The shock of discovering the Pig abandoned and in great disrepair is quickly replaced with the joy of seeing my dear friend Amy Trevelyne. Once I have settled her down to a degree—“Now, now, Amy, calm thyself . . .” “But Jacky . . . (gasp!) . . . I never expected to see you again in this life and now here you are . . .” “’Tis true, Sister, every inch of me . . . y’see, I do have a way of popping back up—like a cork or maybe a bad dream. So shush, now, dry your tears, for we must go see Ezra. The Pig is in trouble.” We then hie ourselves down to Ezra Pickering’s law office. He’s my dear friend and also my lawyer, who tries to bail my butt out of jail any time it finds itself in one, which is fairly often. And, of course, he’s also Clerk of Faber Shipping Worldwide, Incorporated.
After heartfelt greetings—“Ezra, how good to see you! And Chloe, too, dear girl, come give us a hug!”—I go into a side room and wriggle back into female garb. Then we get down to business. “What happened to the Pig and where is Maudie?”
After being informed that the Pig and Whistle is nearing foreclosure and that Maudie and her man, Bob, have taken very mean quarters down on South Street, I head for the door, saying, “Ezra, I leave Amy in your care! Meet me at the Union Oyster House for lunch!”
While seeming to be very pleased to have Amy in his care, Ezra still blurts out, “But, Jacky, we have much to discuss!”
“I know, Ezra, but that can wait a few minutes! Bring Chloe, too! I won’t be long! Cheers!” and I am out and pounding down the street.
“So that’s the way of it, Jacky,” says Maudie, all disconsolate. “What with me getting on in years and poor Bob with his rheumatism, well, we just couldn’t handle it. And we couldn’t hire help, business bein’ so bad and all.” Her man, Bob, sitting in a rocking chair with a throw over his legs, nods grimly in agreement.
“So now it looks like the bank is gonna take the place,” he says. “And there’s naught we can do about it.”
Their rooms are, indeed, mean, there being only a kitchen and bedroom, with a single window facing out on the brick wall of the building next door. The interior walls are peeling and in need of paint. We sit at the kitchen table, sipping the tea Maudie has managed to serve.
“Why is business so bad?” I ask. The Pig always did have a bit of a problem being not right on the docks. Thirsty sailors had to walk a mite to get to it, something they were loath to do, their having great thirsts that needed immediate quenching, but I get the feeling there’s more to it than that. Yes, there were those great days when Gully MacFarland and I packed the place with our musical act—MacFarland and Faber, the Toast of Two Continents, Singing and Playing for You Songs both Sad and Gay! On Fiddle and Squeezebox and Flageolet! But now Gully is far away at sea and I myself have gone missing for a while. Most recently I was a convict on the way to and from Botany Bay, and then I was involved in Lord Wellesley’s Peninsular Campaign against Napoleon’s forces in Portugal and Spain. Still, even with Gully and me out of the picture, the Pig used to do enough business to scrape by.
“Times have changed in Boston, dearie,” says Maudie with a sigh. “Used to be different sorts of people got along with each other, but now it ain’t like that at all.”
I’m a bit mystified by that, but I don’t pursue it as I rise to go.
“I’ve got to meet some people, Maudie,” I say, standing. “But I’ll be back. Let me leave you with this promise: The Pig shall dance again, and I mean that.”
As I let myself out the door, I hear Maudie call after me, “It’s the gangs, they’re the ones what done it. Beware, Jacky.”
The gangs?
Ten minutes later, I slip into a booth at the Union Oyster House, sliding in next to Chloe and across from Amy and Ezra. A plate of fat oysters on a bed of ice is brought as I settle in, along with glasses of chilled white wine all around. Amy still beams unreservedly at me, and I am gratified to see that she holds hands with Ezra. I give Chloe Cantrell a squeeze of her own hand and then pile into the oysters. I am told that some excellent lobsters are being prepared, and for that I am glad—the fare on the Margaret Todd was not all that fine.
The questions from Amy fly at me quick and fast. “Where . . . ? What . . . ? How did you get here? How . . . ?”
I squeeze a slice of lemon over one particularly plump fellow, lift him up, and drop him down the Faber neck. A few more follow, and some bites of good crunchy bread, and then I answer, “Later, Sister, at Dovecote, in our beloved hayloft, for there is much to tell. But right now, I need a report on the state of Faber Shipping Worldwide from its esteemed Clerk of the Corporation.”
Ezra chuckles and pulls a packet of letters from his vest and passes them over to me, saying, “The Nancy B. Alsop is in port at Hallowell’s Wharf, having just returned from another Caribbean run. The Lorelei Lee is due in shortly with another load of Irish immigrants. More about that later . . . Meanwhile, I think it best that you read the letters.”
I look at the pile. One is from my grandfather, the Reverend Alsop, and sure to contain news of my orphanage, the London Home for Little Wanderers. Another is from my dear friend John Higgins, posted in London. And the third is from the House of Chen—Chopstick Charlie! Joy! Maybe news of Jaimy!
I rip that one open first . . .
Charles Chen
The House of Chen
Rangoon, Burma
March 19, 1809
Jacky Faber
Faber Shipping Worldwide
State Street, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Dear Ju kau-jing yi,
It gives me great pleasure, Little Round-Eyed Barbarian, to report that your Mr. James Fletcher has made a full recovery of his senses and has taken passage to the United States.
He has been given money and instructions to conduct some business for me when he is in that country. He devoutly hopes you, yourself, will actually be in that locale and I assured him it was as good a place as any for him to start the search for you. I have advised him to stay in some disguise, as the authorities in London might not have completely forgiven him for his past transgressions in spite of your efforts upon his behalf.
I hope you are well, Number Two Daughter. Number One Daughter Sidrah sends her regards.
Your Humble Servant,
Chops
“What good news!” I exult, passing the letter to Amy and reaching for Higgins’s envelope. “Jaimy’s coming here! I had thought to take passage to Rangoon at the first opportunity, but now I won’t have to! Joy!”
Amy can scarcely contain herself as she reads and mutters . . . “Rangoon . . . Burma . . . barbarians . . . Mr. Fletcher . . . ?”
“Later, Sister, please,” I plead. I know she wants to pull out her pencil and portable writing desk right now, to start in, but it will have to wait. Then I rip open the letter from my grandfather . . .
Reverend Henry Alsop
London Home for Little Wanderers
Brideshead Street, London, England
April 26, 1809
Miss Mary Alsop Faber
Faber Shipping Worldwide
State Street, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
My dear granddaughter,
It is my fondest hope and prayer that this letter finds you well and happy, wherever you might be in this world.
The Home continues to do its good work for the orphan children of London, thanks to the donations from your company and the proceeds from the penny-dreadful accounts of your adventures so graciously donated by Miss Amy Trevelyne, the author of those little epics. I can barely make myself read them, but I do, and console myself in the hope that most of the rather risqué parts are figments of Miss Trevelyne’s vivid imagination. I have a full shelf of them in my study, the latest one being The Wake of the Lorelei Lee, but I don’t let the children read them, oh, no. I do, however, allow the staff to borrow the books, and I am afraid that some of them have found their way into general circulation among some of the older children. Oh, well, best they know something of their benefactors, I suppose . . .
I myself am well, or as well as could be expected, considering my age, but I do grow a bit infirm. Oh, how I miss having Mrs. Mairead McConnaughey as Mistress of Girls, but I hear she is afraid to come back to the school in light of her last maltreatment by the British authorities.
However, I do now have an excellent Assistant Schoolmaster in the person of a Mr. Thomas Arnold, a very well-educated young man, who, as Master, seldom wields the rod on his students, preferring to believe in the essential goodness of the children in his care. Who knows, perhaps some day I may leave the Home in his capable hands and come to see you in America? Yes, maybe there is yet one more adventure in me.
I would dearly love to see you again, child, as it has been a long time.
Your Loving Grandfather,
Henry Alsop
I do not pass that letter to Amy, but instead lay it aside, snorting back a bit of a tear. Amy Trevelyne, poet, writer, and would-be academic, does not need to see the term penny-dreadful put next to her name. No. Now for Higgins’s letter, which has been opened, as it is not addressed to me . . .
John Higgins
London, England
May 2, 1809
Ezra Pickering, Esq.
Faber Shipping Worldwide, Inc.
State Street, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
My dear Mr. Pickering,
I am writing this letter in hopes that you have been in contact with our peripatetic Miss Jacky Faber, who was last reported as having been seen in Madrid, sending dispatches concerning the French occupation of that city back to the English lines via a partisan guerilla band.
As I informed you in my last letter, both she and I were assigned by British Intelligence to Sir Arthur Wellesley’s staff in Portugal, she as translator of French, Spanish, and Portuguese, and myself as aide to Mr. Scovell, the General’s spymaster and cryptographer.
After our victory at the battle of Vimeiro, in which she performed as a dispatcher and from which she emerged bloodied but not seriously hurt, she was sent by Wellesley to Madrid in the care of the aforementioned guerrilla band—a very motley crew, I will tell you, and I did worry about her safety. By all reports, she did manage to make it to Madrid, where she joined a prominent artist’s household. In what capacity she was employed there, I cannot begin to guess, but we do know that, as a member of Francisco Goya’s staff, she accompanied him to the national palace to paint the usurper King Joseph’s portrait. While there, she gained much valuable information on the occupying French forces, information she was able to convey back to British Intelligence. I know General Wellesley found her dispatches most interesting.
After his great victory at Vimeiro, Wellesley was replaced as Commander in Chief by an act of monumental stupidity on the part of the Royal Army and returned to England. He is currently working to clear up the political mess his removal occasioned, and it is widely expected that he will be returned to command and will continue the Peninsular War in Spain. He has asked that Miss Faber again be added to his staff at that time.
I strongly feel that, given any latitude of freedom, she will head back to Boston, as she has great affection for that city and her many friends therein. And, of course, she will want to check on the status of Faber Shipping Worldwide. Plus, she is sure to be wary of any return to England, given her past experience with the government here.
I, myself, have been given indefinite leave from Scovell’s staff, there not being much to do now that our operatives in the field, Miss Faber for one, have fallen silent. That being the case, I will now proceed to Waterford, in Ireland, to take passage back to America on the brigantine Lorelei Lee, Flagship of Faber Shipping, which is sure to be taking on passengers of a Celtic persuasion.
Looking forward to renewing acquaintance with all my friends in Boston, I am your humble servant,
John Higgins
Vice President
Faber Shipping Worldwide
“Hooray!” I exult, handing the letter to Amy. “Nothing but good news today! All is well at the London Home for Little Wanderers, and our dear Higgins is returning to us on the Lorelei Lee! And here’s our fine lunch, to boot,” I say, as the steaming platter of cracked lobster is put in front of us, with saucers of melted butter placed all around, and fried potato slices, too, and it all looks just great.
Amy ignores the food and instead scans Higgins’s letter.
“Guerrillas . . . ? General Wellesley . . . ? An artist’s studio . . . ? Whatever did you do there, Jacky? What . . . ?”
“Later, Sister, and all will be plain . . . At Dovecote, when we have the time.”
With my fingers, I’m dragging a big piece of claw meat through the hot butter and bringing it dripping to the waiting Faber mouth, and, Oh, Lord, that’s good! I give out a moan of absolute pleasure while Amy mutters, “Disgusting bug,” and contents herself with nibbles of the potatoes and bread, while the rest of us lay to with great sloppy gusto.
“So, Ezra,” I manage to say, dabbing my lips with my cloth between bites. “A report on the state of Faber Shipping, if you would?”
Ezra smiles and says, “After your dinner, dear. You look rather in need of some decent food and I would not want to upset your digestion.”
True, I have been on lean rations lately—a big fat frog was very nearly on my menu not too long ago, when I was starving on the scrubby, dry plains of Spain, but Big Daddy Bullfrog did manage to ultimately avoid the Faber fangs. However, Ezra’s words do sound rather ominous, so I figure I’ll enjoy this dinner and this company and get the bad news when it comes.
Finally, I dab the mouth, suppress an insistent burp, and say, “Let’s have it, Ezra. Hold nothing back. There are no secrets from those here at this table.”
Ezra Pickering puts his own napkin to lips and says, “Very well, Jacky, here is the state of Faber Shipping Worldwide.” And with that, he reaches into his waistcoast, pulls out a paper, and passes it over to me. On it is:
The Condition of Faber Shipping Worldwide, Incorporated
As of June 6, 1809
HOLDINGS:
The Brigantine Lorelei Lee
The Schooner Nancy B. Alsop
Two Small Cutters, the Morning Star and Evening Star
Faber Shipping Headquarters, State Street, Boston, Mass.
Much Equipment—Traps, Rope, Tackle, etc.
OFFICERS:
Jacky Mary Faber, President
John Higgins, Vice President
Ezra Pickering, Esq., Treasurer and Clerk of Corporation
EMPLOYEES:
Onboard the Lorelei Lee
Liam Delaney, Captain
Ian McConnaughey, First Mate
Padraic Delaney, Second Mate
David Jones, Third Mate
Seamen rated Able: 24
Seamen rated Ordinary: 12
Ship’s Boys: 3
Onboard the Nancy B. Alsop
James Tanner, Captain
Crew: Daniel Prescott, Finnbar McGee, John Thomas,
all seamen, rated Able
Jemimah Moses, Cook
OTHER STAFF:
Solomon Freeman, Fisherman in Charge of Harbor Operation
Clementine Tanner, Headquarters Housekeeper
Annetje Wemple and Rosie Moses, Chambermaids
Chloe Cantrell, Secretary to Ezra Pickering, Esq.
CASH ON HAND:
$2,704.67
ACCOUNTS PAYABLE:
Payroll this month—$1,304.77
ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE:
$6,822.12
MISC. EXPENSES:
Fire Prevention and Insurance—$300.00
Domingo Marin, Delivery Charge—$50.00
“Hmmm . . .” I say, scanning the paper. I lift an eyebrow. “Treasurer Pickering, eh?”
“Someone has to manage the money when you and Mr. Higgins are off saving Britannia from ruin,” he says dryly.
“Quite a payroll, I must say,” I murmur, continuing to read. “I trust we continue to prosper . . .” Ezra does not reply to that, but only gives a discreet cough. “And Jemimah Moses is still listed as Cook? I thought she was well fixed with her share of the Santa Magdalena haul.”
“Yes, she is, but she still searches the southern East Coast towns for news of her children who were sold off just before you bought her. She has reclaimed some but still searches for others. We make sure the Nancy B. puts into Charlestown on each trip so that she can check around. She figures they must be in the area and, actually, she did manage to find and to buy out her eldest daughter, Rosie, and Rosie’s two young children. You see her listed there under Housekeeping Staff, and her two boys are listed as ship’s boys on the Lee,” says Ezra. “Plus, I think Jemimah grew bored in Boston and likes the short cruises of the Nancy B. Though she enjoys her freedom in Boston, she also likes the southern sun.”
“As do I,” I say, recalling some particularly harsh winters in New England. “Ummm . . . And what’s this accounts-receivable amount being so much bigger than the cash on hand?” I ask, with a glance to Ezra.
“Ah,” he says softly, “therein lies the problem.”
“Which is?” I ain’t liking the sound of this one bit.
Ezra folds his soft hands and says, “You, of course, recall your scheme of bringing penniless Irish men over here onboard the Lorelei Lee to work on the many municipal projects this town has undertaken—the filling in of the Mill Pond and the Fenway works—and taking their indenture for the passage until such time as they could pay?”
“Yes?”
“Some of them are not paying,” says Ezra, settling back and waiting for the explosion, which is not long in coming.
I shoot to my feet in a state of high indignation.
“What? The dogs! What have John Thomas and Smasher McGee done about that?”
“I believe those two stalwarts have done what they could in the way of gentle persuasion, but it has not proved to be enough.”
“Where are they?” I say through clenched teeth, with a hint of menace in my voice.
“They are down on Hallowell’s Wharf, on the Nancy B.,” he says, “newly arrived from a Caribbean run. But there is something else you should know . . .”
“And that is . . . ?” I ask with some trepidation. Geez, I step away for a year or two and everything falls apart, I swear . . .
“Not everyone in this town shares your vision of a brave new American world for Irish immigrants. There are many who think the Irish should stay where they are, starving or not, and here you are bringing in boatloads of them on the Lorelei Lee.”
“Yes, Jacky,” says Amy, with a certain amount of primness in her voice. “You must know that some of the Irish men can be quite rowdy, especially when they are drinking, and there are those people who feel they should be more carefully controlled. There have been more than a few . . . disturbances.”
“And who might those people be, Sister?” I say, sitting down again but getting well steamed.
“Various churches, civic groups . . . and the Boston Army for the Women’s Suffrage, too. You saw our parade today, Jacky, the one in which I was marching.”
“Well, they should mind their own business, and not mine,” I pronounce.
“That may be true, Sister,” says Amy, “but you should know the situation if you are to continue in your venture.”
“But who else will do the work? The Mill Pond, the Fenway . . . who?” I ask, full of righteous indignation.
“There are some of the local men who feel that jobs are being taken from them by the Irish who will work for lower wages,” says Ezra.
“They didn’t want the dirty jobs then, but they want them now?” I hiss.
“I think it best that you talk to Thomas and McGee, Miss Faber,” replies Ezra, “as they are much closer to the street life than am I.”
I stand and say, “I will now go and do that. Please believe me when I say that it is so good to see you again, my dearest friends, but I must be off to tend to business. I will be moving into my cabin on the Nancy B. It would give me great joy, Amy, if you could come join me there later, that is, if you can free yourself from the Lawson Peabody. Till later, then, as I must fly. Adieu.”
“Uh-oh . . . Skipper’s back and she don’t look happy . . .”
I hear that spoken as I stride resolutely up the gangway of the Nancy B. Alsop, and, indeed, I am not pleased at all. Things that would seem to be ever so simple always seem to turn out to be not simple at all—complicated, even. I mean, what could be simpler than my old credo of, All I want is a little ship, and with that little ship I would take stuff from a place that’s got a lot of that stuff and take it to a place that ain’t got a lot of that same stuff, and so prosper. In this case, the “stuff” being Irish laborers. But it doesn’t seem to be working out all that simple, no it doesn’t. Complications, always bloody complications.
When I gain my quarterdeck, my anger fades as I gaze about at my elegant little schooner lying there all gleaming and polished, all trim and shipshape. Oh, you are so beautiful, my dear, dear Nancy. How my heart leaps to be once again upon thee! And there’s Jim Tanner, saluting in his captain’s rig, and I hug him to me. And there’s Daniel Prescott, too—my, haven’t you grown! A good foot at least! And Jemimah, dear Jemimah! Oh, please, come give me a hug!
Then I see John Thomas and Finn McGee, hanging back, and to them I give no kisses, no hugs, no, I merely say, “You two! To my cabin, NOW!”
I am seated at my desk, reveling in the familiar surroundings of my tiny but very well appointed cabin—my fine desk designed by Ephraim Fyffe, now prominent furniture maker and husband to my good friend Betsey, formerly Byrnes, now Fyffe; my lovely bed worked in against the far wall under the speaking tube, warm maple and mahogany all around. Yes, it’s good to be home, I think with a sigh as I settle into my chair. It is, indeed.
My two so-called enforcers shamble shamefaced into the cabin, caps in hand and eyes cast down.
“So,” I say, my gaze level and stern, “you could not handle the simple job of making indentured laborers pay for their passage?”
“It’s not like that at all, Skipper,” says John Thomas, twisting his cap in his big hands and looking as miserable as any schoolboy caught by Teacher, doing something wrong. “Any micks what won’t pay that we can get our hands on is convinced to pay up real quick. It’s gettin’ our hands on ’em is the problem.”
“Go on,” I say, warily tapping a pencil on the edge of my desk and waiting for him to get on with it.
“Y’see, most of ’em pays up right cheerful, glad to be here and all and makin’ an honest wage, and thinkin’ to be sendin’ for their wives and kids back in Ireland, but some lowlifes don’t and they fall under the spell of this Captain Tooley what has set hisself up at Skivareen’s.”
“Right,” says McGee, tossing in his two cents. “He kicked out the old landlord and set hisself up as boss. There’s tons of rooms in that dirty hole and he takes the scofflaws in and tells ’em they don’t have to pay back no Jacky Faber who deceived and cheated ’em, as long as they sticks with him and buys drinks at his bar.”
“Right, and fights for him against the other gangs,” echoes John Thomas. “So we can’t even get in at the buggers.”
“Right, and the place is usually a riot every night, too. He’s got a mix of both low-life bogtrotters and native scum. And some right tough henchmen always at his side.”
“All right, pull up a chair, lads, and sit down.” Apparently this is a tale that will be long in telling, and I have made them squirm enough.
The two gratefully grab chairs and sit down in them, happy to be at least partly forgiven for their failure to jerk the money out of the deadbeats.
“Y’see, Miss, they ain’t like regular gangs of thugs, decent criminals like, no. They puts on airs like they be noble firefighting crews, like Tooley’s bunch is called The Free Men’s Fire Company Number One, but the word is, mum, that they set more fires than they puts out.”
“The police?” I ask, already suspecting the answer.
“You can find Constable Wiggins at Skivareen’s bar every night, drinkin’ for free . . . His fat old lady, too,” says McGee. “And they say the Mayor is in Tooley’s pocket, also.”
Ah, Sin and Corruption. I guess this is what makes the world go ’round, and I reckon I shouldn’t be surprised . . .
“Aye,” says John Thomas. “And they sells in-shure-ance, too, which means they won’t set your place afire if you signs up with them and pays the hefty fees.”
Hmmm . . . Insurance, another word for extortion.
“And the other gangs?”
John Thomas leans in, all earnest, and says, “There’s the Sons of Boston Firehouse, run by a Captain Warren, over on Winter Street in the East End, all local men who purely hate the Irish. They tried to recruit me, but I would have none of it. No, I got but one loyalty, and that is to Faber Shipping.”
I reward him with a warm smile and a nod of thanks.
“They sure didn’t try to recruit me, not with my name,” says Finnbar McGee. “But I did sign up with a new company formin’ up in the Fourth Ward. Irish only. Called the Shamrock Hose, Ladder and Pump.”
“Oh, and who’s in charge of that fine pack of micks?”
“Feller named Arthur McBride. Ever heard of him?”
Oh, Lord . . .
I sit and think for a moment on all this information, and then I stand. They look at me expectantly.
“Let’s go, lads.”
“Where we goin’, Skipper?”
“Get your clubs, boys, we’re going to Skivareen’s.”
I knew Skivareen’s was a low dive back a couple of years ago when Gully MacFarland, deep in thrall to French absinthe, tried to pimp me out to a bunch of scumbag sailors, and it sure ain’t got any better looking. There’s garbage in the street outside and the Skivareen’s sign above the doorway just shows a poorly drawn mug of ale in a grubby paw. There’s a board propped up outside that says . . .
The Free Men’s Fire and Insurance Company
Captain P. Tooley, Pres.
I put my foot to the door of Skivareen’s and kick it open, with Thomas and McGee at my side, belaying pins in hand and grim expressions on their faces.
The interior is smoky and dark and smells of dank mildew, old vomit, and piss. As I stride in and my eyes become accustomed to the gloom, I see that, sure enough, there’s Constable Wiggins standing at the bar, Goody Wiggins beside him.
“Well, well,” says Wiggins, “look at this. If it ain’t our wicked little schoolgirl, back on my turf.” His beady little eyes peer out at me through the folds of his fat cheeks.
“My business ain’t with you, copper,” I say, slipping into the rougher way of talkin’ as it seems fitting to this place. “Where’s this Captain Tooley character? He’s been hiding some blokes what owe me money and I means to have both the blokes and the money. Now.”
“Why, the gentleman is right over there in the great room, dearie,” says Wiggins, coming over to stand in front of me. “You can’t miss him. He’s the big fellow with the beard. But leave yer men here.” Wiggins has his truncheon in his fist and he slaps it against his palm. There are a number of other men at the bar, and I know who they’ll fight for if it comes to a ruckus.
“One wrong move, little schoolgirl, from you or your men, and I’ll have you up before Judge Thwackham again, and then you’ll keep your appointment with my whipping post. I owes you a dozen with my rod. It’s been a long time coming, but I got a feelin’ it’s gonna happen soon.” Goody chortles into her beer, as if laughing at some private joke.
I nod to my lads—Stay here, boys, come to me if I call—and march into the next room with murder on my mind. There I receive one of the greater shocks of my life, for at a long table against the far wall, seated in squalid grandeur, is none other than . . .
“Pigger!” I gasp. “Pigger O’Toole! No! It cannot be!”
At his side is a slattern I knew from before as Glory Wholey, a prostitute so down and dirty Mrs. Bodeen wouldn’t think of letting her into her well-run brothel up on State Street, and around him are about a dozen toughs, at the table or leaning against the wall. They all gaze at me as I enter.
“Well, well,” says Pigger, upon seeing me. “Could that be our own Little Mary from dear old Cheapside? Why, bless my soul, I believe ’tis. Ye’ve turned out to be a right trim little piece o’ ass, Mary, ye have. Come ’ere and give yer old friend Pigger a kiss.” He licks his thick lips and grins a big toothy smile at me.
“A kiss?” I hiss, and immediately fall back into the old way o’ talkin’. “Iffen I had brought me pistols, Pigface, which I wish I had, I’d be puttin’ a bullet inta yer ugly face right now!” Pigger sure ain’t got no prettier.
“And ye’d hang for that, f’sure,” says Pigger, complacently picking up his glass and taking a swig. “Ye noticed Constable Wiggins on yer way in here? Yes? Good friend to me, he is. Real good.”
“Last I heard o’ you, Pigger, you was runnin’ wi’ a freak show up in Liverpool, doin’ a geek act, bitin’ the heads off live chickens,” I snarls, “and pouring the blood from their necks down yer throat, you miserable piece of—”
“She shouldn’t be talkin’ to you that way, Cappy,” pipes up Glory. “She—”
“My, my,” says Pigger to me, seemingly unperturbed. “You all rigged up proper and pretty enough in a scrawny sort of way, but you still got that mouth, don’t you? Have to do sumthin’ about that, won’t we?”
“I got rid of you once before, Pigger, and I’ll do it again, mark me,” I promise, well steamed.
Pigger settles back and reaches out to a plate of what looks to be fried pork skins and shoves a big greasy hunk into his maw.
“I don’t go by Pigger no more,” he says around that particularly disgusting mouthful, “now that I’ve gone all respectable. It’s Captain Percy Tooley now, man of business: fire control and insurance.”
“Respectable cannibal, you means, you squattin’ there and eatin’ what is prolly the sorry remains of your own piggy mother’s belly fat,” I say as I spin around and look over the crowd of lowlifes spread around the room.
“Now, is that any way to talk to an old friend,” asks Pigger, with no pretense of a smile. “Why don’t you sit yer ass down in that chair and have a drink on me and we’ll talk over the good old times we had back in lovely Cheapside?”
“I don’t want none o’ yer swill, Pigger. What I wants is me money.”
As I run my eyes over those in the room, I can tell by the look on some of them that they’re pure bog Irish.
I recognize them as the usual drunken scum-suckin’ batch of bottom feeders, but one man stands out—if he is indeed a man. He sits alone, in front of a bowl of burnt-out matchsticks, off to the right of Pigger. He is small, but he is not a child. Oh no, for beneath his shock of white hair he has the grinning face of a wizened goblin. He strikes yet another match and gazes rapturously into the flame. When it burns down to his fingers, he drops it into the bowl with the others, where it burns itself out.
I tear my eyes away from the creature and single out another man, one who looks profoundly stupid but appears, at least, to be sane.
“You there!” I call out, pointing at him. “How did you get to this country?”
“Oi come across on the Blue Anchor Line.”
“My name is Jacky Faber and I own the Blue Anchor Line. Have you paid me for your passage, as contracted?”
“Captain here says I don’t have to pay ’cause the food was bad and the ship was sloppy and badly sailed. Was sick the whole time, I was.”
“The Lorelei Lee is the finest ship on the Atlantic and you were treated better than you have ever been in your life, you miserable bogtrotter, yet you go back on your word. Have you no sense of honor?”
“But Captain says—”
“I don’t care what this mound of putrid flesh says,” I says, pointing a stiff finger at the man’s nose. “I have your indenture and indentures can be sold. I have men, strong men, at my command, and they can take you and bind you and send you to places that are not as cool and pleasant as this. Do you know that not all the slaves in this world are black?” The man is starting to look uncomfortable, darting glances in Pigger’s direction, plainly looking for backup, as I continue. “How’d you like to chop sugarcane in Louisiana under the broiling sun? How’d you like to be sold off to Tripoli? Lots of blue-eyed slaves there, I hear, and I know where the slave markets are. And I got contacts there, I do, and they’ll take all the action I can give ’em!”
Many in the crowd are looking mighty uneasy as I conclude. “And of course you know, lads, the Arabs and Persians castrate their male slaves ’fore they set ’em to work in the fields. Keeps ’em off the womenfolk. Hurts like hell, I hear. Course it wouldn’t worry me none, not having any balls to cut off, but you gents . . .”
This gets Pigger out of his chair.
“Now, you men don’t listen to her. She’s just a jumped-up little tart with two leaky boats and maybe twenty men. With you and other upright lads behind me, I’ve got over a hundred, and I’ve got political connections, too, as you well know,” he says with a smirk in the direction of the bar where sits Constable Wiggins. “And he ain’t the only one.”
Pigger lowers his voice and says to me, “No, he sure ain’t the only one. In fact, I got this whole town in me pocket, and I think you’re pure out o’ luck, Little Bloody Mary, so get used to it. Now get yer ass out of here ’fore I call in the copper to arrest you for trespass and malicious slander.”
Fuming, I turn on my heel and say, “This ain’t over, Pigger, not by a long shot!”
Pigger laughs as I go. “Y’know, I knew you had somehow got real big in these parts. Y’know what else I know?”
“What, Pigger, do you know ’cept for the fact you’re a greasy low scoundrel what ain’t worth a bucket of warm spit?” I say, pausing at the doorway.
“I know that little Polly Von is in town, too. You remember her? Pretty, pretty, little Polly Von. Member o’ your Rooster Charlie Gang? Actress, she is now. I seen her. She’s good. You come up lookin’ all right, but she is somethin’ else in the way o’ beauty. Sure wouldn’t mind gettin’ close to her again, no I wouldn’t . . .”
I storm out of Skivareen’s, my mind seething. Randall Trevelyne is off on the Chesapeake as a Marine lieutenant, while his Polly is back here all alone. Damn!
You lay one grubby finger on Polly, Pigger, and I swear I’ll cut that finger off and stuff it up your nose!