Sunset ^beta

Chapter Text

The moment Charles had strolled into the Talbot that morning, Roxy knew she’d be losing her older sister soon. It was Captain Jackson all over again: a man walking in with a swagger in his step and a better offer for Nell than anyone in Tottenham could ever hope to muster.

Nell had been aching to leave for weeks now. Even when she thought she was being subtle, she was as obvious as a dog who needed to be let outside to do the necessary.

Twice, Roxy had caught Nell sneaking out at night, and both times, she had thought that Nell would not return in the morning.

The first time, Roxy had been woken by the clunk of the wooden gate in the back garden; she had made it to the window just in time to see Nell jogging away from the Talbot, fully-clothed. To be sure it had been her sister, and not some village boy trying to see if he could get inside to steal beer, Roxy had crept into Nell’s room; it was the room their father had put her in when she had first come back to Tottenham, as she no longer had wanted to share a room with her sisters. To Roxy’s relief, most of Nell’s scarce belongings were still there, including her sword and purse, which she knew she would not have left behind. So Roxy had gone back to sleep and had tried to forget about it.

The second time was recent, no more than a week or two ago. That time, when she heard Nell’s not-so-stealthy departure through the garden, Roxy was certain she would be gone in the morning, sword and purse included. She knew deep down her suspicion was probably unwarranted, that Nell wasn’t going to desert them – but it was difficult for Roxy not to expect the worst, on account of all the times they had recently been subjected to the worst life had to offer.

Not wanting to have her suspicions confirmed, Roxy had stayed in bed, kept awake by her nerves. She had spent so long lying there, worrying about how George would take it, that she had been awake to hear Nell’s heavy breathing as she came in again through the back garden around dawn. She had sounded as if she had been running. Soon after Roxy heard the door to Nell’s room shut, her mind had finally found the relief needed to still itself, and sleep came easy.

But she had been wrong both times about Nell leaving – and somehow, being wrong those times made it easier for her now to say goodbye, because Nell was doing it properly: just the two of them, over a couple of beers.

It had been hours since the Talbot had closed early for the night. Charles had retired first, having been worn out by the journey; but he also took a good forty minutes to finally get on with it, since he kept talking to them from the stairs. George had been very reluctant to go to bed and she only complied when Nell promised her she wasn’t going to just take off at the crack of dawn; Amadin had gone upstairs with George, to make it seem less unfair. Then Roxy finally had Nell all to herself, but it still seemed like she didn’t have her full attention.

She hadn’t cried yet over Nell leaving. It was hard to feel too sad when Nell and Charles were bantering, being witty; when Amadin was doing fun impressions – and being distractingly handsome, Roxy thought, even while doing the silliest voices.

But now that she and Nell were alone, she knew it was only a matter of time before the tears came.

Roxy felt like she had squandered the last month with her wayward sister; like she had taken it for granted that she’d be staying for good this time, because of all that the family had been through together. Now all Roxy had was a single night to talk about everything she wanted to with a sister who was heading straight back into danger.

‘Nell?’

‘Hmm?’ She sounded distracted, as usual. It took her a moment for her to even look in Roxy’s general direction.

‘You still haven’t told me what you plan to do with the Blanchefords when you find them.’

‘I have some ideas,’ Nell said vaguely, still not quite looking at Roxy.

‘You’re not gonna kill them, are you?’ Roxy raised a hand to keep Nell from responding right away. ‘I know they’re rotten and that they’re hurting people, but...’

‘If they keep stealing from people, sooner or later they’re gonna get caught, and... Why, let’s face it: we know what they do with traitors and witches, never mind those unlucky bastards who are both.’

Roxy shut her eyes tightly as memories from the plague village came to her mind: of applying ointment to George’s wound, and the dreamlike haze under which she had prepared the mixture. It had all seemed very average at the time, and she hadn’t thought twice about it even as she stumbled over the words in the book she could not naturally have read.

She thought, too, about Thomas Blancheford and his suffering which she had felt from afar; a suffering so unbearable that she had taken up a rifle and prepared to march into the house, without so much as a thought about what she would do once inside.

‘I was thinking...’ Nell said, breaking her out of her thoughts. ‘Now, I know this might sound harsh, but...’

She stopped, as if waiting for Roxy’s permission to continue – something that was very strange, in most circumstances.

Nell continued in somewhat of a rush, ‘So, if Amadin wants to go to Benin to find his family, we’ll need a lot of lolly. Thomas and Sofia Blancheford – Wilmot, whatever – same bitch –’ Again, she paused for a moment. ‘If they have a ninety-pound reward on their heads, even just one of ‘em’s bounty would be more than enough to –’

‘Nell, wait!’ Roxy felt like she needed to catch her breath. ‘Have you talked to him about this?’

‘Who? Oh, you mean Amadin?’

‘Who else would I mean?’

‘Uh, right.’

‘Nell, I don’t think...’

‘As I said, I was only thinking about it...’ Nell talked over her. ‘Just a thought. Forget I said anything.’

It was hard for Roxy not to stare at her. She knew it was logical that Nell would turn in the criminals she was going after; she knew how much just the idea of finding his family meant to Amadin; she knew how much even just half of a ninety-pound bounty could do to help him. But she also knew that by turning them in, Nell might as well be lowering the noose around their necks herself.

‘Could you live with yourself?’ Roxy asked, truthfully not knowing what Nell’s answer might be.

Clearly, judging by her shrug, Nell didn’t know, either.

‘All I know is that right now, I need to find ‘em. I have some questions for ‘em.’

Roxy didn’t know what those questions could possibly be, but the entirety of the conversation was unnerving her so much that she wanted nothing more than to find a less grim topic.

‘Well, try not to get into too much trouble, Nell, or they’ll be adding new verses to your song.’

That got Roxy exactly the reaction she wanted.

‘That bloody song! I thought George must’ve been down here earlier, roiling people up, but actually, she’s just taught it to so many fucking people now that they’re doing it without her getting them started.’

Nell sounded so harassed by it all that Roxy couldn’t help but laugh at her. Nell’s quick response was to dip a finger into her glass and flick droplets of beer right at Roxy’s face.

‘Stop!’ Roxy yelped with laughter. ‘Watch it or I’ll start charging ya!’

‘And I’ll just start nicking it when you ain’t paying attention,’ Nell said in an obvious tone.

‘Yeah? How will you do that when you aren’t here?’

Although Roxy’s smile fell when she said it, Nell’s didn’t waver.

‘You’ll take care of George, won’t ya? You’ll see to it that she keeps learning to read and write – all that good stuff?’

‘She’d do it, anyway. She likes it. Besides, who else is going to read us all the letters you’re definitely going to send this time?’

Nell raised her glass, giving Roxy a solemn little nod.

‘I’m taking that as a promise, Nell,’ she said, raising her glass, too, and lightly clinking it against her sister’s.

‘Yeah, yeah. I will.’ She went to take a drink, but stopped suddenly, sticking her finger out from her grip on the glass to point warningly at Roxy. ‘If anything in the letters seem off, they’re definitely Charles’ additions.’

‘What do you think he’ll add?’

‘Lord only knows what sort of shit goes through that fella’s mind.’ She rolled her eyes and finally took that sip. ‘I just know he’ll find something.’

‘Well, I think I know you well enough to figure it out if he does.’

‘Yeah. When he does.’ Nell leant back in her chair, narrowing her eyes, no doubt thinking about what she would do to him when he inevitably did add embellishment to the letters.

Roxy shook her head fondly at her sister. Nell really did look like their mother, from what Roxy could remember; by far, out of them three, she resembled Elizabeth Trotter the most. But her expressions and mannerisms didn’t quite belong to either of their parents; she was distinctly and utterly her own person – and that was one of many things about Nell which made her entirely irreplaceable to Roxy.

‘I wish you were staying,’ Roxy said weakly. At the look Nell gave her, she quickly added, ‘I know you can’t! Really, I know. I just wish you were able to be happy here, that’s all.’

‘Aw, c’mon. At least you’ve got George.’ Nell blinked hard, as if suddenly remembering something. ‘Oh, and Amadin. I’m sure he ain’t gonna run off. He’s a good...’

Roxy saw a look come over Nell’s face: like she wanted to say something, but didn’t know how – or had to say something, but didn’t want to. She felt dread settle in her stomach.

‘Oi. Do you remember when we got those two kittens? We thought they was both girls, right?’

‘Nell...’ It came as a mortified whisper. She drew her glass towards her protectively as she leant away from her older sister. She prayed she would not finish her thought.

Unfortunately, Nell continued: ‘Well, do you remember how we found out –’

‘Nell!’ pleaded the younger sibling.

‘– was ‘cause out of nowhere – just a couple months later, at most, I’d say – one just kept mounting the other, like she were some kinda fucking pony –’

‘Nelly!’ Roxy’s half-shout was mostly swallowed by the wood of the empty room, but she still worried it might have carried upstairs and disturbed George.

‘Oi,’ Nell said, playfully warning her with a grin and a shake of her head. ‘Don’t call me that.’

‘Stop! Just stop!’ Roxy begged, heart in her throat. ‘I’m begging you! Don’t talk about kittens! Don’t talk about – that.’

But Nell wasn’t listening.

‘Bloody disgusting,’ she whispered, chuckling softly into her glass. Then she hummed, as if she just remembered where she was going with her awful story: ‘Mm-hmm, yeah, so – y’know, don’t do that! You might end up being with child, and you might die from such a condition.’

Nell began to nod very seriously, her eyes wide. ‘Oh yeah, that happens all the time! Loads of ‘em army wives dropping like flies, back when we was all marching south. We must’ve lost at least half our women from it.’

Roxy narrowed her eyes at her sister’s far-fetched statement.

‘Honest!’ Nell said, scoffing.

‘Now you’re just lying to try to scare me.’

She watched Nell take a long drink from her glass. 

‘Look... Me and George are way too young to be aunts, and you... Y’know?’ Nell clearly didn’t want to finish saying it, and Roxy wasn’t keen on letting her.

‘He and I only kiss,’ Roxy whispered, looking down into her glass to try to hide her red cheeks.

Nell swallowed her mouthful of beer in a hurry, frantically tapping her hand against the table to get her attention.

‘No, no, no – That’s how it goes! That’s bad as is, but then... See, first it’s kissing, then it’s – well, stuff – and, out of nowhere, within the year, you’ve got a nipper of your own stuck on your chest like a leech.’

‘Stuff,’ Roxy echoed, sounding unimpressed. ‘Yes, well, like I said, we’ve only kissed.’

‘That’s what I’m telling you!’ Nell sighed desperately. ‘A man and a woman will be kissing one minute, and the next, a baby’s coming! Just like that,’ she said, snapping her fingers.

Nell’s nonsense made Roxy feel drunk, which she knew she wasn’t; but she had a feeling that a sober Nell would be just as incoherent and wrong about the subject at hand as the drunk version sitting next to her.

‘Do you even know what you’re talking about, Nell?’

Her older sister closed her mouth and gave her a funny look.

‘Sure, I do,’ she said in perhaps the least convincing tone Roxy had heard in her entire life.

‘No, you don’t.’ Roxy sounded as puzzled as she felt. ‘How do you not know –?’

‘I’m getting another beer,’ Nell said, hurriedly standing up.

‘You’re already drunk!’

‘Not even close,’ Nell said confidently, all while knocking into her chair. ‘Fuck.’

Ducking her face to her hands, Roxy rubbed at her heated cheeks. She heard her sister hop the bar, rather than walking just a little further to get behind it properly.

‘You were my age, Nell, when you went off and married Captain Jackson.’

Still with her head down, she listened to liquid being spilt into a glass. When Nell didn’t say anything, Roxy lifted her face from her hands to watch her. Nell was looking in the direction of the door she had walked out of four years earlier.

‘Pfft! Completely different circumstances, that was,’ Nell said, shaking her head and laughing – almost like she believed the truth of her own words.

‘How was it different?’ Roxy asked, beginning to lose her patience. She didn’t want to have this talk, as she didn’t feel she even needed it, especially from someone who clearly knew even less than Roxy’s much younger friends; but she wasn’t going to let Nell end it thinking she had won.

Her sister was looking down into her glass as she swung it in a gentle circle, making the liquid inside whirl. Nell met Roxy’s gaze after a moment and the two young women frowned at each other.

‘I mean, I know you didn’t love him when you left.’ Roxy shrugged. ‘I guess I figured you might have come to love him eventually.’ When her sister’s frown turned into a barely-suppressed smile, Roxy continued, ‘You got on well with him immediately, so I thought at first you really must have liked him.’

‘Liked him,’ Nell echoed Roxy’s words teasingly.

Roxy screwed up her face in annoyance. She seized the rag she had draped over her lap and flung it at Nell. It sailed through the air, way off-course, and landed nowhere near her sister’s stupid face.

‘That was embarrassing,’ Nell said, gesturing with her raised glass to where the rag fell.

‘You did, though! You liked him. Didn’t you?’

‘Huh? Oh, yeah, we got along well enough, when he wasn’t being a cocky arse to everyone.’

Already, Nell was pouring herself another glassful of beer; a little spilt on her hand, which she raised to her mouth to lick off like an animal. Then she sighed and set her glass down so she could hop the bar again without spilling it all over the place. Once on the other side, she scooped up her glass again and came back to the table Roxy was seated at. She pulled her chair out further, facing it sideways and perching herself unconventionally on it; she had a knee up, resting against the table’s edge, while her other leg stretched out in a way that would trip Roxy if she were to stand. Roxy wondered if she was intentionally blocking her in, or if Nell really just somehow never learned how to sit properly.

‘He could be like that sometimes,’ Nell said offhandedly. It took Roxy a second to remember she was talking about her husband. ‘Unlike a real toff, though, he didn’t get all high-and-mighty when me and our friends told him to shove his attitude up his arse.’

Had their father been there, he would have told Nell off at least seven times by now for her coarse language. It had been around a month since Roxy had officially given up on trying to keep Nell from swearing like a soldier.

‘But you never loved him?’

Nell threw her head back with a groan. She blew out a breath and fixed her eyes on Roxy’s face.

‘All right, Roxy,’ said in a way that did not bode well. ‘You really want to know about marriage?’

‘I don’t know that I do, now...’

‘Too bad! You’ve got me started!’ Nell’s attempt at a wicked smile, however, looked a little strained.

Roxy gripped at the edge of the table, bracing herself for the worst.

‘I married him because I wanted more out of life than Tottenham could give. I’d probably have taken up any traveller on the offer, if it meant I’d get out of here.’ Nell shook her head and smiled almost wistfully, taking another sip. ‘But a captain? Now, those don’t come through here every day, do they?’

Nell reached over and set her glass down on the table, then drew her knee in closer, hugging it to her chest. Roxy could tell by her expression then that Nell wasn’t seeing her as she was now, sixteen years old, but as the eleven-year-old girl she had left behind.

‘Remember how long he was here for? No? Not long. He had less than a week to convince me to marry him, and he made it clear to me that he wouldn’t take me otherwise.’

Tears had begun to bud in Roxy’s eyes. She tried to ignore them.

‘He had already gotten me to agree to marry him by the end of the third day. Then we was married on the fourth, and... that night I came back as Nell Jackson instead of Nell Trotter,’ she said, her smile growing unhappy, ‘and broke Pa’s heart.’

‘And mine,’ Roxy mumbled. She pressed a hand against her eye when a tear threatened to spill over. She knew Nell would be able to tell she was crying just by the way her voice shook, but she still felt like she needed to hide it.

‘Yeah,’ Nell sighed. Then she made a visible effort to perk up. ‘But you have to hand it to him: the man was efficient, getting in and out of town in half the time he needed to – and with a marriage! Very respectable.’ There was genuine admiration in her tone.

‘Where did you even spend your wedding night?’ asked Roxy, her heart still aching.

‘Ah,’ Nell uttered, suddenly with a queer look on her face. ‘I mean, we... found a place near Hackney. Quiet place. Not many rooms left, on account of all the soldiers in the area.’

‘And that’s where you two...’

‘Where we rested up,’ Nell said slowly, ‘so that we could march in the morning, bright and early.’

It was difficult for Roxy to judge whether Nell was being oblivious on purpose or not.

‘When people marry, don’t they sleep... together, in the same bed?’ Roxy said, trying to be as obvious as she could be.

‘Not everyone.’

‘Well, I heard they do.’ Roxy tried to lead her, but Nell was making it very difficult.

‘Well, shows what you know,’ Nell teased. ‘You ain’t the one who was married for three years.’

‘A couple sleeps together after they’re married, Nell.’

‘Huh?’ She frowned, shook her head. ‘Uh-uh. That doesn’t sound right.’

‘They sleep with each other.’

‘Fuck,’ Nell said, sounding defeated. ‘“Sleep with”! Where did you learn such language?’

‘Do you even know what fuck means?’ Roxy blurted out.

‘Roxy!’ cried Nell, a thrilled smile overtaking her face. ‘So vulgar! You watch your bloody language, now.’

As her older sister laughed at her, Roxy sunk deeper into her chair and seethed. She thought then that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, Nell leaving for a little while.

‘So, you never slept with him,’ Roxy stated. It still wasn’t something she really needed to know, but she wanted Nell to stop laughing at her.

It worked. Nell shook her head, her smile disappearing.

‘Oh. No.’

‘Did you even kiss?’

Nell gave a halfhearted groan. At Roxy’s pressing look, she rolled her eyes and drew in a deep breath.

‘He wanted a kiss when we was at the chapel, so I let him have one.’ She took another drink, frowning over the rim of the glass. ‘It was not very nice. So many whiskers.’

‘Did he get better?’ Roxy couldn’t keep her judgement out of her tone.

‘At kissing?’ Nell’s puzzled, mildly-repulsed expression made Roxy laugh. ‘No, I doubt it.’

‘Oh, so he didn’t want to kiss you again afterwards.’

‘Oi!’ Nell grinned. ‘He’d ask me sometimes if I wanted to come to his bed for –’ She blinked, looking almost embarrassed. ‘But I’m sure he knew I’d never agree to it. I’m sure that he was just saying it to be a prick.’

‘But I heard from my friends –’

‘Oh, God, what did you hear from your friends?’ she groaned.

‘I heard...’ Roxy started, readying herself to talk over her sister if she kept blathering. But Nell let her speak. ‘I heard that when people marry, they’re supposed to...’

Nell was nodding, urging her to go on.

‘That they must consummate the marriage.’

‘Oh.’

Roxy waited, pained, as the seconds dragged on.

‘Otherwise the marriage isn’t valid,’ she continued.

Nell sucked at her teeth and stared off towards the wall. She seemed in no hurry to respond, if she was even still paying attention.

‘You did that?’ Roxy said disbelievingly.

She wondered if she had to repeat herself now that her sister’s eyes had focused again on her.

‘Hmm?’

‘Nell?’

‘Look...’ Nell said, sounding like she was being inconvenienced. ‘There are loads of things people want from you – expect from you – whatever! – when you’re, y’know, a wife.’

Once again, Roxy was struck by the impression that she was talking to a widow who somehow had no idea what she was talking about.

‘And sometimes, you just... don’t do those things,’ Nell said with a little nod, looking mighty pleased with her terrible explanation.

‘Nancy said that people will wait outside the bedroom to listen, to make sure you’ve done it,’ Roxy blurted out. She covered her mouth after she finished.

For a moment, Nell stared at her in surprise. Then she began to laugh.

‘No, no!’ Nell grinned widely, looking relieved. ‘That’s the beauty of it all! See, we’re people who nobody cares enough about to... check? – watch? – listen? – whatever. Nobody cares! I mean, you can go your whole marriage without doing it once!’ She reached out to squeeze Roxy’s arm. ‘So it’s all good, Roxy! In fact, that’s what you and Amadin will do if you get married, yeah? No Aunty Nell and no Aunty George.’

Roxy looked upon her widow sister in disbelief.

‘Were you even actually married, Nell?’

Her sister defiantly held up her hand, pointing at the ring on her finger.

‘Why do you still wear that if you didn’t actually love him?’ Roxy asked, rolling her eyes.

‘It’s gold,’ Nell said with a scoff. ‘It’s a gold ring that my good friend gave to me.’

She tugged at it, wiggling it back and forth around her finger, and then finally got it off; she set it in the palm of her other hand and lowered it so they could both take a look. It was plain, but still shone dully in the dim lighting of the pub.

‘And now he’s dead.’ Nell shrugged, looking not all that more upset than she would be if she had just dropped something and was feeling too lazy to pick it back up.

Any illusions Roxy had as to her sister just having a funny way of showing her love for her husband had finally been shattered – and that realisation made Roxy smile.

Truthfully, she had never really expected Nell to marry. Something about the idea of it seemed queer, for she’d never had a sweetheart or anything close to one. Even Roxy had held hands with a boy and fancied herself in love with him, when she was ten or so – up until Nell threw him over her shoulder and carried him screaming halfway out of town. She had only put him down once he said he’d leave her sister alone. Even at the time, Roxy thought it was too funny a sight to be mad at her for it.

If anything, she always thought it seemed like a sad fate for Nell: stuck married to someone she only wanted for a ride out of Tottenham, dying alongside him at the Battle of Blenheim.

‘Nell?’

Her sister had a faint smile on her face when she looked up from her gold ring.

‘Roxy?’

‘There’s never been anyone?’

Her fingers closed over the ring; she took her hand back. As she put it back on her finger, she shook her head and gave a forced little laugh.

Nell stared down at the gold band as she asked quietly, ‘Why does everyone always act like there has to be?’ Her smile was fragile.

When Roxy stood, Nell tilted her head up at her. She seemed almost wary, as if she thought Roxy was about to challenge her on it. Instead, when her little sister’s arms settled around her, she relaxed and allowed herself to be hugged.

‘You’re plenty on your own,’ Roxy murmured, resting her chin on her sister’s head. She felt Nell swallow, then felt her arms come up around her to return the hug. ‘Besides, you’ve got terrible taste in friends, sometimes –’

‘I’ll be telling Dev you said that in the morning!’

‘– and you’d be no better at picking out a sweetheart.’

‘Your friend that told you all that shite, Nancy – isn’t she the one who sometimes pissed herself when she was scared?’

Roxy grabbed at the sides of her sister’s head, giving it a little shake. Her sister’s tawny hair, which was let down for the night, became messy – messier still when Roxy pulled away and Nell herself gave it a great shake, as if trying to get rid of whatever grime Roxy’s hands might have left behind. The two girls were both laughing by the time Roxy settled back in her seat.

‘I love you, Nelly. I’ll miss you.’

She waited for her sister to tell her not to call her Nelly, but she only looked at Roxy with fondness.

‘You ain’t so bad,’ she finally said, looking off to the side and smiling fully.

‘Nelly.’

‘Fine!’ She turned back to Roxy, meeting her eyes. ‘Love ya, too, Roxane.’

 The face Roxy unconsciously pulled had Nell laughing yet again.

It wasn’t long afterwards that they both started yawning, making conversation increasingly difficult. With reluctance, they got up and cleaned up after themselves, blew out the lights, and made their way upstairs, knowing that in the morning, it would be time to say their final good-byes.

The bridge from the front door of the Talbot to the road felt like the last stretch between Nell and freedom – and it took everything in her willpower not to run across it. Instead, she walked slowly with George at her side, hands clasped, and with Roxy and Amadin behind her.

When she reached the end, where the horses and Charles were waiting, she looked back at her family and found that she wasn’t sure what to say to them. Perhaps an apology was in order, but a simple ‘I’m sorry’ didn’t seem like it would cut it, and she didn’t know what else she could say that would make her leaving them any better.

‘Well, I guess...’

‘I’ll be watching, Nell,’ Roxy said abruptly, immediately looking puzzled by her own words. It was a little ominous, but when Nell looked down at George, she saw a reflection of her own bemused expression on the little face.

‘Very well,’ Nell laughed. ‘I’ll be on my best behaviour, then. Maybe I’ll try to curse a little less, if you’re listening.’ Roxy looked troubled, like she was not fully listening to Nell. ‘Oi. What’re you on about, Roxy?’

Roxy shook her head. Even Amadin didn’t try to hide his confusion, but he put an arm around her shoulders and gave her a little squeeze. Nell rolled her eyes at the sight.

‘Right. I’m getting out of here before you two start making eyes at each other.’

‘You can sit behind me on my horse, Nell – turned backwards to watch them as we leave.’

‘You know what, Charles? Thank you, you just gave me something even worse to imagine.’

Nell mounted her horse; it felt strange after not doing it in so long. ‘So, thanks again for that, you arse.’

‘I’m always happy to help.’

‘Oi, nipper,’ she said, catching George’s attention. Her spectacles reflected the sunlight, causing Nell to squint down at her. ‘Don’t you even think about getting any taller. It’s bad enough Roxy grew up taller than me. If you do it, too, I’ll have to take drastic measures.’ Nell patted at the hilt of her sword, giving George a playfully stern look. ‘Got it?’

George let out a giggle. Nell found it to be far too giddy for someone whose legs were being threatened.

‘Nell!’ Roxy’s laugh ruined her attempt at chiding.

Then Amadin, with a rather solemn expression, stepped forward from Roxy’s side; he came all the way to the flank of Nell’s horse, and he couldn’t seem to help but give its white coat a pet. When he tilted his face up at Nell, his brown eyes were sad and seeking.

‘I don’t know what you plan to do with the two of them,’ he began. His voice was low enough that only she would be able to hear him. ‘And I don’t know that I want to, really. I know they’ve brought this upon themselves, what with trying to kill the Queen, but...’ Nell felt the horse lean into his touch as he moved his hand from its flank to its neck. ‘She was my friend, once – probably even my best friend. Thomas, he was always a bully, but Sofia was...’

‘Sometimes people change, Amadin.’ Nell looked up at the sky, feeling uncomfortable – feeling like he wanted her to make a promise she didn’t know if she could keep. ‘Sofia’s not just stealing from people like we did – she’s using magic and –’ Unfortunately, Nell realised her own hypocrisy, and couldn’t finish her sentence.

‘I suppose you’re right.’ He had a defeated look on his face. She gave him a slightly-apologetic look.

‘Take care, Amadin – of yourself, but also these two,’ she said, nodding towards her sisters. Nell wanted to tell him to keep his hands to himself, but it seemed harsh for her to leave Roxy all pouty.

She faced straight ahead, getting a better grasp on the reins.

‘We’re taking the good road, right?’ suddenly came a queer, high voice. Nell frowned down at the top of her horse’s head. ‘And not the one with all the bumps?’

‘What the –’ Charles started.

‘Amadin!’ Nell exclaimed.

He laughed, stepping away from the horse and clapping, seeming proud to have fooled them, even just temporarily.

‘You’re a strange man,’ Nell commented, frowning slightly. ‘I won’t miss hearing random objects talking to me.’

‘Don’t speak so soon,’ Charles butted in. He gave her a thorough look of appraisal, the corners of his lips twitching. ‘Madness might be just around the corner for a woman of your years.’

Judging by her laugh, George was absolutely delighted by Nell’s two-finger response to him.

‘And with that,’ Nell said, pushing her hat further upon her head, ‘I’m off to hopefully make the world a better, fairer place.’

‘Good luck with that!’ George said, seeming cheerier than any of the others Nell was leaving behind.

Nell quickly glanced at them one last time before spurring her horse onwards, to get her the hell out of Tottenham – before another wave of guilt could hit her.