The Song of the Siren

I was grateful to her. I had simply not known what to do and how to escape from that woman who had seemed so determined to make trouble.

The crowd had thinned a little. I was not sure which end of the street I was at.

I thought I would abandon the idea of getting the violets and go home as quickly as possible. I could see my mother had been right when she had not wanted me to go out alone.

The woman was smiling at me.

“You shouldn’t be out alone on the streets, dear,” she said. “Why, that’s a beautiful velvet cloak you’re wearing. Gives people ideas, see, dearie. Now let’s get you back home fast as we can. What made you come out alone? Who are you with?”

I told her I had come up from the country with my family for the coronation and I had slipped out to buy some violets for my mother.

“Vi’lets,” she cried. “Vi’lets. Now I know the woman what sells the best vi’lets in London and not a stone’s throw from this here spot where we standing. If you want vi’lets you leave it to Good Mrs. Brown. You was lucky you was, dearie, to come across me. I know that one who was after you. She’d have had your purse in no time if I hadn’t come along.”

“She was a terrible woman. I had done nothing to her.”

“Course you hadn’t. Now have you still got your purse?”

“Yes,” I told her. I had made sure to keep my hand on it after all the stories I had heard of the agility of the London thieves.

“Well, that’s a blessing. We’ll get them vi’lets and then, ducky, I think we should get you back home ... before you’re missed, eh?”

“Oh, thank you. It is so kind of you.”

“Well, I likes to do a bit of good where I can. That’s why they call me Good Mrs.

Brown. It don’t cost nothing, does it, and it helps the world go round.”

“Thank you. Do you know Eversleigh House?”

“Why, bless you, dearie, a’ course I do. There ain’t no place in these ‘ere parts that Good Mrs. Brown don’t know about. Don’t you be afraid. I’ll whisk you back to Eversleigh House afore you can say Queen Anne-that I will-and with the best vi’lets you can find in London.”

“I shall be so grateful. They wouldn’t want me to be out, you see.”

“Oh, I do see, and right they are. When you think of what I just rescued you from.

These thieves and vagabonds is all over this ‘ere wicked city, dearie, and they’ve just got their blinkers trained on innocents like you.”

“I should have listened to my mother.”

“That’s what the girls all say when they gets into a bit of trouble now don’t they? It never done no harm to listen to mother.”

While she had been talking we had moved away from the crowd. I had no idea where we were and I saw no sign of flower sellers. The street was narrow, the houses looked gaunt and dilapidated as we turned up an alley.

I said uneasily: “We seem to be coming a long way.”

“Nearly there dear. You trust Good Mrs. Brown.”

We had turned into an alley. Some children were squatting on the cobbles; from a window a woman looked out and called: “Nice work, Mrs. Brown.”

“May God bless you, dear,” replied Mrs. Brown. “This way, ducky.”

She had pushed me through a door. It slammed shut behind us. I cried out: “What does this mean?”

“Trust Good Mrs. Brown,” she said.

She had taken my arm in a firm grip and dragged me down a flight of stairs. I was in a room like a cellar. There were three girls thereone about my age, two older.

One had a brown wool coat about her shoulders and was parading up and down before the other two. They were all laughing but they stopped and stared when we entered.

It was now brought home to me that the fears which had started to come to me when we first turned into the labyrinth of back streets were fully justified. I was in a more unhappy position now than I had been when accosted by the woman in the crowd.

“Now don’t be frightened, dearie,” said Mrs. Brown. “No harm will come to you if you’re good. It’s not my way to harm people.” She turned to the others. “Look at her. Ain’t she a little beauty. Come out to buy vi’lets for her mamma. Feel the cloth of this cape. Best velvet. That’ll fetch a pretty penny. And she kept her hand on her purse too, which was nice of her. She came near to losing it in the crowd.”

I said: “What does this mean? Why have you brought me here?”

“There,” said Mrs. Brown, “Don’t she talk pretty. You two girls want to listen and learn how to do it. I reckon it would be a help to you in your work.”

She laughed. It was amazing how quickly Good Mrs. Brown had become Evil Mrs. Brown.

“What do you want of me? Take my purse and let me go.”

”First of all,” said Mrs. Brown. “We want that nice cloak. Off with it.”

I did not move. I stood there clutching it to me.

“Now, now,” said Mrs. Brown. “We don’t want trouble. Trouble’s something I never could abide.” She took my hands in a firm grip and wrenched them from my cloak. In a few seconds it was off my shoulders. One of the girls grabbed it and wrapped it round herself.

“Now then, now then,” said Mrs. Brown. “Don’t you dirty it, now. You know how particular Davey is. He wants it just as it comes off the lady.”