My name is Sara Rivers, and there hasn’t been a time I ever knew when London weren’t Fallen.
I was born in Bristol, not even twenty years ago yet, in one of the rookeries – not quite as bad as down here, nothing like Flowerdene, but there were still too many of us packed into a space never meant to even be lived in. I never knew my father, and my mother died when I was young, but I was never alone. My set was crooks, no-accounts, and urchins, making a living however we could, because there was no way to better ourselves. I did some begging when I was little, sitting on theatre steps and touching up the toffs with sob stories asking for a shilling for a ride home, and also dipping into their purses when they wasn’t looking. Later I helped my aunt out picking the monograms out of handkerchiefs, filing the makers-marks off of watches, and melting down old candlesticks. It wasn’t an honest living, but I’d take a dishonest crust of bread over pious starving any day.
My big mistake came when I met a rich girl my age. I was doing the old lost-at-the-theatre dodge again, this time with one of the little boys from my neighborhood in tow as my ‘poor little brother.’ She was finely dressed, but not proud or pretentious at all, and she invited me to take her carriage back to my neighborhood. I had to lie to her about where we lived, and lie more about who I was and who my parents were and all that, but I was used to lying, and soon she thought me a poor but honest working girl, a maid to some tradesman. She was a sheltered girl who’d dared to come out to the theatre on her own against her parents’ wishes, with just a few servants in tow to keep her safe, and she was wanting for friends.
I thought I’d pretend to become friends with her. There’s money in knowing a rich girl – gifts, secrets, and the little things you can filch when she’s not looking. And then a big play at the end, touching her up for a big loan or making off with her inheritance or things like that. I’d known people who’d done quite well off it, and I’d always thought I could manage it if the time came. This was the perfect chance – she was wealthy, she was trusting, and her parents paid her little attention.
But something happened. I found myself growing too fond of her. I’d thought myself hard-hearted, and thought there was no way a little rich girl could be anyone I could care about. What problems had she faced? What virtue could she have that wouldn’t wilt like a flower from a greenhouse brought out to the streets? But she was more than I expected, so much more, clever and funny and daring in a way my set never were. Dedicated to doing the right thing, even if it was hard. And she grew fond of me, though I’ll never know what she saw in me. I couldn’t steal from her any more. I even confessed what I’d done… and she forgave me. Foolish though it might have been, she saw something good in me and wanted me to stay with her. I took her out to see the city – the rookeries, the rooftops, the docks by night. It was beautiful, seeing them through her eyes.
Her parents finally caught on to me. And they weren’t nearly so kind-hearted as their daughter. I don’t know what was worse in their eyes – that I was a girl from a rookery, that I was a thief, or that I was exposing their precious girl to things they didn’t want her seeing. It didn’t matter. They moved her to their country estates, scores of miles from anywhere, and called the constables down to clean out the rookery I’d always called home. Half the people I’d ever known were arrested, and the other half learned it was me who’d brought the coppers down on us. I didn’t have any friends left, rich or poor.
That’s when I got a letter from a childhood friend of mine. She’d left Bristol to seek her fortune, and ended up in London. She talked about how easy it was to get rich down here, and I realized that there was nothing left for me up there. So I stowed away on a ship bound for Naples, and then another from there down to the Neath. I made it almost to London before getting caught.
Since then… things haven’t been as easy as she said, but it’s a sure thing I’ve found more than I could’ve imagined up there. I’ve seen some terrifying things, and had people try to rook me as hard as I’ve rooked other people. I’m trying to keep my head above water, but when you come to the attention of the great, it’s kind of terrifying even when they ain’t hooded mysteries or monsters in human skin. But I ain’t got anything left but here, so I’d best make what I can out of it.
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