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“Tilly, do you work from a flash house?” he asked.
She nodded.
“With a fence or a gang leader?”
“Arch rogue,” she tersely replied.
Gang leader, then. Children from the stews often fell into the clutches of petty criminals, who lured them in with promises of protection and then exploited them without mercy. It made Graeme want to kill the bastard controlling Tilly.
“For how long?”
“Since me mam died. She worked for him, too.”
“You don’t have to keep working for him,” Sabrina earnestly said. “We can help you do something else.”
“Can’t.”
“Why not?” Graeme asked.
Tilly’s expressive face mirrored an inner struggle.
“ ’Cause I’m tryin’ to get me little brother out of the orphanage,” she finally blurted out. “Ol’ Bill said he’d get Charlie out once I pays off our debts to him. When me mam died, she owed Bill money. Then he took on the raisin’ of us, so I owes him, too. But then Bill said Charlie was too little to earn his keep, so he says let the parish take care of him. He’s the one who stuck Charlie in the orphanage in the first place.”
Sabrina, who’d been looking appalled, rallied. “My dear girl, I can give you whatever money you need.”
For a moment, hope flared like a torch in Tilly’s gaze. But just as quickly, the light snuffed out. “Can’t.”
Sabrina frowned. “Why not?”
“’Cause I promised Bill I’d work for him as long as he said,” Tilly said. “Bill said he’d tell me when the debt’s paid. So it ain’t up to me. He said he’s been loyal to me, so I gots to be loyal to him.”
“But you’re a child,” Sabrina replied. “Adults shouldn’t let children make promises like that.”
Tilly scowled. “I ain’t no silly bantling, and I don’t welch.”
Sabrina looked perplexed, but Graeme understood both Tilly’s cant and her dilemma.
“The gangs have their own code of conduct,” he explained. “If you violate that code . . .”
When Tilly drew a finger across her throat, Sabrina looked ready to bolt up her crumpets.
Graeme quickly pressed Sabrina’s hand. “We’ll get it sorted, lass. I promise.”
“Nothin’ to sort,” Tilly said. “I run the gang till Ol’ Bill says I don’t. Once he says I’ve paid off our debts, I’ll run my own rig. Or maybe leave town,” she wistfully added. “Start someplace new with Charlie.”
Sabrina pressed a hand to her lips before replying. “No child should have to live like that.”
“I do all right. And once I gets Charlie out, I’ll have enough to take care of him, too.”
“But—”
Graeme gave Sabrina a warning shake of the head. She breathed out a frustrated huff but desisted.
Tilly flashed a sharp look at Graeme. “Mister, can I go? Someone’ll come lookin’ soon enough, and Ol’ Bill won’t like me jabberin’ with ye.”
Graeme understood. If someone from the gang saw the child talking to them . . .
Sabrina’s frustration finally broke free. “We simplycannotlet her return to the dreadful situation. We have to help her.”
