Elizabeth Stride's Arc

Chapter 2 of 5

Elizabeth counted her coins for the tenth time that morning. Three shillings and sixpence wouldn't buy much, but it could start something. She walked to the docks where merchants sold damaged crates at discount prices. A man had bruised apples for a penny each. She bought six and tucked them in her skirt pockets. Then she found a spot near the factory gates and waited. Workers streamed out at noon, hungry and tired. She sold four apples in ten minutes. The coins felt warm in her palm. This was how it started. This was how she'd climb that mountain. By the end of the week, she had enough to buy more. Eight shillings now. She walked past the building on Dorset Street and studied the crumbling exterior. The place needed work before anyone would pay rent. She found a gardener selling off old hedge clippings and bought enough to patch the bare spots along the front wall. Then she hauled bucket after bucket of water from a stone trough three streets over. The trough was old and covered in carved patterns, but the water ran clean. She scrubbed the front steps and watered the hedge until the building looked less abandoned. The next morning, she noticed a flower stall near the market square. An old woman sat behind bouquets of roses and daisies, wrapping stems in brown paper for customers. Elizabeth watched her work. The woman's hands moved fast, twisting wire and ribbon into neat bows. When the crowd thinned, Elizabeth stepped forward. She asked how much the woman charged to teach the trade. The woman looked her up and down, then named a price. Two shillings for a week of lessons. Elizabeth paid it without thinking twice. She spent her afternoons learning to trim stems and arrange colors. Her mornings still belonged to selling fruit, but now she had something else. A skill. A trade that respectable women could do in daylight. She practiced wrapping bouquets until her fingers ached. Each day brought her closer to that building, those rooms, that life where she wouldn't need the streets anymore. The coins added up slowly, but they added up.