In Lonnie's Shadow Read Online Free Page B

as she listened in. ‘Annie will never see reason, while Madam Buckingham is apt to think things through. But I’m banking on Annie not being game enough to let Slasher nab me because she won’t go an all out war with Madam Buckingham. Still, no one with a sound mind messes with Slasher. He scares me to death. Not as if I can hide from him anyways.’
    ‘If he tries anything. If he comes anywhere near …’ Lonnie broke off, feeling an immense surge of pity for his friend. He couldn’t deny Annie’s man was a menacing brute whose main business was to keep the working girls in line, but he hoped Pearl had guessed right. He hurried to reassure her. ‘Don’t forget you’re Mrs B’s latest girl. She won’t let anything happen to you.’
    ‘Where’ve you been? Don’t tell me you missed
    Miss-Ruby-Come-Lately parading up and down town with a white feather stuck in her bonnet. I’ll just have to watch my own back. Anyways, I’ve done it for long enough.’
    True. Pearl had only been a very young girl when sent to work on the streets with her own white feather for sale to the highest bidder. Maiden virtue came at a good price; it enabled her mother and father to take off without so much as a see you later. For the first year she had half expected her parents to come back and claim her, waited for something to happen that would explain her abandonment, but in the end she thought less and less about them.
    As she drew out the last splinter of glass, she shook her head at him. ‘Looks like you took on the whole Glass and Bottle Gang.’
    She was speaking about one of the most notorious mobs of larrikins, who roamed the neighbourhood armed with broken bottles. Their leader, Billy Bottle, as he liked to be known – although his real name was Francis Todd – had always been a mean, foul- mouthed lad who trained in the art of nastiness from the moment he could spit out a curse. Billy’s principal amusement as a child had been to rip the wings off blowflies and toss stones at birds. Not much had changed. Fully grown, he’d become an unsettling hood, with eyes and hands that were everywhere and a brain like a brick wall.
    Lonnie had never liked him and didn’t Billy Bottle know it. So these days Lonnie tried to steer clear, more at ease in the company of the other main mob, the Push, led by George Swiggins. In reality he did not want to mix with either gang. His slight preference for the Push was only a matter of survival. He was neither a Bottle nor a Push. Lonnie liked to tickle the nose hairs by saying he was a Bush or a Pottle.
    When he remarked as such, Pearl chuckled. ‘So Mr Bush or Mr Pottle, which one of you wants flirting with?’ She didn’t wait for an answer. ‘Well, I daresay you’ll live. If you don’t poison yerself first.’ She passed him his jacket. ‘This smells like a horse’s backside. Still rolling in the muck at Golden Acres, I’ll bet. I don’t know how you can stand all the stink around there.’
    He gave it a quick sniff. ‘Too true,’ he agreed, pleased her mood had brightened. ‘I’m doing a bit of track work on the sly as well.’
    ‘So, have you caught up with Daisy lately?’
    ‘Not since last week.’
    ‘She’s been having those nightmares again.’
    The shouting between the two madams ceased. Heavy footsteps stomped off in opposite directions.
    Pearl shrugged. ‘All clear. And just in time I reckon. We’re expecting a party of la-di-dahs at the Big House. Better you leave this way.’ She ushered him towards the back door. ‘A drop of French wine, a bit of hoity-toitying, lots of tweaking and pulling of beards, even if some of them lads have barely a whisker.’ She pinched her fingers together, playfully prodding Lonnie’s chin, moving along his shoulder and chest, down to his waist. There her fingers paused. ‘Shame poor Ruby, the little chump, can’t have a turn all by herself. Let’s hope Madam gets a good price for her white feather, then she may go a little