Dodger (49 page)

As Horrie took his time in letting myself and Slaithwaite out of the cell I stood up and held out my hand for Warrigal. ‘You needn't to go back to Australia, you know,' I said to him as we shook. ‘My pardon stands for you an' all. You should stay here and be a Londoner if you like. You already know your way around and we was a good gang you and me. A gang of two.'

Warrigal nodded and repeated those words as though he liked them. ‘Gang of two.' He smiled.

But, despite this, he told me that as soon he was allowed to go back to Honey Ant Hill then he would do so. ‘Australia is home,' he said with firmness. ‘And there is an end to it.'

So we said goodbye once more and then, not being able to stop myself, I reached my arms around him and gave him a strong embrace.

‘Thanks for not killing me, Warrigal,' I said. ‘That was a good turn you done me.'

And then I was led out of the cell and the iron door fell shut between us.

*

I held the big plum pie, the fruitiest one they had in the shop, out in my arms as I heard the front door being unlocked. I was dressed in the smartest, most colourful suit, what had been laundered just for this day, and beside me on the pavement was a bundle of other gifts, some wrapped, one not, what I had spent the last hour struggling to transport to this very door.

‘God bless us!' I cheered as it swung open to reveal the man of the house. ‘Every one!'

John Froggat took one look at me and slammed the door shut again.

I had expected this and so was not going to let it spoil my festive mood. I lowered the pie under one arm and rapped again upon the door with the other. After a short pause it opened once more.

‘I say, God bless us, ev—'

‘Why are you here, Mr Dawkins?' Froggat demanded. ‘You are not welcome.'

‘Well, Mr Froggat,' I said, glad to have engaged him in conversation at least. ‘I have come here to pay my respects to you, your
family and your fair lodger and to present you with these gifts as a gesture of goodwill to all men.' I pointed to the one unwrapped gift what I had stood up against the others and was so shiny and new. ‘That one is for Uncle Huffam.'

Froggat eyed the gift with suspicion. ‘Looks expensive,' he said.

‘It was.' I nodded. ‘And I have a shop bill to prove that it was honestly paid for.'

‘And was the money you used to paid for it honestly acquired?'

‘Let's make life easy for us all and imagine yes. Mind if I come in?'

Just then my name was called and I saw Ruby coming down the stairs behind him. ‘Jack.' She smiled as she walked up and touched Froggat's shoulder. ‘How lovely to see you.'

‘You an' all,' I said, and meant it. This was the first time I had seen her since Evershed had tried to shoot her and missed. She was every bit as beautiful as ever and I tried hard not show how bitter it was to see her acting all familiar with John Froggat. But, unlike in stories, I had to accept that just because you save someone's life it does not follow that they are therefore obliged to give it to you. I had come here expecting friendship and nothing more.

‘I've brought you a Christmas present,' I told her. ‘One I hope you'll like.'

‘I hope it ain't the fiddle,' said Ruby, nodding towards the unwrapped instrument, ‘because I can't play a note.'

I laughed and picked up the bow and stick after handing her the pie. ‘This is for old Huffam,' I said, and looked to John Froggat, who was still blocking my entrance into his abode. ‘Let's go inside and give it to him, eh?'

Froggat was reluctant to let me in but at last stood to one side after Ruby told him she had forgiven me for breaking into her room on account of how the police had told her I had stopped a
man from knifing her in broad daylight. So he helped me carry in the gifts while still regarding me like I was a stray animal what might disgrace myself on the rug.

‘What a beautiful pie!' gasped Mother Froggat when she saw what Ruby had carried into the kitchen. Then she saw me following in behind and shrieked. ‘Him again! Get him out before I call the police!'

‘Now, now, Mother,' said John, walking in behind me. ‘Mr Dawkins is here delivering gifts of the season. As Christians it is our duty to give him another chance, and I'm sure that pie will be most welcome once we have eaten the goose. Also, he has brought something very special for dear old Huffam.' I went over to the old blind man, who was sat in his rocking chair, and let him feel the brand-new fiddle for himself rather than telling him what it was. Huffam was delighted to feel the soft polish of this instrument, so superior was it to the one he already had, and he began trying to play it with the stick.

‘Lord help us,' groaned Mother Froggat as the painful sounds began filling up the house. ‘Now he'll never shut up.' She looked to John, who had a very small smile on his lips as he saw how happy his elderly relative was made. ‘I suppose we'll have to have this young villain for Christmas dinner now –' she thumbed towards me – ‘if your lady friend should wish it.'

‘Thanks very much,' I said before John could answer no. ‘That would be most charitable. But first I have something I would like to give Ruby.' I looked to her across the wooden table where she was eyeing me with some suspicion. ‘A gift what is of a most personal nature,' I said before asking if I could see her alone for a minute.

Ruby and myself left the others to prepare the Christmas meal and she took me into the little parlour so I could present
her with what I had. She sat on an old upholstered chair and stroked the cat as I reached into my pocket, but she jumped when she saw what I dangled from the chain in front of her. The last time she had seen it was just before Evershed had tried to kill her.

‘It's your mother, Ruby,' I said as she took the golden locket what had I had collected from the scene. ‘And there is a strong likeness.' She gazed upon the face of the woman what had given birth to her and she became most emotional at the sight.

‘I still can't believe it, Jack,' she said after she had looked at her for long enough. ‘That George Shatillion was my father. That he took me away from my mother and left me to grow up in the rookeries. Do you think he even loved me at all or was it just some big game?'

‘He left you the Jakkapoor stone,' I said. ‘And he kept watch over you as your Uncle Ikey so he must have felt something. And that's not all.' I told her then about what I had realised when going over the whole saga during my time in that police cell. About how Timothy Pin had said that George Shatillion had been disguising himself as a number of characters to watch over Ruby.

‘When I was up in Northamptonshire Charley said something that I only recalled yesterday. He had read a Shatillion novel, he told me, one what featured a character called Wee Dougie Boyd. And I was wondering if—'

‘Wee Dougie Boyd!' she said, rising to her feet and causing the cat to scarper out of the room. ‘That's the same name as my old producer at the music halls!'

‘The one what gave you a job, yeah.' I nodded. ‘And who went missing around the time that George Shatillion died.' Ruby was flabbergasted to hear this and began pacing around the room going over the possibility that it might be true. How many other people
had she met in her life that was George Shatillion in disguise? she asked.

Soon John Froggat came in to tell us that dinner was almost ready and Ruby showed him the locket and told him our suspicions about Douglas Boyd. He seemed most amazed to hear of this and, as she carried on chattering away to him and telling him all that she felt, I saw what a peaceful life she might have with a man like him. I decided that I should leave the two of them alone and I went out of the door and headed for the kitchen.

I was not feeling too festive as I moved away from Ruby and her other man and crossed the hallway towards the sound of Huffam's fiddle. I was still very much infatuated with the girl but I could tell that she was indeed better off without me. Uncle Huffam was playing what sounded like a strained rendition of ‘Comfort and Joy' and the sound was making me even more melancholy. I paused for a second in that hallway before going to join him and Mother Froggat around the Christmas table and tried to recall the lyrics.

And then as I passed the bottom of the stairs on my way to the kitchen I took a sudden start. I spun my head around and looked up to the top of the staircase but nobody was there. It was just a damp stain on the back wall what had tricked me in the light. I could have sworn, however, that I had just seen an old man stood there, fixing me with a most curious look. It was a look that seemed to be asking me how my day had been, and what nice shiny things I had found for him this time.

End of Book One

The first five chapters of this novel were written as part of a creative writing masters course taken at Kellogg College, Oxford. I would sincerely like to thank the course director Dr. Clare Morgan, the tutors and, most importantly, my fellow students for helping to create such a wonderful writers' community in which to experiment.

Thanks to everyone who read and commented on the book while it was being written, including Anna Jones and Kent DePinto. A special thank you to my great friend Christian Regnaudot who has been my most faithful reader ever since I first began writing and whose many suggestions have proven invaluable.

Many thanks to my agent Jon Elek for believing in the book at such an early stage. And to my editor Jon Watt for his huge support during the later stages.

The love and encouragement I have received from my family during the development of this novel has been beyond measure. My deepest thanks are for them.

Final thanks must of course go to the immortal Charles Dickens for creating such an irrepressible character. His Jack Dawkins is a superb creation and it has been a great and rare pleasure to spend time with him.

Question 1

In chapter one Dawkins steals a silver snuff-box from another character from the Dickens canon. The engraving on the snuff box reads ‘MR SAMUEL PICKWICK, Esq, .M.P.C'. What do the initials stand for?

Answer

Member of the Pickwick Club.

Question 2

The vessel that Dawkins returns to England in chapter 2 on is called the
Son and Heir
. In which other Dickens novel does this ship appear, in which it finally sinks causing ruin for the titular family business?

Answer

Dombey and Son
.

Question 3

The Dover coach clerk that Dickens meets in the booking office is reading a copy of
Bentley's Miscellany
. What is Dodger's own connection with this periodical?

Answer

It is the magazine in which the serialisation of
Oliver Twist
first appeared.

Question 4

John Froggat and Uncle Huffam, who make their first appearance in chapter 5 of
Dodger
, share something in common with Dickens. What is it?

Answer

Their names. The
Oliver Twist
author was christened Charles John Huffam Dickens.

Question 5

In chapter 7 Dawkins recounts his time working on an Australian sheep farm as a convict. The farm is called Abel's Farm and Dawkins tells of how many years before the owner, Abel Magwitch, had vanished from Australia and was said to have returned to London. In what other Dickens novel do we learn what really happened?

Answer

Great Expectations
.

Question 6

The storming of Seringapatam, the battle in which a young Evershed loots the Jakkapoor stone from a temple, was a real historical event. What other Victorian novel written by Wilkie Collins, a friend of Dickens, also turns on a jewel stolen during the chaos of this very battle?

Answer

The Moonstone
.

Question 7

In chapter 10 Dawkins and Warrigal hire a waterman to row them down to Greenwich. His name is Gaffer and he appears later in life searching for dead bodies in the river on the very first page of which other Dickens novel?

Answer

He is Gaffer Hexam from
Our Mutual Friend
.

Question 8

In chapter 12 Dawkins encounters a young ruined girl down by the midnight mission. She tells him that she grew up among the fishermen of Great Yarmouth only to be seduced by a handsome rake who then ‘discarded her like a rag doll'. Who from the Dickens canon could she be and what would be the name of her seducer?

Answer

Little Em'ly from
David Copperfield
. She was seduced by Steerforth.

Question 9

Another character from
David Copperfield
appears in chapter 15. She is Betsey Trotwood, the lady who Jack steals from on the omnibus and who gives a present of a book to Ruby. What relation is she to the eponymous David?

Answer

She is his aunt.

Question 10

In chapter 17 Dawkins receives a message from Timothy Pin. This message alludes to the titles of three other Dickens novels. Name them.

Answer

Our Mutual Friend
,
Great Expectations
,
Hard Times
.

Question 11

In chapter 18 Dawkins is reunited with his old gang and comes into contact with some other villains as they bet on which dogs will fare best in the rat pit. The crooked timekeeper who is favouring the rival gang's dog is called Morris Bolter. Dawkins has never met him before but he appears in
Oliver Twist
. He has an early encounter with Oliver when they come to blows in a funeral home and then later, after Dawkins has been arrested for stealing the snuff box, he comes to London, meets Fagin and changes his name. What was he previously called?

Answer

Noah Claypole.

Question 12

When Dawkins visits Dick the Dollman in chapter 19 he remarks that Dick has ‘finer stock than Tackleton's'. This is a fictional toy merchants from which of Dickens' popular Christmas stories?