The Thames moved sluggishly on the ebb. The shoreline a confusion of mudded flotsam with a dead partially butchered sheep attracting the buzz of flies.
The sun rose peach and pink through the blue glaze of smoke from a thousand chimneys that spread out from the moated Tower.
Anne hitched her skirts and stepped to the water's edge to fill her bucket. She hated the river-the drain that carried away the sins of the city and yet brought wealth on each new tide was her master now. She had left her hamlet when Thomas had word sent of her father and brother James' death in battle.
That first night in the tavern was the entrance to a new world of pleasure and laughter that defied all that she was taught good by her father and mother. Now she had sinned a hundred times and could never show her face to her mother and Thomas again.
Yet Anne knew she had something men wanted and that she, still a teenager, controlled the touch of a man on her naked body , with powers as mysterious in their effect as a witch's spell.
She was the princess in this palace of pleasure -spices and fruits from foreign lands she had in plenty-and silks too. Anne drew the bucket up and pinched her nose as the carcass stirred in the swirling waters.
She could hear the mistress of the tavern berate Old Tom for not laying the logs for the fire.She smiled in the sunshine. She imagined that her mother was sweeping the hearth too-but then shut out any further memories before that window took her gaze to the black mist of loss that led her away to London. Tonight her Love, Geraint, the merchant robber as was his tag, was back from Wales-she would tie her hair with the ribbons he liked so much-and there would be warmth in her bed too.
From the high ground of Blackheath, Thomas drew the last cheese and bread from his pockets.His flask was empty- for no stream ran clean hereabouts. He could not understand how the local folk made so much mess and held even their streams in such disregard. The Tower was glowing some miles eastwards. The tavern he sought was on the south bank that much he knew.His sister would surely be easy to find-she had been a beauty since thirteen and had attracted the eye of their lord himself. Now maybe she had found a husband here in London-Anne and Thomas were always close; she would understand why he could not stay back in their hamlet. Anne would find him work and shelter..
