The Gilded Lily (57 page)

‘You could do worse. It’s a good match.’

‘Oh, Ella.’ She put her arm around Ella’s waist and held her tight. ‘What will you do now, with no work?’

‘Don’t know. Maybes I’ll learn a trade.’

‘What, like weaving or baking?’

‘Perhaps.’ And then casually, ‘I was thinking I’ll maybes sign with a milliner, find out how to make fancy hats.’ Sadie opened her mouth and shut it again. She knew
Ella had no patience with crafts. Ella must have sensed her wariness, for she said, ‘I want to master it. It’s a proper skill you know, one you need instruction in to do well.
I’ll make you such a bonnet then, no one will have seen the like!’

Sadie laughed. ‘I’ll bet you can say that again.’ She squeezed Ella’s hand. Millinery would be a hard task for Ella, but she recognized that it might be the place for
Ella to shine. Her sister could go her own way, make the life she chose for herself, just as she could make her own.

Just then Tindall came hurrying across the yard with a lad at his side. ‘A messenger boy, for Miss Ella Appleby. I am sorry to presume, but I take it you are she?’

Ella stepped forward.

The boy recited the words in a gabble as if he had repeated them over and over to remember them. ‘Mr Ibbetson is very much better. He asks that you call on him at his inn, before
sundown.’ He beamed, pleased with himself. ‘Oh yes, I’ve to give you this with the address. Blue Ball he said.’ The boy held out a piece of paper. Ella reached out her hand
and took it.

‘Thank the gentleman for me,’ she said.

‘Is there any message?’

‘No. No message.’

Tindall pressed a coin into the lad’s hand, inclined his head and shepherded the boy back to the gate where he sped away without a backward glance. Ella did not even look at the paper. She
tore it into small pieces and let them flutter from her fingers like snowflakes. She put her arm around Sadie’s shoulders and watched as the particles blew in amongst the ashes.

‘Why did you do that?’ Sadie said.

‘I can’t read.’

‘Maybes he wanted to thank you.’

‘He’s thanked me already. I don’t need him. We can manage fine by ourselves, isn’t that right?’

Sadie smiled at her.

‘You hungry?’ Ella said.

‘I thought you’d never ask,’ Sadie said.

Just then Dennis came trotting back across the yard, his black hat in his hand, his eyes fixed on Sadie.

‘Hey, Dennis, we’re going to treat ourselves, go get a hot pie,’ Ella said.

‘Sounds good to me. I’ve got a few hours before it’s time to catch the coach over to my auntie’s. Tell you what, I’m paying. You can tell me everything then, how
you got that shiner, the whole bit and tackle.’

‘You’ll be needing something more than a bloody pie to sustain you then,’ Ella said, ‘and anyhows,’ she added, looking at Sadie, ‘I don’t know as
we’re ready to tell it yet.’

‘I’m a good listener,’ he said, taking Sadie by the arm.

‘Aye,’ Sadie said, reaching out to link Ella’s arm in her own, ‘he is that.’ She smiled up at him. ‘And a tale’s naught without a good
listener.’

Those readers familiar with the Restoration period in England will already know that the Thames did not freeze in the winter of 1661. The worst winters of the decade were in
the years of 1662 and 1666. I have taken the liberty of transposing the freeze of 1662 to 1661 in order for the novel’s timescale to fit as a companion volume to
The Lady’s
Slipper
.

Mohun, Sedley and Buckhurst were real historical personages; all other characters who appear in the book are fictional.

The observant reader will notice that several characters in
The Gilded Lily
believe different things about the fate of Alice Ibbetson. The truth of her story can be discovered in
The
Lady’s Slipper
.

For those readers interested in exploring the history of this period or themes from
The Gilded Lily
, I suggest starting with the following books:

Restoration London: Everyday Life in the 1660s
by Lisa Picard

Frost Fairs on the Frozen Thames
by Nicholas Reed

The Illustrated Pepys
edited by Robert Latham

Constant Delights: Rakes, Rogues and Scandal in Restoration England
by Graham Hopkins

The Elizabethan Underworld
by Gamini Salgado

Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Fashion in Detail
by Avril Hart and Susan North

The Artifice of Beauty: A History and Practical Guide to Perfumes and Cosmetics
by Sally Pointer

And finally, I highly recommend the meditations of Helen Humphreys in her volume of vignettes,
The Frozen Thames.

To discover more about my writing and research, please visit www.deborahswift.co.uk or contact me on Twitter @swiftstory.

I am grateful to all the people who helped bring this book to the bookshelves: my editor, Will Atkins; my agent, Annette Green, and the team at Pan Macmillan – they all
worked enthusiastically on the book’s behalf behind the scenes. I would also like to thank fellow writers James Tippett, Jenny Yates and Peter Fisher, who were the first readers of
The
Gilded Lily
and whose responses when I took my drafts to our monthly meetings helped guide my progress. And my thanks as always to my husband John for his unstinting support, and for
Dennis’s story of the standard-bearer.

Also by Deborah Swift

The Lady’s Slipper

First published 2012 by Pan Books

This electronic edition published 2012 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
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www.panmacmillan.com

ISBN 978-0-330-54343-9 EPUB

Copyright © Deborah Swift 2012

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