AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The coachman pointed at smoke billowing in the distance. Mari noticed, for the first time, that there was a snarl of carriages and carts, all barred from making their way farther on Holborn.
“Go back,” a man shouted at them. “It’s a fire.”
At the words, a sinking fear gripped Mari. “A fire?”
“Where?” Edgar shouted back.
“Lumley’s Toy Shop, I think,” called the man, shaking his head. “Would be a shame for all those toys to be lost.”
Mari’s heart stopped.
Edgar raced to the constable who was blocking the way. “Let us pass,” he cried. “My children are in Lumley’s Toy Shop.”
“No one’s getting through, sir. The street’s blocked except to the fire brigades, when they ever decide to arrive.”
“The fire brigades,” Edgar muttered. “I don’t trust those bumblers to fill my bathwater.”
He addressed Mari. “Stay in the carriage where you’ll be safe. I’m going to the foundry to fetch my fire engine. It’s the quickest way to put out the blaze. Grafton will still be there. He’ll help. We’ll be back before you know it.”
“Go,” she said. “Hurry, please.”
“It’s a stone building, Mari. There’s time.”
The coachman helped him unhitch one of the horses from the carriage. He leapt onto the horse and galloped away into the night.
Mari shivered with cold and fear. She couldn’t just sit there, waiting for him.
The carriage might not be able to pass through, but she could, if she made herself less visible.
She removed her velvet bonnet with the blue plumage and stepped down from the carriage.
“I need your cloak,” she said to the coachman.
He surrendered it without a protest.
She shrugged into the long blue greatcoat, pulling the collar up over her cheeks.
And then she darted into the shadows.
She must reach the toy shop. She must save the children.
Chapter 33
The toy shop wasn’t burning.
But it would be soon, if the fire at the bookseller’s next door wasn’t brought under control.
The sound of the flames crackled and popped in Mari’s ears.
A window shattered. She could see books burning inside the stone building.
She didn’t think the children were in any immediate danger. Surely her father had been able to remove them to safety when the fire broke out next door. Unless he hadn’t found the children in the shop.
What if they’d fallen asleep in the shop and he hadn’t noticed them? The thought chilled her, despite the heat emanating from the fire.
Edgar had better hurry.
She searched the length of the street. The fire brigade was just arriving with its engine drawn by three horses. Onlookers were gathered in knots outside of the houses across the street from Lumley’s. She walked among them, searching for the children.
