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Scuff took a deep breath and steadied himself. ‘It’s a farm cottage we got ter get to as early as we can, but it’s all lanes and tracks, so we can’t do it in the dark. They can’t know ’oo we are . . . even think it!’
‘Slow down! Slow down!’ Squeaky said, gesturing with his hands. ‘Who’s “we”?’
‘Monk and Mr ’Ooper an’ me,’ Scuff replied. He changed his weight from one foot to the other in his impatience. ‘Yer can find a cart fer us, if yer want to! Yer can find anything at all, if yer want to enough.’
Squeaky stood up. ‘Of course I can,’ he agreed. ‘How many people has this cart got to carry? That’s what I need to know.’
Scuff swallowed. ‘Us three, and Hester and the three children ’e took fer their blood.’
‘God Almighty! Took for their blood! What d’yer mean, boy?’
‘’E’s making experiments . . .’
‘How d’you know that?’ Squeaky narrowed his eyes. ‘You listening in to wot you shouldn’t, eh?’
‘Only a bit! Are yer goin’ ter get us a cart or not?’
‘’Course I am!’
‘I’ll come with yer. I . . . I s’pose I got ter drive it.’ That was a frightening thought. He knew the river, but horses were a completely different matter. However, he couldn’t afford to let anyone see that he was afraid.
Squeaky looked him up and down and there was something in his eyes that could have been respect.
‘Come on, then,’ he said abruptly, as if Scuff had kept him waiting. ‘We’ll go and find a horse and cart.’
Scuff straightened up instantly. ‘Yes, sir!’ he said, before realising he had actually called Squeaky ‘sir’, and it was too late to take it back.
The errand took longer than expected. There seemed too often to be reason or an excuse. The cart was too large, too small, one wheel was broken, the horse was lame, or the price was ridiculous. The last Scuff would have given in to, and paid whatever was asked, but Squeaky hushed him sharply, and walked away. The lamps were lit and it was completely dark by the time they had found a very good cart and bought a load of hay to go along with it for authenticity.
‘And to hide anything we might want to,’ Squeaky added. ‘Best that people don’t know what they don’t have to.’
Scuff understood. This must succeed. Anything that would make it better, safer, was good. He even agreed to go home quietly and trust Squeaky to arrive at four o’clock in the morning, with the horse and cart, so they could set out from Paradise Row just before dawn. That way they would be well out of the area where they were known before other people were on the roads.
‘By the time we’re passing people who are up, they’ll be farmers,’ Squeaky pointed out. ‘Best we be invisible. An’ that means Mr Monk’s gotter get out of his clothes that fit him like he had a tailor cut ’em for him special. Which I dare say he does! Better not to look like a waterman neither, not as far from the river as we’d be going.’
‘We?’ Scuff asked, and then wished he hadn’t, but it was too late.
Squeaky turned to look at him. ‘You gonner tell me you can drive a horse all that way, and bac
k again? You don’t just tell horses, you know. They got minds o’ their own, like anybody else. You’ve got to go an’ rescue Miss Hester, an’ them kids, never no mind arguing with a horse what doesn’t understand you anyway.’
Scuff nearly asked him if the horse understood him, but he didn’t really want the answer. He broke all his natural instincts and agreed without argument.
He even repeated it very firmly when he arrived home at Paradise Row to tell Monk that he had succeeded.
Monk thanked him, gave him a thick, cold meat sandwich and told him to go to bed. He would be wakened at half-past three to get ready, in the assumption that Squeaky would keep his word and be there by four.
Hooper was coming with them. He would sleep in the sitting room, and be ready also.
‘That all?’ Scuff asked nervously. ‘Just us?’
‘You can change your mind,’ Monk said, his voice suddenly gentle. ‘We don’t know how many there are of them, possibly just Rand and whatever staff he has. But Laker has to run the station. He isn’t fit for this yet, and we can’t all leave. The other men have their regular duties. I can’t take them off police work.’
Scuff swallowed. ‘I’m coming.’
Monk nodded, frowning a little. ‘I know. But you must do as you’re told. You are part of a team. Any man disobeys, he endangers the rest of us. Understand?’
‘Yes, I do,’ Scuff said decisively. ‘I’ll do it exactly. I promise.’
