Page 9 of Exile's Return
The boy scrambled over the filthy ground, wrapping his hands around Daniel’s ankle. ‘Fank you, sir. Fank you…’
Daniel squatted down and disengaged the clinging hands. ‘Are you much hurt?’
The boy looked up. He sported a black eye and a swollen lip. Tears had tracked through the dirt on his face and his clothes hung in tatters.
‘I’ve ‘ad worse.’ The boy rose to his feet, brushing off his filthy rags as if they were the finest velvet.
‘How old are you?’ Daniel enquired.
The child shrugged. He was so ragged and undernourished he could have been any age from eight to fifteen. ‘I was born before they cut the ‘ead off the king,’ he said helpfully.
That made him ten or older. Daniel considered him for a moment.
‘Perhaps you can help me. Do you know the way to the Blue Boar?’
Beneath the grime, the child’s eyes brightened. ‘I do, sir.’
‘Good, take me there and I will give you a coin.’
The urchin straightened, flinching as he flexed his shoulders. ‘Carry yer box, sir?’
‘No. I can manage that. What’s your name, lad?’
‘Matt, sir.’
‘Do you have a last name?’
The boy shook his head. ‘Not that I knows of. Me ma had too many gentlemen callers to say rightly who me father was. They just calls me Matt.’
‘And your mother?’
‘Dead sir, died of lung fever last winter. It’s just me.’
Daniel smiled. ‘And you earn your way with your quick fingers?’
Matt’s smile faded. ‘I earn my living best way I can, sir, but I ain’t no thief.’
Daniel gave the boy a sceptical glance, and a wide grin split the boy’s face.
‘Not unless I can’t ‘elp it,’ he said. ‘But I didn’t nick that cove’s purse. It was me mate, Sam. He took off and left me to cop the blame.’
‘Not much of a mate, then.’
‘No,’ Matt agreed with narrowed eyes and a tight mouth. ‘Ere we are. This ‘eres the Blue Boar, and a finer tavern you’ll not find in London.’
He stood expectantly as Daniel fished out a coin, his eyes widening as Daniel flicked him a groat. Matt’s grubby fingers closed over the coin and he looked up at Daniel with wide, bright eyes.
‘Thank you, sir…is there anything else I can do for ‘ee?’
‘Yes, you can go and get yourself a decent meal,’ Daniel said and turned to go into the inn, where the landlord waited for him.
‘You don’t want to be bothering yourself with the likes of him,’ the innkeeper said as he gestured for one of his own boys to come forward and take Daniel’s box from him.
Daniel glanced backwards. Matt stood where he had left him, looking down at the coin in the palm of his hand. Seeing Daniel look his way, the boy gave a cheeky grin, tugged his greasy forelock, and scampered off. Daniel shook his head and turned back to the innkeeper.
‘A private room,’ Daniel said.
‘The best I have, sir. This way…’
