The Plague Doctor
In the underground world men and women shuffle past in fur coats and rags. Shadowy bearded hustlers, and gentry in crinoline and velvet. A gentleman in a plum waistcoat stands in the corner by himself. Bent over from trying to stay upright. Three young women are grouped together, chattering and tittering in his direction. Gazing at the women, he smiles weakly. Seeking connection deep in this squalid clay and dust pit. Had he been able to hear their conversation, he would have been disabused of his romantic notions.
"Alice, your fancy man is looking at you dahlin. Get your girls out and you'll be sweet till Middlemass."
"I don't want his ticker to give out. I'll just give him a wee squeeze and that'll keep a smile on his face."
They are all extremely young. Two of the women are tall, fair and painfully thin with elaborately made up faces. The third is shorter, plump with thick auburn hair which falls down to her waist. Her pale face is free of rouge. Something about her reminds him of his sister Rosalie. Dead and buried just three days ago, along with their mother.
"Penny for an hour sir. We'll just hold a blanket up over ere," one of the tall thin women says.
Realising now what the women are he is all embarrassment. The man is suddenly overwhelmed by this underground world everything can be brought and anything can be found.
The screeches of men and woman fleeing can be heard, the dust cloud reaching up to the nostrils. "Get out of the way I tell you Sir." An elderly woman wearing a fur coat shoves past poking the gentleman with her umbrella. The object of their terror stands to ther right, dressed from top to toe in black leather His appearance is feared by all, his beak a sign of impending doom. . These people seek the plague doctor out in desperation and shun him in society. As the stampede of bodies subsides into a cloud of dust a few hardy sorts remain committed to their fate.
Elliot surveys the dwellers in the London tunnel. They are a sparce bunch with most having fled to the surburban nooks that spring out from the central underground entrance . The harlots, an elderly gentleman, a couple of middle aged nodescript people. And another woman who stands hesitantly to his side. She is mild looking and he is happy to met such a gentle person in this clay and dust mirage of humanity.
"Where are you from Sir?" she says.
"I'm long of Yorkshire Ma'am," Elliot says.
"How come ye to be in London?" she says.
"It's work that brings me here," Elliot says looking shyly at her.
She is doe-eyed and gentle and is the first real person Elliot has spoken to in conversation since he left Yorkshire. He came to study the medicine and took his knowledge to the streets of London where he was pillored and welcomed with equal measure. The woman's soft skin is unblemished and he thinks she is a sensible woman.
"How came you to be here?" he ask hers.
"Twas staying with my Aunt when the house took ill with the plague. I was the last to remain and then I took myself to the underground world," she says. She doesn't tell him about the premonition. The night she saw the shadow figure in her chambers back in the West Country. "Leave Wiltshire" she had heard a voice say. She would not return there now despite the rapacious cruelty of the plague. She knew her fate was to be here.