Free Belle by Lesley Pearse

and he gets word that I’ve fingered him, he’ll kill Belle and then come for me.’
    Mog knew Annie could be right. No one else in Seven Dials would kidnap Belle. Annie was part of the community, and however villainous some of their neighbours were, they didn’t rob or hurt their own.
    But this man Kent, or the Falcon as he was known, knew his liberty depended on making sure Belle and her mother kept their mouths shut. He had probably got contacts everywhere, in fact Mog would bet he already knew Annie had been to Bow Street tonight. But after the cold-blooded way he’d killed Millie, Mog was only too aware that he wouldn’t even need the excuse that the police were closing in on him to kill Belle.
    ‘I think you must tell the police the truth,’ Mog replied after weighing it all up. ‘But along with that I think you should call in a few favours and get some help to find out where the evil bastard has taken her.’
    Annie was silent for some while, chewing on her nails thoughtfully.
    ‘I’m scared he might sell her,’ she finally blurted out.
    Mog blanched. She knew exactly what Annie meant by ‘selling’. A young and pretty virgin would fetch a high price in some circles. ‘Please God, not that,’ she whispered, crossing herself. Her eyes filled with tears and she reached out for Annie’s hand, for she knew this was what had happened to her friend when she was the same age as Belle.
    Annie’s lips were trembling. She squeezed Mog’s hand and tried hard to prevent herself recalling the horror of what had happened to her twenty-five years earlier.
    It was the most painful, disgusting and humiliating experience, and even now, after so many years, she could smell that man’s sweat, the whisky on his breath, and feel once again that sensation of being crushed alive by his heavy body on top of her. She screamed, it hurt so much, but he seemed to like that, and when it was finally over he examined her private parts and took pleasure in seeing blood.
    She was just a child then. She had no breasts – just a skinny little body like a boy’s!
    Annie knew now that she was just one of thousands of children snatched from the streets. All over London unscrupulous brothel keepers paid people, often motherly-looking women, to procure pretty young girls for this trade. Mostly the girls were treated much like Annie, imprisoned and semi-starved to make them compliant. Sometimes they were beaten too until their spirit was completely broken.
    Mostly, once children had been abused in this way, they felt ruined both mentally and physically, and they stayed in prostitution because they couldn’t face going home. Annie was the same; she knew that if her mother learned what had happened to her, she’d never get over it. So she lost her family for ever; she thought it was preferable for them to think she didn’t care about them than know what kind of work she did.
    She did find enough spirit a couple of years later to run from the evils of that brothel, and luck shone on her in as much as she found the comparative safety of the Countess’s place in Jake’s Court. There she learned to tolerate, if not like, the profession she’d been thrown into. Sometimes, in the company of the other girls, she was even happy.
    At the time the Countess passed the house on to her, Annie did consider selling it and using the money to open a shop in a respectable area. But it was all she knew by then, and if she started another business and failed, losing all her money, how would she and Belle live?
    She thought about it long and hard and it seemed to her that as long as men had the urge for sex, there would always be people making money from it. So she made the decision to stay in the business but promised herself that her house would be a good one. She would only ever take on willing, experienced girls. She would feed them well, check their health and cleanliness, and not take all the money they earned. That seemed to be the perfect