
He pulled up a chair and sat down, stretching his long legs towards the fire. ‘Haven’t you got any more coal? That’s a pitiful excuse for a blaze.’
‘No, I haven’t. I bought a bag yesterday and put it out in the yard but someone pinched it.’
‘I’m sorry, I know I’ve put you to a lot of trouble, but you’ll be handsomely recompensed.’
‘If I’m not sent to jail first.’
A smile curved his lips and he nodded. ‘Touché. But I’ll take great care that doesn’t happen.’ He leaned forward and took the poker from her hand. ‘That really is a poor apology for a fire.’
Essie sat back in her chair, eyeing him thoughtfully. ‘Why aren’t you staying with Lady Alice? You’d be a lot more comfortable in her house. She’ll have a servant or two to take care of you, and I’m sure she has coal fires in every room.’
‘My cousin has a large house in Hill Street, as you’ll discover, and she has a small army of servants. Most of them are trustworthy, but there’s always someone with a loose tongue.’ He put the poker down with a sigh. ‘I can’t afford to be caught, Essie. This isn’t a game, which is why I want you to visit Hill Street daily and return with whatever information Alice has for me.’
‘What do you hope to gain from all this?’ Essie asked boldly. ‘And don’t say it’s none of my business, because you’ve involved me and my pa whether we like it or not. Why would you risk everything to return to London now, when you only have to wait for another two years and you could be a free man?’
‘Free, but still a convicted criminal.’ He stared into the pale flames that licked around the damp nuggets of coal. ‘Have you heard of a place called Ballarat?’
‘No, can’t say I have.’
‘You know that fortunes are being made from the goldfields?’
‘I suppose I must have seen something about it in the old newspapers that people leave about, but Australia is on the other side of the world. What has that got to do with us here?’
Raven put his hand in his pocket and took out a gold nugget, which gleamed dully in the firelight. ‘This is what it’s all about, Essie.’
‘You’ve struck gold?’
‘Let’s just say that I’ve found enough to buy back my good name and that of my brother.’
‘It’s hard to believe that something so small can be of such value.’
‘This is not the whole of my find. There’s more.’ He put the nugget back in his pocket. ‘You mustn’t breathe a word of this. People become savages when there is so much money at stake.’
She laughed, despite the seriousness of the situation. ‘Round here they’d kill you for a silver sixpence, let alone a lump of gold.’
‘Which is why no one must find out.’
‘I will help you, but what did Frederick do that caused you both so much trouble?’
‘I suppose it will do no harm to tell you.’ Raven leaned back in his chair with a faraway expression in his eyes as if seeing a world quite different from the poorly furnished kitchen with damp staining the walls and cracked windowpanes. ‘Our family home is in Devon. Freddie had just come down from Cambridge and, for whatever reason, he got involved with some undesirables. Despite the efforts of the preventive officers, smuggling still goes on along the coast and probably always will. Freddie was caught aiding the gang to unload their illicit cargo onto the beach.’
‘What happened then?’ Essie asked anxiously. She could almost smell the salty air and hear the waves crashing on the shingle as the boat laden with contraband was hauled ashore.
‘Freddie escaped and came home, but the revenue officers followed him. I did what anyone would do when their younger brother was in trouble and I said he was doing my bidding. I thought, quite wrongly, that my privileged position