Maggie

As you all know I am currently doing my third 10 week Creative Writing Course. As each course begins we often welcome new faces, which ultimately leads to us covering genres of writing we have previously undertaken. The latest one is "historical fiction" I have to confess it is not one of my favourite genres but again, as I did with my previous story in relation to the Titanic, I thoroughly enjoyed mixing fact with fiction to produce an account of an infamous historical event, this time going back much further to 1666 and the Great Fire of London.

In September 1666 the heart of England's capital, the City of London, was devastated by fire. Everyone knows the Great Fire of London started in a baker's shop in the aptly named Pudding Lane, but was it an unfortunate accident or a pernicious Papist plot?

Robert Hubert confessed to starting the fire, even though his story made no sense and it later transpired that he was not even in England until two days later.  It is alleged that  Robert was used as a scapegoat and he hanged in October 1666.

The proprietor of the Baker’s Shop Thomas Farynor and his three children, Thomas, Hanna and Mary managed to escape, but their maid perished in the flames.  This is her story.

It was the 1st September 1666.  Maggie hurried along the crowded streets, littered with beggars and urchins alike.  She breathed in the rancid air permeating from the squalid extramural slums clogged within  the unregulated urban sprawl.  Despite the devastation caused by the bubonic plague of 1665 the poor countryfolk continued to infiltrate the already crowded town looking for work.

Maggie made her way to the river Thames, to collect the parcel of fish for Master Farynor.  It was a humid day but there was a light breeze and as Maggie approached the riverside the air became clean.  She took grateful deep breaths but the sour stench clung mercilessly to her clothing.

“What’ll yer have Miss Maggie” Charley grinned a toothless grin at the pretty young maid.

“Good morning Charley, lovely to see you, I have just come for the master’s fish” Maggie’s soft voice just seemed to encourage Charley to speak louder.

“Oh yer a bonny lass if ever I saw em” Maggie smiled holding out her palm which contained the shilling.

“Yer keep that there, yer ere me  Miss Maggie?” he winked at her.

“Oh Charley I couldn’t, and I shouldn’t really, you do this every week.   Why are you so kind to me?” she tilted her head slightly looking at him with her enchanting chocolate eyes.

He took her silky hand in his, folding her fingers around the shilling.  “Now yer lis’en to me Miss Maggie, first chance yer get, yer and that gen’lman brother of yers get yer’self away from ere, fast as yer can, yer ere me Miss Maggie?”

“Aye Charley, let ‘em alone will yer” they both turned to see young Noah smirking up at them.

Maggie laughed, “see you next week Charley” and off she went.

Maggie thought about Robert joining her in a few days and her heart lifted.  Robert Hubert was her darling brother whom she hadn’t seen for many years, but after losing her mama, Master Farynor had managed to contact him by letter and over the ensuing years they had exchanged many letters and Robert had visited her in London on several occasions.  Maggie only had vague memories of living with Robert in Rouen, France, as a young child.  When their mama decided to return to England, Robert stayed with his father, a watchmaker, in Rouen.

Maggie’s mama did not speak too often of Robert and when she did her eyes would mist.  “Robert belongs with his papa Maggie” she would tell her often.  Robert was sickly and the sewage and filth of the east end would kill him she would often enunciate. Maggie never knew her own father and often thought of Master Farynor as her father, she had lived with the family since she was eight years old.  After her mama passed away from the Typhoid in 1956, Master and Miss Farynor had insisted she stay with them. They became her family.  She would be sad to leave them behind, but she wanted a new life with her brother in France and her mama’s warnings still rang in her ears, she couldn’t bear to lose Robert, he was the only family she had.

“Magggggie” she turned suddenly to hear the familiar excited voice of Mary.

“Mary, I thought you were studying with Master Brown” she questioned.

“No no Maggie, he had to leave early, an unexpected emergency he told us”

“Goodness gracious, I hope he is alright Mary”

“Such foolery he is just fine” acquiesced Mary.

As the two young ladies linked arms together the familiar sound of approaching horses hooves, caused them to pause.  Hackney carriages were common amongst the more affluent and Maggie and Mary scuttled against the wooden buildings to let it pass.  Mary was the youngest of the Farynor children and the most rebellious.  Maggie loved her dearly.  When Mary’s mother died from the bubonic plague a year earlier it had devastated the family and grief had ruthlessly ravaged them all, however Maggie had managed to disentangle them from the depths of despair with her inexhaustible empathy, compassion and genuine adoration for the Farynor family.  Maggie felt that they were now through the worse and as heartbroken as she would be to leave this loving family her heart and future belonged with Robert.

Master Farynor was hard at work when they returned to the Bakery on Pudding Lane.  Thomas Farynor was baker to King Charles II and was the provider of bread to the Royal Navy.  Mary skipped off to escape assisting her father.  Thomas and Hanna were already hard at work with their father.  Maggie went about her daily duties, cleaning and tidying all the bedrooms, sweeping the stairs and undertaking the washing.  Whilst the Farynor family worked hard in the bakery, apart from Mary who managed to evade all type of chores, Maggie was responsible for the upkeep and running of the house.  A responsibility that Maggie relished.

After completing her duties Maggie prepared the vegetables for dinner and the fish she had acquired earlier, free of charge. She rushed to assist Hanna get herself ready for dinner and as they all took their places around the wooden table, Mary miraculously reappeared as if from nowhere.

“Honestly Mary, you really are incorrigible, where have you been? Like it or not you must start to assist us in the bakery” chastised Thomas.

“Oh Thomas, don’t you know that with the assistance of Master Brown, our Mary is going to get herself a fine education, marry a Lord and live a life of indulgence and comfort” teased Hanna.

“Oh my dear Mary, if only it was that straightforward.  But if anyone could charm a handsome Lord, it is you sweetheart.”  Her father took her hand and fondly kissed her forehead. “Well Maggie, this all looks absolutely delicious” and together they bowed their heads whilst Master Farynor said grace.

The dinner was a humorous affair with Thomas and Hanna ruthlessly teasing their young sibling about her inability to perform any sort of chore.  Mary took it all in the light hearted way she took everything, her burned blonde curls buoyantly bouncing as she mimicked, laughed and playfully sulked.  Maids never usually ate with the family but Maggie had always dined with them since her mother’s death such a long time ago.

Once the meal was finished and they had all cleared the table together, Mary once again doing her customary vanishing act,  Master Farynor and young Thomas settled down to a game of draughts.  Maggie took up her sewing basket and Hanna immersed herself in book.  There was a comfortable silence within the house and the muted sounds of the outside streets were oblivious to them all.

Maggie retired to her quarter around 10.30pm.  She prepared herself for bed and took out Robert’s most recent letter, she digested his words once again.

“My Dearest Sister

The agonising wait is almost over. I will be by your side so soon.  Today I have been walking my thoughts occupied by you.  My little sister, my family, my future.  Since losing papa it has been difficult to carry on, but to know that we are to be reunited has lifted me so.  Tis with a light heart I set sail to England on the Maid of Stockholm and will be with you by the 3rd September. Master Farynor has once again been so kind as to offer me a bed and I know how much they mean to you.  Please rest assured dear sister that we will visit often and our door will always be open to them. My humblest gratitude to the Farynors’ for taking such good care of you.

Goodnight Maggie.”

Maggie read it again and one more time before she folded the thick cream paper and placed it back into the gilded envelope.  She held the letter close to her heart and gazing out onto the moonlit pavement, she thought how the hovel laden streets appeared almost splended in the glimmering moonlight. The sound of an oncoming hackney carriage reverberated around the wooden clad empty streets.  Maggie watched as the carriage passed and her eyes were drawn to the royal emblem, masterfully carved on the carriage door, and just like that the carriage disappeared around the corner as if never there at all.  The streets once again fell silent.

Maggie was not sure what awoke her.  But as her senses alerted her, the smell of burning became profound.  Fire.  Maggie’s eyes became pained as her room filled unceremoniously with thick smoke.  She heard the distant sound of her name being called “Maggie, Maggie, Maggie”.

Maggie clutched at the smog, attempting to find a way through the haze.  Her lungs were bursting and she was strangled by the relentless smoke, but she felt for the doorknob and pulled on it desperately.  As the door opened smoke billowed through knocking Maggie to her knees.  She could hear Hanna crying out her name “Maggie, quickly up here, we need to get out, Maggie please answer me”.  

Maggie was terrified. The all consuming suffocating fire flickered, flared, leapt and spat.  Plumes of black grey smoke, wound itself around her like a huge hungry serpent, devouring everything in it's path. Choking clouds of noxious smoke infiltrated her nose, mouth and every pore.  Dragging her down to the hot wooden floor beneath her feet.  She lost consciousness to a chorus of voices screaming her name.

Thomas Farynor stood before Robert Hubert.  “Why Robert, why would you confess to burning down the bakery.  I for one know that is not possible, you would never cause your dearest sister such harm.  You do not have to protect me Robert, the punishment for my carelessness must be mine” he bowed his head.

“Master Farynor, my life is nothing without Maggie, let me be.  I am the deranged french protestant they claim I am and will be punished as such.  Do not feel too badly for me Master as my soul belongs with Maggie and Papa.  It is with deepest regret that Maggie and I will never get the chance of our new life in France but I do not fear death, I embrace it.  My dearest Maggie will be waiting for me and I cannot live my life without her.”

“Maggie loved you so much Robert, can you not see it in your heart to live you life for her rather than with her?”

“Her absence is death Sir” and Robert walked from the room.

Hayley Mars