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Four
A well-dressed woman walked through the morning sunlit streets of the lower city. Crossing a bridge, she knocked twice on an old wooden door, and called out her name.
A few moments later, the door swung inward, and the woman stepped inside.
The Dodger returned to his lodging at noon, after spending some time with Bet on his self-awarded day off. He knocked twice on the door quickly, and called, "Dodger."
The door swung open, and the Dodger found two young faces staring up at him.
"Dodger, look what we done!" one said, puffing out his chest.
"Wot?" asked the Dodger, slightly irritated, but intrigued nonetheless.
"We've captured an imposter, we 'ave!" the other said.
"Yeah!" agreed the first. "An' we tied 'er up, too!"
As soon as the words were out of the boy's mouth, the Dodger dropped the stolen apple he had been munching on, and rushed inside, to be greeted by the sight of Sara tied to a beam and gagged, with the hem of her skirt halfway up her shins.
He quickly eased the gag out of her mouth, and asked "What have they done to you?"
"I came in the morning," Sara coughed and rasped as the Dodger pulled out a knife and quickly cut her bonds, averting his eyes from her legs. "I asked them for you, and they tied me up, though that's rather obvious at the moment."
The Dodger helped her up, and turned on the two younger boys who had realized their mistake and were quietly trying to edge their way to the door.
"If you laid so much as one 'and on 'er," Dodger began menacingly.
"They didn't touch me." Sara interjected, stepping out from behind the Dodger's shielding, protective stance, and between him and the boys.
The Dodger calmed, and then reddened, and stared at the floor. Then he looked up to meet Sara's piercing eyes.
"Let's go." The Dodger said quietly, and taking Sara's hand tentatively, he led her out into the streets, leaving the boys gaping.
"Well, a day with the Dodger is wot you came for, and a day with the Dodger is wot yer going to be gettin'," He promised, smiling now that they were outside in the sun, as he tried to forget the sight of her bound and gagged.
Sara smiled. "That I did. Before I got . . . intercepted." She smiled again, teasingly.
"Well, since you're 'ere I ought to give you the tour of lower city London." Dodger grinned, bowing formally. "Though we 'ad better go an' see Bet first, so we can try to make you look a little bit less like a fine lady."
"I'm that obvious then, am I?" She asked, obviously disappointed. And then, "Who's Bet?"
"A friend of Fagin's, and all the boy's. 'Er family runs the tab, and she's married to the owner of that shop, over there." He pointed to a shop across the street as Sara inwardly sighed, relieved that she wasn't engaged to the local pickpocket. "An' you can't look like a lady down in this part of town, otherwise you could get yourself killed, you could."
"Killed?" Sara asked in astonishment.
"Yea, there's people down 'ere that really don't like people up there." He dropped the subject then, pointing and adding, "Ah, 'ere we are."
They walked into a cheery, brightly lit bar with stairs leading upstairs to the side, which they quickly went up, the Dodger leading her by the waist.
"Ay, Bet!" he called up the stairs. "I bro' a friend to see ye!"
A girl about Sara's age came into view, and ran halfway down the stairs to meet them, and she grinned widely, in a friendly way. "So, what can I do for this friend o' yours? For I daresay you brought 'er to me for something."
The Dodger grinned. "Right you are, Bet." He lowered his voice. "She's a toff –" seeing Bet's look of extreme surprise, then understanding as she examined Sara more closely. "-long story. Anyways, I was gonna give 'er the tour – could you lend 'er something to wear for the day, and try to make 'er look a bit less . . ." the Dodger gestured vaguely, as Bet laughed.
"But 'o course, anything for the pickpockets 'o London." Then she turned to Sara, and led her upstairs as they began to chat.
The Dodger went to the bottom of the stairs, and stood in the shadows, unnoticed for fifteen minutes as he heard loud laughter from the girls upstairs. I wish I knew what's so funny. He thought wistfully.
Sara laughed, as she tried in vain to fit into Bet's dress. It was simply too small.
"Ah, you'd be more like Nancy's size." Bet grinned wickedly, and left the room for a moment, returning with a clean, but tattered red dress. "Try this one," she grinned.
Sara, with the help of Bet, got it on. "Oh my!" Sara said, astounded, looking at herself in the mirror.
Bet and Sara laughed loudly. "Oh, if my aunt could see me now – she's the one I live with – she would positively die!" Sara's ankles were showing under the hem of the dress, where she was wearing Bet's spare boots. Sara thought about seeing people in the dress that had a collar undone far to low for her personal preference, and blushed profusely. "Can we do anything about . . . this?" she asked, gesturing vaguely to the low neckline, as she and Bet collapsed again into laughter.
After they had begun to breathe normally, Bet helped her do up the collar to somewhere Sara felt comfortable with, and they continued to laugh and talk, both cherishing thoughts of what it would have been like to grow up with a sister.
As the Dodger turned to look at the stairs as he first heard tentative footfalls at the top, his breath caught in his throat.
Sara walked all the way down the stairs, now in a deep red dress with a dark stripe across the bottom, and Dodger recognized it immediately as Nancy's old dress. It looked beautiful on Sara.
As she walked tentatively into the bar, looking around for him, the Dodger now realized, he saw the other men in the tab turn to look. All of a sudden, the air was full of the sound of whistling.
The Dodger strode up to Sara's side as she blushed angrily, and called out, "She's with me, flash mate." and immediately it was silent. Sara slipped her hand into his, and they walked back into the lower city streets.
The Dodger was walking back to Fagan's, a broad grin on his face. He and Sara had run through the lower city like children – laughing and holding hands. He smiled dreamily at the thought of her hand in his, and then remembered when she had left.
"Thank you." Sara locked eyes with him, and smiled as both their stomachs turned. "This was one of the best days of my life, it was really wonderful."
The Dodger sighed contentedly, and continued to walk, as he eventually realized someone was calling him. He turned around to see a panting Charlie.
"I wondered where you were so I came out 'ere to find you – where are you going?"
"To Fagin's." The Dodger responded, donning a confused expression.
"Yer distracted – its blocks back!" Charlie replied with a wicked grin. "It couldn't be by the thoughts of a certain toff I 'ear you've been spendin' more time than's good for you with?" He winked, and at the unexpected blush that appeared on the Dodger's cheeks, Charlie simply shook his head and led his best friend home.