THE CRIME
Glass splinters shattered overhead in a spray of tiny crystals all around her. The sound broke the eery silence, as she watched Lizzy emerged through the broken window.
“Why’d you do that,” Elizabeth whispered as she helped Lizzy scramble through the last of the broken shards left in the window frame.
“It was so dark in there I couldn’t find the way to the front door,” giggled Lizzy.
Shivering in the dark and drizziling rain, Elizabeth reflected that things with Lizzy were never straight forward. They had what they needed, now let’s get out of here! This haul is enough material to clothe the young ‘uns! The rest will fetch a pretty penny too, feeding both our families for a month.
Pulling her shawl closer around her shoulders, Elizabeth hurried Lizzy along, through the dark street, awash now with the household sludge and mud from the constant rain throughout the night.
Fear gripped her when she heard the familiar cry of “Stop, thief.”
Elizabeth knew that they would have to outrun whoever chose to join the chase. Surely there can’t be many about at this time of night, she thought, grabbing Lizzy’s hand and taking off around the corner.
Where the bloomin’ hell did they come from? Running into a mob of revellers on their way home from a night of merriment.
“Well me lassies, I guess we will keep you company while our coachman goes for the nightwatchman,” leered one of the men gripping her by the arm and the others surrounding Lizzy at the same time.
Elizabeth’s panic rose by the minute as she waited in fear for the Nightwatchman to arrive. What are we going to do now? How do we explain the gowns and fabric and the broken glass glistening in Lizzy’s hair?
All to soon she found herself and Lizzy hauled off to the lockup, to await the Magistrate’s pleasure.
References
Gloucestershire Archives; Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England; Gloucestershire Prison Collections; Reference: Q/SG2/1789-1814
Wikipedia, Bow Street Runners, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bow_Street_Runners
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