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	Prologue and extract of first chapter
	NB: Formatting of the original text may not translate properly to the screen. PROLOGUE Molly was fifteen when she began working with the dead. Well, that’s what she always told people. It was worth it for the looks on their faces alone: their eyes would run over her good gowns and soft skin and she knew they were trying to imagine this young lady growing up amid corpses. But that wasn’t quite how it worked. Her Aunt Florrie taught her everything she knew, and it was these skills that brought the moneyed classes of Preston to their house in the evenings. As they stepped into the séance room and the door was closed behind them, a velvety darkness descended: only the faint light of two tiny candles prevented them from knocking into the vast table and bruising their mortal bodies. The spirit-medium – the best in the North, some said – seemed, almost, to glide to her place at the table. In the warm candlelight, Molly’s red curls shone like fired copper and the little flames danced in her green eyes. Her skin seemed to glow, as if phosphorescent spirits flocked to her from the moment she set foot in the room. Once Molly had blown out the candles and the sitters had joined hands, the dead would begin to make their presence known. Bells would ring; fruit and flowers would fall from the heavens, as fresh as if they had been bought that morning; furniture and ornaments would move as if they had lives of their own. Sometimes sitters would even feel the gentle caresses of spirit hands against their faces, reaching through the veil that divides the living and the dead. Molly was someone very special; her clients had no doubt of that. A fresh-faced young woman, barely more than a girl, who had grown up steeped in death, yet radiated verve and spirit and life. Communing with the dead seemed to energize Molly and brighten the sparkle in her eyes. After a séance, the sitters would gather on the landing, bubbling over with delicious dread at the thought of the ghosts they had just communed with: proof, no less, of life beyond death. The ladies (who knew Molly’s business as they knew that of everyone else in Preston) would marvel over such a talent in one so young, and say that it must have been wonderful for her to grow up with her aunt’s gift, to have been blessed with the ability to feel the presence of her departed mother. Molly would look at them – the sentimental tilt of their heads, the softened, sympathetic eyes – and know precisely what they wanted to hear. Florrie had taught her niece well and Molly knew that the one most important thing about their profession was how to give paying customers what they wanted. Nodding her head slowly, and smiling her gentle, wise smile, Molly would tell them: ‘Yes. It was as if we had never lost her.’ ***************************************­************************* CHAPTER ONE Spring 1856 Molly Pinner stood, a little precariously, on a padded footstool in the parlour of her aunt’s new house on Ribblesdale Place, while the dressmaker and her assistant bustled about her, wrapping tape measures around her body. Their fingers dug into her skin through the thin, creamy cotton of the new chemise and petticoat that Florrie had arranged to be delivered the previous week. The two women coiled their tapes round the fifteen-year-old’s body again and again, until she was on the verge of wresting herself free. But Molly wanted her new clothes too badly for that, and so she busied herself with studying the lace of her chemise, an intricate weave of china-roses, full-blooming and in bud, flowing down her shoulder and across the top of her newly-swelled breast. Digging her fingernails into her palms, she willed herself to absorb the pattern of the lace. ‘You’re done, Molly. You can get down now.’ Gretchen Houldsworth was an old friend of Aunt Florrie’s, and Molly supposed that she probably didn’t address most of her clients by their Christian names. Still, to revert to formality now would make everyone feel peculiar. The dressmaker turned Molly around with a light touch on her hips, and as she faced her, Molly could see the recognition in her eyes; recognition she had become accustomed to seeing in the faces of Florrie’s oldest friends. Gretchen would have known Lizzie Pinner, and Molly had been told often enough that the resemblance between her dead mother and herself was quite uncanny. True, Florrie always said that Molly was a little fuller in her cheekbones, and her strong nose was nothing like Lizzie’s tiny, upturned one. But the coppery red hair, the eyes which could look the picture of divine innocence one minute and confrontational as a moggy cat’s the next, the pale complexion (even if Molly’s was peppered with a few freckles) . . . Molly knew she’d never be mistaken for anyone else’s daughter by those who had known Lizzie. Nobody had ever told Molly anything about her father: what he had looked like, what he had done for a living, where he had gone. Until she was almost eight, it had scarcely even occurred to her that she must have had a father. Florrie was the only family she had ever known, and that suited Molly perfectly well. She watched as Gretchen’s daughter and apprentice, Caroline, fished a package wrapped in tissue paper from her mother’s bag. Molly knew what this was going to be. A few weeks ago Gretchen had measured her for her first corset. By her own admission, Gretchen had neither the experience nor the equipment for corsetry, but she was more than capable of measuring her clients and passing the order on to a corsetière she knew in Southport. Gretchen and Caroline worked with quick fingers, hooking the corset together up the front of Molly’s body. As Gretchen’s discreet, experienced hands quickly tucked Molly’s small breasts behind the stiff boning before fastening the last few hooks, she shot the smallest look at her young client. Molly, trying not to look startled at this unexpected handling, dipped her the tiniest of nods: she now knew how to do this for herself, and at what stage in the fitting. Molly ordered her face not to flush, and set her jaw as Gretchen and Caroline began to lace her. She felt the pressure wrap around her back and across her ribs, pushing against her stomach and up across her chest, until it was done and she was free of the tugging around her body. She looked across into the mirror and smiled. Clad only in flimsy white underclothes, with the corset shaping her body into a ripple of curves, Molly was grateful once again for the Queen’s need to be entertained. Since Her Majesty’s penchant for Spiritualism had become common knowledge, everyone with money to spare – and an interest in the latest fashions – seemed to have acquired an insatiable appetite for tilting tables, spirit boards and ‘materialisation cabinets’. As people from all around the North flocked to Aunt Florrie’s door, they had been able to move out of the rickety little terrace on Ashgate Lane and into the new house on Ribblesdale Place, just around the corner from Winckley Square, the wealthiest part of Preston. Here, Molly and her aunt had a drawing-room and a dining-room as well as three rooms for servants in the attic. Best of all, they now had a separate séance room ; no more cramming sitters into the parlour. It was a long way from their life on Ashgate Lane. And, of course, there were the clothes. Florrie had decided that, as Molly was fast approaching womanhood (indeed, she had been bleeding for almost a year now), she should have clothes befitting her age. After all, they could afford them now. Naturally, Florrie couldn’t resist a whole new wardrobe for herself, either. ‘Well, we don’t want the clients thinking that the spirits save all their favours for them now, do we?’ Florrie had said, with a wink. ‘That’d just make me a skivvy to them in the hereafter, wouldn’t it?’ Florrie always spoke like that of the spirit world – at least, behind closed doors she did. When one of Florrie’s regular customers had come bustling up to them as they were browsing the shops one Saturday, Molly had done her best not to laugh at her aunt’s transformation into a queen of mystery, all slow nods of the head and unfinished sentences. To tell the truth, Molly wasn’t entirely sure why Florrie needed to put such an act on in the first place. Surely her talents were enough to keep the clients coming. And the people who attended Florrie’s séances were <i>clients</i> these days, of course; never <i>punters</i>, as they once were. This money lark was taking some getting used to; not that Molly was complaining. Now Caroline was lifting a china-blue gown with tiny pearl buttons down the back from a box lined with tissue paper. ‘Just sober enough for the day, but pretty enough to see and be seen in, wouldn’t you say, Molly?’ Gretchen smiled. A tap at the parlour door made everyone start and turn around. Katy, the maid-of-all-work (another new acquisition, and a somewhat nervous and mouselike one), took half a step into the room. ‘Miss Tranter asked if you would join her in the drawing room after your fitting, Miss Molly.’ Molly dipped her head in a little nod and Katy backed silently from the room. Molly wasn’t sure if it was that Katy was irritating, or just that she wasn’t used to having a servant about the place, but she always had to resist the urge to take the girl and shake her. Molly’s new house-dress rustled as she made her way up the stairs to the drawing room. Gretchen and Caroline had had to dash off to another fitting, but promised to bring Florrie’s new shawl next time they came. She concentrated on feeling for each step with her toes through the thin soles of her house slippers, and tried to avoid tripping on her new layers of petticoats. As she pushed the drawing room door open, she saw her aunt peering through the window on the other side of the room. Molly smiled. ‘Now, now, Florrie – think of your complexion!’ Nobody had been too concerned about the pallor of Florrie’s and Molly’s complexions back in Ashgate Lane, but it seemed that delicately subdued skin tone was another luxury they could now afford. For her part, Molly was rather relieved. She didn’t find the idea of a sun-burnished skin to go with her red hair appealing, particularly if it meant more freckles. Of course, these days they could afford to buy lemons just for Molly’s skin. Aunt Florrie laughed. Her laugh was still the laugh Molly had grown up with: not the repressed little titters of the wealthier ladies who attended the séances these days, but a hearty cackle, and hearing it always gave Molly a feeling of security that felt like having warm bathwater poured down her back. Florrie never changed – at least not outside the séance room. She could deliver any pretence for her paying customers, but it stopped when she recited the closing prayer and escorted the clients to the door (or, nowadays, had Katy do it). ‘I think I’m as weatherworn as I’m going to get, don’t you?’ Florrie grinned. In truth, Florrie looked a great deal less aged than most of the women with whom she had spent her youth; that was what came of an indoor trade. Grey was beginning to speckle her light brown hair and lines had recently begun to trace their way around her eyes, but Florrie could not truly be called weatherworn. Molly laughed. ‘Come and look at the new calling cards.’ Florrie had business cards already, but she had not needed calling cards until now. Indeed, before, she had worked nearly every day and had had no time in which to make calls, or to receive them. But now that she only conducted séances three days a week, instead of six, Florrie had decided that she wanted time to call on friends, even if most of her girlhood friends were still working practically every day. ‘Not that I plan on getting too cosy with the moneyed lot,’ she said with a smirk. ‘Wouldn’t do much for my air of mystery, would it?’ Molly laughed and stepped closer to look at her aunt’s new cards. Florrie snapped the little silver box open and held it out to her niece, who picked out the top card to read it. ‘“Miss Florence Tranter. Ribblesdale Place, Preston. <i>At home to visitors every week on Wednesdays?</i>”’ Florrie arched an eyebrow, but smiled, before returning her attention to the cards in Molly’s hands. ‘Yes, I have an official “at home” day now – who’d have thought?’ Molly replaced the card in its case and took a seat on one of the freshly dusted drawing-room chairs. She was hardly likely to complain about their newly acquired wealth, but so much still felt peculiar. Underneath her coiled hair, the back of her neck prickled a little, and she swallowed hard. ‘Aunt Florrie?’ ‘Hmm?’ Florrie was polishing a fingerprint off the silver card-case with her handkerchief. ‘What about Jenny? All this . . . it’s strange enough for <i>us</i>.’ Molly’s best friend for as long as either of them could remember, Jenny had been raised by her father, Peter King, the local ironmonger and a foul-tempered soul with a weakness for the drink. Molly and Jenny had grown up just a couple of doors apart on Ashgate Lane. They had gone to the local charity school together, but since they had left their lives had been very different. Jenny had taken a job in one of the local mills – Hamilton Cotton – pounding yards of new cotton cloth in tubs of bleach, six days a week. Molly couldn’t help but wonder how Jenny would take to being let into the new house by Katy and escorted to the drawing-room. When Molly had lived in Ashgate Lane, Jenny simply used to turn up and tap on the parlour window. Florrie tutted sympathetically, inclining her head slightly. ‘Molly, you’ve known Jenny for fourteen years. She’s not going to turn from you now; none of my friends have from me, have they?’ That wasn’t what Molly was afraid of. ‘I don’t mean that. I just mean . . . she won’t be used to all this: the drawing room, the doorbell, Katy . . .’ ‘And we are?’ Florrie laughed. ‘Look, tell her she can just show up at the back door, like she used to.’ Molly smiled. ‘Now, the other thing I called you up here to talk about: I think it’s time that you started working with me.’ Molly look startled. ‘But . . . but . . . I don’t have your gift, Aunt Florrie. What can I do?’ Florrie fell into peals of laughter and tiny tears squeezed from her scrunched eyelids. ‘The gift ain’t so difficult to come by. Don’t worry, I’ll show you everything. Lessons can start tomorrow. We’ll do a run-through before the evening, then you can help me with the real thing. I won’t make you do anything too hard just yet.’ Wondering how she would become a vessel for the spirit-world by tomorrow afternoon, Molly nibbled at a fingernail before catching herself doing it and pulling her hand away from her mouth. ‘Oh – and I’ve taken Eddie Rathbone on to help around the place. Some of the work’s just too heavy for a little thing like Katy.’ Molly, snapping out of her reverie, looked confused. ‘I thought he worked at the butcher’s?’ She couldn’t recall ever having met Eddie, but she knew of him, as she knew of almost everyone else who had lived nearby while she was growing up. ‘He did, until they caught him with a handful of black pudding in his pocket. And his mother was a friend of mine, God rest her. She was expecting her pa to be watching over him, making sure he’s always got employment. Going was easier on her, thinking that.’ ‘Why ever would she think that?’ Before she finished her sentence, Molly had a feeling she knew exactly why. ‘I told her.’ The following morning, as Molly walked past the séance room on her way downstairs for breakfast, she paused and looked inside. She had done this many times before, both at Ashgate Lane and the new house, but today was different. The room, its polished floorboards chilly underfoot, was dominated by a large round table surrounded by chairs. The only other piece of furniture in the room was a cherry-wood cabinet standing against the wall. Closing her eyes, Molly tried to listen for the whispers of the spirits, her skin prickling as she imagined them touching her. But, as usual, nothing happened. When they lived in the two-up, two-down, Molly had burrowed into her blankets while the muffled sounds of the séance drifted up from the parlour below. Late into the night Molly would hear voices, most often Florrie’s, becoming hazier as she sank into sleep, and the hollow knockings and rattlings said to indicate the presence of spirits, but she herself never saw or felt a thing. It had never occurred to her to fear the strange sounds: it was all she had ever known. Sometimes she would lie there wondering if her mother was among the spirits floating around Florrie’s circle, but the only face she could conjure when she tried to picture her mother was Florrie’s – maybe with a small difference: a longer nose or a more pointed jaw. Molly’s stomach growled, despite the sickness that rolled inside her at the thought of a room filled with invisible eyes, hands and mouths. She left the séance room and made her way down to the dining-room. After breakfast, Molly and Florrie went up to the séance room to begin the lesson. Florrie stepped into the room behind her niece and closed the door. Molly blinked in the dim light, until the room became less fuzzy. The only illumination came from the two tapers Florrie had just lit; heavy black curtains banished any trace of sunlight. ‘Well, that’s the table, as you can see. Little to remark upon there. That’s the cabinet – ’ Here Florrie opened the door to reveal a space that looked surprisingly shallow to Molly’s eyes, ‘ – but you won’t be working with that just yet. I’ll start you off upstairs; there’s something new I’ve been wanting to try.’ ‘Upstairs?’ Molly was perplexed. The next floor housed only their bedchambers. Florrie smiled and pointed up to the ceiling above the table. She took one of the candlesticks from the tabletop and held it up to the high ceiling where a trapdoor, painted blue like the rest of the room, was just visible. ‘I’m not going through there, am I?’ ‘Not unless you fall.’ Florrie smiled, placing a hand on Molly’s shoulder and opening the door. ‘Come on.’ ***************************************­************************* © Faye L. Booth 2007. Any material to be quoted should first be checked against a complete copy of the final text to ensure accuracy. For more information, see www.fayelbooth.co.uk (includes a selection of retailers).
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