The boy looked at the butler with a solemn expression. “Not nobody in St. Giles got an extra tuppence.”
“Goodness,” Lily said, “and do you live with your parents there? Do they know what you get up to?”
“I live with me ma and the tuppence is for our dinner so a’course she knows it. Me dad, whoever he is, went and flown the coop,” the boy said matter-of-factly. “I don’t mind it, she says he was a rotter from the start.”
Lily’s heart nearly broke for the boy. While there were those in Surrey who lived quite poor, there always seemed to be some person or charity who could meet their most basic needs. Here, though, in London, she knew it was not so. There were too many people in need, and the people who could give did not know them. They were the faceless poor and did not garner much sympathy.
“Really, miss,” the butler interrupted. “Am I to expect that Lady Jersey is to be forced to step over this rapscallion when she arrives or departs her own house?”
Lily was a bit shaken to hear the name Lady Jersey. She had not, when she’d challenged the butler, considered what sort of great personage he might work for. She should have, she supposed, as itwasBerkeley Square. No matter, she must not be put off by a quaking in front of rank.
“I would certainly not expect Lady Jersey to countenance such a thing,” Lily said, gathering courage for the boy’s plight. “Therefore, the matter can be simply rectified. This young man will come at an appointed time, early in the morning, I think, as I doubt your mistress to be up at that hour. He will knock on the servant’s entrance, he will be given a cup of water, a roll, and a tuppence. You probably ought to give him a bath once a fortnight. You might even give him the odd job to do, as I’m sure he shouldn’t mind some work. Certainly, you can afford such a small sum. Then, he will not bother you further.”
“I work like the devil when I can get it,” the boy said, with a steely determination not often seen in one so young.
“Don’t speak of the devil, boy,” Pips said, “lest he come for you.”
Though the boy seemed unaffected by the idea of the devil coming for him, the butler was very much affected by everything Lily had proposed. He had sputtered and his face had gone near purple during her speech. Lily thought he was on the verge of apoplexy.
“Am I to understand,” he said in a low and controlled fury, “that I am to pay this little blighter to stay off my steps?”
“And give him a roll and water,” Lily added. “And the occasional bath.”
“But, it is very irregular! What if I am to be besieged by an army of them? What then?”
Lily turned to the boy. “What is your name?”
“Sam,” he said. “Samuel for those all fancy-like. Named after me ma’s dad what got crushed by a wagon.”
Lily chose to ignore the demise of Sam’s departed grandfather. “Sam, now, would I be correct in thinking that if you were to find a regular source of income at this house, you’d be very loath to tell anybody else about it?”
“Only a fool would do that!” Sam cried. “I ain’t no fool.”
Lily looked up to the butler and smiled. “And there you see, sir. Sam is no fool. In fact, I suspect he would guard this house jealously should some other fellow think to stop by.”
“I’d pound him to bits,” Sam said resolutely, as if he were a renowned boxer.
Lily did not hold up much hope that the little fellow could pound anything to bits, but she thought it impolitic to say so at this particular moment. “I rather think a tuppence a day is quite cheap to have your own guard on the house.”
The butler threw up his hands. “It’s robbery, is what it is.”
Lily raised her chin defiantly. “It’s charity, is what it is. Further, the servants below you will think you very liberal for doing it. I suspect they all know someone in a similar circumstance.”
Lily glanced at Mrs. Hemming’s footman, who nodded gravely.
“They will think of that person they know and pray that person runs intoyourbrand of kindness. While you,” she went on, “may satisfy yourself that your problem is at an end.”
The butler seemed swayed by the idea that he was to be thought liberal. Lily suspected that butlers in general, while severe in mien, would not mind being thought a hero by their staff.
“May I have your word, sir?” Lily asked. “As a gentleman?”
Being referred to as a gentleman by a finely dressed lady seemed to sway him even more.
“Very well,” he said grudgingly. He shook his finger at Sam. “But no shenanigans! No asking for more! No hanging about the place! And a bath only once a month, in cold water, mind. Further, if Lady Jersey ever gets wind of you, that’s it! You hear?”
Lily laid a hand on Sam’s shoulder. “You’d better run as fast as you can to the servant’s entrance, before this fine gentleman changes his mind.”
Sam, having spent a childhood grasping at every opportunity that came his way without the slightest pause to think it over, shot off as if he’d been unleashed from an arrow.
