“Hello, Lady Allison,” they all chorused, making her feel ridiculous, as though she was about to lead a primary school class.
She smiled nervously and put her teacup down, feeling completely inadequate. “Recently, it has become clear to me that perhaps the many rules that I’ve forced all of you to agree with to live here are a little harsh.”
Surprised looks surrounded her, and she forced herself to go on.
“You see, I’ve also lived under many rules that I didn’t agree with. While at my brother’s house, I was forced to do what he wanted, and I often chafed at the fact that he thought he knew better than me how I should live my life.”
Heather once again squeezed her hand, always her rock.
Allison gave her friend a quick glance of appreciation. “I recently moved out of my brother’s house so that I did not have to abide by his rules, and that made me realize that I had been treating all of you much the same. I am here today to ask you all what you need to make better lives for yourselves. What can I do to help you on your journeys instead of making you feel as though Mercy House is a prison?”
For a long moment, no one said anything, but at last, Lucy cleared her throat and looked around at the other girls. “That’s very kind of you, Lady Allison. We want you to know how much we appreciate you letting us live in this beautiful house and that our food, water, and electricity are all paid for. None of us have ever lived anywhere so fine in our lives.”
Most of the other girls nodded in agreement.
“But we do feel a bit like prisoners,” Belle admitted, her voice trembling. “It doesn’t feel like a home here when we can’t have people over, can’t stay out past nine o’clock, can’t have a nip of gin in our bedroom.”
India nodded. “I don’t think none of us here want to go back to what we was doin’. But we wasn’t raised up proper like you was. I’d like to sometimes go to the pub of a night, have a drink or two. Just have a little fun. That don’t mean I won’t make it to my job in the mornin’.”
Allison winced a bit, shocked that they’d both mentioned alcohol as one of the things they’d most like her to allow. She had nightmarish imaginings of wild parties and drunken women passed out all over the parlor, but who was she to tell them that they couldn’t have a drink or two every now and again? They were right. She hadn’t been raised the way they had and had no concept of how much fun it might be to go to a pub on a Saturday night, how much dancing and flirting with handsome men might lighten their heavy loads.
“All right,” she said with a tentative smile. “Let’s do away with all the rules except for gentlemen callers in your rooms. You can entertain down here, and we’ll see how it goes. As long as you act responsibly, you continue going to your jobs, and your activities don’t bother your housemates, you are free to live the lives you choose. You can still stay at Mercy House for a year so that you can save up the money you need to strike out on your own.”
The girls met the pronouncement with cheers and gratitude, several of them coming over to hug her and thank her. Allison looked up from hugging Belle to see that Quinn stood out in the hallway. The pride in his eyes made her feel ten feet tall.
* * *
AS QUINN ESCORTED ALLISON and Miss Fields out of Mercy House, they were suddenly surrounded by a bunch of street urchins, all begging for change and pulling at their clothes. Joseph immediately started shooing them away, but Allison began scrambling for her purse, as though she planned on giving away every penny she had.
Quinn closed his hand over hers and shook his head. “Don’t let them know you have anything,” he instructed, for her ears only. “If you do, we’ll be robbed blind before we get back to the carriage.”
“But they’re starving,” she whispered, her blue eyes filled with tears. “I have to do something.”
“Even if you gave them something, they’d just be starving again tomorrow,” he said, trying to make her understand. “You can’t help them all, Allison. Once we’re somewhere safe, we can talk about ways you can do something for the children in this neighborhood, but these little beggars will just take everything you give them back to their boss. They won’t see a penny of it.”
She blinked and then nodded, putting her purse back in her pocket.
“Keep your hand on it,” he instructed. “They’re master pickpockets.”
She nodded again, still looking on the verge of tears. “They’re just children,” she said in a tremulous voice. “I wish we could take them all to Brookhaven.”
Quinn took Allison’s hand, squeezing it in an attempt to offer comfort as he steered her to the carriage. “Most of them have been on the streets for years. Brookhaven would feel just as much of a prison to most of them as Mercy House was feeling to those women.”
“They usually don’t accost me this way,” she whispered. “This is the first time I’ve seen those children.”
“I see them all the time,” Quinn told her grimly. “They’re a scourge upon this part of the city. The men who recruit them are the worst kind of criminals, using children to do their dirty work. But the children are fiercely loyal. If you tried to take one of them to Brookhaven, they’d just run away.”
She nodded, looking a bit overwhelmed. He was proud of what she’d tried to do today, but this world was just too different from her own for her to ever really understand it.
“Come on,” he said, helping her into the carriage. “You’ve had enough of Bethnal Green for one day. Let’s get you home.”
* * *
ALLISON SPENT THE RIDE back to the precinct staring silently out of the coach window. Quinn and Heather were quiet too, and she felt terrible because she knew they were feeling sorry for her. She couldn’t get those children’s hollow, empty eyes out of her head. She’d wanted to scoop them all up and take them home with her. When Quinn had told her that they were already hardened criminals, it had broken her heart.
“You can’t save all of them.”
Quinn’s words echoed in her mind. Was that was she was trying to do? All she’d done was not even a drop in the bucket compared to what needed to be done. Was it pointless to even try?