Jane Hardstaff - River Daughter

First published in Great Britain in 2015 by Egmont UK Limited

The Yellow Building, 1 Nicholas Road, London W11 4AN

Text copyright © 2015 Jane Hardstaff

Illustrations copyright © 2015 Joe McLaren

The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted

First e-book edition 2014

ISBN 978 1 4052 6832 5

eISBN 978 1 7803 1389 4

www.egmont.co.uk

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

Typeset by Avon DataSet Ltd, Bidford on Avon, Warwickshire

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Stay safe online. Any website addresses listed in this book are correct at the time of going to print. However, Egmont is not responsible for content hosted by third parties. Please be aware that online content can be subject to change and websites can contain content that is unsuitable for children. We advise that all children are supervised when using the internet.

For Frea

Cover

Title page

Copyright First published in Great Britain in 2015 by Egmont UK Limited The Yellow Building, 1 Nicholas Road, London W11 4AN Text copyright © 2015 Jane Hardstaff Illustrations copyright © 2015 Joe McLaren The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted First e-book edition 2014 ISBN 978 1 4052 6832 5 eISBN 978 1 7803 1389 4 www.egmont.co.uk A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library Typeset by Avon DataSet Ltd, Bidford on Avon, Warwickshire All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Stay safe online. Any website addresses listed in this book are correct at the time of going to print. However, Egmont is not responsible for content hosted by third parties. Please be aware that online content can be subject to change and websites can contain content that is unsuitable for children. We advise that all children are supervised when using the internet.

Dedication For Frea

1 Strange Fish

2 Old Lives, New Lives

3 The Promise

4 Boat Thief

5 Bonfires and Cannons

6 Cat’s Head

7 Eel-Eye Jack

8 The Great White Bear

9 On the Roof of The Crow

10 Little Elizabeth

11 Whipmaster

12 Hiding

13 The Pit

14 Catching Salmon

15 Salter’s Way

16 Jenny Wren

17 Slider

18 The River Inside

19 Friendship Broken

20 Bladder Street

21 Princess Redhead

22 An End to All This

23 Bear Fight

24 The Slider Rises

25 Boat of Leaves

A note from the author

Acknowledgements

Also by Jane Hardstaff

‘Sweet Harry’s scabs! Yer like a frog with hair, Leatherboots.’

‘Bet you’ve never seen a frog do this!’

Moss dived down, turning a full somersault as she went, leaving Salter grinning on the riverbank. As she stretched to touch the stony river bed, she felt the drag of the water against her body. The river here was in no hurry. No roar, no raging currents, just a wide bend and a grassy bank that ushered the moorhens politely on their way. Moss knew this stretch of river as well as she knew the scratches on her knees. She knew the vole holes. She knew where the kingfishers flicked their jewel wings. She knew every dip in the river bed. Because it was here she’d learnt to swim.

She wore an old apple sack with holes cut for her neck and arms. At first Moss had gasped at the clumsiness of her kicks, fists gripped tight to the branch that kept her afloat, her friend never more than a few steps away. On the surface was a spluttering fight for air. Yet under the water, the quietness calmed her. So Salter had tied a rope around her middle and she’d let herself sink, eyes open, arms outstretched, and gradually her legs had learned a rhythm that propelled her body forward. When she ran out of breath, she would rise to the surface and gulp another. And if she strayed too far into the river, Salter would haul her back on the end of his rope like a strange fish.

Now the rope was off. More than a year had passed since she, Pa and Salter had left London, and though Salter said she frightened the trout, Moss had spent much of those summer months swimming the river.

There were times when Moss could barely believe how different this new life was to their old. All those years in the Tower of London, the taunts of the Tower folk, the thump of the drum on Execution Day, Pa standing on the scaffold with his axe in his hands. And Moss herself, holding her wretched basket ready to catch a rolling head. Just thinking about it made the bile rise from her stomach. How many hours had she spent gazing from the battlements of the Tower, willing the mighty river Thames to carry her away from that miserable life? The river had saved her, thought Moss. But it had almost killed her too.

A breeze rustled the leaves on the willow. Autumn was coming and it would soon be too cold for dipping. She stared down at her feet, curled against the stones of the river bed. This was a very different river to the Thames. Here the water was clear and waist deep. The only place for fish to hide was among the water crowfoot, giant green ribbons that swayed with the flow. But Moss avoided the tangled weeds and the clutch of anything that might drag her down.

Salter was lying in the grass, his dirt-smudged face propped on his elbows.

It hadn’t been easy for the river boy to leave London or his beloved shack on the banks of the Thames. It had been his home, where he’d fished and thieved and managed to stay warm, winter after winter. But from the moment he’d first hauled a near-drowned Moss into his boat, their lives had changed. Though he would never admit it, they now had something that neither of them wanted to lose.