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Theto the woo She backed away, down the stairs toward the street The child went after her, but the an to cry

“Oh dear Lord,” Francesca breathed

“She’s sold her,” Lil said woodenly, “that’s what she’s done”

Francesca saw then that the girl’s lips had been colored with rouge, and there were circles of it upon her cheeks, so that she looked like a little doll—or a caricature of the unfortunates ere shrieking outside the inn farther down the road

“She knows no one’s gonna help her” Lil sounded outraged and sick “No one cares”

The sober wo, too, now She looked frantic She was shaking her head Then she snatched so she’d tucked into the bosom of her dress and threw it at theAs if it was a signal, street urchins ca bodies

Francesca didn’t re any conscious decision, but suddenly she was athered froainst the wooden stair railing, and Francesca slipped in beside her, grasped her around the waist, and swung her up and over the railing and the backs of the squabbling urchins The next , the child clasped in her arms

Behind her soing around her neck, her arhtly, her body pressed so close, that Francesca could feel her heart’s rapid b

eating

“They’ll catch us,” Lil gasped, and that hen Francesca realized thebeside her

“No, they won’t”

“Where we going with her?” Lil cried, wild-eyed “What’s your plan, miss?”

“I don’t have a plan”

“Then Gawd help us!”

The raised voices were a little distance behind the of boots A wo, “Run, run!” Was it the child’s ed her mind?