Page 88 of The Laudanum Ladies' Society

‘Someone who would like to audition you, I’m sure.’

She stood back and let Miriam pass inside. Jenny tensed. If Madam Annie bolted the door, then Miriam would be trapped and have to rely on her own ingenuity. Fortunately she followed directly behind. Jenny waited for a few minutes then strolled along the street trying to look unsuspicious and went inside The Rook and Wren, drawing the bolt across the door before shutting it so that it didn’t fully close.

The corridor was quiet. Miriam had gone into the room at the end and Jenny could hear her relentless chattering, which surely must be driving Madam Annie to distraction. The door that led into the barber’s was closed and Jenny had come prepared. Shetook a large wooden clothes peg out of her pocket and wedged it under the door to jam it. No one would be able to enter via there now. She had seen the first room, which was obviously where the girls met their clients, and that left two more doors. She crept along the wall stealthily and listened. There was silence from the second door, but from the third, she heard women’s voices chatting.

Jenny took a risk in assuming there were no men on the premises just now and she opened the door a crack and looked inside. Her breath caught in her throat as her nose was assaulted with the stink of bodies and cheap perfume. The only light came from a small window set high in the back wall, which was closed, trapping the overpowering smell inside. The room was sparsely furnished with two double beds, and a small table. A threadbare rug covered unpainted floorboards. Three young women were together on one of the beds: Sally, her hair piled high on her head and her cheeks rouged, reclined in the middle; a girl of about her age was beside her, while on the end, Augusta’s ward Bella was curled up half asleep. On the other bed, an older woman was slumped with her eyes closed.

Sally recognised Jenny immediately and jerked upright.

‘Miss Rosewood! What are you doing here?’

Jenny closed her eyes in frustration at being named, as the possibility of remaining anonymous vanished. She put a finger to her lips, but Sally began to cry.

‘Please take me home. I don’t like it here after all. Is that Miss Sandler’s voice I can hear?’

Jenny confirmed it and Sally began to sob again, but more fiercely, and Jenny feared it would alert Madam Annie. She crossed to the bed and put her hand over Sally’s mouth.

‘I’m here to take all of you out of here,’ she whispered. She put her fingers to her lips then took her hand away from Sally’s mouth. ‘Miss Sandler is here. She’s distracting Madam Annieso that you can all escape. Are there any more girls on the premises?’

‘Only us four. Come on, Bella,’ Sally said, shaking her awake.

Bella didn’t appear to have any signs of ill treatment, no obvious bruises, but she winced as she clambered from the bed and limped on her right leg, leading Jenny to wonder exactly what had been inflicted on her.

Jenny turned to the third woman on their bed. Her hair was a false-looking blonde, with darker mousy brown at the roots, and she was dressed in a grubby, yellow dress with a low-cut bodice even though she barely had a bust to fill it.

‘Are you Ruth Wynn?’

‘Who wants to know?’ The girl said, in an unmistakable Welsh accent. She folded her arms and tossed her head haughtily.

‘Your uncle,’ Jenny snapped. ‘Mr Parry.’

Ruth’s face changed. She suddenly looked much younger and more vulnerable.

‘Uncle Danny is here? You can’t let him see me like this. He’ll be furious.’

‘Probably at first,’ Jenny agreed, ‘but that’s because he loves you, and when people love you, they get angry when you do foolish things.’

Her throat filled with a lump, knowing how guilty she herself was of this stupidity. ‘But my friend is here to take youback to him. Now, tell me who else is in the building? Do you get to meet anybody else? Can you come and go as you please?’

Ruth twisted her hair with her fingers. ‘I don’t get to go out. I did at first with that woman, the posh one, but then I tried to make a run for it, so the skinny bitch told Madam Annie and Mr Craig to keep me inside.’

‘None of them are going to bother you anymore,’ Jenny said, smiling as reassuringly as she could.

To her surprise, Ruth pouted.

‘Pity. The fancy one said I had potential. She said that I could make it somewhere nicer than here, where I would meet people with connections. I haven’t given up hope of becoming an actress, you know.’

So it was her that Selina had spoken of as having potential. Jenny suppressed her irritation. The girl seemed completely unrepentant about what she had done. Certainly, she had the attitude to hold her own. Still, that wasn’t Jenny’s problem.

‘You and your uncle can discuss that. Come on, let’s go,’ Jenny said briskly.

‘How are you going to get us out of here?’ Bella asked in a small voice.

‘I have a friend keeping Madam Annie busy,’ Jenny explained, ‘but we need to go now before anyone else comes.’

The older woman hadn’t moved.

‘Can you walk unaided?’ Jenny asked her.