“Is that when Mick found you?”
“Nah. I lived rough fer a month or more; then I met one o’ Mick’s shipmates.” He paused as he remembered, and gave a quiet, nervous laugh. “I tried t’ steal ’is purse.”
Stephen leaned back in his seat. Now that the floodgates had opened, he needed to listen. “And he recognised you?”
“Nah, ’e di’n’t know me. But Mick come out o’ a shop just as ’is mate grabbed me. ’E thought I were dead, but I tol’ ’im about t’ Beadle an’ t’ matron an’ their arrangement wi’ t’ people in Soho.”
Stephen wanted to hear more, but the coach drew into the rectory mews and stopped. Quick as anything, Jem was out of the carriage and folding down the step for Stephen. The topic would have to be broached again at a more opportune time.
Luke strode into the undertaker’s yard, his ey
