Chapter 13 #2
It was exactly the sort of scenario she and Kildare had wanted.
She almost turned to him to remark on how perfect this situation was, except she remembered he wasn’t with her.
She wished he could be here to see this and share it with her, but he was probably kneeling before some pinch-lipped lady dripping in jewels, asking for her hand in marriage.
No matter. She knew what to do.
She straightened her coat and made sure her hair was still neatly clubbed and tucked in her collar.
She bent to straighten the buckles on her shoes when the door to the hospital opened again.
Snoozer was with the lady who’d opened it, and Tamsin ducked her head so he wouldn’t see her.
He said something to the woman then strolled away.
Without Snoozer there, she couldn’t execute her plan, but she could talk to Joanna and Charlie.
She circled the building until she entered the yard at the back.
White sheets dangled from clothing lines, and a maid worked in one corner, bending over a bucket of steaming hot water.
Tamsin stepped behind one of the sheets so the maid wouldn’t see her.
After a few minutes, the back door opened, and a man emerged carrying a large basket of linens.
He said something to the maid, who retorted back, and Tamsin used the distraction to slip inside the building before the door closed again.
The hospital smelled of death and sweat.
She’d entered into a long corridor. On either side were doors to rooms. Behind one, bloodcurdling screams could be heard.
Tamsin hunched her back and kept walking.
The broomers could be anywhere in the hospital.
If they’d been tasked to clean all the chimneys, they might be climbing in the wards with the patients or in the surgeons’ offices.
But they would definitely be in the kitchen area.
A place like this needed to prepare meals for patients, and that hot water had to come from somewhere.
Trying to shut out the screaming, she eyed the other doors in the corridor.
The kitchen would be well away from the main hospital in case a fire broke out. One of these doors had to lead to it.
But the kitchen would have to wait if her plan was to work.
She continued down the corridor and stopped behind a column.
The woman who’d opened the door to Snoozer was walking up the stairs and almost out of sight.
As soon as her skirts disappeared, Tamsin raced to one of the doors flanking the vestibule.
She heard voices behind it and moved on.
Another had sliding doors, which indicated it was some sort of parlor or drawing room.
She went to the next. Pressing her ear against the wood, she heard nothing from inside.
She tried the latch, and it opened easily.
A window across the room showed her a chamber with a desk, a chair, and a glass cabinet filled with all sorts of jars and strange instruments.
Tamsin squeezed into the room and closed the door behind her.
She needed to take something small enough to put in a pocket but valuable enough to cause outrage.
She studied the glass cabinet, recoiling at what looked like a hand floating in liquid in one of the jars.
Blowing out a breath, she turned to the desk.
Papers were scattered over it as well as books.
Books were valuable but heavy. She opened a drawer and found a piece of supple leather with the initials RHT on it.
She lifted the leather piece out and realized it was actually a strip of leather with something inside.
She loosened the tie and spread the piece out on the desk.
Inside, the leather had been fitted with narrow pockets, and in each was a knife of some sort.
She’d seen items like this before in the pawnshop.
These were a surgeon’s tools, but they were far superior to those she’d seen at Big John’s.
She pulled one of the knives out and noted the ivory handle and the gleaming metal of the blade.
The initials, RHT, were engraved on the handle.
That knife was rather long and sharp, so she replaced it and took one of the smaller ones.
She thought this might be called a scalpel.
She pulled Kildare’s handkerchief from her pocket—she’d been wise to keep it after all—and wrapped the scalpel inside it then closed the leather carrier and tied it.
She replaced it and was about to close the drawer when she spotted something gold.
Tamsin glanced at the door, but hearing no one coming, she pulled out a gold chain.
At the end was a pocket watch. Quite a heavy watch too.
She opened it and studied the small hand inside as it ticked away the seconds.
Then she closed it and noted the initials, RHT, again on the gold back.
She unwrapped her wipe and put the watch in with the scalpel.
Then she carefully stuffed both in her coat pocket.
Tamsin opened the door a crack, peered out, then slipped through and ran back to the long corridor.
With a glance at the back door to make sure the man who’d brought the laundry hadn’t returned yet, she chose the first door and opened it.
It proved to be a closet stacked with linens.
She shut it and moved to the next. It was locked.
She tried a third and knew she’d found the kitchens.
The smell of bread and burned porridge was unmistakable.
She stepped inside, a lie for the cook ready on her tongue, but as her eyes roamed over the tables, the pots hanging from hooks, and an assortment of stacked bowls, she saw no cook.
Her gaze locked on three pairs of red-rimmed eyes staring at her.
Broomers.
One had his sack open and ready at the grate of a chimney. Another had paused in the process of climbing into a second chimney. “Charlie!” she called to the boy about to enter the flue.
He stared at her, confusion showing even on his soot-covered face.
“That’s not Charlie,” the boy standing with his sack said. “That’s Slip.”
“Charlie.” Tamsin moved forward, ignoring the other broomer. “It’s me, Tamsin.” She pulled her hair free of the club. “Your sister.”
“Tam?” Charlie said, climbing down from the flue.
“Hey, Slip. Go up now. Snoozer said we ’ave to ’urry.”
“You go up then,” Tamsin said. “But I’ve been looking for my brother for six months, and he’s never climbing another chimney again.”
Charlie raced to her, throwing his arms about her and almost knocking her down. “Tam, is it really you?”
She held him tightly, feeling his bones as she crushed him to her. He was so small and so thin, but he was really here. “It’s me. I found you.”
She felt his breath hitch as he tried to control a sob. His face burrowed into her shoulder, and she rubbed his back. Her nose stung as she stifled her tears.
“I thought I dreamed you and Mummy,” he said. “I started to think none of that was real.”
She took his shoulders and looked into his dirty face. “I’m real and Mummy is real, and you and Joanna are coming home with me. Now. Today.”
“But Snoozer—”
“Never you mind him. I have a plan for him.”
Charlie threw his arms about her again, and she allowed herself just to hold him.
“Snoozer won’t like coming back and finding Slip gone,” one of the broomers said.
“I didn’t think he would,” Tamsin answered. “But I plan to make it so all of you can leave, if that’s what you want.”
“How?” the broomer asked, his eyes narrowing.
“You’ll see. Now—”
“Help! Help!”
Charlie stiffened in her arms and fought to be free. She immediately loosened her hold, and Charlie joined the other broomers running out of the kitchen. Even the climbing boy in the chimney scampered down in a cloud of soot and raced out. Tamsin followed.
“What is it?” one of the broomers called from the vestibule.
“Pip is stuck,” came the answer from the top of the stairs.
“No!” Charlie said, stumbling back.
“Fetch Snoozer!” came the voice from the landing.
“No!” Charlie yelled. He looked at Tamsin. “She’s stuck. Pip is stuck!”
“Who is Pip?” Tamsin asked, though she thought she might already know.
“Joanna,” Charlie said. “Come on.”
He raced up the stairs, the other broomers and Tamsin right behind him.
“You can’t run like that in here!” a woman called as they raced past a room.
Ahead of them, a young girl motioned wildly toward a chamber just ahead.
Tamsin skidded inside, noting the white walls and several empty beds.
This must be one of the extra wards. On one side, all the broomers, save one, had gathered before the chimney.
“Help! I’m stuck!” came a faint voice from inside the chimney. Oh, God. That was Joanna’s small voice. Tamsin would know it anywhere.
“Tom,” Charlie was saying, “you have to get her out.”
“We’d better get Snoozer,” Tom said. He was one of the bigger boys, almost too big for this sort of work anymore.
“No!” Charlie’s voice was more of a plea. “Please. You can do it, Tom. I know you can.”
Tom shook his head doubtfully.
“Then I’ll go up,” Charlie said. “I can get her out.”
“No!” Everyone turned to look at Tamsin. “No,” she repeated. “I won’t have both of you stuck. How do you usually deal with this sort of thing?”
Tom looked at her for a moment then must have decided she was enough of an authority to warrant an answer. He gestured to a pile of rope in a corner. “One of us will have to go up to the roof and lower a rope or rig. We might be able to loop it around her. We can pull her free that way.”
“Then do it.”
“But that’s only if she’s stuck in a place we can reach with the rope. These chimneys twist and turn. She might be stuck in a switchback. Then there’s no way to get a rope around her. She’ll have to free herself.”
“Snoozer can encourage ’er,” one of the broomers said with a laugh. Tamsin didn’t like the sound of that.
“Won’t Snoozer be angry if you call him back before you tried to free her yourself?” she asked.
Tom pressed his lips together. “He might be.” So declaring, he gathered the rope from the corner. “I’ll go up from the kitchen and call down when I’m on the roof.”
“Hurry!” Charlie said. Then he went to the chimney and called up, “Pip! I’m here. Tom will get you out.”
“I’m stuck, Slip. I’m stuck good.”
“Tom is coming,” Charlie said. “And when you get out, I have a surprise for you.” He looked back and smiled at Tamsin.
“A good surprise or a bad one?” came Joanna’s muffled reply.
Charlie motioned for Tamsin to come to the chimney, and she leaned in and called up, “Joanna? It’s me, Tamsin. Your sister. I’m here.”
A long moment of silence followed. Tamsin thought about calling up again. Maybe Joanna hadn’t heard her. But then came a small voice. “Tam?”
“Yes, it’s me. I’m here to take you home. Just get free of there, and we’ll go home and see Mummy.”
“Tam?” came the little girl’s voice again. “Tam! I’m stuck! Please help.”
“Tom will get you out,” Tamsin called, her heart breaking. She felt so incredibly helpless. If she could have dismantled that chimney brick by brick, she would have torn it apart with her bare hands. “Don’t worry, Joanna. I’ll be right here waiting for you.”
“Tam!”
Tamsin could hear the tears in the little girl’s voice. She looked at Charlie. “Maybe we shouldn’t have told her I was here,” she murmured.
“No, it’s good. You’ve never been stuck. You feel like you’ll never be free, like you’ll die in that cramped, dark place. Anything that gives you hope is good.”
Tamsin nodded and leaned under the chimney to call up again. “Don’t be scared, Joanna. I will get you out if I have to climb up there myself.”
“Tam, I want to hug you.”
“I’ll give you the biggest hug you’ve ever had, Joanna. And I promise, this is the last chimney you’ll ever climb.” Her voice broke, and she swallowed. She took a deep breath. “You’re coming home with me.”
A few of the broomers around her murmured in surprise, but Tamsin kept calling up to her little sister. Finally, after what seemed hours, Tom’s voice echoed down from above. “I’m on the roof, Pip. Call up so I know which is your chimney.”
“I’m here, Tom!” Pip called.
“Found it,” Tom said. “I don’t see you.”
“Charlie.” Tamsin moved aside and motioned to her brother. “Look up and see if you can spot Tom.”
Charlie climbed into the chimney and peered up. “Tom, it’s Slip.”
“Can you see Pip from down there?”
Charlie moved deeper into the chimney, beginning to climb up it. Tamsin grabbed hold of his leg. She wasn’t about to lose him or see him get stuck too. “I don’t see her. Pip, where are you?”
“I think I went to the side,” she said. “I got confused. Didn’t go straight up.”
“Nothing for it but to fetch Snoozer,” Tom said.
“No!” Charlie yelled. “I can climb up and get her.” Charlie shook free of Tamsin’s hold and began to scrabble up and into the chimney.
“No!” Tamsin shouted. She all but climbed into the chimney herself and barely grasped Charlie’s ankle before he was too high. She yanked hard, and her brother slid out of the chimney, soot and ash coming with him.
“You don’t understand, Tam,” he said, shaking himself off. “If we can’t reach her with the rope, there’s only one other way.”
“What’s that?”
“Give her a push,” one of the other broomers said.
“How do you push someone who’s stuck?” Tamsin asked.
“Light a fire under them,” Charlie said, a catch in his voice. “She’ll either climb out to escape or die from the smoke and flames.”