Chapter 1

A PROCLAMATION AT MARKET

I DROVE THE little cart into town on a fine June morning. It was a bright day, and the country round about was green and fresh—what I could see of it past the backside of Old Nell, the dappled mare. I had a neatly inked list of things to buy at market, just enough coppers to buy them with, and that was the extent of my cares.

Market days were one of the great delights of my life back then. I liked the company of the crowd. There’s nothing like mingling with a great many people to make solitude seem more pleasant. It was lonely at the Rattle Manse, where I was the only servant. My master, James Rattle, had no one else beneath his roof. It was but the two of us in the big, drafty house, excepting a bulldog named Demon, three horses, and some pigs. Even the pigs spent most of their time elsewhere, rooting for acorns in the dark woods thereabouts.

There was vanity involved, too—I might as well admit it. As a small boy I would have been proud to own a pair of shoes, so it felt very grand to go into town with brass buckles on my feet, commissioned to spend another man’s money. Forgive my pride: Respectability is like wine. It goes straight to the head of one who hasn’t had it before.

And besides, market days were entertaining. The entire market was like a big theater, every stall a stage, with the actors bellowing out their parts: “Two for a penny!” “A dozen for the price of ten!”

There were also people whose entire trade was entertainment for its own sake. Some were actors, and put on plays; others specialized in puppet shows, or displays of juggling, sword swallowing, gymnastic feats, and magic. In these performances I took special pleasure because I had, until recently, counted myself among the entertainers.

Before I took up service at the Rattle Manse, I had toured for several years with Trombonio’s Traveling Wonder Show as “The Infant Daredevil,” tramping the British Isles from one end to the other with a company of acrobats, clowns, and novelty acts, as well as Frieda the Tattooed Camel and an elderly baboon named Fred. My own role was that of trick horse-rider. I would spur my mount to a gallop and then dance about on its back, dangle from the stirrups, perform hand-springs, and generally risk death. The act became second nature and I seldom met with accidents, but when I did fall off, the crowds liked it all the better.

It was this trick-riding that had caught the eye of Master Rattle. He had attended a performance by the Wonder Show, and later that night, played cards with Mr. Fortescue Trombonio (birth name Gilbert Tubbins). Neither of them having much money, Master Rattle staked his fine sword, and Mr. Trombonio my documents of indenture. So it was, with a flourish of kings, I entered my present service.

The troupe had since been disbanded, and a number of its cast members transported to America for recidivism*, but I often ran into old acquaintances on market days, and it was pleasant to hear the news of life on the road. Although I was deeply grateful for my rescue from Mr. Trombonio, the monotony of my new life chafed me. I was bored.

Before allowing myself liberty to see the entertainers, however, I went around the stalls and bought up my list. I haggled and complained and judged the merchandise in the usual way. Then, having fed Old Nell some new oats, I went off in search of any past friends from the road.

They were mostly pitched around the edges of the marketplace, so they wouldn’t have to compete with the lusty cries of the merchants. There was a Hindoo snake charmer I knew, and a magician whose specialty was causing live pigeons to fly out of meat pies. Then, to my delight, I discovered one of my fellow troupers from the Trombonio days. She now toured with a team of juggling clowns as Lily, the high-rope dancer. I remembered the clowns, Trombonio’s Traveling Wonder Show having spent some weeks on the road with them between St. Bees and Pontefract when I was seven or eight years old.

“It’s a pleasure to see you out and about,” I said, once Lily’s squeals of greeting had subsided. “There were rumors you’d been sent up for robbing a cheese shop.”

“Oh, you know how it is. Someone catches you halfway through a window and they ’meejitly think the worst. But look at you! You’re a grown man now. How old must you be?”

“Ten and six,” said I, a little proudly, as if it were an achievement such as learning Latin.

“Sixteen years!” Lily exclaimed, tossing her yellow curls and pinching my cheek. “Old enough to marry!” She had often made fun of me in this way when I was small, and boxed my ears, too, though when her romantic entanglements inevitably failed after a fortnight or so, she would weep on my neck and kiss my brow and tell me men were cruel and I was her only friend. Now she held me at arm’s length and looked me over.

“I remember when you was but a stripling lad, only as high as your own knee. Fresh-bought from the workhouse by Old Trombonio, God rest his soul. You were a tiny thing, and always hungry, but nimble as a monkey. Look at you now! If I wasn’t engaged to that Pierrot over there with the white skin-cap on, I’d take an interest in you myself—such a handsome fellow with a fine suit of clothes and a purse at your belt! Whence,” she added, “came you by the money?”

This last she whispered sideways, as if it were a secret.

“I’m servant in a good house,” I replied, proudly. “The only servant.”

“The only servant? Taking care of a fine family?” Lily didn’t seem to believe me.

“Just the master and myself,” I explained.

“No scullery girls to warm your heart, then? You haven’t got a sweetheart, in a manner of speaking?”

I blushed furiously and denied any such thing.

But she didn’t much care about my personal life, for the subject of the household swiftly returned. “Your master must be away most of the time, to keep such a small staff. A fine big house, and you all alone in it?”

I couldn’t quite understand the line of questioning, but Lily’s purpose soon became clear. She continued to alternate between teasing me and pressing for details about Master Rattle and the general disposition of the house, the quality of its furniture, and how much valuable metal it contained. I kept answering her from vanity, when I might better have been silent from prudence.

“He wouldn’t miss a few odds and ends, I dare say,” Lily muttered, and at last I plainly saw her intent. I should have guessed from the start—in my years with traveling performers I’d come to know their desperate poverty, and how often some of them took opportunity to supplement their incomes by way of a back door or an open window.

I hastily made amends. “My master is a gentleman,” I said. “But he hasn’t anything of worth, being the third son of a lord; just the Manse, which is halfway to tumbling down, and a lot of old stuff that’s been in it for centuries, not worth the price of a cart to...